Eight dictation apps that make an offline claim, checked directly against each vendor's own page, plus where Hovor fits in the comparison.
Three apps run fully offline with no subscription. Whisper Notes costs $6.99 one-time on iOS and Mac. VoiceInk is open source, from $25 one-time on Mac. Windows Voice Access is free inside Windows 11 and works offline after a one-time language download. Those three are the cheapest confirmed fully offline options.
Hovor is a partial case worth stating plainly: its on-device Parakeet model transcribes offline on iOS and macOS (Local Unlock, $49.99 one-time), but the text-formatting stage still needs a network call or Apple Foundation Models. It is not a fully offline pipeline end to end.
All competitor pricing and features verified against vendor pages on 19 July 2026.
Apps claiming offline support fall into three distinct tiers, and the difference matters more than the marketing copy suggests. Fully offline apps never send audio to a server in any plan: Whisper Notes, VoiceInk and Windows Voice Access. Partially offline apps make local processing an option or a paid tier: MacWhisper, Apple Dictation, Superwhisper and Willow Voice. A third group makes no offline claim at all.
Wispr Flow is the example of that third group: it simply doesn't advertise an on-device mode. That is not the same as proof it requires internet in every case, but the vendor makes no on-device promise to check against. Each classification above comes from the vendor's own page, not from third-party reviews.
The table below lists platform support, offline capability tier, pricing model, and price for all eight apps, plus Hovor for direct comparison. Every figure is traceable to the vendor's own pricing or product page as of 19 July 2026.
| App | Platforms | Offline capability | Pricing model | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whisper Notes | iOS (12+), macOS (Apple Silicon) | Fully offline | One-time | $6.99 (iOS); Mac: 10,000-word free trial, then $6.99 |
| VoiceInk | macOS (Apple Silicon, 14.4+) | Fully offline (open source) | One-time, or free from source | $25 Solo / $39 Personal / $49 Extended |
| Windows Voice Access | Windows 11 (22H2+) | Fully offline after language download | Free (built into OS) | $0 |
| MacWhisper | macOS, iOS | Offline with local Whisper/Parakeet models; cloud is opt-in | Free tier + one-time Pro | €64 Pro, lifetime updates |
| Apple Dictation | macOS, iOS | On-device available, not guaranteed for every language/mode | Free (built into OS) | $0 |
| Superwhisper | macOS, Windows, iOS | Offline models are Pro-only; free tier is cloud-only | Subscription or one-time | $8.49/mo, $84.99/yr, or $249.99 lifetime |
| Willow Voice | macOS, Windows, iOS | Partial: distinct opt-in offline mode | Subscription | $15/mo individual, $12/mo billed annually |
| Wispr Flow | macOS, Windows, iOS | No on-device mode advertised | Free tier + subscription | Free (2,000 words/wk Mac/Win); $12-15/user/mo Pro |
| Hovor | iOS, macOS, Windows (in development) | On-device via Parakeet when loaded (iOS ≥4GB, macOS unconditional); server fallback while loading; formatting stage is not offline | Free tier + subscription + one-time unlock | Free 2,000 words/wk; Pro $11.99/mo or $89.99/yr; Local Unlock $49.99 one-time |
Three apps in this comparison run their entire speech-recognition pipeline on-device with no server call, confirmed against each vendor's own page checked 19 July 2026: Whisper Notes, VoiceInk, and Windows Voice Access. Whisper Notes and VoiceInk are one-time Mac/iOS purchases; Windows Voice Access ships free inside Windows 11. None of the three ever sends audio to a server, in any plan or tier.
Whisper Notes runs on iPhone 12 and newer and Apple Silicon Macs, using Whisper Large V3 Turbo as its primary model, with Parakeet V3 and SenseVoice also available; the vendor claims support for 100+ languages, at a $6.99 one-time price on iOS and the same price on Mac after a 10,000-word free trial — no subscription. VoiceInk is open source under GPLv3 for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14.4 or later; you can build it from source for free, or buy a signed build with lifetime updates for $25 (Solo, 1 Mac), $39 (Personal, 2 Macs), or $49 (Extended, 3 Macs). Its vendor page states "100% offline processing, no data leaves your device" for local models. Windows Voice Access is Microsoft's own built-in feature on Windows 11 (22H2 and later), free with no purchase, and Microsoft's support page confirms on-device recognition that works without internet after a one-time language-pack download.
MacWhisper, Apple Dictation, Superwhisper, and Willow Voice all support offline use, but each attaches a condition: a paid tier, an opt-in toggle, or an unverified default. None guarantees on-device processing unconditionally across every plan, language, or mode — the table's "conditional" markers reflect exactly that caveat, not full offline coverage like Whisper Notes or VoiceInk.
MacWhisper runs local Whisper or Parakeet models offline by default, with cloud providers available as an opt-in; it has a free tier and a €64 one-time Pro tier with lifetime updates (its vendor page renders pricing in EUR, not USD). Apple Dictation offers on-device processing you can verify yourself in Keyboard settings, free with macOS and iOS, but Apple does not publish an unconditional guarantee covering every language and mode, so treat it as "usually on-device" rather than "always on-device." Superwhisper reserves local, offline voice models for its Pro tier only — its free tier is cloud-only per Superwhisper's documentation — with Pro priced at $8.49/month, $84.99/year, or a $249.99 one-time lifetime option. Willow Voice ships a distinct, opt-in "Offline mode," which by naming implies its standard mode uses the cloud; pricing is subscription-only at $15/month individually or $12/month billed annually, and while a free tier exists, its word cap is not stated on the vendor's page.
Wispr Flow makes no offline claim on its pricing page at all — the correct description is "no on-device mode advertised," not "doesn't work offline," since the vendor simply doesn't address the question. Its free Basic tier gives 2,000 words/week on Mac and Windows, and 1,000 words/week on iPhone; Pro is $12/user/month billed annually or $15/user/month monthly, with a 14-day trial.
Three apps didn't make the main table, each for a specific reason. Aqua Voice makes no offline claim on its pricing page (Starter free with 1,000 words, Pro $8/month billed annually, Team $12/month annual) — it was dropped only for space, not for a data gap. Talon Voice has a strong offline reputation in its community, but its own homepage does not state its offline status or speech engine, so we won't publish a claim the vendor itself doesn't make; it is free for personal use with an optional $25/month Patreon support tier, on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Dragon Anywhere (Nuance/Microsoft) is a US/Canada-only mobile app, publishes no price on its own page ("Contact us" only), and explicitly requires an active Wi-Fi or cellular connection with speech processed in the United States — confirmed not offline. Note separately: Dragon for Mac was discontinued after its final release around October 2018, so it does not appear in any Mac-platform comparison here.
Hovor is not the cheapest fully offline option here, and it does not run a fully offline pipeline end to end. Whisper Notes at $6.99 and VoiceInk's open-source build both undercut its $49.99 Local Unlock, and both keep the whole pipeline local. Hovor's on-device Parakeet model covers only the speech-to-text step, not the formatting step.
Concretely: Parakeet runs offline once the model is loaded (macOS unconditionally, iOS with roughly 4 GB+ RAM), with a server fallback while the model is still loading. Turning that raw transcript into formatted, styled text still requires Hovor's server, Apple Foundation Models on iOS 26+, or your own BYOK key. Hovor's Windows client, built on Tauri, is still in development and does not yet ship any dictation.
Where Hovor differs is elsewhere. Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 is trained across 25 European languages with balanced sampling and a single shared tokenizer, so Ukrainian gets the same training weight as German or French — correct apostrophes (м'ясо, об'єкт), soft signs (день, тінь), and native capitalization, rather than an English-first afterthought. Local Unlock is a single one-time, family-shareable purchase that also unlocks unlimited dictionary replacements, snippets, and custom workflows — comparable in structure to Willow Voice's or Superwhisper's paid tiers, but without the recurring subscription those charge for their own offline modes. If your priority is the single cheapest fully offline app, Whisper Notes or VoiceInk wins outright. If your priority is offline speech recognition specifically strong on Ukrainian and other European languages, alongside a cloud fallback and paid formatting options, Hovor is built for that case instead.
Whisper Notes is the cheapest confirmed fully-offline option: $6.99 one-time on iPhone 12 or newer, with no subscription. On Mac, it offers a 10,000-word free trial before the same $6.99 one-time unlock. VoiceInk is free if you build it yourself from its GPLv3 source on GitHub, or $25 one-time (Solo licence, 1 Mac) if you'd rather pay for a signed build with updates. Windows Voice Access is free because it ships inside Windows 11 (22H2 or later) — there is no purchase at all, only a one-time language-pack download before it works offline. All three run their speech recognition entirely on-device once set up, per each vendor's own product page, checked 19 July 2026.
Yes to both: it's built into Windows 11 version 22H2 and later at no cost, and Microsoft's own support page states it uses on-device speech recognition that works without an internet connection after you download the relevant language pack once. There's no subscription, no per-word limit, and no account requirement described on Microsoft's page. The trade-off is platform lock-in — it only exists on Windows, so it isn't an option for Mac or iPhone users, and Microsoft's page doesn't describe cross-device sync or dictionary customization the way dedicated dictation apps do.
Partially. Hovor's on-device Parakeet model transcribes speech to raw text entirely on your Mac or iPhone and the audio is not uploaded once the model is loaded, the same way Whisper Notes and VoiceInk do — though if the model is still loading (after an app relaunch, or while it is still downloading), that recording falls back to server transcription, which Whisper Notes and VoiceInk never do. Whisper Notes and VoiceInk are also built to be fully offline end-to-end, while Hovor's formatting stage (grammar, punctuation, tone) is a separate step that still needs Hovor's server, Apple Foundation Models on iOS 26+, or your own BYOK key — Hovor ships code for a fully local tone formatter, but it does not work on any platform today. On iOS, Parakeet also requires roughly 4 GB of RAM or more; on macOS it has no such gate. Hovor's offline transcription already works on the free tier under its own weekly quota; removing that cap costs the one-time $49.99 Local Unlock purchase (or a Pro subscription) — the unlock is comparable in structure to Whisper Notes' and VoiceInk's one-time pricing, though higher in price.
"Fully offline" apps such as Whisper Notes, VoiceInk, and Windows Voice Access never send audio to a server, in any tier or plan. An "offline mode" like Willow Voice's implies the opposite by naming convention: if there's a distinct offline mode, the standard mode is cloud-based, and you have to actively choose or configure the offline path. Superwhisper is explicit about this — its local voice models are a Pro-only feature, while its free tier is cloud-only per Superwhisper's own documentation. Read the vendor's own wording carefully: "works offline" and "has an offline mode" are not interchangeable claims, and only the vendor's page settles which one applies.
Often, yes — Apple's Dictation on macOS and iOS offers on-device processing that you can verify yourself in Keyboard settings, and it's free with no app to install. But Apple does not publish an unconditional guarantee that every language and every dictation mode runs on-device; some configurations may still depend on Apple's servers, and Apple does not publish a supported-language count for this specific guarantee. If a hard offline requirement matters for your work, verify the on-device toggle in your own Settings rather than assuming it based on the OS in general — it's a real feature, but its exact scope is set by Apple's own settings UI, not by a blanket marketing claim.
Hovor's Parakeet model transcribes offline on Mac and iPhone. Free tier includes 2,000 cloud words/week. Local Unlock adds unlimited on-device transcription: one-time purchase, family-shareable, no subscription.
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