Install Murmur

Murmur is free while it is in beta. Each build has no limits for 30 days from its build date (until 5 December 2026 for this one), and then drops to 30 minutes of capture a month at no cost. Download a newer beta, or get the App Store version when it is out, to keep going without limits. It needs macOS 14.4 or later. Apple silicon Macs support thirteen languages. Intel Macs transcribe English only, with lower accuracy.

Download Murmur beta (8.8 MB)

Built 5 November 2026. SHA-256: d006ccaaaa6e63e6046db9cc4b36d5a11c67d952c6748c9fcb7dcd840e564318

Why macOS blocks it

This beta is not yet signed and notarized by Apple, so macOS warns you the first time you open it. That is expected. The steps below let you open it once, and after that it opens normally. Only install it if you trust where you downloaded it. You can check the file is the one we published by comparing its checksum (below).

Install and open it

Open the downloaded DMG and drag Murmur onto the Applications folder. Don’t run it from inside the DMG window.
Open Murmur from your Applications folder. macOS shows “Murmur Not Opened” or “Apple could not verify Murmur is free of malware”. Click Done. Don’t click Move to Bin.
Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, and scroll down to the Security section.
Find “Murmur” was blocked to protect your Mac and click Open Anyway. Enter your password or use Touch ID.
Click Open Anyway once more in the confirmation. Murmur starts, and you only need to do this once.

On macOS 14 (Sonoma) you can instead right-click Murmur in Applications, choose Open, and click Open again. This shortcut was removed in macOS 15 and later.

Terminal alternative. This removes the download flag from the app. Run it only for software you trust:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Murmur.app

First launch

Murmur lives in the menu bar, with no Dock icon. Look for the waveform icon at the top right.
It downloads its speech model the first time, from about 30 MB on an Intel Mac to about 1 GB for the most accurate choice on Apple silicon. Keep it open until it says ready.
macOS asks for Microphone access the first time you press Start. Choose Mic + System to capture both sides of a call, and macOS asks for System Audio Recording access.
Tell the people on the call that you are recording, and check that local law allows it.

Check the download

In Terminal, run the command below. The result should match the SHA-256 above.

shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Murmur-beta.dmg

Updates and removal

There is no automatic updating in the beta. To update, download the newest DMG and drag Murmur to Applications again, replacing the old one. To remove it, drag Murmur to the Bin and delete ~/Library/Containers/com.murmur.app to remove its data.

Problems? See support or email [email protected].