Where your audio goes
On-device, credits, or your own API keys - and how to choose.
Settings → Processing Mode decides where your audio is turned into text. It is the most consequential setting in Flint, because it determines what leaves your phone.
The three modes
| Mode | What it does | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| On my phone | Uses your phone's own speech engine. Private, offline, unlimited. | Nothing |
| Credits Pack | Uses Flint's cloud, which is far more accurate. | Credits |
| Cloud | Uses your own provider account. | Your API key, Pro |
On my phone
Nothing leaves the device. No credits are spent, there is no limit, and it works on a plane.
The trade-off is accuracy. Phone speech engines are noticeably weaker than cloud ones, especially with accents, background noise, several speakers, or technical vocabulary.
Credits Pack
Your audio is sent to Flint's transcription provider, transcribed, and returned. This is the best quality with no setup, and minutes come out of your credit balance.
Cloud, with your own key
Available on Pro. You supply the keys, and your audio goes to that provider under your own account. They bill you for it, not Flint.
API keys
Settings → API Keys lists the providers you can connect. Each row shows what it is currently used for: note generation, transcription, or both.
- Transcription: Deepgram, OpenAI, Gemini, AssemblyAI
- Writing notes: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini
A few behaviours worth knowing:
- Switching a provider asks you to confirm first.
- Clearing a key also clears the job it was doing, so you are never left with a half-configured setup that fails later.
- Settings names the provider actually in use, so you can tell at a glance.
If note generation is set to Cloud with no writing key configured, Flint says so and offers to open API Keys, rather than failing later with a confusing error.
Key Terms
Settings → Key Terms holds the words transcription should expect: names, product codes, jargon. Worth filling in if the same word keeps coming out wrong.
Mixing modes
This is not an all-or-nothing choice. A common setup is on-device for everyday scraps, switched to Credits Pack for an important meeting. Change it whenever you like; it applies to the next thing you record.