The best dictation apps for Mac in 2026

How we picked

We make Collabute, so we put it first. Read the list with that in mind. We tried to be fair about the rest, and we say where another app is the better choice.

Every app here can type what you say into other apps on your Mac. We looked at five things:

• Price, including how much the free plan really gives you.
• Where your speech is processed: on your Mac, or in the cloud.
• AI cleanup: does it remove filler words and fix punctuation, or type every "um"?
• Works in any app: Slack, Mail, Notes, your code editor and your browser.
• Platforms: some people only need a Mac, others want the same tool on Windows or a phone.

Prices and features come from each app's own website and were checked in November 2026. They change often, so check before you pay.

1. Collabute Flow: the best free dictation, and more than typing

Flow is the dictation built into Collabute. Double-tap a key, talk, and clean text is typed into whatever app has your cursor. Filler words are cleaned up as you talk, so you get the sentence you meant, not every pause.

Flow is free and unlimited on every Collabute plan. There is no weekly word cap and no credit card. For most people that is the deciding fact: the other good AI dictation apps either limit the free plan or charge for the AI part.

Collabute also does two things the other apps on this list don't do in one place. From Lite ($9 a month), it transcribes your meetings on your Mac with speaker labels, and no bot joins the call. From Pro ($29 a month), you can talk to Obvee, a voice assistant that does tasks in your browser and Mac apps and answers out loud, instead of only typing for you.

Where it is weaker: Collabute is a Mac app. Windows is in early access and there is no phone app yet. Speech is processed in the cloud, with zero data retention at Collabute's AI providers, so nothing is kept by the models or used for training. If you need dictation that never leaves your Mac, pick Superwhisper, SayWrite or MacWhisper instead.

Price: Flow is free. Lite is $9 a month, Pro $29 and Ultra $99. You can try Lite or Pro for $2 for 7 days. See pricing.

2. Wispr Flow: best for dictation on every device

Wispr Flow is a polished dictation app and the best-known name in this space. It works on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, learns your names and jargon, and supports more than 100 languages. It also has a notetaker for meetings on Mac and Windows, with no bot.

If you dictate on your phone as much as on your laptop, Wispr Flow is the better choice. None of the other apps on this list cover all four platforms as smoothly, though Superwhisper comes close.

Where it is weaker: the free plan allows about 2,000 words a week on desktop, which a heavy dictator uses up in a day or two. Pro is $15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly. Transcription always runs in Wispr's cloud, even with its privacy settings on.

Not to be confused with Collabute Flow. They are separate apps from separate companies. We compare them in detail in Wispr Flow vs Collabute Flow vs Granola.

3. Superwhisper: best for fully local models

Superwhisper runs speech models on your own device. On the free plan, dictation is unlimited with local Whisper models, and nothing you dictate leaves your Mac. That makes it the strongest free option if privacy is your first concern.

Pro adds cloud models, faster local models like Parakeet, AI modes that rewrite and format what you said, file transcription and a Meetings feature on macOS. One license covers Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android.

Pro is $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year, or $249.99 once. The lifetime option is rare in this category and worth it if you plan to dictate for years.

Where it is weaker: there are many settings and modes to learn, and the free plan has no AI cleanup. Local models also depend on your Mac: an older machine will be slower.

4. SayWrite: best simple local app for English

SayWrite is a focused Mac dictation app. Hold the Fn key, speak, and it types clean text where your cursor is. It removes filler words and adds punctuation, and its optional AI Polish rewrites rambling speech.

Speech-to-text runs on your Mac, and AI Polish runs locally too, through Apple Intelligence on macOS 26 or later, or a model you run yourself in Ollama or LM Studio. It works offline once set up and keeps a searchable history.

It costs $5 a month or $30 a year after a 7-day free trial, with no word limit.

Where it is weaker: it is English only, and it needs a Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 15 or later. There is no free plan after the trial, and no Windows or phone app.

5. MacWhisper: best for transcribing files

MacWhisper started as a way to transcribe audio and video files with local Whisper models, and that is still what it does best. Drag in an mp3, wav, m4a, mov or mp4 and get a transcript, without uploading anything.

It has grown since. It now does real-time dictation into any app and can record calls in Zoom, Teams and other apps without a bot. You can connect cloud AI services with your own API keys if you want them.

There is a free version, and Pro is a one-time €64 with lifetime updates on its website. App Store pricing is different.

Where it is weaker: dictation is one feature among many, not the center of the app. If you mostly type by voice all day, a dictation-first app will feel faster. If you have a folder of interviews or lectures to transcribe, MacWhisper is the one to get.

6. Apple Dictation: the built-in baseline

Every Mac already has dictation. Turn it on in System Settings, under Keyboard, then Dictation. It types into any text field, adds commas, periods and question marks in supported languages, and you can dictate as long as you like. It stops on its own after 30 seconds of silence.

On newer Macs with Apple Intelligence, an on-device model improves spelling, punctuation and capitalization in English. Keyboard settings show whether your dictation is processed on your Mac or sent to Siri servers.

Where it is weaker: it types what you say. It isn't built to remove filler words, rewrite a rambling sentence, or learn your jargon the way the AI apps do. For short messages it is fine. For long writing, most people move to one of the apps above.

Quick picks

• Best free: Collabute Flow. Unlimited, with AI cleanup.
• Best on every device: Wispr Flow.
• Best fully local: Superwhisper, or SayWrite if you only need English.
• Best for audio and video files: MacWhisper.
• Already installed: Apple Dictation.
• Best if you also want meeting notes and a voice assistant: Collabute, in one app.

How to choose

Start with where you dictate. If it is only your Mac, all six work. If it is also your phone or a Windows PC, Wispr Flow or Superwhisper are the safer picks today.

Then decide how much privacy you need. Cloud apps are usually faster and better at cleanup. Local apps keep your words on your machine. Collabute keeps its cloud processing under zero data retention, so your words are not kept or used for training, but they do leave your Mac.

Last, think about what else you do by voice. If you sit in meetings and want transcripts, or want a voice assistant to do the task instead of only typing about it, Collabute covers that without a second app. Our guide to AI meeting notetakers without a bot goes deeper on meetings, and the Wispr Flow alternatives post covers more dictation apps.