The best Spokenly alternatives for Mac in 2026
Spokenly is free with local models, but it starts you on cloud models and AI cleanup needs setting up. Speechy keeps every word on your Mac, cleans up without setup, and also answers from your apps. We make Speechy, so it is listed first.
Short answer
Want more than dictation? Speechy: dictation that stays on your Mac, plus answers from Gmail, Outlook, Calendar, Finder and 1,000+ apps. Free and built in: Apple Dictation. Open source: VoiceInk.
Ask your apps
Ask a question, get the answer from your own apps
Press ⌥⇧Space and ask. Speechy looks in Gmail, Outlook, Calendar, Slack, Notion, Music, Finder and 1,000+ more apps, and answers in the notch with the emails, events or files it found.
+ 1,000 apps
Private voice
Your voice is turned into text on your Mac
Nothing you say is uploaded to be transcribed. Turn on Only My Voice and Speechy learns how you sound, leaves out other voices nearby, and keeps learning as you use it, all on your Mac.
Asking your apps sends your question as text to the AI that answers it. Your voice recording stays on your Mac.
Spokenly is free when you use its local models, and runs on almost everything. People look for an alternative when they want their voice on their Mac by default, clean text without setting up AI, or more than dictation.
Side by side
| App | Answers from your apps | Where your voice goes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 Speechy | Yes, 1,000+ apps | Your Mac, always | From $99 once, or $12.99 a month |
 Spokenly | No | Cloud by default, local optional | Free locally, $29 once, or $9.99 a month |
| Apple Dictation | No | Your Mac for some languages | Free |
 VoiceInk | No | Your Mac, or cloud with your own key | $25 once |
 Superwhisper | No | Cloud by default, local optional | $8.49 a month, or $249.99 once |
 Wispr Flow | A few: Gmail, Calendar, Slack | Cloud, always | $15 a month, or $12 billed yearly |
1. Speechy: best if you want more than dictation
Speechy turns your voice into text on your Mac, and also answers from the apps you connect. Press ⌥⇧Space and ask “what did Kai send me about the launch?”, “what’s on tomorrow?” or “open my Downloads folder”, and the answer appears in the notch with the emails, events or files it found. It works with Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Notion, GitHub, Linear and 1,000+ more apps, plus Mail, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Messages, Music and Finder on your Mac. You sign in to each app once, in your browser.
It can act too. Ask it to email someone and you see Gmail’s own compose window in the notch: check it, change a word, then send, with a few seconds to undo. You choose what each app may do on its own, what asks first, and what never happens.
Dictation never leaves your Mac. Hold Fn, speak, and clean text lands where your cursor is. All 15 speech models run on your Mac’s chip, so dictation works offline, and your words show in a small pill while you talk. Turn on Only My Voice and Speechy learns how you sound, leaves out other voices nearby, and keeps learning as you use it, on your Mac.
Best for: people who want private dictation, and one shortcut that also finds, answers and does things in their apps.
Price: Lifetime from $99, or Pro at $12.99 a month. Try Pro free for 3 days.
Needs: a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.
2. Apple Dictation: best free option
Already on your Mac, and free. Press the Dictation shortcut, speak into any text field, and press it again to stop. Some languages are transcribed on your Mac. On macOS 27, Macs with an M3 or later and 12 GB of memory get Apple's newer dictation, which adds punctuation and formatting. There is no custom vocabulary, and it stops after 30 seconds of silence.
Best for: trying dictation before you pay for anything.
Price: free.
3. VoiceInk: best open source app you pay for once
Open source under GPL-3.0, with local models on your Mac or an optional cloud service. Streaming models show words as you speak, and you set the language per mode. It is on iPhone too.
Best for: people who want local dictation, the source code, and a small one-time price.
Price: $25 once for one Mac ($39 for two, $49 for three), or free if you build it yourself. Needs macOS 15.
4. Superwhisper: best for local or cloud models on every platform
Many local and cloud models, Modes that run your own AI prompts, meeting recording and file transcription, on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android with one license. Its docs start you on its own cloud models, and its best local models need Pro.
Best for: people who want deep control over models and prompts, on every device.
Price: a free plan with local Whisper models, Pro at $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year, or $249.99 once.
5. Wispr Flow: best for dictation on every device
The best known dictation app. It cleans up your words well and runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with team plans and meeting notes. Everything is transcribed in the cloud, so dictation needs a connection, and using your dictations to improve its models is on by default on Free and Pro. Its connectors bring Gmail, Calendar and Slack into its meeting notes and questions.
Best for: people who dictate on Windows or their phone as much as on a Mac.
Price: a free plan that slows down after 2,000 words a week, or Pro at $15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly.
Speechy vs Spokenly, in detail
Spokenly is free for unlimited local dictation, and that is hard to argue with. So here is what Speechy does that you might still pay for, with real examples.
At a glance
| Speechy | Spokenly | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers from your apps | Gmail, Outlook, Calendar, Finder and 1,000+ apps | No, but it can open apps, websites and Shortcuts |
| Where your voice is transcribed | Always on your Mac | Cloud models by default, local models optional |
| Cleaning up ums and corrections | Built in, on your Mac | Through AI: Pro, Apple Intelligence, your own key, or a new local model |
| Ignores other people's voices | Yes, with Only My Voice | No |
| Claude Code and Codex | Questions, permissions and plan limits in your notch | Agents can ask you questions over MCP |
| Price | Lifetime from $99, or Pro at $12.99 a month | Free locally, $29 once for Local+, Pro at $9.99 a month |
| Platforms | Mac with Apple silicon | Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone |
On your Mac, always
Spokenly's own docs say it uses cloud models by default, with local models as optional downloads. Pro audio passes through Spokenly's servers, and AI instructions can send your text to a cloud model.
Speechy has no cloud transcription at all. All 15 of its speech models run on your Mac's chip, and your dictation is never sent to a cloud AI.
Speechy's Models page, listing on-device voice models from NVIDIA, Apple and Whisper
Clean text, no AI key
In Spokenly, cleanup comes from AI: hosted on Pro, Apple Intelligence, your own key, or a new local cleanup model that is off by default.
Speechy tidies your words on your Mac as soon as you install it, with no account at an AI company and no API key. Every "Speechy types" box on this page is the app's own output for that sentence, taken from Speechy's test suite.
It keeps up when you change your mind, too. Say "sorry", "I mean", "make it" or "or rather", and Speechy swaps the old time, date, amount or name for the new one. "Make it work" and "sorry I'm late" are left alone.
Only your voice gets typed
Spokenly separates speakers when it transcribes a meeting or a file, but nothing leaves other voices out while you dictate. Speechy's Only My Voice learns your voice from one sentence read aloud, then drops words from the colleague behind you, the TV or a speakerphone, and keeps learning as you use it. Someone talking over you at the same moment can still slip through, but everyday background chatter does not.
Only My Voice: read one sentence aloud and Speechy learns your voice
Built for Claude Code and Codex
Spokenly has an MCP server so Claude Code, Codex and Cursor can ask you a question and you answer by voice. Speechy goes further, in your Mac's notch:
- Answer everything in one place. Questions, permission requests, plans and finished tasks all land in the notch. Press 1 to allow or 2 to deny, J and K to move between them and E to clear one. Answered too fast? Esc takes it back within 2 seconds.
- Watch your plan limits. Your Claude and Codex usage sits beside the camera, read straight from the tools, with no keys to paste. The Usage tab shows the 5 hour and weekly windows.
- Start the conversation. Say "api, run the migration again on staging", and it goes to that project's agent.
- Read replies right there. Replies show formatted, with tables and code. Drop in up to 6 images, or drag the corner to make the chat bigger.
- Name files out loud. Turn on Reference coding files, and the file names you say become @file references in Claude Code for VS Code.
A Codex permission request in Speechy's notch, with Allow and Deny
Claude and Codex plan usage beside the camera
Talking to the api agent from Speechy's notch
Everything else Speechy does
Several languages, one dictation
Pick your languages and turn on Multiple languages in one dictation. Speechy works out the language again after every pause, on your Mac.
With Hindi and English picked. Speechy mixes English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Hindi, Japanese and Chinese.
Speechy's language settings, with Multiple languages in one dictation
Lists, without touching the keyboard
Count your points out loud, or say "bullet", and Speechy writes the list. In Mail, Notes, Pages and Word the dashes become bullets.
Numbers, money and times, written properly
Punctuation and new lines when you ask
Emails come out shaped like emails
Start with a greeting and end with a sign-off, and Speechy puts each on its own line. It skips this in chat apps, terminals and code editors.
Your words, spelled your way
Add names and jargon to your dictionary, fix a word Speechy keeps mishearing with a replacement (in every app, or only in one), and save snippets for things you say often. Say "insert" and the snippet's name.
With a snippet called "my address" saved.
Speechy's dictionary: words, replacements and voice snippets
It spells what is on your screen
With App Context on, the names in the window you are dictating into become spelling hints. It stays on your Mac, password fields are always skipped, and you can leave out any app.
With DictationController.swift on screen.
Context you control: the names Speechy used from your screen, and the apps it leaves out
Undo a dictation, or throw one away
Press ⌘⌥Z within five minutes and Speechy removes the last dictation and puts back anything it replaced. Press ⌘Esc while talking to drop the take, so nothing is typed or saved.
Speechy's shortcuts: Fn to dictate, ⌘⌥Z to undo, ⌘Esc to discard
Paste, type or just copy, and send
Speechy pastes by default, then puts your clipboard back the way it was. It can type the words out instead, or leave them on the clipboard. Turn on Auto submit and it presses Enter (or ⌘Enter) for you.
Speechy's output settings: paste method, clipboard and auto submit
And more
- Four recording styles: a compact pill, a wide pill with your words, a Dynamic Island style bar or a one-line ticker.
- Music pauses while you talk, then carries on, with Background audio set to Pause media.
- Help when the mic is wrong: if Speechy hears nothing, it plays your recording back and opens the microphone picker in one click.
- Stats for your speed, streaks, golden hour and time saved, and a Speechy pass you can share.
- Light on memory: models free about 1.2 GB after 15 minutes idle and reload as you start talking.
- A whole email from one sentence with Smart Polish on: "draft an email to Sarah saying the deck is delayed to Thursday".
Where Spokenly is better
- Free. Unlimited local dictation costs nothing. Speechy has no free plan.
- Every platform. Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone. Speechy is Mac only for now.
- More engines. Many local and cloud models, with your own keys for free.
- Meetings and files. It records meetings without a bot and transcribes files with speaker labels.
- Work Macs. A Local Only Mode that companies can enforce, plus team seats.
The short version
If free local dictation is all you need, Spokenly is a great deal. Choose Speechy if you want everything on your Mac by default, clean text without setting up AI, other voices left out, and one shortcut that also answers from Gmail, Outlook, Calendar, Finder and 1,000+ apps.
Spokenly details checked again on 20 October 2026 on its pricing page, privacy policy and agent docs. Spokenly updates almost daily, so check their site before you decide. The other apps were checked the same day on their own sites.