The best Superwhisper alternatives for Mac in 2026

Superwhisper does a lot: local and cloud models, Modes with your own prompts, meetings and files, on every platform. People look for an alternative because its docs start you on cloud models, its best local models need Pro, its lifetime license is $249.99, and it only turns your voice into text.

Side by side

App	Answers from your apps	Where your voice goes	Price
Speechy	Yes, 1,000+ apps	Your Mac, always	From $99 once, or $12.99 a month
Superwhisper	No	Cloud by default, local optional	$8.49 a month, or $249.99 once
Wispr Flow	A few: Gmail, Calendar, Slack	Cloud, always	$15 a month, or $12 billed yearly
Apple Dictation	No	Your Mac for some languages	Free
VoiceInk	No	Your Mac, or cloud with your own key	$25 once
Spokenly	No	Cloud by default, local optional	Free locally, $29 once, or $9.99 a month

1. Speechy: best if you want more than dictation

Speechy turns your voice into text on your Mac, and also answers from the apps you connect. Press ⌥⇧Space and ask “what did Kai send me about the launch?”, “what’s on tomorrow?” or “open my Downloads folder”, and the answer appears in the notch with the emails, events or files it found. It works with Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Notion, GitHub, Linear and 1,000+ more apps, plus Mail, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Messages, Music and Finder on your Mac. You sign in to each app once, in your browser.

It can act too. Ask it to email someone and you see Gmail’s own compose window in the notch: check it, change a word, then send, with a few seconds to undo. You choose what each app may do on its own, what asks first, and what never happens.

Dictation never leaves your Mac. Hold Fn, speak, and clean text lands where your cursor is. All 15 speech models run on your Mac’s chip, so dictation works offline, and your words show in a small pill while you talk. Turn on Only My Voice and Speechy learns how you sound, leaves out other voices nearby, and keeps learning as you use it, on your Mac.

Best for: people who want private dictation, and one shortcut that also finds, answers and does things in their apps.

Price: Lifetime from $99, or Pro at $12.99 a month. Try Pro free for 3 days.

Needs: a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.

2. Wispr Flow: best for dictation on every device

The best known dictation app. It cleans up your words well and runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with team plans and meeting notes. Everything is transcribed in the cloud, so dictation needs a connection, and using your dictations to improve its models is on by default on Free and Pro. Its connectors bring Gmail, Calendar and Slack into its meeting notes and questions.

Best for: people who dictate on Windows or their phone as much as on a Mac.

Price: a free plan that slows down after 2,000 words a week, or Pro at $15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly.

3. Apple Dictation: best free option

Already on your Mac, and free. Press the Dictation shortcut, speak into any text field, and press it again to stop. Some languages are transcribed on your Mac. On macOS 27, Macs with an M3 or later and 12 GB of memory get Apple's newer dictation, which adds punctuation and formatting. There is no custom vocabulary, and it stops after 30 seconds of silence.

Best for: trying dictation before you pay for anything.

Price: free.

4. VoiceInk: best open source app you pay for once

Open source under GPL-3.0, with local models on your Mac or an optional cloud service. Streaming models show words as you speak, and you set the language per mode. It is on iPhone too.

Best for: people who want local dictation, the source code, and a small one-time price.

Price: $25 once for one Mac ($39 for two, $49 for three), or free if you build it yourself. Needs macOS 15.

5. Spokenly: best free local models

Free when you use its local models, on Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone. Its default models are in the cloud, and AI cleanup of your text comes through Pro, Apple Intelligence or your own key. On the Mac it can also run quick actions, like opening an app or a website.

Best for: free dictation on many platforms.

Price: free locally, $29 once for Local+, or Pro at $9.99 a month.

Speechy vs Superwhisper, in detail

Superwhisper is one of the most capable dictation apps on the Mac, with modes, custom prompts and a long list of models. Speechy is simpler on purpose: everything runs on your Mac, it works well out of the box, and it adds a few things Superwhisper does not have. Here they are, with real examples.

At a glance

On your Mac, with no cloud option at all

Superwhisper can run locally, but its docs list its own cloud models, S1-Voice and S1-Language, as the starting setup, and its best local models (Parakeet and Cohere) need Pro. When you use a cloud model, your audio or text leaves your Mac.

Speechy has no cloud transcription to switch on by mistake. All 15 of its speech models run on your Mac's chip, including the fast Parakeet models, on every plan. What you say is never sent to a cloud AI, and dictation works offline.

Speechy's Models page, listing on-device voice models from NVIDIA, Apple and Whisper

Your words while you speak, on every plan

In Superwhisper, live text needs a Pro realtime model. Speechy shows your words in the pill as you talk by default, then pastes the final text when you let go. Choose a compact pill, a wide pill with your words, a Dynamic Island style bar or a one-line ticker.

Speechy's four recording styles: Compact, Wide, Dynamic Island and Ticker

Several languages, one dictation

Superwhisper's docs recommend one mode per language, and say automatic detection sometimes comes out in English. In Speechy, pick your languages and turn on Multiple languages in one dictation. Speechy works out the language again after every pause, so you can switch between sentences without touching anything.

Speechy's language settings, with Multiple languages in one dictation

Only your voice gets typed

Superwhisper can label speakers in a meeting recording, but it has nothing that leaves other voices out while you dictate. Speechy's Only My Voice learns your voice from one sentence read aloud, then drops words from the colleague behind you, the TV or a speakerphone, and keeps learning as you use it. Someone talking over you at the same moment can still get through, but everyday background chatter does not.

Only My Voice: read one sentence aloud and Speechy learns your voice

Coding agents in your notch

Both apps can show you Claude Code and Codex questions and permission prompts, so you can answer without switching windows. Superwhisper uses a floating window and supports more agents, including Cursor. Speechy puts them in your Mac's notch, where they never cover your work:

• Answer with one key. Press 1 to allow or 2 to deny, J and K to move between prompts and E to clear one. Answered too fast? Esc takes it back within 2 seconds.
• Watch your plan limits. Your Claude and Codex usage sits beside the camera, read straight from the tools, with no keys to paste. The Usage tab shows the 5 hour and weekly windows.
• Talk to an agent by name. Say "api, run the migration again on staging", and it goes to that project's agent.
• Read replies right there. Replies show formatted, with tables and code. Drop in up to 6 images, or drag the corner to make the chat bigger.
• Name files out loud. Turn on Reference coding files, and the file names you say become @file references in Claude Code for VS Code.

A Codex permission request in Speechy's notch, with Allow and Deny

Claude and Codex plan usage beside the camera

Talking to the api agent from Speechy's notch

Price

Superwhisper Pro is $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year, or $249.99 for a lifetime license. Speechy Lifetime starts at $99 for the first 10 buyers. Pro is $12.99 a month or $119.88 a year, so if you want a subscription, Superwhisper costs less. See pricing.

Everything else Speechy does

Here is the rest of Speechy, with real examples. Every "Speechy types" box is the app's own output for that sentence, taken from Speechy's test suite. None of it needs an AI model or a prompt.

It cleans up the way people talk

It keeps up when you change your mind

Say "sorry", "I mean", "make it" or "or rather", and Speechy swaps the old time, date, amount or name for the new one. "Make it work" and "sorry I'm late" are left alone.

Lists, without touching the keyboard

Numbers, money and times, written properly

Punctuation and new lines when you ask

Emails come out shaped like emails

Start with a greeting and end with a sign-off, and Speechy puts each on its own line. It skips this in chat apps, terminals and code editors.

Your words, spelled your way

Add names and jargon to your dictionary, fix a word Speechy keeps mishearing with a replacement (in every app, or only in one), and save snippets for things you say often. Say "insert" and the snippet's name.

Speechy's dictionary: words, replacements and voice snippets

It spells what is on your screen

With App Context on, the names in the window you are dictating into become spelling hints. It stays on your Mac, password fields are always skipped, and you can leave out any app.

Context you control: the names Speechy used from your screen, and the apps it leaves out

Undo a dictation, or throw one away

Press ⌘⌥Z within five minutes and Speechy removes the last dictation and puts back anything it replaced. Press ⌘Esc while talking to drop the take, so nothing is typed or saved.

Speechy's shortcuts: Fn to dictate, ⌘⌥Z to undo, ⌘Esc to discard

Paste, type or just copy, and send

Speechy pastes by default, then puts your clipboard back the way it was. It can type the words out instead, or leave them on the clipboard. Turn on Auto submit and it presses Enter (or ⌘Enter) for you, so a Slack message sends the moment you let go.

Speechy's output settings: paste method, clipboard and auto submit

And more

• Music pauses while you talk, then carries on, with Background audio set to Pause media.
• Help when the mic is wrong: if Speechy hears nothing, it plays your recording back and opens the microphone picker in one click.
• A history on your Mac you can search with ⌘K, export, and play back, with Recently deleted.
• Stats for your speed, streaks, golden hour and time saved, and a Speechy pass you can share.
• Light on memory: models free about 1.2 GB after 15 minutes idle and reload as you start talking.
• A whole email from one sentence with Smart Polish on: "draft an email to Sarah saying the deck is delayed to Thursday".

Where Superwhisper is better

• A free plan. Its free plan has unlimited dictation with local Whisper models. Speechy has no free plan.
• More devices. One license covers Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. Speechy is Mac only for now.
• More control. Modes with your own AI prompts, many local and cloud models, and bring your own API key.
• Meetings and files. It records meetings with speaker labels and transcribes files. Speechy is for dictation.
• A longer refund window. 30 days, Lifetime included.

Switching from Superwhisper

Speechy can import the vocabulary and replacements you added in Superwhisper. Open Settings, go to Dictionary and choose Import. Speechy may ask for access to Superwhisper's folder first.

Importing a dictionary from other dictation apps into Speechy

The short version

If you want dictation for free, use Apple Dictation, or Superwhisper's free plan. If you want it open source, VoiceInk. If you want your voice on your Mac by default, a lower one-time price, and one shortcut that also answers from Gmail, Outlook, Calendar, Finder and 1,000+ apps, use Speechy.

Superwhisper details checked again on 20 October 2026 on its plans page, models docs and coding agents docs. Prices and features change, so check their site before you decide. The other apps were checked the same day on their own sites.