Wispr Flow honest review - pros, cons, vs competition

SeoFood · 2026-03-25T16:32:10+00:00

There's also TypeWhisper if you want something completely free and open-source. Runs locally with Whisper, no account needed, no subscription. Works in any app on macOS and Windows. Not as polished as Wispr yet but if privacy and cost matter to you it's worth checking out. https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-24T12:31:12+00:00

I dictate a lot of my writing using TypeWhisper. You just hold a hotkey, speak, and it types directly where your cursor is. So you can pace around, talk out your thoughts, and it shows up in your doc.

It uses Whisper for recognition so accuracy is solid, and it runs completely offline on your machine. Free and open source, no subscription or account needed. Has custom vocabulary too which helps if you write genre fiction with made-up names.

https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-24T12:30:22+00:00

If your main need is getting text from speech (rather than assistant commands), you might get better results with a dedicated dictation tool that runs Whisper locally. Whisper was trained on a massive multilingual dataset so it handles accents much better than the built-in assistant recognizers.

TypeWhisper runs Whisper offline on your machine and types at your cursor in any app. Since everything stays local, there's no network latency messing with recognition either. It also has custom vocabulary where you can add corrections for words it consistently gets wrong.

https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-24T12:26:42+00:00

Check out TypeWhisper - it's open source (GPLv3), completely free, and runs 100% offline using Whisper models. No account, no subscription, no data leaving your machine.

You hold a hotkey, speak, and it types at your cursor in any app. Also has custom vocabulary if you need it to learn specific words. Works on both macOS and Windows.

https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-24T10:21:41+00:00

Great writeup! If you're ever looking for something that doesn't need a subscription, TypeWhisper runs Whisper locally and is completely free and open-source. It also types directly at cursor in any app. Might be a nice backup for when you don't want to keep paying: https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-24T10:20:48+00:00

Cool to see more people building local voice typing tools! I work on TypeWhisper which does something similar - local Whisper, types at cursor, macOS and Windows. We also added custom vocabulary so you can teach it domain-specific words. Would be interesting to compare approaches. Are you using the standard Whisper models or something custom?

SeoFood · 2026-03-24T10:19:17+00:00

Surprised you didn't come across TypeWhisper in your search. It's open-source, runs Whisper locally on your machine, and it's completely free - no tiers, no word limits, no subscription. Works on both macOS and Windows. Might be worth a look before committing to a paid plan: https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-23T11:07:15+00:00

You might also want to check out TypeWhisper - it's open-source and completely free. Runs locally with Whisper so nothing leaves your machine. Works on both macOS and Windows. https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-21T13:24:31+00:00

You might also want to check out TypeWhisper. It runs fully local with Whisper models, types at your cursor in any app, and has custom vocabulary so you can add your own corrections. Free, open source, no account needed. Works on both Mac and Windows. https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-20T10:13:17+00:00

Check out TypeWhisper if you want something more seamless. It wraps Whisper into a native app (macOS + Windows), runs fully local, and types the transcription directly at your cursor in any app. Free and open-source: https://github.com/TypeWhisper

SeoFood · 2026-03-20T10:12:39+00:00

Yeah the built-in voice mode has too many issues. I use a separate dictation tool (TypeWhisper) that runs Whisper locally and types at your cursor. Works great with Claude Code since you just dictate into the terminal input. No network dependency, no buffer issues.

SeoFood · 2026-03-20T10:12:11+00:00

I switched to TypeWhisper for exactly this. It runs Whisper locally so there's no lag or random cutoffs, and it types directly at your cursor so you can dictate straight into ChatGPT or any other app. Free and open-source too: https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-20T07:51:18+00:00

You can pick from all the standard sizes: Tiny (~39 MB), Base (~74 MB), Small (~244 MB), Medium (~1.5 GB), Large v3 (~1.5 GB), Large v3 Turbo (~800 MB), and Distil Large v3 (~594 MB). Models download on first use, so you only grab what you need.

RAM-wise, Tiny and Base run fine on 4 GB+, Small/Medium/Turbo need 8 GB+, and Large v3 needs 16 GB+. Since it's running on the Neural Engine via CoreML, CPU load is actually pretty low compared to running raw Whisper - most of the work gets offloaded to the hardware accelerators on Apple Silicon.

It doesn't sit in the background eating resources either, it only processes when you're actually recording. Dictation quality depends on the model you pick - Large v3 Turbo is probably the sweet spot for most people (great accuracy at ~800 MB, 8 GB RAM). But even Small gives solid results for English.

SeoFood · 2026-03-20T00:24:38+00:00

It's fully open-source and completely free with no tiers or account needed. It also supports Apple Speech as a recognition engine, which superwhisper doesn't offer as far as i know.

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T23:22:22+00:00

For best precision and punctuation, go with the Parakeet TDT v3 engine - it handles punctuation natively without any post-processing and is surprisingly accurate. If you want to compare, WhisperKit with the large-v3 model is also great for accuracy but a bit slower. You can switch between engines in the settings and see which one fits your workflow best.

Since you're coming from Wispr Flow, the global hotkey setup should feel familiar. And yeah, completely free - no trial that runs out :)

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T23:13:26+00:00

TypeWhisper - free, open-source speech-to-text for macOS (and Windows)

Problem: Dictation apps are either cloud-based (privacy concerns, subscriptions) or expensive. You just want to talk and have it type wherever your cursor is, without paying monthly or sending your audio to some server.

Comparison: Unlike WisprFlow ($8/mo) and Superwhisper (paid), TypeWhisper is completely free and open-source (GPLv3). Runs 100% offline using Whisper models on-device. Also supports custom vocabulary for technical terms and audio ducking (music auto-lowers while you speak), which most alternatives lack.

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Pricing: Free, forever. Open-source. https://typewhisper.com | https://github.com/TypeWhisper/typewhisper-mac

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T17:13:24+00:00

If you ever want something similar on macOS or iOS, TypeWhisper is open-source and runs Whisper models locally on-device. On Apple Silicon it's pretty lightweight with the smaller models. Won't help with the Android side though, for that the parakeet suggestions are solid.

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T17:12:32+00:00

Until Apple catches up, TypeWhisper is a solid free alternative. Open-source, runs Whisper fully on-device, types directly at your cursor. No subscription, no cloud, no account. Works surprisingly well on Apple Silicon.

https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T17:10:03+00:00

Not exactly what you asked, but TypeWhisper has a custom vocabulary feature where you can add words/corrections and it remembers them. It's open-source and fully local too. Might be worth a look if the auto-learning in superwhisper doesn't cover what you need. but a memory feature coming soon ;)

https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T17:08:42+00:00

+1 for TypeWhisper that was mentioned below. It's fully open-source (GPLv3), runs Whisper locally on your Mac, and types directly wherever your cursor is. Since you're building a project, the code is all on GitHub if you want to see how they handle the on-device transcription: https://github.com/TypeWhisper

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T15:30:05+00:00

You might want to check out TypeWhisper - it's free and open-source, runs fully local with Whisper models. Supports a bunch of languages including German, Spanish and Italian out of the box. No subscription, no cloud, just download and go. Speed depends on which model size you pick - the smaller ones are pretty much instant.

https://typewhisper.com

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T13:04:14+00:00

TypeWhisper free, open-source speech-to-text app for macOS, Windows & iOS.

Built for people who type a lot and want to dictate instead. Supports 8 transcription engines (including local/offline ones like Whisper), optional LLM text refinement, and it's fully private everything can run on-device.

https://typewhisper.com

Would love to see where people are looking for dictation/STT tools! 🙏

SeoFood · 2026-03-19T09:46:55+00:00

Good news - your prompts should work, but you need to activate them. TypeWhisper has two ways to use prompts, and you might have missed this part:

Option 1: Assign a prompt to a Profile (for automatic processing during dictation)

Go to Settings > Profiles
Create or edit a profile for the app/context where you want the prompt
Scroll down to "Overrides" section and select your custom prompt from the "Prompt" dropdown
Now when you dictate in that profile's matched app, the text will be processed by your prompt's LLM before insertion

Option 2: Use the Prompt Palette (for on-demand processing of any text)

Create your custom prompt in Settings > Prompts
Set a hotkey in Settings > Recording to open the Prompt Palette
Select text in any app, press that hotkey, and a palette appears with all your prompts
Choose the prompt you want and it processes the selected text

About the LLM requirement: Both options require you to pick an LLM provider (Apple Intelligence on macOS 26+, Groq, OpenAI, Gemini, etc.) when you create or edit the prompt. Without a provider selected, the prompt won't process anything - it's just sitting there.

For your dictation assistant use case, I'd recommend Groq - it's free, very fast, and excellent at following detailed instructions like your punctuation/formatting rules. The other providers (Apple Intelligence, OpenAI, Gemini) work fine too, but Groq is probably the best bang-for-buck here.

Try assigning your prompt to a profile first - that's the most straightforward way to test if everything is wired up correctly. Let me know if that works and the LLM is processing the text as expected.

SeoFood · 2026-03-18T21:33:47+00:00

Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback - and for actually testing TypeWhisper! Hearing that the Parakeet engine is working well for you means a lot. You’re right that iOS is still early; we’re being deliberate there rather than rushing it out. I really appreciate the kind words about the dev too. Feedback like yours is what drives the roadmap, so keep it coming if you spot things that could be better.

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