Terms of Service

Effective 25 July 2026.

These terms are the agreement between you and the Dictate operating entity (“we”, “us”) for the Dictate macOS application and the managed service behind it. By subscribing or using Dictate you accept them. If you do not accept them, do not use the service.

1. What the service is

Dictate captures audio on your Mac, transcribes it through our managed API, and inserts the resulting text into the application you are working in. It also syncs your settings, glossary and transcript history to your account. Dictate requires macOS 15 or later and an internet connection.

2. Your account

Dictate requires an active subscription. Your account is created from the email address you subscribe with, and each Mac is activated against that account using a link we email you. There is no Dictate password; access to that mailbox is access to your account, so keep it secure.

You must be at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent where you live, whichever is higher. You are responsible for activity under your account.

3. Subscription, billing and price

• Dictate Pro is US$8 per month. There is no free tier and no trial.
• Payment is taken by Stripe. We never receive your card number.
• Your subscription renews automatically each month until you cancel.
• Cancel any time, from the billing portal or by emailing us. Cancelling stops the next charge; access continues to the end of the period you have already paid for.
• We may change the price. We will give at least 30 days' notice by email, and the change takes effect at your next renewal. If you do not want the new price, cancel before it applies.
• Taxes are added where we are required to collect them.

4. Immediate access and refunds

Because there is no free tier, your subscription begins the moment payment succeeds. At checkout you expressly ask us to start immediately and acknowledge that, by doing so, you give up any statutory right to cancel within 14 days once you have used the service.

If you have not used Dictate, we will refund you in full on request. Once you have transcribed anything, the purchase is not refundable. This does not limit your rights where the service is faulty or not as described. Full detail is on the refund policy page, which forms part of these terms.

5. Fair use

A subscription is for one person. You may activate it on the Macs you personally use. It may not be shared across a team, resold, or used to provide a transcription service to others. We apply rate limits and abuse detection, and may cap or suspend accounts that are clearly outside normal individual use. We will contact you before suspending an account except where the abuse is severe or automated.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Record or transcribe audio you do not have the right to record. Recording consent laws vary by jurisdiction and complying with them is your responsibility.
• Reverse-engineer, modify, or attempt to bypass device attestation, subscription enforcement, or rate limits.
• Resell or redistribute access to the managed service.
• Use Dictate to harass, defame, or infringe the rights of others, or for anything unlawful.
• Attempt to disrupt the service or access accounts that are not yours.

7. Your content

Your audio and the transcripts produced from it are yours. We claim no ownership. You grant us only the licence needed to run the service — to process your audio to produce a transcript, and to store that transcript so you can search it.

We do not use your audio or transcripts to train models, and our transcription provider is contractually bound not to train on data submitted through the API. Audio is discarded once transcribed; see the privacy policy.

8. Accuracy

Transcription is probabilistic and will sometimes be wrong, particularly with accents, background noise, technical vocabulary or overlapping speakers. Dictate is a drafting aid. Do not rely on it unreviewed where accuracy matters — medical, legal, financial or safety-critical contexts included.

9. Availability

We aim for high availability but do not offer a contractual uptime guarantee. The service depends on third parties, including our transcription provider, and may be unavailable during maintenance or incidents. We may change or discontinue features; where a change is material and adverse we will give reasonable notice.

10. Suspension and termination

You may stop using Dictate and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate an account that breaches these terms, that we are required to act on by law, or where payment fails and is not resolved. Where we terminate without cause, we will refund the unused portion of your current period.

11. Warranties and liability

The service is provided “as is”. To the extent permitted by law we exclude implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

To the extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of these terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or US$100. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue or data.

Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for your non-excludable rights as a consumer.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes we will email account holders at least 14 days before they take effect. Continuing to use Dictate after that means you accept the new terms; if you do not, cancel before they apply.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and its courts have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, this does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory laws, or of the right to bring proceedings, in the country where you live.

14. Contact

legal@dictates.app for these terms, support@dictates.app for everything else.