HandsFree
Talk instead of typing.
Dictation for macOS that runs entirely on your own Mac. Finished text, in whatever app you already have open.
To: sam@example.com
Hi Sam — can we move our call to Wednesday?
- Half the price of Wispr Flow $68 a year against their $144.
- Unlimited dictation No word caps, no minutes, no fair-use asterisk.
- Nothing leaves your Mac Speech recognition runs on your own hardware.
- Every future feature included Updates and new features, no upgrade fee.
- Agentic editing on the roadmap Select text, say what to change, let it rewrite. Not yet available.
Three seconds to learn
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Hold the key
Hold the globe key, or rebind it to any combination you like. Nothing takes focus and the app you are in stays exactly where it was.
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Say it
Speak normally. Whisper runs on your own GPU, so there is no upload step and no waiting on somebody else's server.
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Let go
Cleaned-up text appears at your cursor, in the app you were already using. Usually in well under a second.
Your voice never leaves your Mac
Speech recognition runs on your own hardware, on your GPU, with no server in the loop. Not anonymised, not "deleted after 30 days". It simply never goes anywhere.
Stays on your Mac
- Your audio — held in memory while you speak, then discarded
- Every transcript, raw and cleaned
- Your dictation history
- Your personal dictionary and voice shortcuts
- The speech model itself, downloaded once and run on your GPU
No server is involved in turning your speech into text. Not anonymised, not "deleted after 30 days" — it never goes anywhere to be deleted from.
The full detail of what an account stores is on the privacy page.
Text you can send, not a transcript you have to fix
It cleans up as you go
Fillers dropped, punctuation and capitals added, and self-corrections resolved. Say "meet me Tuesday, no, Wednesday" and you get Wednesday.
It types where you already are
Text lands at your cursor in any app. No window to visit, nothing to copy out afterwards.
It learns your words
Teach it the names, jargon and phrases you use, once. They come out spelled right from then on.
Tested in Mail Slack Safari VS Code Notes Terminal …and anything else with a cursor
What you said, and what you meant
Whisper transcribes what came out of your mouth. Everything after that is a pipeline of rules that runs on your Mac in under five milliseconds — no model, no network, nothing to wait for.
um, so I uh pushed the fix to the the staging
branch you know can you take a look tomorrow, no, this
afternoon
So I pushed the fix to the staging branch. Can you take a look this afternoon?
The same job, on different terms
Dictation apps mostly agree on what to build. Where they differ is where the transcription runs, and what it costs you once you use it every day.
| Feature | HandsFree | Wispr Flow | Superwhisper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per year | $68 | $144 | $85 |
| Per month | $6 | $15 | $8.49 |
| Word cap once paid | None | Metered | None |
| Speech-to-text runs | On your Mac | In the cloud | On your Mac |
| Works with no network | Yes | No | Yes |
| Recurring card charge | No card at all | Yes | Yes |
Competitor pricing as published on their own sites. We have tried to be exact rather than flattering; if something here is out of date, tell us and it gets corrected.
Start free. Arrange payment directly if you keep going.
Your first 2,000 words — roughly 35 to 40 minutes of speech — are free, with no card and no time limit. After that, Pro keeps dictation running. There is no card checkout at all: you pay by crypto, bank transfer, or UPI, and get a one-time key to paste into the app. How to pay →
Free trial
$0 2,000 words
No card. No expiry date. Just a verified email.
- The full app, nothing held back
- Local transcription and cleanup
- Custom dictionary and shortcuts
- Your own AI keys, if you want them
Best value
Pro, yearly
$68 / yearSave $4
About $5.67 a month, and one payment instead of twelve.
- Unlimited dictation
- Up to 3 Macs on one account
- Everything in the trial, without the cap
- Activated by a one-time key — no card, no auto-renewal
Pro, monthly
$6 / month
Same features. Month to month.
- Unlimited dictation
- Up to 3 Macs on one account
- Everything in the trial, without the cap
- Activated by a one-time key — no card, no auto-renewal
There's no checkout here, on purpose
A visitor to this page is anonymous, so a payment started here would attach to no account at all. Payment is arranged directly instead, and you redeem a one-time key inside the app, where you are signed in and the subscription can land on your actual account.
Nothing renews automatically and no card is ever stored, because there is no card. When a subscription is close to running out the app warns you, and you renew by redeeming another key. Prices are in US dollars.
- Stablecoins — USDT or USDC
- Bitcoin or Ethereum
- Bank transfer
- UPI
HandsFree for macOS
A direct download, signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Drag it to Applications, grant Accessibility and Microphone access, and the app fetches its transcription model on first run.
Free for the first 2,000 words. No card, and no time limit on them.
Questions worth answering
Is my voice sent anywhere?
No. Speech recognition happens on your Mac. The only things that reach us are your email address and a running count of words dictated, which is how the free trial is measured. Never the text.
If you switch on the optional AI polish with your own API key, that step sends the transcript to the provider you chose, under your key and their policy. It is off unless you turn it on, and Offline only disables it outright.
Does it work offline?
Yes. After setup, dictation needs no connection at all. The app checks your subscription when it can, and keeps working for weeks if it cannot reach us.
What happens after the free words?
Dictation pauses until you subscribe. Your settings, dictionary and history are untouched, and unused words never expire.
How do I pay?
Directly, by crypto, bank transfer or UPI. There is no card checkout. Once payment arrives you get a key to paste into the app, which activates your subscription. See payment options →
More on the support page, including setup and permissions.