The best free dictation app for Mac and Windows

Glimpse keeps dictation free forever, with no word or time limit and every local model included. You download it once and dictate into any app without an account or subscription.

Glimpse is open source under AGPL-3.0, so anyone can read exactly what it does with your audio. The transcription pipeline and the analytics code are both public on GitHub.

Glimpse runs transcription on your own machine by default. Your audio is never uploaded, so dictation works the same offline as it does online.

Glimpse runs Whisper and Distil-Whisper on your device, alongside Parakeet and other local models, with Neural Engine acceleration on Apple Silicon. No cloud round-trip sits in the loop.

Glimpse runs on macOS 14 and later, types into any app, and keeps listening through pauses. Built-in Apple Dictation stops after 30 seconds without speech.

Glimpse is a first-class Windows app on the Microsoft Store, for Windows 10 and later. The same local dictation, custom words, and paid features work on both platforms.

Wispr Flow transcribes in the cloud, and its free plan caps desktop dictation at 2,000 words a week. If you want dictation that stays on your device with no cap and no subscription, Glimpse is the free, local, open-source alternative.

Both transcribe locally and both have a free plan. Glimpse is open source, so you can audit the code, and free dictation includes every local model, Parakeet and large Whisper models included.

MacWhisper started as a file transcription app and has since added dictation. If dictation into any app is your main use, or you need Windows too, Glimpse is built around that, and it is open source.

Glimpse is a strong choice: dictation is free forever with no word or time limit on any model, it runs locally on your machine, it works on both Mac and Windows, and it is open source so you can verify what it does. Many alternatives are subscriptions or cap the free tier.

Yes. Dictation is free forever on macOS and Windows with every local model, with no word or time limit and no account required. An optional one-time license (Solo $25, Plus $39) unlocks extras like AI cleanup, Edit Mode, recording and transcribing audio and video, a CLI, and a local speech API. There is a 14-day trial of most of them.

Yes. Glimpse is open source under AGPL-3.0. The full source, including the transcription pipeline and analytics code, is on GitHub, so you can audit exactly what the app does with your audio.

Yes. Glimpse runs on macOS 14 and later and on Windows 10 and later (through the Microsoft Store), with the same local dictation, custom dictionary, and paid features on each.

Yes. Glimpse runs speech-to-text on your device by default using local models like Whisper and Parakeet, so your audio never leaves your machine and dictation keeps working offline. Cloud providers are optional and off unless you set one up.

Yes. Glimpse covers the same core need, fast dictation into any app, while staying free to dictate, local by default, and open source. Unlike Wispr Flow it transcribes on-device with no weekly word cap, and unlike Superwhisper it is open source, with every local model free for dictation.