MacWhisper vs Voicy vs Superwhisper: which Mac app fits you

If you mostly transcribe recordings, pick MacWhisper. If you mostly dictate into other apps and want AI formatting on more than one device, pick Superwhisper, or Voicy if you also need Linux or a Chrome extension. The three names get searched together, but only two of them are aimed at the same job.

We make Sayburst, a Mac dictation app, and we'll mention it at the end. Everything below about the three apps comes from their own websites and docs, checked October 31, 2026. We haven't run them hands-on for this page.

#The short version

• MacWhisper is a transcription workbench that also dictates. Drop in an interview, a lecture or a Zoom call and get a transcript with speakers, subtitles and exports. Free version, and Pro is €64 once.
• Superwhisper is a dictation app first. Hold a key, talk, and AI modes shape the text for email or chat. Free plan with local Whisper models; Pro adds the AI.
• Voicy is a dictation app that tries to be everywhere: Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android and Chrome. A 30-minute free trial, then a subscription or a lifetime license.

#Side by side

Sources: macwhisper.com, Voicy pricing and Voicy offline dictation, Superwhisper plans. Checked October 31, 2026.

#MacWhisper: when the audio already exists

MacWhisper's homepage reads like a transcription lab. It takes mp3, wav, m4a, ogg, opus, mov and mp4 files, works in 100 languages, recognizes speakers (and can split a podcast into per-speaker files), batch-processes a stack of files, watches a folder and transcribes anything new that lands in it, and pulls audio from YouTube and media URLs. It exports subtitles (.srt, .vtt) and documents (.txt, .md, .pdf, .docx and more), and it can push results into Notion, Obsidian, Zapier, Make.com or a webhook. There's even a CLI.

It also records meetings from Zoom, Teams, Webex, Discord and others in the background, detecting when a call starts and ends, with "no bots joining."

Dictation is there too: the site lists system-wide dictation into any app, with grammar improvement and app-specific prompts. But it's one feature in a big app, not the center of it.

On privacy, MacWhisper says it can process sensitive content locally "without data ever leaving your Mac," and you can switch to cloud providers with your own API key when you want. Pricing is simple: a free version, and Pro at €64 per license, paid once, with lifetime updates. The pricing section doesn't split features between Free and Pro clearly, so check the app before you assume a feature is free.

Pick MacWhisper if your week includes recorded interviews, lectures, client calls or video you need to subtitle.

#Superwhisper: dictation with knobs

Superwhisper is the one built around talking into other apps. Hold a key, speak, release, and the text is pasted where you were typing. Modes like Voice, Message and Email decide tone and structure, Custom Mode lets you write your own rules, and Super Mode adapts to what's on your screen.

The free plan is generous for a dictation app: unlimited dictation with local Whisper models, custom vocabulary and replacements, and up to two modes without AI processing. Pro adds the AI-powered modes, cloud models, the Parakeet and Cohere Transcribe local models, file transcription, realtime transcription, speaker separation, system audio recording, Meetings on Mac and bring-your-own API keys. New users get 3,000 words of Pro features free to try.

Pro costs $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 for a lifetime license, and one license covers unlimited Macs and Windows PCs plus your phones. Students, faculty and non-profits get 40% off when they ask before buying.

Pick Superwhisper if you dictate on a Mac and a Windows PC, or want the most control over how AI rewrites what you say.

#Voicy: dictation on every screen you own

Voicy's pitch is coverage. It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, and has a Chrome extension, more platforms than either of the other two. Press your shortcut, speak, and it types for you with punctuation and formatting, plus an AI writing assistant for rewrites. It lists more than 50 languages with automatic detection.

Voicy has two ways of working. In Offline mode "the speech model runs on your computer," and Voicy says audio isn't sent to its servers; that mode supports 25 languages and is available on Mac (macOS 15 or later), Windows and Linux, but not on the phone apps or the Chrome extension. Online mode processes speech in the cloud.

The free trial is 30 minutes of recording. After that, Pro is $8.49 a month or $82 a year, Lifetime is $260 once, and a Team plan is $6.79 per user per month with a three-user minimum. Students and people with disabilities get 20% off.

Pick Voicy if you want the same dictation app on a Linux box, an Android phone and inside Chrome as well as on your Mac.

#Superwhisper vs MacWhisper, head to head

This is the pair most people actually search for, so here's the direct answer. They overlap on two things: both run Whisper locally on a Mac, and both can dictate system-wide. Past that they split.

• Daily dictation into Mail, Slack and docs: Superwhisper. Modes, AI formatting and a hotkey workflow are its whole design, and it follows you to Windows and your phone.
• Recordings: MacWhisper. Speaker recognition, subtitle export, batch jobs, watched folders and meeting capture are mature here, and Superwhisper puts file transcription and Meetings behind Pro.
• Paying once: MacWhisper Pro at €64 is far below Superwhisper's $249.99 lifetime license.
• Paying nothing: Superwhisper's free plan gives unlimited local dictation; MacWhisper's free version is the place to start for files.

Plenty of people run both: MacWhisper for files, a dictation app for typing. We go deeper on this pair in a separate comparison.

Our take

Choose by job, not by brand. MacWhisper for transcribing recordings and meetings on a Mac, paid once. Superwhisper for AI-formatted dictation across Mac, Windows and phones. Voicy if you need dictation on Linux, Android or in a Chrome extension too, and you're fine with a subscription or a $260 lifetime license.

#A third option: Sayburst

If what you want from this list is the dictation part, on a Mac, without a subscription, Sayburst is built for exactly that. Hold fn, talk, let go, and clean text lands at your cursor in any app. Recognition runs on your Mac with Parakeet v3 on the Neural Engine by default, or Whisper Large v3 Turbo if you need one of its 99 languages, and after the one-time model download it works with Wi-Fi off.

The cleanup happens on the Mac too. Say this into Slack:

"Hey Priya, um, I uploaded the interview to the shared folder, the, the full cut, and the timestamps are in the notes, actually no, in the doc."

And this is what lands:

Hey Priya, I uploaded the interview to the shared folder, the full cut, and the timestamps are in the doc.

Fillers and the stutter are gone, and the correction resolves. Pick a writing mode per app (Message for Slack, Email for Mail), add names to the vocabulary, and the optional Sayburst Writer, a local AI model, turns rambling into tidy paragraphs without an account or a cloud key.

It costs $29 once for one Mac or $49 for three, with every 1.x update included. Sayburst is Mac-only (Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later), it doesn't record meetings, and it isn't a transcription workbench: you can drop an audio file on the History window to transcribe it locally, but for speaker labels and subtitles, MacWhisper is the better tool.

More detail in Sayburst vs MacWhisper, Sayburst vs Superwhisper and Sayburst vs Voicy. If you're unsure which job you have, dictation vs transcription sorts it out, and the comparison hub lists the rest.

Questions people ask

Is Superwhisper or MacWhisper better?

For dictating into other apps all day, Superwhisper: it's built around a hotkey, modes and AI formatting, and runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. For transcribing recordings, meetings and video, MacWhisper: speaker recognition, subtitles, batch jobs and watched folders are its core.

Which is cheapest: MacWhisper, Voicy or Superwhisper?

All three have a free way in. Paid, MacWhisper Pro is €64 once. Superwhisper Pro is $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 lifetime, and Voicy Pro is $8.49 a month, $82 a year or $260 lifetime.

Do MacWhisper, Voicy and Superwhisper work offline?

Each can. MacWhisper transcribes with local models on the Mac, Superwhisper's free plan uses local Whisper models, and Voicy has an Offline mode on Mac (macOS 15 or later), Windows and Linux. Their cloud features need a connection.

Which one runs on Windows?

Superwhisper and Voicy. MacWhisper is a Mac app. Voicy also has Linux, iPhone, Android and a Chrome extension; Superwhisper has iPhone and Android.