TL;DR: Both run entirely on your Mac, both are paid once, and both do the same core job well. The gap is polish and price: Superwhisper is the refined commercial tool at $249.99 lifetime, VoiceInk is the open-source one at $25. Neither can press Enter for you or move you to the next window. If that is the friction you are trying to kill, the third option below runs on three spoken triggers with zero keypresses, for $99 a year.
Before the detail, the one structural difference behind every row below. Infina runs on three spoken triggers and there is no fourth. Say "type" and a sentence and it lands as typed text in whatever app is in front of you. Say "send it", or just "enter", and it presses Enter so the prompt actually goes. Say "open Cursor" or "open Slack" and your computer switches apps for you.
Nothing is held down and nothing is pressed. There is no push-to-talk key to find and no Enter key to reach for two hundred times a day, which is the part every other tool in this category leaves to your hands. The local hotkey apps below all stop at inserting text, which leaves the two keypresses around every prompt exactly where they were.
Anyone searching superwhisper vs voiceink has already decided two things: local, and no subscription. Good instincts. We referee these two fairly first, with prices from their own pages, then make the case for what we build.
Superwhisper vs VoiceInk at a glance
| Superwhisper | VoiceInk | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier; Pro $8.49/mo or $84.99/yr; $249.99 lifetime | $25 one Mac, $39 two, $49 three, paid once |
| Source code | Proprietary | Open source, GPLv3, public on GitHub |
| Where transcription runs | On your Mac, local models; cloud optional | On your Mac, local Whisper models |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, iOS | Mac only (Apple Silicon, macOS 14.4+) |
| Model choice | Pick and swap models; modes per task | Local Whisper models |
| Trigger | Hotkey-triggered | Hotkey-triggered |
| Refund | 30-day refund | 14-day money-back guarantee |
| Behind it | Commercial team | Indie, single developer |
| Sends your prompt for you | No | No |
Sources: superwhisper.com, tryvoiceink.com and the VoiceInk GitHub repository, all checked September 14, 2026. Prices change; check their sites for current terms.
The price gap is ten to one, and it is real
$25 against $249.99 is not a rounding error, so it deserves a straight answer: for plain local dictation into a text box, VoiceInk does the job, and the extra $225 buys polish rather than capability.
That is not an insult to Superwhisper. Polish is worth money. What Superwhisper gives you for the difference is a more finished product: a model picker so you can tune speed against accuracy yourself, modes that format output differently depending on whether you are writing an email or a note, wider platform coverage, and a company with a support queue behind it.
VoiceInk gives you the core loop, competently, for the price of a lunch, from a single developer, with the source on GitHub so you can read exactly what it does with your audio. For a lot of people that is the entire requirement.
If you are unsure, note that VoiceInk has a 14-day money-back guarantee and Superwhisper has both a free tier and a 30-day refund. This is one of the rare comparisons where trying both costs almost nothing.
Open source is a privacy argument, not just an ideology one
Both apps keep your audio on your Mac, so on the headline privacy claim they tie. But they ask for different kinds of trust.
With Superwhisper you are trusting a commercial vendor's word and reputation, which is well earned in this case: their local-first stance is the thing they are known for.
With VoiceInk you do not have to take anyone's word for it. The code is GPLv3 and public, so the claim "your audio stays on this machine" is something you or anyone else can verify by reading it. For people whose dictation involves client work, legal matters, health information, or anything under an NDA, that is a materially different kind of assurance.
The flip side is the usual one for indie software: a single maintainer means fixes and macOS compatibility updates arrive when one person has time.
Platforms: the quiet tiebreaker
VoiceInk is Mac only, and needs Apple Silicon on macOS 14.4 or later. If you also work on a Windows machine or want the same tool on an iPhone, VoiceInk simply is not there, and Superwhisper is, on Mac, Windows, and iOS.
This decides more purchases than the feature lists do. Check what is on your desk before reading another comparison table.
What both of them stop short of
Here is the line that runs under this entire category, and it is worth seeing before you spend anything.
Both of these apps are hotkey-triggered. To dictate, a finger goes on a key. That is one physical act. Then the words appear in the box, and to actually send the prompt, a finger goes on Enter. That is a second one. Then to get to the next window, a hand goes to the mouse. That is a third.
For writing a document, fine, nobody minds. But if you spend your day prompting Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor, you are doing that three-step dance on every single prompt, a few hundred times a day. The dictation was never the slow part.
The verdict between the two
- Pick VoiceInk if you want plain, private, local dictation on a Mac at the smallest possible price, and the open source code is a feature rather than a curiosity. $25 is the correct price for what most people actually need.
- Pick Superwhisper if you want the polished version: model choice, task modes, Windows and iOS as well, and a commercial team behind it. The $249.99 lifetime license is a serious buy, and the free tier lets you find out first.
Neither is a mistake. Both stop at the text box.
The third option, for people who prompt AI tools all day
Our pitch, on the same facts.
Infina is the tool with no physical interaction at all. It is a Mac and Windows app for people who prompt AI agents for a living, and its entire interface is three spoken words:
- Say "type" and then your sentence, and it types into whatever app is in front of you.
- Say "send it", or just "enter", and it presses Enter, so the prompt actually goes.
- Say "open Cursor" or "open Slack", and it switches apps.
Three triggers, and there is no fourth. Nothing to memorize, no command grammar, no key held down. You can be standing across the room, coffee in hand, and keep four agents running: dictate to one, say "send it", say "open Codex", dictate to the next. Every hotkey tool on this page needs a finger on a key before it will even listen, which is why none of them can do that.
On privacy, Infina lines up with both apps above: transcription runs on-device by default, using NVIDIA's Parakeet model on the Apple Neural Engine, it works offline, and nothing is sent anywhere. The base output is deliberately raw and instant, because a language model does not need your punctuation fixed before it reads your prompt.
It is $99 a year (at the time of writing), flat, unlimited words and unlimited commands, with a free trial of 2,000 words and 50 commands that needs no card, and a 7-day no-questions refund. If you later want polished prose for things people read, there is an optional cloud add-on on top of that yearly plan, $5 a month billed annually at $60, for large-model cleanup and more languages. It stays optional on purpose: if you mostly talk to AI agents, the plan you already have is enough.
When Infina is not the answer. On pure price, VoiceInk wins and we will not pretend otherwise: $25 once against $99 a year is not close, and if hotkey dictation into a text box is all you need, buy VoiceInk. Superwhisper's $249.99 lifetime also beats us over a long enough horizon. Our argument is capability, not cost. Also: no phone app, English only in the base product, and Apple Silicon required for the Mac's on-device models.
FAQ
Is VoiceInk as good as Superwhisper? For the core job of local dictation into any app, yes, and it costs $25 against $249.99. Superwhisper's extra money buys polish rather than a capability VoiceInk lacks: a model picker, task-specific output modes, Windows and iOS versions, and a commercial support team. If you only dictate on a Mac and want it private and cheap, VoiceInk is the sensible buy.
Is VoiceInk open source? Yes. VoiceInk is GPLv3 and its source is public on GitHub, which means its claim that audio stays on your machine can be verified rather than taken on trust. Superwhisper is proprietary, though it is also local-first and keeps audio on your Mac.
Do Superwhisper and VoiceInk work offline? Yes, both. Each runs local Whisper-family speech models on your Mac, so neither needs an internet connection and no audio leaves the machine. Superwhisper additionally offers optional cloud models. Infina is on-device by default as well.
Can Superwhisper or VoiceInk send a prompt or switch apps by voice? No. Both are hotkey-triggered and stop once the text is on screen. Pressing Enter to send and clicking into the next window stay manual in both. Infina is the option that finishes the loop by voice, with "type", "send it" or "enter", and "open Cursor".
What is the cheapest local dictation app for Mac? VoiceInk, at $25 one-time for a single Mac, is the cheapest paid option that runs entirely on-device. Superwhisper has a free tier with small local models if you want to spend nothing at all. Neither is hands-free; Infina is $99 a year and adds the spoken send and app switch.
The bottom line
Between the two: VoiceInk at $25 if you want private local dictation at the lowest honest price, Superwhisper at $249.99 lifetime if you want the polished multi-platform version. Both are good software and neither will overcharge you.
But both of them wait for a finger on a key, and both of them stop when the words land. If your day is prompting AI agents, the keyboard is still in the loop at both ends. Infina takes it out: "type", "send it", "open Cursor", nothing touched, $99 a year, refund in one email.
Full head-to-heads: Superwhisper vs Infina and VoiceInk vs Infina. For the wider field, see dictation apps with a one-time purchase.
The wider field, and who each tool is actually for
A head to head only answers half the question. Here is the rest of the field on one screen, with the reader each one genuinely fits.
The tools this page covers (Superwhisper, VoiceInk) are at the top. The rest of the field follows, because the right answer is sometimes none of the above.
| Tool | Price | Keyboard needed | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infina | $99 a year, unlimited words and unlimited commands | No. Speak "type", speak the prompt, say "send it" or "enter". | you want to prompt AI tools without touching the keyboard. Say "type" and the words go in, "send it" and the prompt goes, "open Cursor" and you are in the next agent. It is the only one of these that finishes the whole loop by voice in the tools developers prompt in all day. |
| Superwhisper | $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year, or $249.99 once | Yes. A key to start dictating, Enter to send. | you want to pick and swap the speech model yourself, and dictation into a text box is the whole job. It stops where the text box ends: there is no spoken send, and no spoken app switch. |
| VoiceInk | $25 to $49, paid once | Yes. A key to start dictating, Enter to send. | you want plain local dictation at the smallest possible price and you never need your voice to control the machine. |
| Wispr Flow | $15 a month, or $144 a year billed annually | Yes. A key to start dictating, Enter to send. | you need dictation on an iPhone or an Android phone as well as a laptop, or you write in one of 100+ languages. Those are the two things Infina does not ship. |
| MacWhisper | 65 euros, paid once | Yes. A key to start dictating, Enter to send. | the job is transcribing recorded audio files rather than talking to your computer while you work. |
| Talon | free | No, once you have learned its command language. | you want to drive the entire computer by voice, cursor and clicks included, and you are willing to learn a command language to get there. Talon is the serious hands-free tool on this list. Infina goes after the same freedom with three ordinary English words instead of a syntax to learn. |
| Apple Dictation | free, built in | Yes. A key to start dictating, Enter to send. | you dictate a sentence here and there and do not want to install anything. |
The part that is actually different: zero keypresses
The mainstream dictation apps (Wispr Flow, Superwhisper, MacWhisper, VoiceInk, Apple Dictation) are all push-to-talk: you hold or press a key to start talking, and you press Enter to send. That is two physical acts on every single prompt. A hundred prompts in a day is two hundred keypresses that exist only to start and stop the tool. Infina removes both of them. Nothing is held, nothing is pressed, and the same loop runs on three spoken words.
There are three triggers and there is no fourth. "type" types, "send it" sends, "open" opens and switches apps. The send trigger answers to either wording, "send it" or a plain "enter", whichever you find yourself saying. That is the entire vocabulary: no command language, no grammar, no custom scripts to write, nothing to memorize beyond those three words.
When Infina is not the answer. If you need dictation on an iPhone, an iPad, an Android phone or Linux, Infina is a Mac and Windows desktop app and there is no phone version. Wispr Flow covers phones.
Everywhere else, the difference is the loop. Every other tool in that table types words into a box and stops, leaving your hands to press Enter and pick the next window. Infina finishes it: say "type" and your sentence, say "send it" (or just "enter"), say "open Cursor", and keep going without a key.