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Last updated May 24, 2026
Glimpse vs Superwhisper
Both run transcription on your machine. The big differences are price, openness, and how each handles cloud features.
TL;DR
Pick Superwhisper if…
- You want the most polished, mature product and don't mind paying.
- You like having a wide menu of built-in cloud model options.
- You also want an iPhone app (Glimpse is desktop only today).
Pick Glimpse if…
- You want it free, with no recording limit.
- You want it open source so you (or anyone) can audit what it does.
- You'd rather bring your own LLM API keys than pay another subscription.
- You want a Library mode for importing audio and video files in the free tier.
Side by side
| Glimpse | Superwhisper | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $8.49/mo, yearly, or one-time lifetime |
| Free tier | Full app, no limits | 15 min recording limited free tier after |
| Open source | Yes, AGPL-3.0 audit it on GitHub | |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Local transcription | Yes, by default works fully offline | Yes best on Apple Silicon |
| Cloud transcription | Built-in cloud models | |
| AI cleanup / Edit Mode | Yes, bring your own LLM key no markup | Built-in, with BYO key option |
| Custom dictionary | ||
| Per-app modes | ||
| Audio / video file import | Yes Pro feature | |
| Anonymous telemetry | Opt-out off with one click | Not publicly documented |
Privacy
Both tools can transcribe locally. The difference is in what happens around that. Superwhisper offers both local and cloud models in the same UI, which is convenient but means it's easy to route audio to a cloud service without noticing. Glimpse runs locally by default. If you want cloud cleanup or rewriting, you bring your own LLM API key, and the request goes from your machine straight to that provider.
Pricing
Superwhisper is a paid product, with a free trial limited to 15 minutes of recording. The team has clearly invested a lot in polish and is charging accordingly. Fair. Glimpse is free and open source under AGPL-3.0. The local app will stay free.
Openness
Superwhisper is closed source. That's a normal business choice and doesn't make it bad, but it means you're taking the team's word for what the app does with your audio and your data. Glimpse is on GitHub under AGPL-3.0. You can read the analytics code, the transcription pipeline, all of it. If you don't trust a privacy claim, you can check it yourself.
Platforms
Both run on Mac and Windows. Superwhisper also has an iOS app, so if you want dictation on your phone too, it's the only option of the two today. Glimpse is desktop only for now.
Try Glimpse
It's free. If it doesn't fit, you've spent five minutes and zero dollars finding out.