Mac voice dictation, compared honestly.
The tools below are all good at what they do. The structural difference is where the AI runs: Loudink performs the inference itself — speech recognition, writing polish, and command planning — on your Mac. Your audio and text never leave the device, and the same shortcut that types for you can also drive your Mac.
| Loudink | Wispr Flow | Superwhisper | Apple Dictation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where the AI runs | 100% on your Mac — speech, writing polish, and command planning | Cloud — audio is processed on their servers | Local transcription; AI polish modes can be local or cloud | On-device for supported languages |
| Works with Wi-Fi off | Yes — dictation, polish, and voice commands | No — requires a connection | Local modes work offline | Yes, for on-device languages |
| AI polish (punctuation, casing, self-corrections) | Yes, on-device, streams in as it generates | Yes, in the cloud | Yes, depending on the mode you configure | No — raw transcription |
| Drives your Mac by voice | Yes — open sites, search maps, control windows/tabs/music, deep app workflows, with an approval step | No | No | Separate Voice Control feature (accessibility-oriented) |
| Learns your vocabulary from corrections | Yes — suggestions from your own edits, stored only on your Mac | Dictionary features tied to their cloud | Custom vocabulary supported | Limited |
| Price | Free plan; Pro from $6/mo (annual) | Free tier; paid from ~$12/mo | One-time or subscription options | Free with macOS |
Competitor details reflect their public materials as of July 2026 — if something above is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.