Speak the rough version end-to-end
The hardest part of an essay is the first 500 words — the blank Google Doc, the cursor, the slowness. Don't worry about quality; first drafts aren't supposed to be good. Once the essay exists, editing is fast.
For students
Notes and essays at talking speed.
Voice typing that works offline — including the lecture hall with no wifi. Free to start, no account, no card.
No account needed. Works offline.
The lecture
Lecture notes you can keep up with.
Three minutes into the lecture, you are already behind. You can't type fast enough to capture the actual sentences, so you fall back to fragments — keywords, half-thoughts, hopeful arrows.
Voice notes catch the whole sentence. Plug in headphones with a mic, listen, paraphrase as you go: "OK so the professor is saying that mitochondria evolved from ancient bacteria, and the evidence is the double membrane and circular DNA…" — full thought, in your own words, while the lecture continues.
Or just dictate the lecturer's literal words during the breaks. Same hotkey. Same speed.
The essay
First draft → done in one sitting.
Custom dictionary for theorists & terms
The compact models handle English drafts reasonably well. For names of theorists, places, and concepts that Whisper keeps mangling, drop them into the custom dictionary once with the spelling you want.
Anywhere you write
Works in every app you actually use.
Same hotkey, every text field. SnailText pastes the same way Ctrl+V does.
Documents & notes
Google Docs Microsoft Word Apple Pages Notion Obsidian Apple Notes Scrivener
Comms & study
Gmail Slack Discord Telegram Anki
Plus any other text field on your laptop.
Multilingual
Multilingual support that actually works.
Whisper recognises 100+ spoken languages — including the language you actually think in.
If English is your second language, you can dictate notes in your first language during a lecture and translate later. Switch languages per mode without changing settings. Use the Russian UI today; German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese interfaces are next on the roadmap.
The interface is in English and Russian for Day 1. The dictation itself works for everyone, in their own language.
Offline
Works in the library basement.
Cloud dictation tools need wifi. SnailText doesn't.
Whisper runs entirely on your laptop's CPU or GPU. Once the model is downloaded (one time, about 150 MB), there is no internet involvement. Library wifi died? Lecture hall has no signal? Train station, plane, cafe with a captive portal? It all just works.
This is less of a flex and more of a baseline. You shouldn't need permission from a wifi network to write an essay.
Pricing
Free is enough for most students.
The compact local models handle the vast majority of student work — note-taking, essay drafts, journaling, language practice. No time limit, no word cap, no watermark, no nag screen. Pro is for the rare cases where you need top-shelf accuracy on long-form research or non-English theses.
Free
$0 always
Compact local models. Unlimited dictation. No account.
Pro
$7.49 / month or $89/yr
Advanced local models. Up to 3 devices. 30-day refund.
FAQ
Common questions from students.
No catch. The free tier has no time limit, no word cap, no watermark. The two smallest Whisper models are open-source — we're not paying for them, so we can give them away. Pro pays for the larger models and ongoing development; the free tier pays for word-of-mouth.
Probably, for the free tier. The compact models don't need a GPU and are fine on most modern laptops. The bigger Pro models prefer a GPU and slow down on older CPUs. If it's too slow on your machine — uninstall and email us, we'll refund anything you paid.
No. The text comes out as your words, in your tone, at your level. Editing it after dictation is what makes it your essay — same as if you had typed it. (Also, dictation has been a normal academic accommodation for decades.)
Yes. SnailText pastes text the same way Ctrl+V does, so any standard text field is supported — Google Docs, Word, Notion, Apple Pages, Scrivener, Obsidian.
Try it
Free, offline, no account.
About thirty seconds to install. No card, no email, nothing.
⌘ Shift Space — that's the only thing you need to remember.