Audiee.ai or MacWhisper: which is better for private meeting notes on a Mac?

If your meeting audio must never leave your Mac, choose MacWhisper. Choose Audiee.ai if you want English, Mandarin and Cantonese transcribed mixed in one recording, summaries included without your own API key, and a Knowledge base you can search and ask across every meeting. MacWhisper transcribes on the Mac itself by default, with a Whisper or Parakeet model it downloads to your computer, and its documentation says transcription data does not leave the device unless you opt into a cloud provider; it records Zoom, Teams, Webex and other calls without a bot joining (checked October 2026). Audiee.ai works differently: the audio is sent to a transcription service in the cloud and comes back as text. Audiee.ai's servers keep no copy of the audio or the transcript, and the transcript, summary and notes are written as Markdown files on your Mac — but it is not an offline tool, and on the question of where audio is processed MacWhisper is the more local of the two. Neither app puts a bot in the call, and with either one you tell the other people that you are recording.

Facts about MacWhisper come from its official pages — macwhisper.com, docs.macwhisper.com, its Gumroad listing and the Mac App Store — checked October 2026 and linked in Sources. Where those pages conflict or are silent, this page says so. MacWhisper is made by Good Snooze; Audiee.ai is not affiliated with it.

Side by side

	MacWhisper (official pages, checked October 2026)	Audiee.ai
Where transcription happens	On your Mac by default: the app downloads a model such as Whisper or Parakeet and runs it against your audio there; its docs say transcription data does not leave the device. Cloud transcription is optional and off by default — if you choose a provider such as OpenAI, Groq, ElevenLabs or Deepgram, the audio goes to that provider's server instead.	In the cloud. Audio is streamed to a transcription service and returned as text; Audiee.ai's servers keep no copy of the audio or the transcript. Recording needs an internet connection. Audiee.ai is not an offline tool.
Bot in the call	None. It records system audio from the Mac (Screen Recording and Microphone permissions are required). It can notice Zoom, Teams, Webex, Skype, Chime, Discord, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp and the main browsers and remind you to record; FaceTime is not available. Automatic meeting recording is in beta, and the meeting notifications are not in the Mac App Store version.	None. It records from your Mac's system audio and microphone; it detects Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Feishu (Lark) and offers to take notes, and Ctrl+M records any other call or an in-person meeting. It records only when you press start.
Mixed-language meetings	100 languages, with Chinese on the list; its docs say it "is not able to transcribe files with multiple languages at the same time" and suggest transcribing twice, once per language, and combining by hand. Cantonese is not named on its pages. A troubleshooting article notes Simplified and Traditional output can come out in the wrong form.	Mixed mode is the default: Cantonese, Mandarin and English in the same meeting and the same sentence are transcribed as spoken, with Cantonese particles kept and the summary in standard written Chinese. No accuracy figure is published yet.
Summaries	Built in once you connect an AI provider: your own API key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others) or a local model through Ollama, LM Studio or Apple's on-device Foundation Models. In the direct download, AI providers are a Pro feature. With a remote provider, the transcript text and your prompt go to that provider.	Included on every plan, the free plan too: within a minute of the meeting ending you have the summary, your action items and what you are waiting on from others, each point with a timestamp that jumps to the transcript line. You do not bring your own API key or model. The transcript text goes to a language model service for the summary and is not kept on Audiee.ai's servers.
Across meetings	Full-text and speaker search through all your transcripts. AI chat is about one transcript at a time; its pages do not describe asking questions across many meetings.	Meetings, dictated notes and screenshots become Knowledge: Markdown pages with backlinks and a graph view. Semantic search runs on your Mac. Ask "what did we quote them last time?" and the answer comes with the meeting it came from.
Notes as files	Free exports .txt, .srt and .vtt; Pro adds .md, .pdf, .html, .docx and more, plus an Obsidian integration that writes each transcript as a .md file into your vault.	Transcripts, summaries and Knowledge pages are Markdown files on your Mac. One-click export; delete the app and the files remain.
Your AI tools	A CLI to connect MacWhisper to scripts and AI agents, and Apple Shortcuts integration. An MCP server is not mentioned on its pages.	A local MCP server exposes meetings and notes as tools; Audiee.ai sets it up for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor automatically after install.
Voice typing	System-wide dictation in the direct download (not in the Mac App Store version).	Tap Ctrl in any text box and speak, in English, Mandarin and Cantonese mixed; filler words removed, punctuation added.
Price	Free tier, free forever. MacWhisper Pro is a one-time purchase of about €65 with lifetime updates. The Mac App Store version, Whisper Transcription, is a separate build with subscription options and fewer features.	Free: 3 transcription hours and 20 meetings a month, no card. Pro is $19 a month, Ultra $49.
Macs	macOS 14 or later. M-series Macs recommended; it works on Intel, but its docs say on-device transcription is significantly slower there, and Parakeet, WhisperKit and local speaker recognition need Apple silicon.	macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

What "private" means for each

MacWhisper keeps the audio on the Mac. By default it transcribes with a model downloaded to your computer, and its documentation says the transcription data does not leave the device. That changes only if you opt in: choosing a cloud transcription provider sends the audio to that provider, and using a remote AI provider for summaries sends the transcript text there. With a local model for both steps, nothing has to go anywhere.

Audiee.ai keeps the notes on the Mac, not the audio. The audio goes to a transcription service in the cloud and comes back as text, and the transcript text goes to a language model service for the summary; Audiee.ai's servers keep no copy of either, and nothing is used to train models. What is written — transcript, summary, Knowledge — is Markdown files in a folder you own. Only you see a meeting until you share it with a named recipient by a read-only link. Audiee.ai is a small team in Singapore that follows the PDPA and has no third-party audit to point to; the trust page lists each service and what it sees.

Both leave the telling to you. No bot joins with either app, so nothing announces itself to the other participants. Say that you are recording at the start of the call; Audiee.ai reminds you before your first recording, and the law differs by place — see is it legal to record meetings?

When MacWhisper fits better

Audio that must never leave the Mac. If a client contract, a compliance rule or your own judgement says the recording cannot be sent to any server, MacWhisper is the pick: transcription runs on the Mac by default, and if you also use a local model through Ollama, LM Studio or Apple's on-device Foundation Models, the summary stays there too. Audiee.ai cannot offer that, and this page does not pretend otherwise.

Paying once. MacWhisper Pro is a one-time purchase of about €65 with lifetime updates. If you already have an API key or run a local model, and your meetings stay in one language at a time, you pay once and are done. Audiee.ai's Pro and Ultra plans are subscriptions, billed monthly or yearly, after the free plan.

Transcribing files. MacWhisper transcribes audio and video files on the Mac as well as meetings, and exports subtitles (.srt, .vtt). Audiee.ai records meetings and calls on your Mac — Ctrl+M for anything else, including in-person meetings — and types what you say; this page makes no claim about importing files into it.

When Audiee.ai fits better

Meetings that switch language mid-sentence. English, Mandarin and Cantonese in one recording, transcribed as spoken, with no language to pick first; Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malay and Filipino with English mixed in work the same way. MacWhisper's docs recommend transcribing a mixed file once per language and combining by hand, and Cantonese is not named on its pages. Why Cantonese is hard for most tools is explained in why Cantonese transcription drops words.

Summaries included, without your own API key. Summaries are part of Audiee.ai on every plan, the free plan too: within a minute of the meeting ending you have the summary, your action items and what you are waiting on from others, every point with a timestamp that jumps to the line in the transcript, and the transcript itself is never rewritten.

A memory you can ask across your meetings, and AI tools that reach it. Meetings, dictated notes and screenshots become Knowledge: Markdown pages with backlinks and a graph view. Semantic search runs on your Mac. Ask "what did we quote them last time?" and the answer comes with the meeting it came from. The local MCP server exposes those meetings and notes as tools for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor.

An older or Intel Mac. Audiee.ai runs on macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon and Intel alike. MacWhisper needs macOS 14 or later, and its own docs say on-device transcription is significantly slower on Intel Macs.

What this page does not claim

Not that Audiee.ai is more private or more local than MacWhisper. On where the audio is processed, MacWhisper is the more local tool. Audiee.ai's privacy story is a different one: no server copy, no training, notes as files you own.
Not that MacWhisper lacks Chinese or summaries. It lists Chinese among its 100 languages; the limitation its docs describe is mixing languages in one file, and Cantonese is not named. It summarizes once you connect your own AI provider or a local model.
Nothing about which MacWhisper tier includes meeting recording. Its pricing table and its Gumroad listing differ on this, so the page says nothing either way.
Nothing about Google Meet, speaker names or Cantonese in MacWhisper. Its pages list browsers but never name Google Meet, do not say whether meeting participants are labelled with their real names, and do not mention Cantonese; the page makes no claim on any of the three.
The mixed-language article dates from July 2025. Newer models could behave differently; this page quotes what the docs said when checked in October 2026.
No accuracy figure for Audiee.ai. The mixed-language benchmark is not published, so no number is quoted.
No price for the Mac App Store version. Its subscription prices were not captured; the page says only that it uses subscriptions and has fewer features.

Does Audiee.ai transcribe on my Mac like MacWhisper?

No. Audiee.ai sends the audio to a transcription service in the cloud and gets text back; its servers keep no copy of the audio or the transcript, and what it writes for you — transcript, summary, notes, Knowledge — is Markdown on your Mac. MacWhisper transcribes on the Mac by default, with a model it downloads to your computer, and its docs say transcription data does not leave the device unless you turn on a cloud provider (checked October 2026). If audio must never leave your Mac, MacWhisper is the right pick. See what stays on your Mac and what is processed in the cloud.

Which handles mixed English, Mandarin and Cantonese in one meeting?

Audiee.ai. Mixed mode is the default, so a sentence that starts in Cantonese, borrows an English term and ends in Mandarin is transcribed as it was said, with Cantonese particles kept and the summary in standard written Chinese. Audiee.ai publishes no accuracy figure yet. MacWhisper supports 100 languages and lists Chinese, but per its docs it "is not able to transcribe files with multiple languages at the same time" and recommends transcribing twice and combining the results by hand; Cantonese is not named on its pages (checked October 2026; the article was last updated in July 2025). Details on Cantonese and mixed English–Chinese meetings.

Do I need my own API key for summaries?

With MacWhisper, you connect an AI provider yourself: your own API key for an online provider, or a local model through Ollama, LM Studio or Apple's on-device Foundation Models; in the direct download, AI providers are a Pro feature, and with a remote provider the transcript text goes to that provider (checked October 2026). Audiee.ai includes summaries on every plan, the free plan too: within a minute of the meeting ending you have the summary, your action items and what you are waiting on from others, and you do not bring your own API key or model.

Which one remembers across meetings?

Audiee.ai is built for that. Meetings, dictated notes and screenshots become Knowledge: Markdown pages with backlinks and a graph view, with semantic search on your Mac. It is a memory you can ask across your meetings — "what did we quote them last time?" — and the answer comes with the meeting it came from. A local MCP server exposes those meetings and notes as tools for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. MacWhisper offers full-text and speaker search across all your transcripts, and AI chat with one transcript at a time; its pages do not describe asking across many meetings (checked October 2026).

Does either one put a bot in the meeting?

No. Both record from the Mac itself, so nothing joins the call and the participant list is unchanged. MacWhisper can detect Zoom, Teams, Webex and other apps and remind you to record; Audiee.ai detects Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Feishu (Lark) and offers to take notes, and records any other call with Ctrl+M. Because nothing joins, nothing announces itself either: with both tools you tell the other people yourself. Audiee.ai reminds you before your first recording — see does Audiee.ai join Zoom like Fireflies or Otter? and is it legal to record meetings?

What do they cost?

MacWhisper has a free tier and a Pro licence that is a one-time purchase of about €65 on its official pages, with lifetime updates; the Mac App Store version, Whisper Transcription, uses subscriptions instead and has fewer features (checked October 2026). Audiee.ai's free plan includes 3 hours of transcription a month, shared between meetings and voice typing, and 20 meetings, with no card to download; Pro is $19 a month and Ultra $49 — see pricing. The models are different: pay once for MacWhisper Pro; Audiee.ai Pro and Ultra are subscriptions, billed monthly or yearly.

Which Macs do they run on?

MacWhisper needs macOS 14 or later. It runs on Intel Macs, but its docs say on-device transcription is significantly slower there, and Parakeet, WhisperKit and local speaker recognition are Apple silicon only (checked October 2026). Audiee.ai runs on macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

Sources

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