# Ocelli

> Ocelli is a native macOS meeting copilot with system-wide dictation. Its meeting controls sit in the Mac's notch, or float at the top of the screen if the Mac has no notch, transcribes on-device, writes Markdown notes into a folder the user chooses, and types what the user dictates straight into any app. Made by one person, Dominik Martin. Ocelli was called Aside (heyaside.com) until it was renamed on 12 October 2026; it is the same app. Last updated 12 October 2026.

**Status: released.** Ocelli is out. The current version is listed at https://github.com/dominikmartn/aside/releases/latest and it is downloadable today at https://ocelli.app/download. Ten meetings are free, then $79 once or $8 per month, and both are bought on https://ocelli.app/pricing.

## What it is

- **Platform:** macOS 26 or later. Apple silicon, or Intel with much slower transcription: the app is a universal binary and runs on Intel, but transcription goes through CoreML and an Intel Mac has no Neural Engine. There is no Windows version yet; one is planned if demand shows. An iPhone app and an Apple Watch app are on the list but not available yet.
- **How it records:** captures the Mac's system audio plus the microphone. Works identically in Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, a Slack huddle, or an in-person conversation. It detects when the call ends and stops on its own.
- **Where it lives:** the meeting controls sit in the Mac's notch, or float at the top of the screen if the Mac has no notch. The app detects which; it is not a setting. There is also a menu bar icon. The calendar surfaces the next meeting there with a countdown and Join and Record buttons. Dictation has its own pill, at the bottom centre of the screen. When nothing is scheduled, nothing is shown.
- **Transcription:** on-device, roughly 99 languages, auto-detected. A working speech model ships inside the download, and a larger and more accurate one is fetched once on first run, about 1.5 GB. After that transcription runs with no connection. A speaker-separation model is fetched once after the first recording.
- **Output:** Markdown files in a user-chosen folder. Each note contains a summary, key points, decisions, action items with owners, open questions, the user's own notes, and a timestamped transcript. Git friendly, Obsidian compatible. Nothing to export and nothing expires.
- **While recording:** three tabs. Live transcript, personal timestamped notes with pasted screenshots, and a chat grounded in what has been said in that meeting.
- **Dictation:** hold fn anywhere on the Mac, speak, and the text is typed at the cursor in whatever app is in front. Right Command, right Option, F13 and F5 can be used instead of fn. The language is picked out of what you say, from the languages your Mac is set to, about 99 to choose from, on the same local speech model the meetings use, so nothing leaves the Mac for it and it needs no API key and no Ollama.
- **Library:** search across every past meeting, ask one question across all of them, tag them, and click any transcript line to play that moment of audio, which is stored locally.
- **Agents:** Ocelli ships an MCP server. Claude Code, Codex and other MCP clients can list meetings, search them, fetch a full transcript, and read a meeting live while it runs. Live access is off by default and a chip appears in the recording header while an agent is reading.

## Pricing

Both paid options include Ocelli Pro, which is the meetings and the dictation together. The $8 subscription adds Ocelli AI for summaries and chat.

- **$8 per month**: the app and Ocelli AI (the hosted note, ask and chat layer) included, cancel anytime. Stop paying the $8 and Ocelli stops recording new meetings, but everything you already recorded stays yours and readable, and the $79 purchase never stops. Ocelli AI is part of the subscription, so writing new notes then needs your own API key or Ollama. Cancelling stops the next renewal and access runs to the end of the period already paid for, with a 72 hour grace period after that.
- **$79 once**: owns the app outright, including every update to the app. The licence is per person and not per machine, so it covers every Mac the buyer owns. Runs fully local with Ollama or with your own API key; Ocelli AI stays with the subscription. You can switch from the subscription to the one-time licence at any time; months already paid on the subscription are not credited against the $79.
- **In euros:** 8 € per month or 75 € once. The currency is picked on https://ocelli.app/pricing and the checkout charges in that currency.
- **Activation:** after buying, the licence is activated with the Open Ocelli to activate link in the purchase email or on https://ocelli.app/thanks, where checkout returns the buyer. The key can also be pasted in Ocelli → Settings → License.
- **$0 recurring with your own API key** (for owners): Anthropic, OpenAI, Kimi, GLM, or a fully local model through Ollama. Unlimited and not rate limited.
- **Trial:** ten meetings free, and dictation is free for seven days after it is set up, after which it is part of the paid plan. There is no permanent free tier. Free meetings are not spent while a subscription is active, so any that were left when the subscription started are still there if it lapses.
- **Refund:** if Ocelli is not what you thought it was, email hey@ocelli.app within 14 days of buying and you get your money back. No form and no reason needed. This is a voluntary promise on top of statutory rights, not a replacement for them. Full terms at https://ocelli.app/terms.
- **If the company stops:** the licence key is an Ed25519 signature verified against a public key compiled into the app, with no network call in the check, so the build a user already has keeps working and the key keeps validating with ocelli.app gone. New builds and Ocelli AI are the parts that would stop.
- At monthly list prices, $8 per month is below every major competitor's cheapest paid plan (Granola $14, Wispr Flow Pro $15, Otter $16.99, Fathom $20). Billed annually the gap narrows: Otter Pro is $8.33, Wispr Flow Pro is $12 and Fathom Premium is $16. Granola publishes no annual rate.

## Privacy, stated precisely

- The recording stays on the user's Mac.
- The transcription runs on the user's Mac.
- Writing the note, asking questions and chatting send the transcript to Claude Haiku through Ocelli AI, so for that one call the transcript does leave the machine. With a user-supplied API key it goes to the user's own provider account instead. With Ollama nothing leaves at all.
- On Ocelli AI that provider is Anthropic, PBC (USA). Their published policy is that inputs and outputs are automatically deleted from their backend within 30 days of receipt or generation, and their commercial terms state that Anthropic may not train models on Customer Content. Content their automated trust and safety systems flag as violating their usage policy is retained for up to 2 years, and the classification scores for up to 7. Ocelli has no zero data retention agreement. Ocelli's own relay stores no transcript text; it writes only per-day call counters, an install id and its access token.
- Ocelli does not announce recording to the room. The user is responsible for consent.
- Claims Ocelli does not make: "nothing ever leaves your Mac" (false unless on Ollama), and "fully local is the same quality" (tested and it is not; local output misassigned owners and altered a decision).

## Comparison with other AI meeting note takers

Every figure below was re-checked on 5 August 2026 against each vendor's own pages: https://www.granola.ai/pricing, https://otter.ai/pricing, https://www.fathom.ai/pricing. Granola's free-plan limit is stated on their home page rather than their pricing page. Wispr Flow shipped its Notetaker on 5 August 2026 and its row was read on 6 August 2026 off https://wisprflow.ai/pricing and https://wisprflow.ai/notetaker. Re-verify before quoting.

| Tool | Free limit | Cheapest paid | Own model or API key | Where notes live | Transcription | Joins the call |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ocelli | 10 meeting trial | $79 once, or $8/mo | Yes, free and unlimited, or fully local | Markdown in the user's own folder | On the user's Mac | Never |
| Granola | Unlimited notes, 30 day history | $14 per user per month | No | Granola's cloud | Cloud providers (Deepgram, Assembly) | Never |
| Otter | 300 minutes per month, 3 lifetime imports, 25 most recent conversations | $16.99 per month, $8.33 billed annually | No | Otter's cloud | Their servers, no offline mode | Optional: a bot by default, bot-free from the Mac or Windows desktop app |
| Fathom | Unlimited recording, 5 AI summaries per month | $20 per user per month, $16 billed annually | No | Fathom's cloud | Their servers | Optional: bot-free capture is in beta on their Mac app, bot-free video is a Zoom-only beta |
| Wispr Flow (Notetaker) | Notetaker included on the free plan, with a weekly meeting limit they do not put a number on and standard note retention | $15 per user per month, $12 billed annually | No | Wispr Flow's app, reachable from Claude and ChatGPT over MCP | Not stated on their pages. They say meeting audio is "encrypted and stored only temporarily on your device and, in some cases, in secure cloud storage" and is deleted after that, which is about the audio and not about where it is turned into text | Never: "no bot to invite" |

**"No bot" is no longer a differentiator, and Ocelli should not be sold as if it were.** Granola never joined a call; Otter added bot-free desktop recording; Fathom shipped bot-free capture on the free plan with Fathom 3.0 in April 2026, by the same mechanism Ocelli uses; Wispr Flow shipped Notetaker on 5 August 2026 with the same system-audio capture, live transcript and ask-across-meetings, on the Mac and on a free plan. What still separates Ocelli from all four: transcription runs on the user's own Mac rather than in a vendor cloud, the output is Markdown files in a folder the user owns rather than rows in a vendor database, the user can bring their own model or key or run fully local, and it is a one-time purchase rather than a per-seat monthly bill.

At monthly billing, $8 a month is below every competitor's cheapest paid plan. Billed annually Otter Pro is $8.33 and Fathom Premium is $16, so the gap to Otter is 33 cents. $79 once is roughly six months of Granola Business, five months of Otter Pro, or four months of Fathom Premium at list monthly prices.

Otter states in its privacy policy that it trains its own AI on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions. Ocelli does not train on customer content and its AI provider is contractually barred from doing so; see the privacy section above for the precise wording.

Where the competition is the better answer: Granola for Windows, iOS and Android, team sharing, templates and integrations. Otter for browser and mobile access and for bots attending calls the user skips. Fathom for unlimited free archiving, a public API and MCP on every plan, and CRM and sales workflows. Wispr Flow for a free plan that keeps working, dictation beyond the Mac on Windows, iPhone and Android and in 100+ languages, and a one-click import of a Granola history. Ocelli has no team layer, no Windows build and no CRM sync.

## Pages

Each line is the page's own description, taken from the page on the last build.

- [Home](https://ocelli.app/): Ocelli records and transcribes meetings on your Mac, and types what you say into any app. Every note is a Markdown file you keep. $79 once or $8/month.
- [Facts](https://ocelli.app/facts): A citable summary of Ocelli: a macOS meeting copilot that records and transcribes on your Mac, dictates into any app, and writes Markdown notes you keep. Platform, price, launch status, and the things it does not do. Each group sits under a stable anchor: [#platform](https://ocelli.app/facts#platform), [#transcription](https://ocelli.app/facts#transcription), [#data](https://ocelli.app/facts#data), [#pricing](https://ocelli.app/facts#pricing), [#status](https://ocelli.app/facts#status), [#limits](https://ocelli.app/facts#limits). Start here if you are quoting Ocelli.
- [Pricing](https://ocelli.app/pricing): Ocelli costs $79 once to own the app and run it yourself, locally or on your own API key, or $8 a month with Ocelli AI included. Ten meetings free to try, and dictation free for seven days after setup.
- [Dictation](https://ocelli.app/dictation): System-wide dictation for macOS. Hold fn, speak, let go, and the text is typed at your cursor in any app. Turned into text on your Mac, on the Ocelli licence. Hold a key, speak, and the text is typed at the cursor in any app: the second thing the app does, on the same licence as the meetings.
- [Alternatives](https://ocelli.app/alternatives): Meeting note takers and dictation apps side by side: free limits, cheapest paid plans, bring your own model, and where your notes end up. Checked 5, 6 and 9 August 2026.
- [Ocelli vs Granola](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/granola): Granola’s free plan locks notes older than 30 days and Business is $14 per user a month. Ocelli is $79 once and writes Markdown into a folder you own.
- [Ocelli vs Otter](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/otter): Otter meters your minutes and keeps notes in its cloud, where its policy lets it train on them. Ocelli transcribes on your Mac, $79 once. Checked 5 August 2026.
- [Ocelli vs Fathom](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/fathom): Fathom bills per seat and keeps your recordings in its cloud. Ocelli is $79 once, transcribes on your Mac and writes Markdown you own. Checked 5 August 2026.
- [Ocelli vs Wispr Flow](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/wispr): Wispr Flow is dictation first, and Pro is $15 per user a month. Ocelli dictates and records meetings on your Mac for $79 once or $8 a month.
- [Ocelli vs Superwhisper](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/superwhisper): Superwhisper Pro is $8.49 a month on Mac, Windows and iOS. Ocelli is $79 once or $8 a month: dictation on your Mac and every meeting as a Markdown file you keep. The dictation-first comparison: what each app is for, read off their own pages on 14 September 2026.
- [Ocelli vs Notion AI](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/notion): Notion AI Meeting Notes needs the Business plan and transcribes on Notion’s servers. Ocelli is $79 once, records and transcribes on your Mac and writes Markdown you own. Checked 9 August 2026. The one comparison here that is not another meeting app.
- [Ocelli vs Fireflies](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/fireflies): Fireflies joins your call as a bot and keeps the transcript in its cloud. Ocelli records on your Mac and writes Markdown. Prices and limits compared. The bot-based comparison: Fireflies joins the call as a participant.
- [Open source meeting apps, compared](https://ocelli.app/alternatives/open-source): Muesli, Meetily and Anarlog next to Ocelli: what each captures, where transcription runs, what it stores, speaker labels, agent access and price. Muesli, Meetily and Anarlog next to Ocelli. Every cell was read off the projects’ own pages on 21 August 2026.
- [Benchmark methodology](https://ocelli.app/benchmarks): How the transcription numbers on ocelli.app were measured: six real meetings, a reference transcript settled by hand, verbatim word error rate scored the same way for every engine, and what the measurement does not cover. The section anchors are stable and safe to cite: [#methodology](https://ocelli.app/benchmarks#methodology) for the audio, the reference transcript, the systems tested and the scoring, [#results-accuracy](https://ocelli.app/benchmarks#results-accuracy) and [#results-speed](https://ocelli.app/benchmarks#results-speed) for the two result tables, [#limitations](https://ocelli.app/benchmarks#limitations) for what the run does not cover, [#run-date](https://ocelli.app/benchmarks#run-date) for when it was run and on what hardware, and [#cite](https://ocelli.app/benchmarks#cite) for the citation line.
- [Transcribe a file in your browser](https://ocelli.app/tools/transcribe): Turn a meeting recording into text without uploading it. The speech model runs entirely in your browser, so the file stays on your own machine. Free, no account. A free tool, not the app: it transcribes a recording that already exists, and the Mac app is what records the meeting in the first place.
- [Legal and privacy](https://ocelli.app/legal): Privacy policy for Ocelli, a product of Renderei Martin GmbH: what the app does with your audio, your transcripts and your notes, and who is behind it.
- [Terms of sale](https://ocelli.app/terms): Terms of sale and licence terms for Ocelli: what the $79 licence allows, how the $8 a month subscription works, and how refunds are handled.
- [Imprint](https://ocelli.app/impressum): Imprint and provider identification for Ocelli, a product of Renderei Martin GmbH.
- [After a purchase](https://ocelli.app/thanks): Your Ocelli purchase is complete.
- [Wallpapers](https://ocelli.app/wallpapers): Twelve free wallpapers from Ocelli’s world, cut for Mac and iPhone. Not about the product: pictures from the world the hero image lives in.

## Guides

Background pages about the problem rather than the product. They name where local transcription stops as plainly as where it wins, and each one says which part of Ocelli is relevant and which is not.

- [All guides](https://ocelli.app/guides): Guides to recording meetings, keeping notes as files and dictating into Mac apps: what macOS gives you for recording and transcription, where the cloud is ahead, and how the notes are written and filed.
- [How to transcribe meeting audio on your Mac](https://ocelli.app/guides/transcribe-meeting-audio-mac): Three ways to turn a recorded meeting into text on a Mac without uploading the audio: what macOS gives you, what you can assemble yourself, and where on-device transcription runs out.
- [Meeting notes as Markdown files](https://ocelli.app/guides/meeting-notes-as-markdown-files): What changes when a meeting note is a file with a path instead of a row in someone else’s database: search, Git history, Obsidian, agents, and the five things a folder of files cannot do.
- [How to record system audio on a Mac](https://ocelli.app/guides/record-system-audio-mac-meetings): How macOS lets an app capture what your speakers play alongside your microphone, why the prompt says Screen Recording, and the real trade between capturing locally and sending a bot into the call.
- [Local vs cloud transcription](https://ocelli.app/guides/local-vs-cloud-transcription): Where the audio goes, what happens offline, what each one costs and where the cloud is ahead. Plus the split almost every local-first app glosses over.
- [Meeting note templates for Obsidian](https://ocelli.app/guides/meeting-note-templates-obsidian): Six Markdown meeting templates for Obsidian: one to one, standup, client call, interview, decision and retro. One shared set of frontmatter fields, no plugin required.
- [Dictation permissions on a Mac](https://ocelli.app/guides/dictation-permissions-mac): Hold-to-talk dictation needs Microphone and Accessibility. What each one is for, why a macOS update can drop the second, and how to get the key working again. Microphone and Accessibility, and what to do when the key does nothing.
- [Recording a meeting on a Mac, per platform](https://ocelli.app/record): Teams, FaceTime and Slack huddles on a Mac, each with the free QuickTime route, the setting that quietly breaks it, and a shorter way that needs no bot. The hub for the three platform pages below.
- [How to record a Microsoft Teams meeting on a Mac](https://ocelli.app/record/teams): Capture a Teams call on your Mac without a bot. The QuickTime and aggregate device route, the setting Teams overrides, and a shorter way that skips both.
- [How to record a FaceTime call on a Mac](https://ocelli.app/record/facetime): No bot can join a FaceTime call, so on-device capture is the only route. The screen recorder, the virtual device it needs, and the SharePlay trap.
- [How to record a Slack huddle on a Mac](https://ocelli.app/record/slack-huddles): A huddle has no link and no calendar event, so no bot can join. The QuickTime route, Slack’s own device picker, and a shorter way that skips both.

## Contact

- Author: Dominik Martin, [@dominikmartn](https://x.com/dominikmartn)
- Email: hey@ocelli.app
- Download: https://ocelli.app/download (the current build, for macOS 26 or later)