macOS menubar app for global voice-to-text input powered by OpenAI's state-of-the-art transcription models. Press a hotkey anywhere, speak, and your words are typed at the cursor — accurately.
Requires macOS and an OpenAI API key.
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txtSet your API key in Preferences after launching (or create
~/Library/Application Support/Mumbletype/.env containing OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...).
source venv/bin/activate
python mumbletype.py- ⌃D (configurable) — Hit once to record, hit again to transcribe and paste
- Click the menubar mic icon for model selection, usage stats, Start at Login, and preferences
- Change the hotkey in Preferences → Record Hotkey → Change…
The hotkey is registered system-wide via Carbon RegisterEventHotKey: it is
consumed by Mumbletype and never reaches the focused app, and no Accessibility
or Input Monitoring permission is needed for listening. On first run macOS
will still prompt for Microphone access (recording) and Accessibility
(only for the synthetic ⌘V paste).
Start at Login (menubar toggle) installs a LaunchAgent that also restarts the app automatically if it ever crashes. Quitting from the menu stays quit.
| Model | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GPT-4o Mini Transcribe | $0.003/min | Default, fast and cheap |
| GPT-4o Transcribe | $0.006/min | Higher accuracy |
| Whisper-1 | $0.006/min | Original Whisper model |
Switch models from the menubar dropdown or Preferences window.
Mumbletype runs as a menubar-only app (no dock icon). The global hotkey
toggles recording with sounddevice; audio is sent in-memory to the OpenAI
transcription API and the result is pasted at the cursor via the clipboard +
a synthetic ⌘V. Your previous clipboard contents — including images and rich
text — are restored afterwards (unless you copied something in the meantime,
in which case your copy wins). A floating waveform pill appears bottom-center
of the screen your cursor is on during recording and transcription, and
flashes red if transcription fails.
Configuration lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Mumbletype/; logs in
~/Library/Logs/Mumbletype.log.
MIT