SuperWhisper

SuperWhisper is a voice-to-text app for macOS that runs OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition models locally on your Mac. You press a hotkey, speak, and your words appear as text in whatever app has focus. The transcription runs on your machine using the Neural Engine and GPU—your audio never leaves your computer. What makes SuperWhisper different from macOS's built-in dictation or cloud-based speech recognition is the combination of accuracy, privacy, and speed. Whisper models are among the most accurate speech recognition systems available—they handle accents, technical jargon, code-related terminology, and natural speech patterns better than Apple's built-in dictation. Because processing happens locally, there's no internet latency, no data uploaded to servers, and no privacy concerns about your spoken content being processed in the cloud. SuperWhisper was created by Sascha (indie developer) and runs exclusively on Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and later). The Neural Engine in M-series chips is what makes local Whisper inference practical—transcription happens at near-real-time speed. On an M1 MacBook Pro, short utterances transcribe in under a second. Longer dictation (a full paragraph) takes 2-4 seconds depending on the model size. The app supports multiple Whisper model sizes. Smaller models (tiny, base) transcribe faster but with slightly lower accuracy. Larger models (small, medium, large-v3) are more accurate but take longer. You choose the trade-off that works for your hardware and accuracy needs. On M2 Pro/Max and M3 machines, even the large model runs at practical speeds. SuperWhisper also includes AI post-processing modes that can clean up your transcription—removing filler words, fixing punctuation, formatting as bullet points, or transforming your speech into structured text. These features use OpenAI's API (cloud-based, requires an API key) or local LLMs via Ollama. The core transcription always runs locally; the AI modes are optional and clearly separated. For anyone who types slower than they think, or whose hands get tired from long writing sessions, SuperWhisper turns speech into text with remarkable accuracy and zero privacy compromise.