Mac dictation with a global hotkey

sAInote, an AI voice-to-text app, gives macOS a global dictation hotkey: press Control+Option+Command+N and a small Quick Capture panel opens over whatever app is in front. Speak, stop, and text comes back — either a word-for-word transcript or an edited, structured version. Copy it, paste it, keep working. The same account, the same saved instructions and the same spelling glossary also run on iPhone, iPad and the web. It needs an internet connection and a sAInote account; recording happens on your Mac, but processing happens in the cloud, not on-device.

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What the Mac app does

Global hotkey, floating panel: ⌃⌥⌘N opens Quick Capture over whatever app is in front. Record, get text, copy, close. The shortcut is configurable, and a menu-bar item does the same job if you would rather click than remember a chord.
Verbatim or edited, on every plan: Quick Note returns the transcript exactly as spoken. Smart Summary removes filler, repairs sentences and adds paragraphs, headings and lists without changing the facts. Both modes work on the free tier, including for guests.
Your own instruction, reused: Pro Assistant lets you write an instruction once — meeting notes in your format, an email draft, a bug report — save it, and apply it to any later recording. Available on Pro plans only.
A spelling glossary for your names: Special Names is a personal spelling reference: add colleagues, clients, products and internal jargon so they come back spelled correctly instead of guessed phonetically. It corrects spelling only, never what was said. Pro plans only.
Same account on Mac, iPhone, iPad, web: Dictate on the Mac, finish on the phone. Saved instructions and your spelling glossary apply everywhere, and signed-in notes land in a searchable history that matches both the transcript and the processed text.
Edit and translate in one pass: In Smart Summary mode you can pick a target language and get an edited version in roughly 35 languages in a single pass. The choice is remembered, and translated notes carry a badge in your history.

How to dictate on a Mac with a global hotkey

1

Install and sign in

Download the macOS app and sign in with a 6-digit email code, a magic link, or Sign in with Apple or Google. There is no password to create or remember.
2

Allow the microphone and check the shortcut

Grant microphone access on first launch, then confirm the global shortcut. Control+Option+Command+N is the default; reassign it in Settings if it clashes with another Mac app.
3

Press the hotkey and speak

From any app, press the shortcut. Quick Capture opens in front of your current window. Talk normally, then stop the recording when you have finished.
4

Choose what comes back

Pick Quick Note for a word-for-word transcript or Smart Summary for an edited, structured version. On Pro, run one of your own saved instructions instead.
5

Paste and keep working

Copy the result out of the panel into whatever you were writing. Signed in, the note is also saved to your searchable history and available on your other devices.

What a global hotkey changes about Mac dictation

Most dictation on a Mac involves a detour: find the app, open a window, record, copy the text, come back to what you were doing. A global hotkey removes the detour. The sAInote macOS app registers Control+Option+Command+N system-wide, so the Quick Capture panel opens in front of whatever you are already working in — a mail draft, a pull request description, a document, a chat box.

You speak, the panel returns text, you copy it and close the panel. If ⌃⌥⌘N collides with a shortcut you already use, reassign it in Settings. If you would rather not use a key combination at all, the menu-bar item opens the same panel.

Two things are worth saying plainly. sAInote needs an internet connection: your Mac captures the audio, but transcription and any AI editing happen in the cloud, not on your machine. And it needs a sAInote account, because your minute balance, your saved instructions and your note history belong to that account. Signing in is passwordless — a 6-digit code or a magic link by email, or Sign in with Apple or Google.

Verbatim, edited, or your own instruction

macOS already types what you say. The reason to add a separate dictation app is when typing what you said is not the output you actually wanted.

sAInote has three modes. Quick Note gives you the transcript verbatim — nothing added, nothing removed. Smart Summary is edited: filler words gone, broken sentences repaired, paragraphs, headings and lists added, with the facts left alone. Both are available on every plan, including the free one. Pro Assistant is the third: you write an instruction once — turn this into a bug report, draft a reply in my tone, meeting notes with decisions and owners — save it, and apply it to any recording afterwards. That mode is Pro only.

Two Pro extras matter on a Mac in particular. Special Names is a personal spelling glossary: add the names of colleagues, clients, products and internal jargon so they come back spelled correctly instead of guessed phonetically. It affects spelling only and never rewrites what was said. And in Smart Summary mode, Edit & Translate produces an edited version in another language in a single pass, across roughly 35 target languages.

One account across Mac, iPhone, iPad and the web

The Mac dictation category is full of capable single-platform tools. The thing sAInote does that a Mac-only app cannot is carry your setup off the Mac.

One account covers the macOS app, the iPhone and iPad apps and the web app in the browser. The instruction you wrote once at your desk is there on your phone. The spelling glossary you built for your team's product names applies to a recording you made on the way to the office. Dictate on the Mac, finish on the phone; it is the same account and the same behaviour, not two tools you have to configure twice.

Signed-in notes go into a searchable history that follows you across devices. Search matches both the raw transcript and the processed output, so you can find a note by a phrase you actually spoke or by a line the AI wrote. Translated notes carry a badge so you can tell them apart at a glance. Guests get no history at all — that is the trade for not creating an account.

Limits, minutes and what the free tier really is

Usage is measured in minutes of audio, not per request and not per word. A 3-minute recording costs 3 minutes of your balance whether you asked for a verbatim transcript, an edited summary or your own saved instruction.

The free tier is 15 minutes, one time. Not 15 minutes a month — 15 minutes, once, and then it is spent. That applies both to guests recording in the browser without an account and to free accounts, with one difference: a free account keeps your note history, a guest gets none. Pro is 360 minutes — six hours — renewed every month, and it adds the third mode, Special Names, long recordings and priority support.

Recording limits are firm. Up to 20 minutes is processed immediately on every plan. From 20 minutes to 2 hours, processing runs in the background and requires Pro. Two hours is the hard cap per recording and anything longer is rejected. Uploads are capped at 64 MB, in WAV, MP3, M4A, MP4, WebM, OGG or Opus. Long recordings get speaker separation and are summarised in chunks.

Questions about dictating on a Mac

What is the default dictation hotkey in the sAInote Mac app?

Control+Option+Command+N (⌃⌥⌘N). Pressing it from any app opens the Quick Capture panel in front of whatever you were working in, so you do not have to switch windows first. The shortcut can be reassigned in Settings if it conflicts with something else, and a menu-bar item opens the same panel.

Does sAInote dictation work offline on a Mac?

No. Your Mac records the audio, but transcription and AI editing run in the cloud, so an internet connection is required. It also needs a sAInote account, since your minute balance, saved instructions and note history are tied to it. macOS ships its own dictation feature if you need something that does not depend on an account.

Is sAInote free to use on a Mac?

There is a free tier, but read the limit carefully: 15 minutes of audio, one time — not 15 minutes a month. A free account keeps your note history; without an account you get the same 15 one-time minutes in the browser and no history. Pro renews 360 minutes, six hours, every month.

How long can one recording be?

Two hours is the hard cap, and anything longer is rejected. Recordings up to 20 minutes are processed immediately on every plan. Between 20 minutes and 2 hours, processing moves to the background and is available on Pro only. Uploaded files must be 64 MB or smaller.

How is this different from the dictation built into macOS?

Built-in dictation types what you say. sAInote can do that too — Quick Note is a verbatim transcript — but it can also return an edited, structured version with filler removed and headings added, or run an instruction you wrote yourself over the recording. That is a different job, not just a faster keyboard.

Can I change the keyboard shortcut?

Yes. ⌃⌥⌘N is only the default. Open the app's Settings and assign whatever combination you prefer, which matters if you already use that chord in another Mac app. If you would rather not use a shortcut at all, the menu-bar item opens the same Quick Capture panel.

Which audio formats and languages are supported?

WAV, MP3, M4A, MP4, WebM, OGG and Opus, up to 64 MB per file. Speech recognition covers considerably more languages than the interface does; the interface itself ships in 11, including Arabic and Urdu in right-to-left layout. Edit & Translate targets roughly 35 languages.

Is there an Android app or a browser extension?

No. The native apps are macOS, iPhone and iPad. Everything else runs in the sAInote web app, which records directly in the browser with nothing to install, so any modern computer can use it. There is also a REST API for developers who want transcription inside their own product.

What happens to my recordings?

Audio goes to private cloud storage. It is never public, never indexed and never shareable by URL, and it is cleaned up on a schedule after processing. Requests made through the REST API store neither audio nor text. You can delete your account in the app, which anonymises the associated data.

Try it before you install anything

The web app gives you 15 minutes in the browser with no account and nothing to install, in Quick Note or Smart Summary. If the global hotkey is the part you want, the Mac app takes it from there.

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