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Comparison

Oatmeal vs MacWhisper

Both keep transcription on your Mac. MacWhisper is a versatile transcription app; Oatmeal is a meeting notebook built around your notes, with summaries, decisions and search across meetings.

Coming soon for MacFree for Apple silicon Macs · macOS 15 or later

At a glance

Oatmeal and MacWhisper side by side
OatmealMacWhisper
Main jobMeeting notes, from recording to summaryTranscribing audio, video, calls and dictation
Where transcription happensOn your MacOn your Mac
Recording callsYour mic and your Mac’s audio, labelled separately; no botRecords calls in Zoom, Teams and more in the background; no bot
SummariesMade on your Mac, pointing back to the transcriptYour choice of cloud AI with your own key, or local AI apps
Decisions and action itemsSuggested, then confirmed by youNot listed
SearchAcross all meetings, by keyword or meaningWithin a transcript
LanguagesEnglishOver 100, plus translation
Who said whatLabelled Me and System audio; no speaker namesAutomatic speaker recognition
PriceFree, coming soonFree version and a one-time Pro licence

Choose Oatmeal if

  • You want a notebook for meetings, with your notes on the page and the transcript beside them.
  • You want decisions you confirm and search across every meeting.
  • You want summaries made on your Mac without setting up a separate AI app or key.

Choose MacWhisper if

  • You transcribe all kinds of audio and video, not just meetings, or use dictation.
  • You need other languages, translation or speaker recognition.

MacWhisper and Oatmeal share a principle: transcription should happen on your Mac. What they build on top of it is different.

MacWhisper: a transcription toolbox

MacWhisper transcribes files, calls and dictation on your Mac in over 100 languages, recognises speakers and can translate. It can record calls in the background without a bot. For summaries and chat, you connect an AI provider with your own key, or a local AI app.

Oatmeal: a meeting notebook

Oatmeal is built around the meeting. Your own note is the page; the transcript, summary and suggested decisions sit beside it. Summaries are made on your Mac with models you add, each part points back to what was said, and decisions only count once you confirm them. You can search every meeting at once. It’s English only.

The short version

If you need a flexible transcriber for any audio in any language, choose MacWhisper. If you want a private home for your meeting notes, choose Oatmeal.

Sources

Details about MacWhisper were last checked on . Products change; check their site for the latest.

Questions

Can I use both?

Yes. They don’t conflict. Many people keep a general transcription app for files and use a meeting app for calls.

Does Oatmeal transcribe files too?

Yes, you can import an audio file. It’s built for meetings, though, and English only.

Private transcription

When the meeting ends, Oatmeal writes the transcript on your Mac. No upload, no account and no internet connection needed. Then you can search it, play it back and correct it.

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Transcribe a file

Got a recording from a phone, a recorder or another app? Import it into Oatmeal and it becomes a meeting like any other, transcribed on your Mac.

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Search meetings

Find what someone said three weeks ago without remembering which meeting it was in. Oatmeal searches all your meetings at once, on your Mac.

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Oatmeal vs Granola

Neither puts a bot in your call. The difference is where your audio goes. Granola sends it to a transcription service as you talk; Oatmeal keeps everything on your Mac.

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Oatmeal vs Otter.ai

Otter is a cloud notetaker with live captions and a bot that can join your calls. Oatmeal is a private Mac app that records without a bot and does the work afterwards, on your Mac.

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Oatmeal vs Fireflies.ai

Fireflies is built for teams that want meetings flowing into their CRM and workspace. Oatmeal is built for people who want their meetings to stay on their own Mac.

Read more

Oatmeal is almost here

Free for Apple silicon Macs running macOS 15 or later. Coming soon.

Coming soon for Mac