Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 14, 2026

Quill is a dictation and note-taking app for macOS and iPhone. This policy explains what Quill stores locally, what may leave your Mac when you choose to use provider integrations, iCloud sync, or the local MCP server for AI tools, and how the optional Google Calendar integration works.

Quill for iPhone works differently from Quill for Mac: it has no AI provider, context capture, or Google Calendar features. See Quill for iPhone for how the iPhone app handles your data. Unless a section says otherwise, the other sections describe Quill for Mac.

No Quill-operated storage server

Quill does not operate a server that stores your transcripts, audio recordings, Google Calendar data, OAuth tokens, or app history. Quill is a local app. App data is stored on your Mac or iPhone unless you choose to send data to a configured third-party provider, connect Google Calendar, turn on iCloud sync, or allow an AI tool to connect to Quill's local MCP server.

Local app data

Quill may store the following data locally on your Mac to provide app functionality:

• Audio recordings and transcript files created by dictation sessions.
• Run history, including raw transcripts, cleaned transcripts, retry metadata, and related prompts.
• App context used for transcript cleanup, such as app/window context and screenshot status when context capture is enabled.
• Settings such as provider configuration, selected transcription language, output language, custom vocabulary, and selected Google calendars.

You can delete run history from within Quill. Deleting history entries also removes associated local audio/transcript files when those files are referenced by the entry.

Optional iCloud note sync

iCloud sync is off until you turn it on in Quill's setup or Settings. When it is on, Quill stores each finished entry in your history, meeting notes and dictations alike, in your own private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit), so they stay the same on your Macs signed in to the same iCloud account. Apple stores this data under your iCloud account; Quill operates no server of its own and cannot read it.

A synced entry includes its title, transcripts, meeting summary, recording audio, recording times, languages, processing details (such as which models transcribed or summarized it, and its file names), and the calendar event matched to it, including events from Google Calendar: the event title, start and end time, the calendar and event IDs (a Google calendar ID can be an email address, such as a shared colleague's calendar), the email address of the Google account the event came from, and attendee names, email addresses, response status, and whether each attendee is optional or you. Screenshots, app and window context, selected text, prompts, AI instructions, and custom vocabulary stay on your Mac. Quill shows what is stored next to the iCloud sync switch, and turning the switch on is your consent to it.

Turn Off Sync keeps your notes in iCloud for your other Macs. Turn Off and Delete from iCloud deletes Quill's data from iCloud; each Mac keeps its own notes. If recording audio can't be deleted right away (for example, while offline), Settings says so and Quill tries again each time it opens until it's gone.

Optional local MCP server for AI tools

Quill can run a local MCP server on your Mac (http://localhost:3457, reachable only from that Mac) so an AI tool you connect yourself, such as Claude Code, can work with your notes. The server is off until you turn on Allow AI tools to connect in Quill's setup or in Settings › AI Tools; turning it off closes the server and disconnects connected tools. The server has no sign-in of its own: while it is on, any app running on your Mac can connect to it.

While it is on, a connected tool can start and stop recordings, add notes to a recording, and read your notes and dictations. It receives their titles, transcripts (original and edited), summaries, recording times, a summary of the app and screen context Quill noted while recording (which can mention window titles or selected text), audio file locations, and the calendar event matched to each note, including events from Google Calendar: the event title, start and end time, and attendee names, email addresses, response status, and whether each attendee is optional or you. It also receives each new transcript as soon as it is ready. Quill shows this next to the switch, and turning the switch on is your consent to it.

Quill passes this data so the AI tool you choose to connect can work with your notes at your request, not to train AI models. Once the tool receives it, the tool and its provider handle it under their own terms, including whether they keep it or train on it, so check your AI tool's data settings. Quill does not use your data, including Google Calendar data, to train AI models.

Transcription and AI provider calls

Quill can use local transcription or provider-based transcription and AI cleanup. Provider calls are made directly from Quill on your Mac to the transcription or AI provider configured in the app. Quill's default OpenAI-compatible provider is Groq, and you can configure another compatible provider in Settings. These provider calls are governed by that provider's own terms and privacy policy.

When you use local transcription, such as Apple Speech or a local Whisper model, audio is processed on your Mac and is not sent to a transcription provider for that transcription.

The data sent to a transcription or AI provider depends on which features you use:

• Provider-based transcription: when you use API transcription instead of local transcription, Quill sends the audio you record, or a realtime audio stream if realtime transcription is enabled, plus request settings such as the selected transcription model or language.
• AI cleanup: when transcript cleanup is enabled, Quill sends the raw transcript, cleanup instructions, selected output language, and custom vocabulary you configured so the provider can return cleaned text.
• Context capture: when context capture is enabled, Quill may send app/window details, visible highlighted text, and screenshot-derived context from the active window so the provider can summarize the writing context for transcript cleanup.
• Edit Mode: when you explicitly ask Quill to transform text you highlighted in another app, Quill sends that highlighted text and your spoken editing instruction so the provider can return replacement text.

Google Calendar data is separate from these transcription and AI provider calls. Quill itself does not send Google Calendar event data, your selected calendars, or Google OAuth tokens to transcription or AI providers. Meeting summaries use the matched calendar event only when they are generated on your Mac with a local model; a summary generated by a cloud AI provider uses the transcript alone. The local MCP server, which passes data to an AI tool you connect (and that tool may send it to its own AI provider), is described above.

Optional Google Calendar access

Google Calendar integration is optional and read-only. If you connect Google Calendar, Quill requests access so it can show calendars for you to choose from, suggest note titles from calendar events that overlap a live recording, show local recording reminders when you enable them, keep the matched event with the note, and use it in meeting summaries generated on your Mac. If you turn them on, iCloud sync and the local MCP server also carry the matched event, as described above.

Quill requests these Google OAuth scopes:

• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.calendarlist.readonly
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events.readonly

Quill uses calendar list access to show your calendars in Settings so you can choose which calendars Quill may use. No calendars are selected by default.

For calendars you explicitly select, Quill reads event metadata around live recordings and reminder windows, such as calendar ID, event ID, event title, start and end time, and attendee metadata, including names and email addresses, returned by Google Calendar. Quill uses this data only for calendar-based title suggestions, optional recording reminders, keeping the matched event with the note, meeting summaries generated on your Mac with a local model, and, when you turn them on, iCloud sync and the local MCP server described above.

Quill does not create, edit, or delete Google Calendar events. Quill does not use Google Calendar data for advertising and does not sell Google Calendar data.

Google user data sharing and disclosure

Quill does not operate a server that stores or processes Google Calendar data. Google Calendar API requests are made directly between Quill on your Mac and Google using the OAuth access token stored on your Mac.

The use and transfer of raw or derived user data received from Google Workspace APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Quill does not share, transfer, or disclose Google Calendar data or Google OAuth tokens to transcription providers, AI providers, advertising services, analytics services, data brokers, or other third parties, except in two cases you turn on yourself: iCloud sync stores matched event details in your own private iCloud database, and the local MCP server passes them to an AI tool you connect. Both transfers happen only to provide features you request, after you turn them on, and are disclosed next to their switches; neither is made for advertising or for training AI models. Google OAuth tokens are never synced or shared. Google Calendar data is not used to train AI models by Quill.

Google token storage and disconnecting

Google Calendar OAuth tokens are stored locally in the macOS Keychain. Selected calendar IDs are stored locally in app settings. You can disconnect Google Calendar from Quill Settings. Disconnecting removes Quill's stored Google Calendar OAuth token and clears selected calendars.

Events already matched to notes stay with those notes after you disconnect: on your Mac, in iCloud if sync is on, and readable by a connected AI tool if the MCP server is on. Deleting a note deletes its matched event with it once the note leaves Recently Deleted (after 30 days, or sooner if you remove it there); Turn Off and Delete from iCloud removes what Quill stored in iCloud, as described above.

You can also revoke Quill's Google access from your Google Account permissions page.

Quill for iPhone

Quill for iPhone records and transcribes audio on your iPhone. It has no accounts, advertising, analytics, or tracking, and it does not send your recordings or transcripts to Quill or to any transcription or AI provider.

Data stored on your iPhone

• Audio recordings you start in the app, their transcripts, and your edits to those transcripts.
• Transcription models you choose to download.
• Settings such as the selected transcription model and transcription language.

Recordings, transcripts, and models are stored only inside the app on your iPhone and are excluded from iCloud and device backups, so they are not copied to Apple's servers or to another device. You can delete individual notes or models in the app. Deleting the app removes all of its data from your iPhone.

Microphone and speech recognition

Quill uses the microphone only while a recording you started is in progress. Recording can continue in the background, and iOS shows that the microphone is in use.

If you choose Apple Speech as the transcription model, Quill asks for Speech Recognition permission and requires Apple's on-device recognition, so your audio is not sent to Apple for that transcription. On recent iOS versions, iOS may download Apple's speech recognition assets for your language.

Downloadable transcription models

When you choose to download a transcription model, Quill downloads the model file from Hugging Face. The download request does not contain your recordings, transcripts, or settings. Like any website, Hugging Face receives standard connection information such as your IP address, and its own privacy policy applies to that request. Downloaded models then run entirely on your iPhone.

Live Activities

While you record, Quill can show the recording status, elapsed time, and audio level on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. It does not show transcript text there.

Sharing and exporting

When you share or export a note, Quill hands the file to the iOS share sheet. What happens next is governed by the app or service you choose.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Open source and support

Quill for Mac is open source. You can inspect the source code at github.com/woosublee/quill. For support with either app, visit Quill Support.