Is there a dictation app without AI?

Yes. Some dictation apps turn your speech into text without running it through a language model that edits the result. The clearest examples are in Superwhisper, an app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android ¹. Its Voice to Text mode "outputs raw transcribed text with no language model involved" ², and its Free plan dictates with local Whisper models and no AI processing ³. For the wider picture, read our guide to AI dictation apps.

Several dictation options skip the AI cleanup step

The options below differ in what they do after recognition. The table uses only what each vendor or company says in the pages we read on 2026-10-16.

Apple's separate AI model is called More advanced Dictation. Apple lists it for only nine English variants ⁷, so a Mac in another language, or an older system, cannot use it. The on-device fact in the table answers a privacy question, where the audio is handled. It does not tell you whether a model edits your words. Those are two separate settings, and you should check both.

"Without AI" depends on what you mean by AI

Whisper, the model that Superwhisper's free plan runs locally, is a speech recognizer trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask audio with transcripts ⁸. It is a neural network. So "no AI at all" is not a useful test for a dictation app, and "no AI" has to mean something narrower.

The useful definition is this: an app has no AI cleanup if nothing after recognition generates or rewrites your text. That is the step that changes your words. A language model can do more than choose among the recognizer's candidate words. In the HyPoradise benchmark, a large language model can correct words that are missing from the recognizer's N-best list, because it generates text rather than only choosing among candidates ⁹. HyPoradise is a research benchmark, not a test of these apps, but it shows why the cleanup step is the one to watch.

Cleanup saves editing, and it can also change a name

For an email or a rough draft, removing "um" and fixing the commas saves real editing time. The same step is risky for text where one word matters. A cleaned sentence reads smoothly, so a changed name or figure looks as correct as the original, and it is easy to accept without checking. Whatever the app does, read the final text against what you said.

It depends on the text you dictate and the device you use

• Drafts and messages. If you want filler words removed and punctuation fixed, a cleanup mode is the feature to choose. A raw mode keeps the words the recognizer heard, and it reads less smoothly.
• Names, figures and quotations. Use a raw mode, or check the cleaned output word by word. This applies to legal, medical and financial notes too. Those rules are yours to check, and this page does not settle them.
• A Mac on an older system or in another language. The Apple AI model is limited to macOS 27 and nine English variants, so do not plan around it.
• Windows. Fluid dictation depends on a Copilot+ PC. On other Windows PCs, check the voice typing settings on your own machine.

What to do: choose a raw mode, then test it on your own paragraph

1. Decide what you need. Raw words suit records, quotations and technical text. Cleaned text suits drafts and messages.
2. Switch the cleanup off in Superwhisper. Choose the Voice to Text mode, which outputs raw text with no language model.
3. On a Mac, switch off automatic punctuation if you want only your own words. Use the Auto-punctuation setting in Keyboard settings ¹⁰.
4. Dictate the same paragraph twice. Use one raw mode and one cleaned mode, then compare the names, numbers and quotations word by word. That comparison tells you more than any description of a mode.

For the other choices in this area, see whether Wispr Flow is worth it, how Wispr Flow differs from Superwhisper and whether Superwhisper beats Apple Dictation. The free dictation software guide lists what free tiers include, and the dictation software overview covers the whole subject, including AI dictation and dictation.