Is there a free dictation app for Mac?

Yes. The free option you already have is Apple Dictation, which ships with macOS. For short messages, notes and documents, it is enough for many people. If you need offline processing, recording transcription or no usage cap, several free apps cover part of that, and each has a limit you should check first.

Apple Dictation is free because it is part of macOS

Dictation has been part of the Mac since OS X Mountain Lion, released in 2012, and it could type anywhere you could type ¹. On macOS 27, you turn it on in System Settings: choose Keyboard in the sidebar, go to Dictation, turn it on and click Enable ².

Apple says you can dictate text of any length without a timeout, and you stop it with Escape, the Microphone key or the Dictation shortcut ³. So the free tool does not force you into short bursts.

The limits are about where it works and how it is processed. Apple says Dictation on a Mac may need an internet connection, and that Keyboard settings show whether your dictation is processed on the device ⁴. If you need it to work with no network at all, check that setting on your own Mac before you rely on it.

Free apps run speech models on your Mac

Handy is a free, open source speech-to-text app. It describes itself as working completely offline ⁵. Its README offers Whisper models in four sizes, Small, Medium, Turbo and Large ⁶, so you choose the trade-off between speed and accuracy. Handy is the free option if you want live dictation that does not leave your computer.

Buzz is for recordings rather than live typing. It describes itself as transcribing and translating audio offline on a personal computer ⁷. Use it when your input is an interview or a voice memo, not the words you type into an email.

Free plans of paid apps come with caps

Several paid dictation apps have a free plan. Those plans are useful for trying the app, but each one limits you in a different way.

• Wispr Flow allows 2,000 dictated words per week on desktop, and 1,000 per week on mobile ⁸. Averaged over the week, that is about 286 words a day ⁹. Heavy daily dictation will reach the cap.
• Superwhisper lists unlimited dictation with local Whisper models on its free plan, with up to two modes ¹⁰. Its cloud models and AI processing are part of the paid Pro plan ¹¹.

Read the cap as a question about your use. Wispr Flow's cap of 2,000 words a week ⁸ suits a few short emails a day. It does not suit someone writing reports by voice.

When to pay, and what that costs

If the free options do not fit, a one-time purchase can be cheaper over a year than a subscription. VoiceInk's Solo license, for example, costs $25 once and covers one Mac ¹². Paid apps differ in where audio is processed, so the privacy question matters as much as the price. Our guide to free dictation software lists more free options, and our best dictation app guide for Mac explains how to compare them.

Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. Check our pricing page for its current plans rather than relying on a figure from this page.

What to do

1. Start with Apple Dictation for a week. Keep using it for the messages and notes it handles well.
2. Track the words you dictate each week. If you approach a free plan's cap, the free plan will not last.
3. If you need offline live dictation, test Handy or the free plan of Superwhisper on the same paragraph you used with Apple Dictation.
4. If your input is a recording, test Buzz on one real interview and check the transcript against the audio.
5. Compare the errors you fix in each app, not just the list of features.

For the accuracy question, see whether Apple Dictation is as good as Wispr Flow. For running the open source Whisper models yourself, see how to use Whisper for dictation on a Mac. Our glossary entry on free tiers explains how these plans usually work, and the entry on on-device speech recognition explains what "offline" means in practice.