superwhisper: what the free tier covers, and what $8.49 adds
By Andrey ChmerevI build Kekoso, a competitor, so read the last section as interested advice. Every number here was read from superwhisper's own pricing switch and privacy policy on 7 September 2026 — including the lifetime price, which only appears after you click the third tab.
Most reviews of superwhisper compare it to a subscription service and stop there. That misses the thing worth knowing: its free tier is not a trial, it does more than most paid apps, and the one job it will not do is the one many people are shopping for.
Three prices, and the one they hide behind a click
superwhisper pricing has three shapes for the same Pro tier, and the site only shows one at a time:
| Plan | Price | Per month | Cost over 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Pro monthly | $8.49 | $8.49 | $305.64 |
| Pro yearly | $84.99 | $7.08 | $254.97 |
| Pro lifetime | $249.99 once | — | $249.99 |
Students get 40% off, every plan has a 30-day refund, and a Pro licence can be activated on as many devices as you like — that last one is unusually generous, and worth more than it sounds if you have a laptop, a desktop and a phone.
The lifetime row is the interesting one, and you only see it if you click the third tab. It overtakes the monthly plan in the 30th month, and the yearly plan in the third year. Three years of the yearly plan is $254.97; lifetime is $249.99. So the decision is genuinely simple: if you expect to still be dictating in three years, buy once; if you are not sure, pay yearly and decide later.
The line between free and paid is not where you expect
The superwhisper free tier includes, from its own pricing table:
- voice to text that works in any app;
- meeting recording and transcription;
- support for 100+ languages;
- unlimited use of Whisper models;
- custom prompt control;
- Mac, Windows and iOS.
That is a complete dictation product, including meetings, at no cost. Compare it to what most competitors charge for and the free tier alone beats several paid apps.
Pro adds five things: your own AI API keys, unlimited cloud and local AI models, translation of any language into English, priority support — and transcribing audio and video files.
Read that last one again if you arrived here with a folder of recordings. Dictating into Slack is free forever; transcribing the interview you recorded last week is the paid line. It is a defensible split — live speech is the product, file work is the professional use — but it is the opposite of what most people assume, and it is the single fact that decides whether superwhisper costs you nothing or $84.99 a year.
“Local” is the default, not the whole story
superwhisper’s privacy policy is unusually plain: the app “transcribes all audio data locally on your device”, no audio or transcriptions are collected, nothing is retained on their servers, and nothing is used for training. Its site says the same in one line — works offline, no Wi-Fi, no problem.
That is true, and it is the reason superwhisper belongs in the local category rather than the cloud one.
But notice what Pro sells: cloud models, and your own API keys. The moment you switch to a cloud model, your audio or your transcript reaches whichever provider you pointed it at, and the privacy policy’s promise about their servers stops describing the whole path. Their policy says as much, in the sentence asking you to review third-party services before handing them your information.
This is not a gotcha. It is the same structure as everyone else’s: what “on-device” means and how to verify it comes down to which switch you have flipped, not which app you installed. With superwhisper the free tier is the local one, and part of what the subscription buys is permission to leave.
What it is like against the alternatives
The superwhisper alternative you should look at depends on which of its three jobs you care about.
MacWhisper — €64 once, and the closer comparison for file work. It draws the same free/paid line at file transcription, but its paid tier bundles speaker recognition, an editor, watched folders and integrations. Mac only.
VoiceInk — from $29 once, tiered by number of Macs, source public on GitHub. Narrower: dictation, done locally, with a claim you can check by reading the code.
Wispr Flow — $12 to $15 a month, cloud recognition, and an Android app. On superwhisper vs Wispr Flow the deciding question is rarely features: one can run with the network off and sells a licence, the other cannot and does not. There is no one-time option, so over three years it is $432 against superwhisper’s $249.99 ceiling. If you want the comparison in full, it is in the Wispr Flow piece.
Kekoso, which I build — $29 once for three Macs, macOS 14.4 or later on Apple silicon. Two differences worth naming, one in each direction.
Against it: superwhisper runs on Windows and iOS and mine does not, its free tier records meetings and mine has no free tier, and its licence covers unlimited devices against my three.
In its favour: calls are recorded as two separate tracks rather than one mixed one, file transcription is included rather than being the paid line, and it exposes an MCP server so an agent can call transcription as a tool — which matters if you are dictating into Claude Code or a similar editor, a use case superwhisper also targets with its own comparison pages.
Where the models leave you
One thing no comparison in this category can claim: better recognition. superwhisper runs Whisper, the same public builds every local Mac app runs, so the transcript from any two of these apps on the same model is the same transcript. I measured what actually moves the number on my own recordings — choosing between models was worth a few errors in 200 words, and a custom vocabulary was worth two thirds of them.
superwhisper knows this, which is why its own feature list leads with a vocabulary — enter names, abbreviations and specialised terms once. If you are comparing apps on accuracy, you are comparing the wrong column.
How to choose
Dictating into apps, plus meetings, on more than one operating system. superwhisper free, and quite possibly forever. Nothing else in this category gives that away.
A folder of recordings to transcribe. You are paying either way: superwhisper Pro at $84.99 a year, MacWhisper at €64 once, or a Mac-only one-time app at $29. Pick on how long you plan to keep using it.
Cloud models on hard audio, or your own API keys. superwhisper Pro is built for exactly this and does it more openly than most.
Everything must stay on the machine, with no switch that can change it. Then the free tier is right and Pro is beside the point — or a Mac-only local app is, mine included.
Prices, tier contents and privacy claims read from superwhisper’s own pricing switch and privacy policy on 7 September 2026. The lifetime price appears only after selecting the third tab; it is not in the page’s markup.
Questions people ask
How much does superwhisper cost?
Three shapes, all for the same Pro tier: $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year, or $249.99 once for a lifetime licence. Students get 40% off and there is a 30-day refund on all plans. The free tier is free forever, and Pro features can be trialled for 3,000 words before it applies.
Is superwhisper free version good enough?
For dictation and meetings, yes. The free tier covers voice to text in any app, meeting recording and transcription, 100+ languages, unlimited use of Whisper models and custom prompt control. The line the free tier does not cross is transcribing audio and video files you already have — that sits in Pro, along with cloud models and translation.
Is the superwhisper lifetime licence worth it?
It pays for itself in the 30th month against the monthly plan and in the third year against the yearly one. Three years of the yearly plan costs $254.97 against $249.99 for lifetime, so if you expect to still be dictating in 2029 the one-time purchase is the cheaper row. Under three years, the yearly plan is.
Does superwhisper work offline?
Yes on the free tier, which runs Whisper models on your machine, and its privacy policy states that the app transcribes all audio data locally on your device and that nothing is retained on their servers. What Pro adds is the option of cloud models and your own API keys — useful, but the moment you switch one on, the audio path changes.
superwhisper vs Wispr Flow — which one?
superwhisper can run entirely on your machine and sells a lifetime licence; Wispr Flow is cloud-only at $12 to $15 a month with no one-time option. If offline dictation or a fixed cost matters, superwhisper. If you dictate on Android, Wispr Flow is the one with an Android app.
What is the closest superwhisper alternative on a Mac?
For file work, MacWhisper at €64 once, which puts file transcription in the paid tier too but bundles speaker recognition and an editor with it. For dictation with a smaller bill, VoiceInk from $29 or Kekoso at $29 for three Macs. None of them cover Windows and iOS, which is the thing superwhisper has that the Mac-only tools do not.
Does superwhisper transcribe audio files on the free plan?
No. Transcribe audio and video files is listed under Pro, alongside your own AI API keys, cloud and local AI models, translation into English and priority support. If a folder of recordings is the job you are buying for, that is the feature you are paying for — free covers speech as it happens, not speech you already recorded.