A Wispr Flow alternative that stays on your Mac.
Chirp does the same job: press a key, talk, and the words land at your cursor in any app. The difference is where the work happens. Chirp transcribes on your Mac, not on a server, so nothing you say is uploaded, and you pay once instead of every month.
Free for 7 days. No account, no card.
Wispr Flow is good. It's also a cloud service.
Credit where it's due: Wispr Flow is polished, a lot of people like it, and the AI editing is clever. But it works by sending your dictation to servers for processing. Their own documentation is upfront about that, and it's why there's no offline mode. It's also a subscription, $15 a month or $12 a month billed annually, with a free tier that caps how many words you can dictate each week.
None of that is wrong, it's just a different set of trade-offs than I wanted. I built Chirp because I didn't want my voice going to a server at all, and I didn't want another monthly bill for something my Mac can do itself.
What changes when it runs on your Mac
Nothing is uploaded
Transcription runs on your Mac with local voice models, so your audio never goes to a server. There's no privacy mode to turn on, because there's nothing to opt out of.
It works offline
On a plane, on hotel wifi, in a locked-down office. Local processing doesn't care whether you're connected.
No weekly word cap
There is no word budget and no plan to upgrade to. Dictate as much as you want, every day.
Pay once
$39 for one Mac, every feature included, all future updates. No subscription to keep an eye on.
Meetings too
Chirp also records meetings and writes a transcript with each speaker labeled. Wispr Flow doesn't do meeting transcription.
Feels like a Mac app
Built in SwiftUI, lives in your Mac's notch, and stays out of the way until you press the key.
The same job, running on your Mac
The text lands at your cursor, transcribed on the machine itself. It works exactly like this with Wi-Fi off.
Solo Mode pastes your words straight at the cursor.
Almost done, just wrapping up one last fix. Give me an hour and I'll head over.
Works with any app that has a cursor.
Side by side
As of June 2026. Check wisprflow.ai for their current plans.
What Wispr Flow does better
It runs on Windows and iPhone too
Chirp is Mac-only, and Apple Silicon at that. If you dictate across platforms, Flow covers more of them.
Its AI rewriting goes further
Flow can reshape tone and formatting as you speak. Chirp turns what you said into clean, punctuated text and leaves the wording yours.
The free tier doesn't expire
Flow's free plan is capped but permanent. Chirp's trial is 7 days of the full app, and then it's a one-time purchase.
If you need dictation on a Windows machine or your phone, Flow is the better fit. If your work lives on a Mac and you'd rather your voice stay there too, keep reading.
Try it next to Flow
There's nothing to migrate, so the easiest comparison is to run both for a few days. Install Chirp, keep your Flow subscription running, and use whichever key feels natural. The trial is 7 days with every feature, no account and no card, and if you buy and change your mind there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Questions
Is Chirp really fully on-device?
Yes. The voice models run on your Mac with Apple Silicon acceleration, and Chirp makes no network requests to transcribe. You can verify that with an outbound firewall like Little Snitch.
Does Chirp work offline?
Yes. After the initial download, dictation and meeting transcription both work with no internet connection at all. Wispr Flow requires a connection because the processing happens on its servers.
How does the price compare to Wispr Flow?
Wispr Flow Pro is $15 a month, or $144 a year on the annual plan. Chirp is $39 once for one Mac, and that includes every feature and all future updates. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Does Chirp do the same AI editing as Wispr Flow?
Chirp turns your speech into clean, punctuated text, but it doesn't rewrite tone or reformat your words the way Flow's AI editing does. If deep rewriting is the feature you live in, Flow does that better. Chirp's focus is getting what you actually said into text, privately and fast.
Can Chirp transcribe meetings?
Yes. Meeting Mode records the call audio on your Mac and writes a transcript with each speaker labeled automatically. Wispr Flow is a dictation tool and does not offer meeting transcription.