SuperWhisper

What Is SuperWhisper?

SuperWhisper is a native Mac application that runs OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition model entirely on your device. It provides system-wide dictation that works in any app, with the key differentiator being complete offline processing for maximum privacy. Your voice data never leaves your computer — not during transcription, not for analytics, not ever.

Developed by an independent Mac developer, SuperWhisper has carved out a loyal following among privacy-conscious professionals since its launch in 2023. It bridges the gap between the raw power of the open-source Whisper model and the polished experience of commercial dictation tools like Wispr Flow or Dragon. You get the accuracy of Whisper without needing to open a terminal or write Python scripts.

The app sits quietly in your menu bar and activates via a configurable hotkey. Press the shortcut, speak, and your words appear as text in whatever application has focus — Slack, Google Docs, VS Code, email, or any other text field. When you release the key or pause speaking, SuperWhisper processes the audio locally and delivers the transcript within seconds.

Setup & Installation

Installing SuperWhisper is straightforward. Download the app from the official website, drag it to your Applications folder, and launch. On first run, the app requests microphone access and then downloads your first Whisper model. The small model is roughly 500 MB; the large-v3 model is about 3 GB. Downloads happen in the background, and you can start using the tool immediately with the smaller model while the larger one downloads.

The initial setup wizard lets you configure your activation hotkey, choose a default model size, and set audio input preferences. We tested on a MacBook Pro M3 with 18 GB RAM and had the app fully operational within four minutes, including model download time on a 100 Mbps connection. On an older MacBook Air M1 with 8 GB RAM, setup took slightly longer but the app ran smoothly with the small and medium models.

One notable detail: SuperWhisper does not require account creation. There is no login screen, no email verification, and no cloud account. You purchase a license through the Mac App Store or the developer's website, and the app activates locally. This is a refreshing departure from the account-first approach of most modern software.

Whisper Model Comparison

SuperWhisper gives you access to five Whisper model sizes: tiny (39M parameters), base (74M), small (244M), medium (769M), and large-v3 (1.55B parameters). Each step up in model size improves accuracy but increases processing time and memory usage. Understanding which model to use is key to getting the best experience.

In our testing on a MacBook Pro M3, the tiny model transcribed in near real-time with approximately 88% accuracy on standard English text. The small model achieved 91% accuracy with a barely perceptible delay. The medium model hit 93% accuracy with about a one-second processing lag. The large-v3 model delivered 95-96% accuracy but required 2-3 seconds of processing per utterance. For most users, the small or medium model offers the best balance of speed and accuracy.

Apple Silicon Macs handle these models efficiently thanks to the Neural Engine and unified memory architecture. On Intel Macs, processing is significantly slower — the large model becomes impractical for real-time dictation, though it still works well for batch transcription of longer recordings. If you are on an Intel Mac, stick with the small or medium model for dictation.

Accuracy & Performance

SuperWhisper's accuracy depends primarily on the model size you choose and the quality of your microphone input. Using the large-v3 model with a decent USB microphone, we measured 95-96% raw accuracy on our standard 500-word test passages. This is 3-4% lower than Wispr Flow's AI-enhanced output but impressive for a fully offline tool with no cloud processing.

Where SuperWhisper particularly shines is with non-English languages. Because it uses the full Whisper model, which was trained on multilingual data, it handles French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, and dozens of other languages with accuracy that rivals or exceeds many cloud-based services. In our Japanese dictation test, the large model achieved 92% accuracy — better than Google's cloud speech API on the same passage.

Dictation speed depends on model choice. With the small model, text appears within 500 ms of speaking — fast enough for fluid dictation. The large model introduces 2-3 seconds of latency, which creates a noticeable gap between speaking and seeing text. This latency is acceptable for paragraph-at-a-time dictation but can feel sluggish during rapid back-and-forth editing. The tool does not offer real-time streaming like cloud services; it processes audio in chunks after you stop speaking.

Privacy & Security Deep Dive

Privacy is SuperWhisper's defining characteristic. The application architecture is designed so that audio never leaves your device under any circumstances. There are no analytics endpoints, no telemetry calls, no server-side processing. We verified this by monitoring network traffic during extended dictation sessions — SuperWhisper made zero outbound network connections while processing audio.

This level of privacy makes SuperWhisper uniquely suitable for sensitive professions. Medical professionals dictating patient notes can use it without HIPAA concerns about cloud data transmission. Lawyers drafting confidential documents have no risk of privileged information reaching third-party servers. Journalists protecting sources can dictate interview notes without creating a digital trail outside their own machine.

The trade-off is clear: you sacrifice the accuracy boost that cloud AI provides (Wispr Flow's post-processing adds roughly 3-4% accuracy) in exchange for absolute certainty that your words remain private. For most privacy-sensitive users, this is an easy trade to make.

Mac Integration & Daily Workflow

SuperWhisper integrates deeply with macOS. It supports system-wide dictation in any application through its hotkey activation, which works reliably across native Mac apps, Electron apps, web browsers, and even terminal emulators. The app also supports per-application profiles, so you can configure different model sizes or settings for different workflows — a larger model for writing long documents, a faster model for quick Slack messages.

The menu bar interface is minimal and unobtrusive. A small icon shows the current status (idle, listening, processing), and clicking it reveals settings, model management, and a transcription history. The history feature logs your recent dictation sessions, which is useful for reviewing what you said if you were not watching the screen while speaking.

One quality-of-life feature that power users appreciate is the auto-punctuation system. While not as sophisticated as Wispr Flow's AI-powered punctuation, SuperWhisper adds basic periods and commas based on pauses in speech. You can also dictate punctuation explicitly by saying "period," "comma," or "new line." The combination of automatic and explicit punctuation handles most standard writing scenarios well.

Pricing Analysis

SuperWhisper offers two subscription tiers. The Starter plan costs $4.99 per month and includes unlimited transcriptions with all Whisper model sizes and basic customization. The Pro plan costs $9.99 per month and adds custom vocabulary lists, API access for automation workflows, and priority support from the developer.

Compared to Wispr Flow's $8.99/month Pro plan, SuperWhisper Starter is nearly half the price for a comparable core dictation experience. The key trade-off is accuracy: Wispr Flow's cloud AI adds 3-4% effective accuracy, which may or may not be worth the price difference depending on your tolerance for corrections. For users who value privacy over marginal accuracy gains, SuperWhisper Starter at $4.99/month is excellent value.

There is no free tier, which is a notable gap. Wispr Flow offers 50 free minutes per month, and Apple Dictation is entirely free. However, SuperWhisper does offer a 7-day free trial that provides full access to all features, which is sufficient to determine whether the tool fits your workflow before committing to a subscription.

Who Is SuperWhisper Best For?

SuperWhisper is the ideal tool for Mac users who need dictation with strong privacy guarantees. Medical professionals, lawyers, therapists, financial advisors, and journalists are the primary audience. Anyone who handles confidential, privileged, or sensitive information and cannot risk that data being transmitted to cloud servers should consider SuperWhisper first.

It is also an excellent choice for users in areas with unreliable internet connectivity. Because all processing is local, SuperWhisper works perfectly on airplanes, in rural areas, and in buildings with poor Wi-Fi. This makes it a natural fit for writers who work in cafes, professionals who travel frequently, and anyone who does not want their productivity to depend on a network connection.

SuperWhisper is less ideal for Windows or Linux users (it is Mac-only), users who need the absolute highest accuracy (Wispr Flow's cloud AI is superior), or users who primarily need meeting transcription rather than active dictation (Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai are better for that).

Alternatives to Consider

Wispr Flow ($8.99/month) is the primary alternative for Mac users who prioritize accuracy over privacy. It offers cloud-based AI post-processing that boosts accuracy by 3-4% and works on Mac, Windows, and iOS. MacWhisper ($29 one-time for Pro) is a more affordable alternative focused on file transcription rather than real-time dictation — ideal if you primarily need to transcribe recordings rather than dictate live.

Apple Dictation (free) provides on-device processing on Apple Silicon Macs, but with lower accuracy (85-90%) and no model selection. OpenAI Whisper (free, open-source) is the underlying technology that SuperWhisper wraps — if you are comfortable with the command line, you can get the same accuracy for free, but without the polished Mac-native interface and system-wide integration.

Long-Term Value & Verdict

SuperWhisper occupies a unique and important position in the dictation software market: it is the best offline dictation tool available for Mac. No other product combines Whisper-level accuracy with a polished native Mac interface and absolute data privacy. For its target audience — privacy-conscious professionals — there is no real substitute.

The main limitation is the accuracy ceiling. Without cloud AI post-processing, SuperWhisper tops out at roughly 95-96% accuracy with the large model. This is very good, but the 3-4% gap versus Wispr Flow means more corrections per page for sustained dictation. Whether that gap matters depends on your priorities: if privacy is non-negotiable, the accuracy trade-off is trivial. If maximum accuracy is your goal, Wispr Flow delivers more polish.

We recommend SuperWhisper to anyone in a privacy-sensitive profession, anyone who frequently works offline, and any Mac user who wants high-quality dictation without sending voice data to the cloud. At $4.99/month for the Starter tier, it is both affordable and excellent at what it does.