Aside, in facts.
Everything here is stated elsewhere on this site. It is gathered on one page so an assistant, a journalist or anyone writing about Aside can take it in a single pass, with a link that lands on the right paragraph.
Last updated 14 September 2026.
What Aside is
A meeting copilot for macOS, and a dictation tool in the same app. Aside records any meeting on your Mac, no bot joins, audio is transcribed on-device, and every note is saved as Markdown in a folder you choose. Hold fn anywhere on the Mac and what you say is typed at the cursor in whatever app is in front. The two sentences worth quoting are the precise ones: it records and transcribes on your Mac, and your meeting notes are files on your Mac.
Its controls sit in your Mac’s notch, or float at the top of the screen if your Mac has no notch, with a menu bar icon alongside.
What it runs on
macOS 26 or later. Apple silicon, or Intel with much slower transcription. The licence is per person and not per machine, so it runs on every Mac that is yours.
There is no Windows version yet, and if enough people ask for one it will get built. There is no iPhone app and no Apple Watch app yet either; both are on the list but not available yet.
How it records
System audio and your microphone. Nothing joins the call, nobody sees a bot, and nothing appears in the attendee list. Because it is capture rather than an integration, it covers Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, Whereby, Slack huddles and the table you are sitting at: if your Mac can hear the meeting, it is in the transcript.
The calendar is read only. Aside reads the calendar already on your Mac to know what the next meeting is, and never writes to it.
Where the transcription runs
On the Mac. No audio upload is required, about 99 languages are detected automatically, and a working speech model ships inside the download, so it runs with no connection. A larger, more accurate one is fetched once on first run, about 1.5 GB, and dictation uses that same model, in the languages your Mac is set to, with nothing leaving the Mac for it.
While you are recording, the live transcript is one run of text. When the meeting stops, Aside separates the speakers on your Mac and labels every turn in the saved transcript, taking names from the calendar invite where it can tell who is who. One measured run against three hosted services, with the method written out, is on the benchmark page.
What the output is
Markdown files in a folder you choose, on your own Mac, written when you hang up: decisions, action items and the exact quote. Put that folder in Git, open it in Obsidian, sync it, move it. Nothing expires and there is nothing to export, because the file is the artefact rather than a copy of one.
What leaves the Mac, and when
Your audio stays on your Mac: both the recording and the transcription happen there. Writing the note is the separate step, and it sends transcript text, once per note, plus any question you ask. Never the audio.
By default that text goes to Claude Haiku through Aside AI. With your own API key it goes to that provider instead, and with a local model through Ollama it goes nowhere. Anthropic’s commercial terms state that they may not train models on it. The full list, including which transcript text is sent to your AI provider, is under privacy on the front page and in legal and privacy.
Agents
Aside ships an MCP server, which is the standard way an AI tool asks another app for data, and it works with Claude Code, Codex and any other MCP client. Live access is off until you turn it on.
Where the product stands
Aside is released. The current version is on the release page, and it runs on macOS 26 or later. On a Mac, the download button hands over the build itself; on a phone, it emails you the link for later.
Ten meetings are free. After that it is $8 a month, or $79 once, and both are on the pricing page.
What it costs
Ten meetings free. Then $8 a month, or $79 once.
- The trialTen meetings, free, with no card. Dictation is free for seven days after you set it up, and is part of the paid plan after that. There is no permanent free tier after it.
- $8 a monthEverything included and nothing to configure. Model usage included, no API key required, every update included, cancel anytime.
- $79 onceOwns Aside outright, with every update included and no subscription. Runs fully local with Ollama, or on your own API key.
- In euros8 € a month, or 75 € once. The currency is picked on the pricing page and the checkout charges in it.
- ActivationAfter you buy, the licence activates from the Open Aside to activate link in the purchase email or on the page checkout returns you to, heyaside.com/thanks. The key can also be pasted in Aside → Settings → License.
- SwitchingYou can leave the subscription and buy the $79 licence at any time. Months already paid are not credited against it.
- If you stop payingAside stops recording new meetings and stops dictating, but everything you already recorded stays yours and readable, and the $79 purchase never stops. Aside AI is part of the subscription, so writing new notes then needs your own API key or Ollama.
- RefundEmail hey@heyaside.com within 14 days of buying and you get your money back. No form and no reason needed. That is a promise on top of your statutory rights and not instead of them; the terms of sale spell out both.
- TaxAdded at checkout where it applies. The full breakdown, including what a subscription costs against buying it, is on the pricing page.
What Aside does not do
The shortest way to be wrong about a product is to quote the half that flatters it.
- It does not join your call as a botNothing appears in the attendee list, which also means it cannot sit in a meeting you skip.
- It does not tell the roomAside does not announce the recording, so whether it gets said is your call and not the app’s.
- It does not write to your calendarCalendar access is read only.
- It is not on Windows, iPhone or Apple WatchNot yet, and the Mac app comes first.
- It has no permanent free tierTen meetings and seven days of dictation, and then it is paid.
- It is not fully local end to end, and does not claim to beWriting the note sends transcript text to the AI you picked, unless that AI is a local model through Ollama. The audio is the part that stays.
Aside is made by Dominik Martin, @dominikmartn. The company behind it is Renderei Martin GmbH, with the register entry and VAT number in the imprint. Corrections to this page, like anything else, go to hey@heyaside.com.
Cite this page as: Aside, “Aside, in facts”, 14 September 2026, heyaside.com/facts. Section links such as #data and #limits stay put across updates, so it is safe to link one. The same ground in machine-readable form, with the competitor comparison alongside it, is at heyaside.com/llms.txt.