{"slug": "typewhisper", "name": "TypeWhisper", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI tools and apps", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.086, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2026-03-19", "latest": "2026-10-08", "why": "recently switched to the free TypeWhisper. Both work very well on a Mac.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "recently switched to the free TypeWhisper. Both work very well on a Mac.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "typewhisper.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://typewhisper.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["TypeWhisper"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 791599473, "item_id": 49474967, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49474967", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "recently switched to the free TypeWhisper. Both work very well on a Mac.", "excerpt": "I used MacWhisper for a long time and then recently switched to the free TypeWhisper. Both work very well on a Mac.", "context": "", "use_case": "Mac speech-to-text", "switched_from": "MacWhisper", "story": "Gemini-3.5-Transcribe"}, {"id": 779425664, "item_id": 48714104, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48714104", "by": "luckman212", "date": "2026-06-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It works very well", "excerpt": "I was also a fan of Hex, but development has stalled. I tried FluidVoice (found it buggy) and Handy (had problems with hotkey) before eventually landing on TypeWhisper[0]. It works very well, and has a few more bells and whistles without feeling bloated. [0] https://www.typewhisper.com", "context": "", "use_case": "Offline voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}, {"id": 759000564, "item_id": 47437535, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47437535", "by": "gumboshoes", "date": "2026-03-19", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Here are just a few I found in just a few minutes of looking", "excerpt": "Here are just a few I found in just a few minutes of looking: https://github.com/Ljove02/AIT-AiTranscribe-MacOS https://www.soink.ai/ https://hitoku.me/draft/ https://altic.dev/fluid https://www.typewhisper.com/ https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex https://github.com/cjpais/handy https://spokenly.app/ https://www.trykoe.com/ https://saga.deepgram.com/ You can find more here under the \"Dictation\" tab: https://docs.google", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeFlow \u2013 seamless speech to text in any app"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["dictation", "mac speech-to-text", "offline voice dictation"], "compared": [{"slug": "macwhisper", "name": "MacWhisper", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "handy", "name": "Handy", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "hex", "name": "Hex", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nvidia-parakeet", "name": "NVIDIA Parakeet", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "whisper", "name": "Whisper", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49468818", "title": "Gemini-3.5-Transcribe", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50008427", "title": "Whistle: Speech to Text in 16.9 MB", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48703848", "title": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47434820", "title": "FreeFlow \u2013 seamless speech to text in any app", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 800172210, "item_id": 50010763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50010763", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-10-08", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "create a plugin for TypeWhisper, and that's what I use", "excerpt": "People keep praising Parakeet, but I've found it to be worse than Whisper Large. Yes, it is much, much faster and smaller, but accuracy matters a lot if you are to use dictation regularly and seriously. I ended up having AI optimize Whisper Large and create a plugin for TypeWhisper, and that's what I use (feeding the results through local Qwen 3.8 running under MTPLX).", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Whistle: Speech to Text in 16.9 MB"}, {"id": 791599473, "item_id": 49474967, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49474967", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "recently switched to the free TypeWhisper. Both work very well on a Mac.", "excerpt": "I used MacWhisper for a long time and then recently switched to the free TypeWhisper. Both work very well on a Mac.", "context": "", "use_case": "Mac speech-to-text", "switched_from": "MacWhisper", "story": "Gemini-3.5-Transcribe"}, {"id": 791599411, "item_id": 49474963, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49474963", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-28", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I settled on creating my own plugin for TypeWhisper, which runs Whisper Large on the GPU", "excerpt": "It's interesting that the results can be so different depending on the person, the use case and even the microphone used. I use dictation a lot, so I try to stay up to date with the latest models as much as I can. So far, for my needs, nothing could beat Whisper Large v3. I keep hearing that Nvidia Parakeet models are better, but they just don't work as well for me, even though they are unquestionably faster. Things ", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini-3.5-Transcribe"}, {"id": 779425664, "item_id": 48714104, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48714104", "by": "luckman212", "date": "2026-06-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It works very well", "excerpt": "I was also a fan of Hex, but development has stalled. I tried FluidVoice (found it buggy) and Handy (had problems with hotkey) before eventually landing on TypeWhisper[0]. It works very well, and has a few more bells and whistles without feeling bloated. [0] https://www.typewhisper.com", "context": "", "use_case": "Offline voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}, {"id": 759000564, "item_id": 47437535, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47437535", "by": "gumboshoes", "date": "2026-03-19", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Here are just a few I found in just a few minutes of looking", "excerpt": "Here are just a few I found in just a few minutes of looking: https://github.com/Ljove02/AIT-AiTranscribe-MacOS https://www.soink.ai/ https://hitoku.me/draft/ https://altic.dev/fluid https://www.typewhisper.com/ https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex https://github.com/cjpais/handy https://spokenly.app/ https://www.trykoe.com/ https://saga.deepgram.com/ You can find more here under the \"Dictation\" tab: https://docs.google", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeFlow \u2013 seamless speech to text in any app"}]}