# Narada — Mac meeting recorder with on-device transcription

> Narada is a native macOS app that records the audio your Mac is playing plus your
> microphone, transcribes it on-device, and turns the transcript into a summary,
> decisions and follow-ups. No bot joins the meeting. The audio file never leaves the
> Mac. It is on the Mac App Store, requires macOS 15.6 or later, and is free to use as
> a recorder, with no minute or meeting limit on recording and transcription; AI features
> are free on-device (Apple Silicon, model downloaded by the app, no Ollama) or $6.99/month in the cloud.

## Facts

- Capture: CoreAudio process tap for system audio + AVAudioEngine for the microphone, recorded as two separate tracks. No bot, no virtual audio device, no Screen Recording permission.
- Transcription: Parakeet TDT v3 (0.6B) via Core ML, on-device, 25 European languages (bg, cs, da, de, el, en, es, et, fi, fr, hr, hu, it, lt, lv, mt, nl, pl, pt, ro, ru, sk, sl, sv, uk — Ukrainian and Russian included; no Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Arabic). Free, with no minute or meeting limit. Offline once the model is downloaded. Speaker separation on the call audio produces unnamed labels (Speaker 1, Speaker 2); your own track is named because it is recorded separately.
- AI modes: Recorder only (no AI); On-device AI (Gemma 3 4B or 12B via MLX inside the app, Apple Silicon only, no account or key, nothing to install such as Ollama; works offline after a one-time 3 GB or 7 GB model download); Pro AI ($6.99/mo or $69.99/yr, 3-day trial, transcript text goes to OpenAI via Narada's proxy after explicit consent); your own OpenAI key; any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
- Raw audio never leaves the Mac in any mode. Transcript text leaves only in the cloud modes, after consent.
- Files: a folder you choose, one folder per meeting per day — .m4a audio, .txt transcript, _summary.md, _analysis.json. Unencrypted by design so other tools can read them.
- Claude Desktop connector: a local, read-only MCP server installed in one click, exposing six tools (list_meetings, get_meeting, search, find_mentions, get_action_items, get_audio_path). Search is FTS5 keyword matching, not semantic.
- Recording integrity: every finished recording is compared against itself and marked Incomplete, with a reason, when audio was lost. Lost audio is not recoverable and the app does not claim otherwise.
- Requirements: macOS 15.6+, universal binary (Intel and Apple Silicon). On-device AI requires Apple Silicon and 8 GB RAM (4B model) or 16 GB (12B).

## Pages

- [Narada home](https://www.getnarada.app/): what the app does, pricing, FAQ.

## Hubs

- [Alternatives to the popular meeting notetakers](https://www.getnarada.app/alternatives/): Looking for something other than Otter, Fireflies, Granola or a bot that joins your calls? These pages lay out the real options for macOS, including the free ones.
- [Straight answers about recording meetings](https://www.getnarada.app/answers/): Short, sourced answers to the questions people actually ask about recording calls on a Mac: legality, consent, bots, permissions, file formats and offline use.
- [Narada compared with other meeting notetakers](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/): Head-to-head comparisons of Narada against Granola, Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and tl;dv, with pricing and privacy quoted from each vendor's own pages.
- [Guides — recording and transcribing meetings on a Mac](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/): Practical guides to recording and transcribing calls on macOS: system audio, Zoom, Meet, Teams, and what Apple's own recorders can and cannot do.

## Comparisons

- [Narada vs Apple Notes and Voice Memos — why the free tools stop at your own voice](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-apple-notes): Apple's Notes, Voice Memos and QuickTime record a microphone and nothing else. What that costs you on a video call, and when Apple's free tools are all you need.
- [Narada vs Fathom — a local Mac recorder against a hosted notetaker](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-fathom): Fathom's free tier is generous but hosted in the US. Narada records and transcribes on your Mac. What each costs, where your audio goes, and which to pick.
- [Narada vs Fireflies.ai — a local Mac recorder against a cloud notetaker](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-fireflies): Fireflies joins your call as a visible bot and keeps meetings in the US cloud. Narada records your Mac locally. Pricing, free-tier limits and privacy, compared.
- [Narada vs Granola — the same bot-free idea, two very different audio paths](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-granola): Both record Mac meetings bot-free. Granola streams audio to Deepgram and AssemblyAI and keeps none; Narada transcribes on-device and leaves you the file.
- [Narada vs Jamie — "no bot" is not the same thing as "on your Mac"](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-jamie): Jamie records without a bot but uploads your audio to Frankfurt. Narada keeps it on the Mac. Capture, processing, languages, pricing and GDPR claims compared.
- [Narada vs MacWhisper — a meeting recorder and a transcriber are not the same tool](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-macwhisper): MacWhisper transcribes anything you feed it. Narada records the meeting itself, from your calendar. Verified prices, privacy quotes, and who should buy which.
- [Narada vs Otter.ai — the local Mac recorder against the shared cloud archive](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-otter): Otter records to its cloud and trains on de-identified audio; Narada transcribes on your Mac. Free-tier limits, pricing and language support compared.
- [Narada vs tl;dv — EU data residency, or no data that needs residency](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-tldv): tl;dv hosts in the EEA and has a genuinely free tier. Narada records and transcribes on your Mac. An honest comparison of the trade, with both vendors quoted.
- [Narada vs Zoom AI Companion — the notetaker you already pay for, and the one that covers everything else](https://www.getnarada.app/compare/narada-vs-zoom-ai-companion): Zoom AI Companion is bundled into a paid Workplace plan, but the admin and the host control it. Narada taps your Mac's own audio. Where each one actually wins.

## Alternatives

- [The best AI meeting notes app for Mac depends on which of seven things you refuse to give up](https://www.getnarada.app/alternatives/best-ai-meeting-notes-mac): Eleven Mac meeting-notes tools judged on seven checkable questions: bot or no bot, is the audio kept, where transcription runs, what the free tier caps.
- [Bot-free AI notetakers — four different mechanisms behind one phrase](https://www.getnarada.app/alternatives/bot-free-ai-notetaker): Four different mechanisms are sold as bot-free, and they have four different privacy stories. Where each one sends your audio, quoted from vendor docs.
- [Fireflies alternative with no bot in the participant list](https://www.getnarada.app/alternatives/fireflies-alternative-no-bot): Fireflies' bot is visible on purpose, and Teams now sends detected bots to the lobby by default. The bot-free routes compared, with what each one costs you.
- [Granola alternatives for Mac, sorted by the reason you're leaving](https://www.getnarada.app/alternatives/granola-alternative): Why people leave Granola — no audio file, forced Google or Microsoft sign-in, $14 a seat monthly — and which Mac app fits each reason. Checked 4 August 2026.
- [Otter.ai alternatives on a Mac — pick the fix that matches your reason for leaving](https://www.getnarada.app/alternatives/otter-ai-alternative-mac): Otter's own pages on the 300-minute cap, the 90-minute Pro ceiling, US cloud storage and model training — plus the Mac options that fix each, and what each costs.
- [Zoom AI Companion alternatives — sorted by which wall you hit](https://www.getnarada.app/alternatives/zoom-ai-companion-alternative): Zoom's notetaker is gated by your plan, by the host, or by the platform. Which of those three walls you hit decides what to switch to. Zoom's own docs quoted.

## Guides

- [BlackHole vs Loopback, and when you need neither](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/blackhole-vs-loopback): Loopback costs $99 and routes single apps; BlackHole is free but you wire it yourself. Soundflower's last release was 2014. And the case for needing neither.
- [Your Mac recording came out silent — how to find out why](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/mac-recording-no-sound): Your Mac recording came out silent. Six causes in order of likelihood, each with a test you can run in under a minute, and what you cannot fix afterwards.
- [Why your Mac recording plays too fast, too slow, or like a chipmunk](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/mac-recording-wrong-speed): A Mac recording plays too fast when the declared sample rate doesn't match the rate the samples arrived at. The arithmetic, the causes, and the one-command fix.
- [macOS 26 Tahoe and system audio — what changed, and what didn't](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/macos-tahoe-system-audio-recording): Apple's built-in recorder is still microphone-only on macOS 26 Tahoe. What did change: the Screen & System Audio Recording panel, and documented Core Audio taps.
- [How to record a Google Meet call on a Mac](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/record-google-meet-mac): Google Meet's own recording needs a paid Workspace plan and the host's cooperation. Here is what to do when you have neither, and how to capture both sides on macOS.
- [How to record an in-person meeting on a Mac](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/record-in-person-meeting-mac): A room recording is a microphone recording — no system audio, no speaker labels, and a lid that kills the mic in hardware. Placement, power, and the consent line.
- [How to record your microphone and your Mac's system audio at the same time](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/record-mic-and-system-audio-mac): Multi-Output Device or Aggregate Device: how to capture your voice and your Mac's output together, why you get one mixed track, and the two-track alternative.
- [How to record system audio on a Mac](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/record-system-audio-mac): Why macOS won't let QuickTime record internal audio, how the BlackHole and Loopback route works, and how apps capture system output without a virtual device.
- [How to record a Microsoft Teams meeting on a Mac](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/record-teams-meeting-mac): Teams' Record button is gated by your Microsoft 365 licence and your admin's policy — and guests can't record at all. Here's how to capture a Teams call on macOS.
- [How to record a Zoom meeting on a Mac — including the other person's voice](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/record-zoom-meeting-mac): Four ways to record a Zoom call on macOS, why QuickTime captures only your own microphone, and how to get both sides without a virtual audio device.
- [How to transcribe an audio file you already have on a Mac](https://www.getnarada.app/guides/transcribe-audio-file-mac): Apple's built-ins only transcribe what they recorded themselves. For an m4a, mp3 or wav already on disk: MacWhisper, Superwhisper, Aiko or whisper.cpp.

## Answers

- [Can I use my own OpenAI API key instead of a subscription?](https://www.getnarada.app/answers/bring-your-own-api-key): Narada has five AI routes and only one is a subscription. What each costs, worked through with measured token counts, and what your own key does not buy you.
- [Is it legal to record a meeting?](https://www.getnarada.app/answers/is-it-legal-to-record-a-meeting): One-party or all-party consent, notice versus consent, and why the answer depends on where every participant is sitting. An explainer, not legal advice.
- [Which meeting notes apps keep the audio, and which delete it](https://www.getnarada.app/answers/meeting-notes-that-keep-the-audio): Granola, Jamie and Fireflies' bot-free mode keep no audio at all. Who leaves you a playable file, quoted from vendor docs, and where Narada writes the .m4a.
- [Do AI meeting notes work offline on a Mac?](https://www.getnarada.app/answers/offline-meeting-notes-mac): Offline transcription on a Mac is common now. An offline summary is rare, because it needs a local language model. Which Mac apps ship one, and what it costs.
- [Can QuickTime record system audio? No — here's why, and what to use](https://www.getnarada.app/answers/quicktime-cannot-record-system-audio): QuickTime's audio recorder offers one input: a microphone. Apple's own docs, quoted, plus the two routes that do capture the sound your Mac is playing.
- [How do I record a meeting without a bot joining the call?](https://www.getnarada.app/answers/record-meeting-without-bot): Bot-free meeting recording means recording your own computer's audio instead of inviting an assistant into the call. Here is what that requires and what it costs.