MacWhisper for meeting transcription, compared with a meeting notetaker

MacWhisper is a Mac app for transcribing audio: you drop in a file and get a transcript, made on your Mac by default. It also records meetings, and can remind you to record when a call starts. Notey is built only for meetings: it records your microphone and the Mac's audio as two separate tracks, transcribes them live on the Mac, and writes notes when you ask. If you transcribe interviews, lectures and podcasts from files, MacWhisper does something Notey does not. If your need is a record of your calls, the two overlap, and the differences are in how each hears the call and what it does with the two sides.

This comparison describes MacWhisper from its own website, documentation and store page as of September 2026. MacWhisper changes often; check MacWhisper's site and its documentation on recording meetings before deciding.

At a glance

How each one records a meeting

MacWhisper says it "records all your online meetings. No bots joining." Its documentation says it "can detect when a meeting starts and remind you to record" in apps including Zoom, Teams, Slack, Webex, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, Chime, and the Arc, Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari browsers. It adds: "FaceTime is not available due to privacy restrictions built into macOS." Meeting detection is in the direct-download version, not the App Store version, which is called Whisper Transcription. The docs also say automatic meeting recording is in beta and "there may be occasional issues or data loss." (MacWhisper: record meetings)

On permissions, the docs say: "The Record Meeting features requires Screen Recording and Microphone permission in order to work."

Notey records your microphone and the sound your Mac plays as two separate tracks. It notices calls in Zoom, Teams, Slack, FaceTime, and in Chrome, Safari, Arc and Edge when the browser uses the microphone, and asks; nothing is saved until you press Allow. For other apps, press Start. It never asks for Screen Recording: the Mac's audio comes through a Core Audio process tap, which needs only audio permission, and Notey cannot see your screen.

Your side and theirs

This is the biggest practical difference for meetings.

MacWhisper's documentation describes default names for "Your Name" and "Meeting Participants", and says: "Right now they are grouped as one speaker, but when automatic speaker recognition is released we will split it into all speakers." Separately, it offers automatic speaker recognition for some local engines and some cloud providers, and real-time meeting transcription with speaker recognition for supported models. (MacWhisper speaker recognition)

Notey keeps the two sides as separate recordings, so every line is labelled You or Them from the track it came from, with no voice analysis involved. On the other side, voices are told apart after the recording, and you name them. Two-track recording explains why that matters.

Models and where transcription runs

MacWhisper runs open models on your Mac, including Whisper, Nvidia Parakeet and Qwen3-ASR (which needs macOS 26 and an M-series chip), and says "All transcription is done on your device, no data leaves your machine." It also offers optional cloud transcription through OpenAI, Groq, ElevenLabs, Deepgram or a custom provider, and a paid Assistant service. Bigger models need more memory. You choose.

Notey uses Apple's speech recognition, built into macOS 26, live, on the Mac. After an English meeting, it reads the recording again on the Mac and keeps the words the recognisers agree on. There is no model choice and no cloud option. On-device transcription explained covers the trade-offs of this kind of transcription.

Notes and what happens next

MacWhisper writes summaries and lets you chat with transcripts using local models (through Ollama or LM Studio) or cloud providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, with your own API keys or its Assistant subscription. It connects to Notion, Obsidian, Zapier, Make, n8n and webhooks.

Notey writes fixed kinds of note when you ask: a summary with action items, minutes, tough questions, where the sides differed, and a follow-up email. Ask Notey answers questions about one meeting and says when the transcript does not cover them. Only transcript text is sent, to Notey's service and on to OpenAI as a processor; it is not used for training and not kept. Everything the AI wrote is labelled as AI-generated. No integrations; notes export as Markdown, the transcript as plain text.

The difference that matters for privacy: with a local model, MacWhisper can write notes without anything leaving the Mac. Notey cannot; its AI notes always go through its service.

Where MacWhisper is stronger

• Files. Transcribe any recording, not only live meetings.
• Languages. Over 100.
• Model choice, local and cloud, and AI notes with a local model.
• Integrations and a command-line tool.
• iPhone and iPad versions.
• Price model. See its own site; Notey's is on the pricing section.

Where Notey makes different choices

• Built for calls. It notices FaceTime calls too, and asks before every recording unless you made a standing choice you can see and withdraw.
• Two tracks, so your side and theirs are always told apart.
• No Screen Recording permission.
• Nothing to choose or configure: one recogniser, on the Mac, and a better English transcript after the meeting.
• A red dot and timer in the window, the menu bar and the floating button whenever audio is being kept.

Which one fits

MacWhisper is likely the better fit if:

• you transcribe files as much as meetings;
• your meetings are in languages beyond Notey's ten;
• you want to pick the model, or keep AI notes on the Mac;
• you want output sent to Notion, Obsidian or automation tools.

Notey is likely the better fit if:

• you mainly need records of calls, with your side and theirs apart;
• you would rather not grant Screen Recording permission;
• you want a notetaker that asks before each call and shows when it is recording.

If what you want is free transcription with no AI notes, both can do it; free meeting transcription on a Mac compares the options. For the wider field, see the best AI notetakers for Mac.

Frequently asked questions

Can MacWhisper record meetings?

Yes. MacWhisper's site says it records online meetings with no bots joining, and its documentation says it can detect when a meeting starts in apps such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, Webex and several browsers and remind you to record. Its docs say automatic meeting recording is in beta.

Does MacWhisper need Screen Recording permission?

For meetings, yes, per its documentation, which says the Record Meeting features require Screen Recording and Microphone permission. Notey never asks for Screen Recording; it captures the Mac's audio with a Core Audio process tap.

Does MacWhisper transcribe on the device?

By default. It runs models such as Whisper and Parakeet on your Mac, and also offers optional cloud transcription through providers such as OpenAI, Groq, ElevenLabs and Deepgram, and its own paid Assistant service.

Can Notey transcribe an audio file I already have?

No. Notey transcribes meetings it records. For existing files, a file transcriber such as MacWhisper is the right tool.

Which is better for a meeting in Dutch or Polish?

MacWhisper, which lists over 100 languages. Notey transcribes ten languages, set by the Mac's language.