macOS's built-in AI dictation needs 12 GB of unified memory. Your M1 Air doesn't care.
Dicta for Mac -- full AI dictation on the Macs Apple left behind
The AI dictation your Mac was told it’s too old for
Apple’s newest on-device dictation needs 12 GB of unified memory to run. If you’re on an 8 GB or 16 GB M1, M2 or M3 Mac, that leaves you out.
Dicta needs about 1.5 GB. It runs the full pipeline, speech recognition, corrections, AI rewriting, on the Mac you already own.
What that gets you
- Full AI dictation on 8 GB and 16 GB Apple Silicon Macs, not just the newest ones.
- Everything runs on-device: no upload, no account needed to use it.
- Works with no internet connection at all (see the Airplane Mode Test on the home page).
Verify it yourself
Turn off Wi-Fi and keep dictating. Nothing changes, because nothing was ever sent anywhere.
Dicta is in preview. Join the waitlist and we’ll let you know the moment it’s ready to download.