MacWhisper

About

MacWhisper transcribes audio and video files on the Mac using OpenAI's Whisper and Nvidia's Parakeet models, running entirely on-device so recordings never leave the machine. It can record and transcribe meetings straight out of Zoom, Teams, Webex, Skype and Discord, pull text from YouTube videos and podcasts with speaker detection, and replace Apple's own system-wide dictation across more than 100 languages.

Built by Jordi Bruin and the team at Good Snooze in the Netherlands, MacWhisper reached version 14.0 in 2026 with a redesigned in-app transcript editor. The free tier covers unlimited transcription and dictation with the smaller Whisper models; Pro is a one-time €64 purchase covering batch processing, automatic speaker recognition, translation and integrations with Notion, Zapier and n8n. A subscription version is sold separately on the Mac App Store as Whisper Transcription.

Alternatives

• Aiko

  Pick Aiko if you want local Whisper transcription for a one-time $24: a single purchase covers Mac, iPhone and Apple Vision, but the current version needs macOS 26 Tahoe.

• VoiceInk

  Pick VoiceInk if dictation matters more than file transcription: it is open source and runs on-device with one-time pricing, but needs an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 14.4 or later.

At a Glance

Requires

macOS 14 Sonoma or later; older versions are available for Monterey and Ventura

Price

Free forever; MacWhisper Pro is €64, one-time, with lifetime updates

Also On

iPhone and iPad

Get It From

macwhisper.com (via Gumroad); the Mac App Store sells a separate version called Whisper Transcription