The dictation apps for Mac, side by side.
Six ways to put words on a Mac by talking, with what each one charges, whether it works with the network off, and what it does beyond turning speech into text.
| Feature | Zumbo | Superwhisper | Wispr Flow | MacWhisper | VoiceInk | Apple Dictation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $15 once, $20 for 3 Macs, $79 for 10 | Free, $8.49 a month, or lifetime (one time) | Free up to 2,000 words a week, then $15 a month ($23 for teams) | Free, Pro €64 once | $25 one device, $39 two, $49 three | Free, built in |
| Runs offline | Yes | Yes | - | Yes | Yes | Apple silicon only |
| Vocabulary | 21 packs, plus your own words | Custom vocabulary | Custom dictionary | - | Custom words and phrase replacement | - |
| Learns from corrections | Yes | - | - | - | - | - |
| Notes | Yes | Meeting notes | Notetaker | No | Markdown journal | No |
| Meetings with speaker labels | Yes | Meeting notes, labels not stated | Notetaker, labels not stated | Recordings, with speaker recognition | - | No |
| Lives in the notch | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| No account | Yes | Not required to start | Account required | No account | - | Built into macOS |
Read off each vendor's own public pages on 21 September 2026. A dash means the vendor does not state it there, not that the answer is no.
How to read this list
These six apps are answering two different questions. Some of them dictate: you put your cursor somewhere, talk, and the words appear in that app. Others transcribe: you hand them a recording or a meeting and they write it out afterwards. A few do both. Before comparing prices it is worth deciding which of those you actually want, because the best file transcriber on the list is not the fastest way to answer a message.
The second thing that separates them is where the speech is turned into text. On device means the model runs on your own silicon and nothing is uploaded. In the cloud means your audio is sent to a server and the text comes back. That decision sets the latency, whether the app works on a plane, and who else could ever hold a copy of what you said.
Zumbo
Dictation first. You hold your shortcut, talk at your normal speed, and the words land where the cursor already was, in any Mac app, in about a fifth of a second. The speech engine is inside the download, so there is no round trip and no account. Correct a word once with Teach and it is heard your way from then on. Twenty one vocabulary packs cover fields like developer tools, legal and medical, and you can add your own words on top. Notes and meeting transcription with speaker labels are in the same app, and all of it stays on the Mac. It lives in the notch rather than in a window, so it is on screen without taking a space.
Hold it to talk, tap it to toggle, Escape cancels. Pick the key in Settings.
Superwhisper
A well known on device Mac app with a free tier, a monthly price and a lifetime option. It states custom vocabulary and meeting notes on its own pages. It does not state whether meeting notes carry speaker labels, so that cell is a dash rather than a guess.
Wispr Flow
The most polished marketing on this list and a genuinely good writing experience. It is a subscription above a free allowance of two thousand words a week, it asks for an account, and its pages do not state offline use, which is consistent with a cloud service. If your work can go to a server and you write for a living, the flow is hard to fault. If it cannot, this is the wrong shape.
MacWhisper
The best known answer for a file you already have. It runs locally, it is a one time purchase for Pro, and it states speaker recognition on recordings. Its focus is transcription rather than putting words under your cursor while you work, which is a different job from the rest of this list.
VoiceInk
Open source, on device and bought once. Because the code is public you can read what it does with your audio instead of taking a vendor's word for it, which is a real advantage and worth saying plainly. It costs more per Mac than Zumbo, keeps notes as a Markdown journal rather than inside the app, and does not state speaker labels.
Apple Dictation
Already on your Mac and free. On Apple silicon it runs on device. It has no vocabulary you can teach, no packs for a field, and no notes or meeting mode, so technical terms and product names come out the way a general model guesses them. For a sentence in a message it is fine. For a commit message or a clinical note it is not.
If you only read one row
Read the price row and then the offline row together. A subscription for something that runs on your own machine is a different proposition from a subscription for a service that does the work on a server. Everything else on this page follows from those two lines.
Related: dictation with the Wi-Fi off, when Apple Dictation is not enough, and what replaced Dragon on the Mac.
Which of these runs without the internet?
Zumbo, Superwhisper, MacWhisper and VoiceInk all state that they transcribe on the Mac itself. Wispr Flow does not state offline use on its own pages. Apple Dictation runs on device on Apple silicon Macs and falls back to the server on older hardware.
Which of these is a one time purchase?
Zumbo, MacWhisper and VoiceInk are bought once. Superwhisper publishes both a monthly price and a lifetime one. Wispr Flow is a subscription above its free weekly allowance.
What is the difference between file transcription and dictation?
File transcription takes a recording you already have and writes it out. Dictation puts words where your cursor is while you talk, in whatever app you are in. Some of these do one, some do both, and the table says which.
Does any of them learn the words I use?
Several let you add words to a list. Zumbo is the only one on this list that states it learns from the corrections you make: you fix a word once and it hears it your way from then on.
Do I have to remember a key combination?
No. You choose your own shortcut in Settings the first time you open Zumbo, and you can change it whenever you like. The point is that one key starts and stops it, not which key it is.
Free for 3 days, everything unlocked. Then $15 once. macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon.