100% local · No cloud, no subscriptions

Transcribe everything.
Right on your Mac.

Kian sits in your menu bar and transcribes microphone and system audio in real time. Powered by whisper.cpp. Nothing leaves your machine.

Download for macOS View source
Features

Built for privacy. Built for speed.

🔒

Completely offline

Runs whisper.cpp locally with GPU acceleration via Apple Metal. Your audio never touches a server.

🎙

Mic + system audio

Capture your microphone, system audio from any app, or both at the same time. Each line is labeled by source so you know what came from where.

📋

Timestamped transcripts

Every session is saved as a clean text file in ~/Documents/Kian/ with timestamps and source labels.

⚡

Menu bar app

Lives in your menu bar. One click to start recording. No windows, no clutter. Just works.

🔧

Zero setup

No drivers, no virtual audio devices, no reboot. Uses macOS CoreAudio process taps to capture system audio directly. Just install and record.

🌍

Multilingual

Powered by Whisper large-v3-turbo. Automatic language detection across 100+ languages.

Use cases

Who is Kian for?

💻

Meetings and calls

Transcribe Zoom, Google Meet, or any video call in real time. Capture both sides of the conversation with system audio + mic mode. Never miss an action item again.

🎓

Lectures and courses

Record online lectures or YouTube tutorials and get a searchable text transcript. Great for students who want to review material later without re-watching.

🎙️

Podcasts and interviews

Turn podcast episodes or recorded interviews into text. Source labels show what came from the mic vs. system audio when recording both.

✍️

Voice notes and journaling

Think out loud into your mic and let Kian turn it into text. Faster than typing for brainstorms, drafts, and daily journals.

♿

Accessibility

Live captions for any audio playing on your Mac. Useful for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, or anyone in a noisy environment.

🔐

Sensitive conversations

Legal calls, medical consultations, HR discussions. When privacy matters, Kian keeps everything on your machine. No cloud, no third-party access.

How it works

Up and running in minutes.

01

Install

Download the DMG, run the installer. It copies the app and downloads the Whisper model automatically.

02

Grant permissions

Allow microphone access on first launch. System audio capture permission is requested when needed.

03

Record

Click the menu bar icon, hit Start Recording. Kian transcribes in real time and saves to a text file.

04

Review

Open the output folder from the menu. Your transcripts are organized by date with full timestamps.

Output

What you get.

~/Documents/Kian/transcript_2025-06-14_10-30-00.txt
[System Audio] [00:00 → 00:08] So the main question is whether we should ship this before the end of the quarter.

[Microphone] [00:09 → 00:14] I think we can, but we need to lock the API contract by Friday.

[System Audio] [00:15 → 00:22] Makes sense. Let me check with the backend team and get back to you after lunch.

[Microphone] [00:23 → 00:27] Sounds good. I'll draft the migration plan in the meantime.
Installation

Step-by-step setup.

1

Download the installer

Download the latest Kian-Installer.dmg from the releases page. Double-click to mount it.

Is this safe? The DMG is built from the open-source code on GitHub by GitHub Actions CI. You can verify the build by checking the workflow runs or build it yourself from source.
2

Run the installer

Kian is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate, so macOS Gatekeeper will block it by default. This is normal for open-source apps distributed outside the Mac App Store. Use one of these methods to open it:

Option A — Right-click to open (recommended)

Right-click (or Control-click) Install Kian, select Open, then click Open in the dialog. This is the standard macOS way to open apps from unidentified developers. It only bypasses Gatekeeper for this specific app — your system security settings remain unchanged.

Option B — Allow in System Settings

Double-click Install Kian (it will be blocked). Then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the Security section, and click Open Anyway. This is equivalent to Option A — it creates a one-time exception for this app only.

Option C — Terminal

Remove the quarantine attribute, then double-click normally. This removes the "downloaded from the internet" flag that triggers Gatekeeper. It does not disable any system-wide security.

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "/Volumes/Kian Installer/Install Kian.app"
Why does this happen? macOS Gatekeeper blocks apps that aren't signed with an Apple Developer certificate ($99/year). Kian is free and open source, so it's distributed unsigned. None of these methods weaken your Mac's security — they only allow this specific app to run.
3

Follow the installer

A Terminal window will open. The installer automatically:

• Copies Kian.app to ~/Applications/

• Downloads the Whisper model (~1.5 GB) from Hugging Face on first install

• Launches Kian when done

What gets installed? Kian.app is fully self-contained. The only file placed outside ~/Applications/ is the Whisper model bundled inside the app. Nothing runs in the background when Kian is not open. You can review the full installer script on GitHub.
4

Grant permissions

On first launch, macOS will ask for microphone access. Click Allow. When you start recording with System Audio enabled, macOS will also ask for audio capture access. Click Allow.

Audio is processed locally by whisper.cpp — nothing is sent over the network.

If you accidentally denied either permission, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone (or Audio Capture) and enable Kian. You'll see a purple indicator dot in the menu bar while system audio is being captured — this is normal macOS behavior.
Technical

Under the hood.

Engine whisper.cpp with Metal GPU
Model Whisper large-v3-turbo
Platform macOS 14.2+ (Apple Silicon + Intel)
Audio PortAudio + CoreAudio Taps
Languages 100+ (auto-detected)
License Open source

Your conversations, your machine.

Free, open source, and completely private.

Download Kian