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Before you begin

Make sure you have:
  • Installed Stenox and granted microphone and accessibility permissions
  • An Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 15 Sequoia or later
  • An internet connection and free storage for the initial local model download
Stenox 1.0 is free. You do not need an account, license key, or paid plan.

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Prepare the local models

The default experience uses:
  • Parakeet for local transcription
  • Gemma on MLX for local language processing, with Qwen3.5 4B available as an additional local model
Onboarding downloads and loads the required models before it enables the first recording. Keep Stenox open until setup reports that the models are ready.
The first launch takes longer because Stenox downloads model files and macOS compiles the local transcription model. Later launches reuse the local copies.

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Record your first dictation

1

Open a text field

Open Notes, TextEdit, or another app and place the cursor where you want text to appear.
2

Check the menu bar

Confirm the Stenox icon is visible and that local model setup is complete.
3

Start recording

Press and hold your configured push-to-talk hotkey. The recording overlay and waveform should appear.
4

Speak naturally

Try: “Hello, this is my first local dictation with Stenox.”
5

Stop and insert

Release the hotkey. Parakeet transcribes the audio, Gemma applies the selected processing, and Stenox inserts the result at your cursor.

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Choose how Stenox cleans up speech

In Settings → Post-Processing, Stenox 1.1 separates two cleanup options:
  • Remove filler words removes clear hesitations such as “um,” “uh,” and “erm” without using an AI model.
  • Polish with AI uses your selected language model to improve wording and formatting. Use the Polish preset when you want a clearer rewrite that still preserves names, numbers, links, paths, and intent.
You can enable either option independently. If optional AI polishing fails, Stenox inserts the unpolished transcription instead of blocking dictation.

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Optional providers

Local models are the default, but you can connect a supported third-party transcription or language provider with your own API key.
Third-party provider quotas, charges, and privacy policies apply to your account with that provider. Stenox does not resell or include that usage.

Local privacy

Keep audio and text on your Mac.

BYOK configuration

Connect an optional provider using your own key.

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Common first-time issues

Local model setup is still running. Keep Stenox open, verify your internet connection and free storage, and wait until Parakeet is loaded.
Confirm microphone and accessibility permissions, select a working input device, and make sure the cursor is in an editable field.
Check for conflicts with other apps. Non-Apple keyboards may not expose the fn key, so configure a different shortcut if needed.
Quit and reopen the installed Stenox app. If the initial download was interrupted, open model settings and retry the download.