Petal

Petal is a native macOS menu bar app for fast, local-first audio transcription.

Free · Open sourceLatest versionMac

About Petal

Petal for macOS

Petal is a native macOS app for fast, local-first audio transcription in a clean, minimal interface.

Petal W1

Petal W1 (opens in a new tab) is Petal's on-device cleanup model, fine-tuned from Qwen3.5-2B. It turns a rambling dictation into the short message you meant, in your own voice, in about 0.2 s. Claude Sonnet graded each output on 120 held-out real dictations.

Cloud Models

Petal can also clean up your dictation with a cloud model. Use your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or OpenRouter key, or any OpenAI-compatible server such as Ollama or LM Studio. Open Settings > Intelligence and choose Cloud Model.

  • Start from a preset (Clean Up, Email, Notes, Professional, AI Prompt, or Assistant) or write your own system prompt, then test it in Try It.
  • Insert variables that Petal fills in on your Mac each time: {{name}}, {{first_name}}, {{app}}, {{window}}, {{language}}, {{region}}, and {{time_zone}}.
  • Turn on Date and Time to turn words like "next Friday" into exact dates. Turn on Web Search to let the model look up facts that you ask for.
  • Turn on Screen to send a screenshot of your screen with each dictation, so the model can spell the names it sees and know what "this" means. Screen needs Screen Recording access and is not available for custom servers.
  • In Settings > Router, each app or website route can use its own intelligence (Apple Intelligence, Petal W1, or Cloud Model) instead of the default. A Cloud Model route uses the provider, model, and tools from Settings > Intelligence.
  • Petal keeps your keys in the macOS keychain and sends the transcript, and the screenshot when Screen is on, only to the provider that you choose.

Description adapted from the project README.

Version
2.6.0
Updated
Oct 5, 2026
Size
45 MB

Open source details

Released
Oct 5, 2026
GitHub stars
276

Community project. Help and bug reports go to the maintainers on GitHub; AppsXi does not provide support for this app.

License

Permissive

MIT License

Use, change and share it freely, including in closed source apps, as long as the copyright notice stays.

Read the full license

How this app was checked

AppsXi checks every version before it is listed.

  • Signed by Optimal Life Technologies, Inc (6Q29HJZ4AG)

    Apple Developer ID team 6Q29HJZ4AG

  • Notarized by Apple

  • Extra macOS protections on (Hardened Runtime)

  • File matches the fingerprint GitHub published

    Show the SHA-256

    92bd10703e22f29a81cc2089d498a81b1807d95779edfa552316cbcb23435f28

  • No malware found

    ClamAV 1.5.4 on Oct 20, 2026

  • Updates itself from the maintainer's own feed

    sparkle: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Aayush9029/petal/main/appcast.xml. AppsXi checks each new version too.

Not included yet: installing and watching the app run in a virtual machine.

What these checks do and don't cover

Versions

2.6.0

Checked Oct 20, 2026 · Mac

DMG · 45 MB

Checked

Questions about Petal

Is Petal free?

Yes. Petal is free and open source under the MIT License. AppsXi lists the maintainers' official release and does not charge for it.

Is Petal safe to download?

AppsXi downloads every version of Petal from the maintainers' official GitHub release and checks it before it is listed. For version 2.6.0 (checked Oct 20, 2026), the Mac download is signed by its developer and notarized by Apple, each file matches the checksum GitHub publishes for the release, byte for byte and a malware scan found nothing.

Does Petal run on Apple silicon Macs?

Yes. Petal has a native Apple silicon build.

What does Petal need to run?

Petal needs macOS Sequoia (15) or later.

Who makes Petal?

Petal is an open source project by Aayush on GitHub (Aayush9029/petal). Help and bug reports go to its maintainers there.

Reviews

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