The best offline dictation apps for Mac in 2026 are Whisperer, VoiceInk, Superwhisper (with its local models), Spokenly's free tier, JesType and Voibe, with Apple Dictation as the free built-in option. They all turn speech into text on your Mac. The real differences are price, which platforms they run on, and what they do beyond dictation. Whisperer is $2.99 for dictation, and a $14.99 one-time Pro purchase adds meeting notes, calendar recording, speaker names, your own AI and an MCP server.
OpenAI's Whisper models made offline dictation possible, and Apple Silicon made it fast. "Offline" and "good" still aren't the same thing, so here is how the main options compare.
What matters in a dictation app#
- Really offline. Your voice stays on your Mac. Not "offline unless you turn on the good model."
- Accuracy on names and jargon. Whisper-class models are good here. A personal dictionary helps with the rest.
- Live preview. Seeing words while you talk tells you it's working.
- A price you can live with. Some apps are one-time purchases, some are subscriptions, and a few offer both.
- What else it does. File transcription, history, meeting notes. Some people want one tool for everything, others want the smallest app that does the job.
Comparison table#
Prices are public pricing, November 2026, for one person.
| Price | Where speech is processed | Platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whisperer | $2.99, Pro $14.99 once | On your Mac | Mac |
| Superwhisper | Free tier; Pro $8.49/mo, $84.99/yr or $249.99 lifetime | Local models, or cloud models you choose | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android |
| VoiceInk | $25 once (one Mac) | On your Mac | Mac, iPhone |
| MacWhisper | Free; Pro €64 once | On your Mac | Mac |
| JesType | €14.95 once (one device) | On your device | Mac, Windows |
| Spokenly | Free; Local+ $29 once; Pro $144/yr | Local on Free, cloud on Pro | Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone |
| Voibe | Free; $9.90/mo, $99/yr or $199 once | On Apple Silicon Macs, cloud on Windows | Mac, Windows |
| Willow | Free Basic; Pro $15/mo or $12/mo yearly | Cloud, with an offline mode | Mac, Windows, iPhone |
| Apple Dictation | Free | On device for supported languages | Apple devices |
1. Whisperer#
Price: $2.99 for dictation, $14.99 one-time Pro | Engines: Whisper, Parakeet, Qwen3 ASR and WhisperKit, all offline, with Apple Speech for the live preview
Hold Fn, speak, release. Words stream into a live preview as you talk, then the text is copied and a "Copied ⌘V" toast appears. Press ⌘V to paste it. The default model, Whisperer V3 (Whisper Large V3 Turbo, about 547 MB), handles 97 languages and detects the language on its own.
What you get for $2.99:
- A choice of offline engines (Whisper, Parakeet, Qwen3 ASR, WhisperKit), switchable in Settings
- Fast Polish for punctuation, filler words and paragraphs
- A personal dictionary that also learns from your corrections
- File transcription for audio and video
- History with search, playback and re-transcribe, plus statistics
What Pro adds for $14.99 once: meeting notes for Zoom, Teams, Meet, Slack huddles, Webex, FaceTime and browser calls, with no bot joining. Also calendar recording, speaker names, AI summaries with the AI you already pay for or the built-in Qwen3.5 4B model, and an MCP server so Claude or Cursor can read your meetings.
Downsides: Mac only, and it needs Apple Silicon and macOS 26 Tahoe. In the App Store version you paste with ⌘V yourself, while some competitors put the text into the field for you.
2. Superwhisper#
Price: free tier; Pro $8.49/month, $84.99/year or $249.99 lifetime | Engines: local Whisper models and cloud models
The best-known app in this group. A polished interface, lots of custom modes and good documentation. It runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, and Pro adds meeting recording on the Mac. It offers local models, but some of its AI features use cloud models, so pick deliberately if privacy matters.
Good: polish, custom modes, every platform on one license. Less good: the lifetime price is high.
3. VoiceInk#
Price: $25 one-time for one Mac ($39 for two, $49 for three) | Engines: local Whisper, Parakeet and others
A clean, open-source (GPL v3) dictation app that does the basics well and stays out of the way. It now has an iPhone app too. If you want simple, cheap, local dictation and you like open source, it's a strong pick.
Less good: it focuses on dictation, with no meeting notes or calendar features.
4. MacWhisper#
Price: free version, Pro €64 one-time | Engine: Whisper
MacWhisper is best known for file transcription: drop in interviews, podcasts or recordings and get text, subtitles and exports in many formats. It has since added meeting recording with automatic call detection and system-wide dictation.
Good: batch file work, subtitle export, many formats. Less good: it's a transcription workbench first, with dictation added later.
5. JesType#
Price: €14.95 one-time for one device | Engines: Parakeet V3 (25 languages) and Moonshine (English streaming)
A small, local dictation app for Mac and Windows with a 48-hour trial. Optional AI cleanup is off by default. Paid licenses check in online from time to time.
Good: low price, Windows support, quick Parakeet models. Less good: fewer languages than Whisper's 97.
6. Spokenly#
Price: free; Local+ $29 once; Pro $144/year | Engines: local Whisper and Parakeet, plus cloud models on Pro
Spokenly's free tier is a real local dictation app with no word cap, on Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone. You can bring your own API keys for cloud models, or pay for Pro to get Spokenly's hosted ones. On the Mac it can also record meetings without a bot.
Good: the free tier is generous. Less good: its own high-accuracy cloud models are on the paid Pro tier.
7. Voibe#
Price: free plan; Dictation plan $9.90/month, $99/year or $199 one-time | Engine: Whisper
A dictation app for Mac and Windows. It runs on the device on Apple Silicon Macs and uses a zero-retention cloud mode on Windows. The Work plan ($149/year) adds meeting notes without a bot and a meeting MCP server.
Good: offline on Apple Silicon, available on Windows, one-time option, meeting notes on Work. Less good: expensive next to the other one-time apps here.
8. Willow#
Price: free Basic; Pro $15/month or $12/month billed yearly | Engine: cloud
Willow is mostly cloud: speech is normally processed on its servers, though it lists an offline mode. It runs on Mac, Windows and iPhone and offers business plans with compliance features.
Good: works across platforms, team and compliance options. Less good: a subscription, and your audio usually leaves the Mac.
9. Apple Dictation#
Price: free | Engine: Apple's on-device recognizer
Built into macOS. Press the dictation key and talk. It's on-device on Apple Silicon for supported languages and needs no setup.
Good: free, built in, works anywhere. Less good: no history, no file transcription, no dictionary, no choice of model, and it can stumble on names and jargon.
Whisperer vs Apple Dictation, or read is Apple Dictation good enough.
Which one to pick#
| If you want | Pick |
|---|---|
| Dictation plus meeting notes in one app | Whisperer with Pro ($2.99 + $14.99 once) |
| Cheap, simple local dictation | Whisperer ($2.99), VoiceInk ($25) or Spokenly's free tier |
| Mac and Windows | JesType, Voibe, Superwhisper or Spokenly |
| Mostly file transcription | MacWhisper, or Whisperer's file transcription |
| Nothing to install | Apple Dictation |
FAQ#
What is the best offline dictation app for Mac in 2026?#
For dictation alone, Whisperer, VoiceInk, Superwhisper's local models and Spokenly's free tier all run speech recognition on your Mac. Whisperer costs $2.99 and adds meeting notes, calendar recording and an MCP server with a $14.99 one-time Pro purchase. Pick by price, platform and whether you also want meeting notes.
Is Apple Dictation offline on a Mac?#
On Apple Silicon Macs, Apple Dictation can run on the device for supported languages. It's free and needs no setup, but it has no history, no file transcription and no choice of model.
Which Mac dictation apps are not offline?#
Wispr Flow processes speech in the cloud, and Willow does too apart from its offline mode. Spokenly's Pro tier, Superwhisper's cloud models and Voibe on Windows also use servers, while their local models stay on the computer.
Compare specific apps: vs Granola, vs Otter, vs Fireflies, vs Wispr Flow, vs Superwhisper, vs Voibe, vs Apple Dictation, vs MacWhisper, vs VoiceInk, vs Willow, vs JesType, vs Spokenly. See pricing and all dictation features.