Support

Bug reports, feature requests, and feedback all go to one inbox.

Contact

Email support@austinstranscriptor.com. Responses usually within a couple of days.

Common questions

How do AI Transcript Tools work?

Every transcript you make gets an automatic on-device executive summary, free. The first time you transcribe something, the app asks once whether to enable auto-summaries; saying yes downloads Google's Gemma 4 model in the background (about 5 GB on disk, free, runs offline) and produces a short summary on every transcript from then on. To go further (regenerate a summary, draft titles, build a social thread, or chat with the transcript), open the AI panel via the sparkle button in the toolbar (or Cmd-Shift-A) and tap any of those cards. Those features are part of the lifetime upgrade. Your audio, transcripts, and AI prompts never leave your Mac either way.

What does the lifetime upgrade include?

Unlimited transcriptions (removes the 5-per-day cap), full AI Transcript Tools (regenerate summaries, titles, threads, and free-form chat, all on top of the free auto-summary), batch transcription, and all future AI features. One-time $39.99 purchase. No subscription.

How accurate is the transcription?

Whisper Large v3 Turbo (1.55 GB) is the distilled flagship from OpenAI. Universal across 99 languages, preserves filler words and false starts faithfully, accurate on podcasts, interviews, lectures, and general speech. Runs on the Metal GPU, free, entirely on your Mac.

How long does transcription take?

Whisper Large v3 Turbo runs at around 10-13x realtime on Apple Silicon, so a one-hour file takes about 5 minutes. Times are estimates and depend on your specific Mac.

Why does the first launch download a file?

The app does not bundle the transcription model, so on first launch it downloads Whisper Large v3 Turbo (about 1.55 GB) from Hugging Face. Subsequent transcriptions reuse the cached file.

I bought the lifetime upgrade but it's not active

Choose Restore Purchases from the app's App menu. This re-syncs your purchase state from Apple. If that doesn't fix it, quit and relaunch the app. Make sure you're signed into the Mac App Store with the same Apple ID you used to buy the upgrade.

Can I transcribe Zoom or system audio?

Yes. Click the Record button in the toolbar and pick one of three sources: Microphone (your voice), System Audio (whatever is playing on your Mac, including Zoom calls, videos, music), or Mic + System (your voice mixed together with your Mac's audio in one track). macOS will ask for Microphone or Screen Recording permission the first time, depending on the source. The captured audio is processed entirely on your Mac. Recordings are saved alongside the transcript so you do not lose them; delete an individual recording from its transcript, or clear every saved recording from Settings → Storage.

Where are my transcripts stored?

~/Library/Application Support/AustinsTranscriptor/transcripts/ as JSON files. Recordings you make in the app live at ~/Library/Application Support/AustinsTranscriptor/audio/ as .wav files. You can back them up, sync them via iCloud Drive, or delete them.

Does my audio ever leave my Mac?

No. Your audio and transcripts stay local. The app does make a few other network calls: it downloads the Whisper model from Hugging Face the first time you pick a model (and Gemma 4 if you turn on AI Tools), validates your purchase through Apple's StoreKit, and, only if you paste a YouTube link, sends that URL to a third-party YouTube extraction service to resolve the audio stream. None of those calls include your audio or transcripts. See the Privacy Policy for the full breakdown.

Refunds

Apple processes all refund requests for Mac App Store purchases. File a request at reportaproblem.apple.com.

I get an error: "Transcription failed"

Email me with the audio format and your Mac model at support@austinstranscriptor.com and I'll dig in.

Cancel a subscription

There is no subscription. The $39.99 lifetime upgrade is a one-time purchase. There's nothing to cancel.