VoiceInk is the answer to "I want superwhisper but I don't want to pay $249 or spend an evening configuring it." It's GPL v3, developed in the open on GitHub, runs transcription entirely on your Mac, and sells a perpetual licence starting at $29. The scope is deliberately narrower than the commercial alternatives — Apple Silicon Macs only — and within that scope it's hard to beat on price.
At a glance
Platforms
macOS 14.4+, Apple Silicon only (a separate iOS app exists)
Pricing
$29 one Mac, $49 two Macs, $69 three Macs — all one-time
Free tier
Free trial; source is GPL v3 if you want to build it yourself
Price. $29 once, against $8–15 a month elsewhere. Break-even against a subscription is about three months.
Genuinely open source. GPL v3 with the code on GitHub, so the privacy claim is auditable rather than asserted. You can build it from source and pay nothing.
Model choice. Whisper via whisper.cpp, Parakeet via FluidAudio, and Cohere Transcribe. Parakeet in particular is fast on Apple Silicon.
App-aware modes. Detects the frontmost app and applies the settings you configured for it, without you switching manually.
Everything local. No account, no server round trip, no retention policy to read.
Where it falls short
Apple Silicon Macs only. No Intel, no Windows, no Linux. The iOS app is a separate product, not the same licence.
Small team, small support surface. This is an independent open-source project. Bug turnaround and documentation are not what a funded startup provides.
Licence is per-device. Three Macs means the $69 tier. Cheap, but worth counting first.
No meeting or file-transcription features. It dictates. For recordings, you'll want MacWhisper alongside it.
Local models cap your accuracy. Without a cloud frontier model doing cleanup, output is closer to a transcript than the polished prose the cloud tools produce.
Pricing
Three lifetime tiers, differing only in device count: $29 for one Mac, $49 for two, $69 for three. One-time payment, lifetime updates, 14-day refund. There's a free trial, and because it's GPL v3 you can compile it yourself at no cost — the licence fee buys the notarised build and supports development.
Who it's for
Mac users on Apple Silicon who want local dictation, dislike subscriptions, and value being able to read the source. It's the best-value entry in the local-first group. Choose superwhisper instead if you need Windows, iOS on the same licence, or the deeper mode scripting; choose Handy if you need Linux.
Last verified: 9 August 2026.
Similar to VoiceInk
VoiceInk: GPL-licensed local Mac dictation for $29, once – Dictation Database
