Muesli
Free, open-source Mac app for on-device dictation and bot-free meeting transcription.
- Verified facts
- 5 of 5
- Alternatives ranked
- 6
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Muesli
Muesli is a macOS app that does two jobs locally: system-wide dictation and meeting transcription. Hold a hotkey, speak, and it pastes cleaned-up text into whatever app you are using; for meetings it records your computer's audio directly, so no bot joins the call, and keeps the transcript and notes on your Mac. Speech recognition runs on-device on Apple Silicon and works offline after setup, which makes it a privacy-minded alternative to cloud tools like Wispr Flow and Granola. It also ships a command-line tool so coding agents such as Claude Code or Codex can list meetings, read transcripts and transcribe audio files, and it includes models for Hindi, Hinglish and other Indian languages. It can pull upcoming meetings from macOS Calendar or Google Calendar. Muesli is free and MIT-licensed. It needs an Apple Silicon Mac; an iPhone app is listed as coming soon.
Best for: Mac users who want free, private dictation and meeting notes without a cloud service or meeting bot.
Pros and cons
What works
- Transcription runs on-device and works offline after install
- Records meetings from system audio, so no bot joins calls
- CLI gives coding agents structured access to transcripts
- Free and MIT-licensed
Why people leave
- Apple Silicon Macs only; no Windows, Linux or mobile app yet
- macOS permission setup (Accessibility, Input Monitoring, Screen Recording) can be fiddly
- No team sharing or hosted workspace like Granola or Otter
Top Muesli alternatives
See all 6- 1
Granola68.8Polished bot-free meeting notes with AI summaries and team sharing, using cloud processing on a paid plan.
- 2
Wispr Flow64.8Cloud dictation across Mac, Windows and iPhone with strong formatting, on a subscription.
- 3
Superwhisper61.8Mac dictation with local and cloud model choices and custom modes, with a paid tier.
- 4
VoiceInk59.4Another local, open-source Mac dictation app, focused on dictation rather than meetings.
- 5
MacWhisper57.5On-device Whisper transcription for audio files and meetings on the Mac, with a one-time Pro upgrade.
Why people left Muesli
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Muesli: common questions
Is Muesli free?
Yes. Muesli is free, open-source software.
Is Muesli open source?
No, Muesli is not open source. Open-source alternatives include VoiceInk and Handy.
What platforms does Muesli run on?
Muesli is available for macOS.
What are the best alternatives to Muesli?
The highest-ranked Muesli alternatives right now are Granola, Wispr Flow and Superwhisper. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.