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. There's no word counter to run into.
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 rambling speech becomes finished text — on your key, or skip it entirely.
"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 move the meeting to Thursday — 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free & unlimited | Yes | 2,000 words/week | Limited free tier |
| Price | $0 | $15/mo | $9.99/mo · $849 lifetime |
| Audio stays local | Always | Sent to servers | Cloud options |
| Bring your own AI key | Yes | No | Partial |
| Counts your usage | Never | Yes (even in privacy mode) | Yes |
| Platform | Windows | Win · Mac · mobile | macOS · iOS |
Figures reflect each tool's publicly listed plans at time of writing and can change.
No counter. No dashboard. No badges.
Because there's nothing collecting.
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.
Nothing ever goes to us
WhisprFree runs no server and no database. There's nowhere for your words to land with us — we can't count, store, analyze, or train on your dictation. No telemetry, no "words this week," no streaks.
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 provider you chose on your key, or (coming soon) our hosted option. It goes only to the model that cleans it up and comes right back, under that provider's terms. Turn cleanup off and you're 100% local: nothing leaves at all.
Get WhisprFree.
Free forever. No account. Windows 10 & 11.
Download for WindowsHold Ctrl+Win and talk. That's it.
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.
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.