How it works.
Four steps — and you control the only one that's optional.
Only the Refining step ever uses the cloud, and it's optional. Prefer your data never leave your machine? Skip it: Listening and Transcribing run 100% locally, and your words go straight into your app. Turn Refining on when you want AI cleanup: use WhisprFree's built-in key (no setup) or bring your own. And there's almost no waiting at the end — your text lands about a second after you stop, whether you spoke for five seconds or five minutes.
You were mid-sentence on something that mattered.
And then the wall: "You've used your 2,000 words this week."
The popular dictation tools meter your voice. Wispr Flow's free plan caps you at 2,000 words a week and resets every Sunday; going past it costs $15/month. Superwhisper runs $9.99/month, and its "lifetime" price has climbed from $249 to $849. They also count your usage and gamify it with streaks and badges — which means someone is tallying how and what you speak.
WhisprFree doesn't have a meter to hit, a counter watching, or a bill at the end.
No account, no trial, no subscription. Zero, permanently.
Dictate all day. Your dictation is never counted or capped.
Your words are ready about a second after you stop — even after a long dictation.
Speech becomes text on your own machine. Audio never leaves.
Optional cleanup runs on your key — or none at all. Your call.
Speak loosely. Read it clean.
Turn on optional AI cleanup and filler disappears while your words stay yours. It fixes punctuation and casing and drops the "um"s, but it never rewords, shortens, or guesses. What you said is what you get.
"um so basically what i'm trying to say is uh we should probably move the meeting to thursday i think that works better for everyone"
We should probably move the meeting to Thursday. I think that works better for everyone.
The honest comparison.
We're Windows-first and newer; they have more polish and mobile today. Here's the trade, straight.
| WhisprFree | Wispr Flow | Superwhisper | Aqua Voice | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free & unlimited | Yes | 2,000 words/week | Limited free tier | 1,000 words (lifetime) |
| Price | $0 | $15/mo | $9.99/mo · $849 lifetime | $8/mo |
| Audio stays local | Always | Sent to servers | Cloud options | Cloud only |
| Bring your own AI key | Yes | No | Partial | No |
| Counts your dictation | Never | Yes (even in privacy mode) | Yes | Yes |
| Platform | Windows · Android preview | Win · Mac · mobile | macOS · iOS | Win · Mac · iOS |
Figures reflect each tool's publicly listed plans at time of writing and can change.
What you hand over elsewhere.
Cloud dictation tools need your voice on their servers to work. That requirement creates a long list of things you have to be told about, agree to, and trust. WhisprFree removes the requirement, so most of the list simply doesn't exist.
| What a cloud dictation service needs | WhisprFree |
|---|---|
| Your recorded audio, uploaded and stored | Never leaves your machine |
| Permission to use your speech to train their AI | We train nothing, ever |
| An account, an email, a password | None — just install and talk |
| A licence to copy, modify and store your content | We claim no rights to your words |
| A "privacy mode" you must find and switch on | Private by default, nothing to configure |
| Trusting a policy that can change later | Architecture, not policy — there's no pipe to change |
| A meter on how much you may speak | Dictate as much as you like |
The difference isn't that we promise to be careful with your voice. It's that we never receive it, so the promise isn't load-bearing. Turn on optional AI cleanup and only the resulting text is sent — to your own AI key if you supply one, in which case we're not involved at all.
No account. No dashboard. No badges.
Because there's almost nothing to collect.
Your audio never leaves your machine
Transcription runs locally — the recording is turned into text on your computer and is never transmitted anywhere, regardless of your settings.
Your words don't come to us
With cleanup off, or cleanup on your own key, WhisprFree sends us nothing at all. No telemetry, no "words this week," no streaks. There is no dashboard because there is nothing collecting.
Cleanup is the one optional exception — and it's yours
Turn on AI cleanup and only the text (never your audio) is sent to the model that cleans it, then it comes right back. Use your own key and it goes to the provider you chose, under their terms. Use WhisprFree's built-in key (free while in beta) and it passes through our relay, which never logs or stores your words: it keeps only a word count per install to keep the free tier fair. Turn cleanup off and you're 100% local: nothing leaves at all.
Get WhisprFree.
Free forever. No account. Windows 10 & 11.
Download for WindowsLatest release: v0.1.38 · installs in seconds, then updates itself.
Hold Ctrl+Win and talk. That's it.
Quick start.
Two ways to talk, plus spoken commands for formatting.
Hold Ctrl+Win and talk. Let go, and your words drop into whatever app is focused.
Double-tap Ctrl+Win to start listening; press once more to stop and insert.
Say "WhisprFree, …" mid-sentence: new line, new paragraph, make this a list, scratch that. With AI cleanup on, any instruction works — "WhisprFree, make that all caps."
No text box focused? Your dictation is still kept — grab it from the tray, or press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C to copy it anywhere.
Free forever — tips just say thanks.
If WhisprFree saved you from a subscription, you can buy me a coffee. Completely optional — it just helps keep it free and improving.
☕ Buy me a coffeeAbout.
WhisprFree is a free, local-first dictation app for Windows — built by one person who wanted voice typing that's fast, private, and actually yours, not a subscription that stops you mid-sentence. Your voice becomes text on your own machine, near-instantly, with no account and nothing counting. Optional AI cleanup is there when you want extra polish, on your own key. That's the whole idea: fast, private, unlimited dictation that's simply yours.
Questions, answered.
Is it really free?
Yes — no account, no trial, no meter. Transcription runs locally on your machine, so there's no per-word cost to pass on to you.
Do I need an API key?
Only for optional AI cleanup. Dictation works fully without one. For cleanup, bring your own key (Claude, Groq, OpenAI, or any compatible) — or, soon, use our hosted option for a small fee.
Where does my audio go?
Nowhere. It's transcribed locally and never transmitted. With cleanup on, only the resulting text is sent to the provider you chose. We have no server and never store, analyze, or train on anything.
What do I need to run it?
Windows 10 or 11. A modern GPU makes transcription fast, but it isn't required.
Isn't local transcription slow?
No. When you stop, your text is ready in a fraction of a second — even for long dictations — and all on your own machine.
How do I dictate?
Hold Ctrl+Win and talk (push-to-talk), or double-tap to toggle hands-free. Your words type into whatever app is focused.