{"slug": "wispr-flow", "name": "Wispr Flow", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "AI voice dictation app that turns speech into polished text in any application.", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 17, "warners": 6, "score": 1.203, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-12-03", "latest": "2026-10-28", "why": "HN commenters like it for accurate dictation that handles most of their work, especially long voice messages, where it beats Apple's built-in speech-to-text.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 5, "compare": 0, "warn": 6}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Transcription accuracy", "Daily workflow"], "caveat": "Declining accuracy", "short_quote": "WhisprFlow produces much better speech-to-text for long text messaging-by-voice", "icon": true, "domain": "wisprflow.ai", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://wisprflow.ai", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["Wispr Flow", "WisprFlow"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like it for accurate dictation that handles most of their work", "cites": [{"id": 800851744, "item_id": 50053234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50053234", "by": "imranshah10140", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use wispr flow and really it does most of my work correctly", "excerpt": "I use wispr flow and really it does most of my work correctly so do I need this for my work flow and if yes then please give me some feedback because I would love to know of new ways for my work flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WriteNative \u2013 correct, natural English in any Mac app"}, {"id": 800827872, "item_id": 50051742, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50051742", "by": "apparent", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste.", "excerpt": "Interested to give this a try. I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste. I guess I assumed there were equally good models that were cheaper, and I suppose this is one of them. I'll be curious to see how the existence / popularity of tools like this end up affecting the pricing of paid tools like Wispr Flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 800835793, "item_id": 50052237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50052237", "by": "kartik017", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded", "excerpt": "i used handy a year ago, i think it was my first voice dictation app trial. the reason it is bad, it's a 150-200mb binary i remembered downloading, it was not accurate for my accent, was missing lot of words, i tried wisprflow and it was accurate, the dx was top notch and i was a annual plan subscriber, but i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded. thi", "context": "former annual plan subscriber", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}]}, {"text": ", especially long voice messages, where it beats Apple's built-in speech-to-text.", "cites": [{"id": 767643824, "item_id": 47977739, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47977739", "by": "nerdsniper", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WhisprFlow produces much better speech-to-text for long text messaging-by-voice", "excerpt": "On just the transcription side: WhisprFlow produces much better speech-to-text for long text messaging-by-voice (dictation / transcription) than apple's speech-to-text does. Whisper models in general seem to do a lot better than most built-into-OS/app models. Which is interesting, because there's nothing stopping them from just using Whisper models. I love MacWhisper personally. Also, Gumroad is a fantastic app distr", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is that accuracy has slipped or trails rivals", "cites": [{"id": 800835793, "item_id": 50052237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50052237", "by": "kartik017", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded", "excerpt": "i used handy a year ago, i think it was my first voice dictation app trial. the reason it is bad, it's a 150-200mb binary i remembered downloading, it was not accurate for my accent, was missing lot of words, i tried wisprflow and it was accurate, the dx was top notch and i was a annual plan subscriber, but i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded. thi", "context": "former annual plan subscriber", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 795953953, "item_id": 49747122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747122", "by": "nr378", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "found WisprFlow the least accurate of the 4.", "excerpt": "Is it actually better than Microsoft's MAI-Transcribe-2? That generally seems like the best model right now and it's not included in their benchmarks. I switched from Superwhisper->WisprFlow->Spokenly->Fieldwork and found WisprFlow the least accurate of the 4.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "Superwhisper", "story": "Canto: A speech model built for the real world"}, {"id": 800716272, "item_id": 50044767, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50044767", "by": "ProofHouse", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO", "excerpt": "To be honest, I used Wspr so much I only recently started realizing just HOW bad it gets trying to 'improve' your diction, especially coding. I have seen totally opperate directives. I had no idea it was potentially occuring, but it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO, for example.", "context": "Heavy user", "use_case": "dictation for coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}]}, {"text": ", with overconfident rewrites that can turn DON'T into DO", "cites": [{"id": 800716272, "item_id": 50044767, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50044767", "by": "ProofHouse", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO", "excerpt": "To be honest, I used Wspr so much I only recently started realizing just HOW bad it gets trying to 'improve' your diction, especially coding. I have seen totally opperate directives. I had no idea it was potentially occuring, but it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO, for example.", "context": "Heavy user", "use_case": "dictation for coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}]}, {"text": ", and some find it pricey.", "cites": [{"id": 800827872, "item_id": 50051742, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50051742", "by": "apparent", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste.", "excerpt": "Interested to give this a try. I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste. I guess I assumed there were equally good models that were cheaper, and I suppose this is one of them. I'll be curious to see how the existence / popularity of tools like this end up affecting the pricing of paid tools like Wispr Flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 740354657, "item_id": 46272166, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272166", "by": "k9294", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I realized I was spending around \u20ac35/mo (\u20ac420 a year) on two apps for AI features that cost just pennies to run.", "excerpt": "Working on https://ottex.ai/ - BYOK alternative to Wispr Flow and Raycast AI shortcuts. I love global voice-to-text transcription (especially when working with Claude Code or Cursor) and simple AI shortcuts like \"Fix Grammar\" and \"Translate to {Language}\". I realized I was spending around \u20ac35/mo (\u20ac420 a year) on two apps for AI features that cost just pennies to run. So I built Ottex - a native macOS app with a tiny ", "context": "", "use_case": "voice-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Transcription accuracy", "summary": "Users find its speech-to-text accurate, and better than Apple's built-in dictation for long messages.", "quotes": [{"id": 767643824, "item_id": 47977739, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47977739", "by": "nerdsniper", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WhisprFlow produces much better speech-to-text for long text messaging-by-voice", "excerpt": "On just the transcription side: WhisprFlow produces much better speech-to-text for long text messaging-by-voice (dictation / transcription) than apple's speech-to-text does. Whisper models in general seem to do a lot better than most built-into-OS/app models. Which is interesting, because there's nothing stopping them from just using Whisper models. I love MacWhisper personally. Also, Gumroad is a fantastic app distr", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app"}, {"id": 800827872, "item_id": 50051742, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50051742", "by": "apparent", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste.", "excerpt": "Interested to give this a try. I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste. I guess I assumed there were equally good models that were cheaper, and I suppose this is one of them. I'll be curious to see how the existence / popularity of tools like this end up affecting the pricing of paid tools like Wispr Flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 800851744, "item_id": 50053234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50053234", "by": "imranshah10140", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use wispr flow and really it does most of my work correctly", "excerpt": "I use wispr flow and really it does most of my work correctly so do I need this for my work flow and if yes then please give me some feedback because I would love to know of new ways for my work flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WriteNative \u2013 correct, natural English in any Mac app"}]}, {"label": "Daily workflow", "summary": "Some commenters use it heavily as part of their regular workflow.", "quotes": [{"id": 783580288, "item_id": 48973768, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973768", "by": "briangru", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use wisprflow a lot", "excerpt": "Interesting, I use wisprflow a lot, will check this out and compare. Does this have a high impact on battery usage?", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "EnviousWispr, open-source WisprFlow alternative"}, {"id": 774833505, "item_id": 48427094, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427094", "by": "CPLX", "date": "2026-06-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use aqua and wispr flow depending on which one seems to be returning the best results that day.", "excerpt": "This is exactly my workflow and it\u2019s just incredible. I use aqua and wispr flow depending on which one seems to be returning the best results that day.", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "What was your \"Oh Shit\" moment with GenAI?"}, {"id": 771096898, "item_id": 48193556, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193556", "by": "adamcharnock", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also really like Wispr Flow", "excerpt": "FWIW - I also really like Wispr Flow, but I moved to running the 'Whisper Large' model locally using Handy (https://github.com/cjpais/Handy), which has been essentially as good, while also having lower latency.", "context": "", "use_case": "speech to text", "switched_from": "", "story": "New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence"}]}, {"label": "Developer experience", "summary": "A former subscriber praised its developer experience as top notch.", "quotes": [{"id": 800835793, "item_id": 50052237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50052237", "by": "kartik017", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded", "excerpt": "i used handy a year ago, i think it was my first voice dictation app trial. the reason it is bad, it's a 150-200mb binary i remembered downloading, it was not accurate for my accent, was missing lot of words, i tried wisprflow and it was accurate, the dx was top notch and i was a annual plan subscriber, but i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded. thi", "context": "former annual plan subscriber", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}]}, {"label": "Custom snippets", "summary": "Custom snippet entries can improve recognition of tricky phrases and insert symbols.", "quotes": [{"id": 781349360, "item_id": 48834335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48834335", "by": "QuantumGood", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "My snippet expansion entry in Wispr is \"Chess Knight\" = \"Knight\"", "excerpt": "Of course, over time, I use custom entries. My snippet expansion entry in Wispr is \"Chess Knight\" = \"Knight\" (\"Knight to f3\" without customization was more reliable than \"Chess Knight\") I also use \"dot bullet\" = \"\u2022\", as I like to separate thoughts with \u2022 more than ;", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Local, CPU-Friendly, High-Quality TTS (Text-to-Speech) with Kokoro"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Declining accuracy", "summary": "Some users report accuracy degraded over time or trailed competing dictation apps.", "quotes": [{"id": 800835793, "item_id": 50052237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50052237", "by": "kartik017", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded", "excerpt": "i used handy a year ago, i think it was my first voice dictation app trial. the reason it is bad, it's a 150-200mb binary i remembered downloading, it was not accurate for my accent, was missing lot of words, i tried wisprflow and it was accurate, the dx was top notch and i was a annual plan subscriber, but i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded. thi", "context": "former annual plan subscriber", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 795953953, "item_id": 49747122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747122", "by": "nr378", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "found WisprFlow the least accurate of the 4.", "excerpt": "Is it actually better than Microsoft's MAI-Transcribe-2? That generally seems like the best model right now and it's not included in their benchmarks. I switched from Superwhisper->WisprFlow->Spokenly->Fieldwork and found WisprFlow the least accurate of the 4.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "Superwhisper", "story": "Canto: A speech model built for the real world"}, {"id": 797062673, "item_id": 49816417, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49816417", "by": "jaypio", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "after struggling with windows voice typing and wispr flow", "excerpt": "i built https://typewaveai.com after struggling with windows voice typing and wispr flow. give it a try", "context": "", "use_case": "voice typing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone using a Wispr Flow alternative that is non-cloud?"}]}, {"label": "Overcorrection", "summary": "A heavy user says it can rewrite what you meant, sometimes reversing an instruction.", "quotes": [{"id": 800716272, "item_id": 50044767, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50044767", "by": "ProofHouse", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO", "excerpt": "To be honest, I used Wspr so much I only recently started realizing just HOW bad it gets trying to 'improve' your diction, especially coding. I have seen totally opperate directives. I had no idea it was potentially occuring, but it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO, for example.", "context": "Heavy user", "use_case": "dictation for coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}]}, {"label": "Price", "summary": "Some find it pricey for what the underlying AI costs to run.", "quotes": [{"id": 800827872, "item_id": 50051742, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50051742", "by": "apparent", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste.", "excerpt": "Interested to give this a try. I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste. I guess I assumed there were equally good models that were cheaper, and I suppose this is one of them. I'll be curious to see how the existence / popularity of tools like this end up affecting the pricing of paid tools like Wispr Flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 740354657, "item_id": 46272166, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272166", "by": "k9294", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I realized I was spending around \u20ac35/mo (\u20ac420 a year) on two apps for AI features that cost just pennies to run.", "excerpt": "Working on https://ottex.ai/ - BYOK alternative to Wispr Flow and Raycast AI shortcuts. I love global voice-to-text transcription (especially when working with Claude Code or Cursor) and simple AI shortcuts like \"Fix Grammar\" and \"Translate to {Language}\". I realized I was spending around \u20ac35/mo (\u20ac420 a year) on two apps for AI features that cost just pennies to run. So I built Ottex - a native macOS app with a tiny ", "context": "", "use_case": "voice-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}]}, {"label": "No Linux support", "summary": "It does not support Linux.", "quotes": [{"id": 738159457, "item_id": 46134966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134966", "by": "FrankDierolf", "date": "2025-12-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Wispr Flow and HyperWhisper don't support Linux", "excerpt": "Hola everyone, I run Omakub, OpenCode, NeoVim \u2013 terminal for everything. Wanted voice input for prompting AI, but Wispr Flow and HyperWhisper don't support Linux. Local Whisper wasn't cutting it. So I built whis. Speak, hit Enter, text lands in your clipboard. Uses OpenAI's Whisper API (~$0.006/min). There's also a hotkey mode \u2013 `whis listen` runs in background, Ctrl+Shift+R from anywhere. Works on X11 and Wayland. S", "context": "terminal-centric Linux user", "use_case": "voice input", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Whis \u2013 Voice-to-Clipboard for Linux"}]}, {"label": "Editing still manual", "summary": "Dictated text can still need tedious splicing, punctuation fixes, and rewording.", "quotes": [{"id": 785166560, "item_id": 49072910, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072910", "by": "goghdali", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I tried dictating (WisprFlow etc) but there\u2019s still the work of splicing sentences together", "excerpt": "Hi! I am trying to recreate the glass tablet the mc uses for writing in Passengers (2016). It\u2019s a tablet where you dictate, and you point and talk for editing like it\u2019s a scribe (no keyboard etc). I always get tired from the mechanical work when writing essays for class or other personal writings. I tried dictating (WisprFlow etc) but there\u2019s still the work of splicing sentences together and maintaining punctuation a", "context": "student writing essays", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Trying to make the glass tablet for writing from Passengers"}]}, {"label": "Local alternatives", "summary": "One user found a local Whisper model nearly as good with lower latency.", "quotes": [{"id": 771096898, "item_id": 48193556, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193556", "by": "adamcharnock", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also really like Wispr Flow", "excerpt": "FWIW - I also really like Wispr Flow, but I moved to running the 'Whisper Large' model locally using Handy (https://github.com/cjpais/Handy), which has been essentially as good, while also having lower latency.", "context": "", "use_case": "speech to text", "switched_from": "", "story": "New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence"}]}], "who": [{"by": "goghdali", "context": "student writing essays", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072910", "date": "2026-07-27"}, {"by": "FrankDierolf", "context": "terminal-centric Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134966", "date": "2025-12-03"}], "tags": ["for long voice messages", "for custom vocabulary", "not for Linux users"], "use_cases": ["voice dictation", "dictation", "dictation for coding", "voice typing", "speech to text", "voice coding dictation"], "compared": [{"slug": "handy", "name": "Handy", "co": 7, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "superwhisper", "name": "Superwhisper", "co": 5, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "spokenly", "name": "Spokenly", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "voxtral", "name": "Voxtral", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "whisper-large", "name": "Whisper Large", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50042333", "title": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50276940", "title": "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50051791", "title": "Show HN: WriteNative \u2013 correct, natural English in any Mac app", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49809670", "title": "Anyone using a Wispr Flow alternative that is non-cloud?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49744715", "title": "Canto: A speech model built for the real world", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072909", "title": "Show HN: Trying to make the glass tablet for writing from Passengers", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 2, "warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"warn": 2}, "2026-10": {"warn": 2, "neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804444577, "item_id": 50277786, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50277786", "by": "Kd368", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "when I am dictating more using typeleas or whisperflow", "excerpt": "It\u2019s on my X1 Thinkpad. I find it more convenient to use the mouse as that\u2019s where my hands are naturally and a habit. However I have noticed that when I am dictating more using typeleas or whisperflow I use the touchscreen more as it\u2019s more faster and has a good flow if you wanted speed Maybe this is the reason they doing it now", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch"}, {"id": 800851744, "item_id": 50053234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50053234", "by": "imranshah10140", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use wispr flow and really it does most of my work correctly", "excerpt": "I use wispr flow and really it does most of my work correctly so do I need this for my work flow and if yes then please give me some feedback because I would love to know of new ways for my work flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WriteNative \u2013 correct, natural English in any Mac app"}, {"id": 800835793, "item_id": 50052237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50052237", "by": "kartik017", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded", "excerpt": "i used handy a year ago, i think it was my first voice dictation app trial. the reason it is bad, it's a 150-200mb binary i remembered downloading, it was not accurate for my accent, was missing lot of words, i tried wisprflow and it was accurate, the dx was top notch and i was a annual plan subscriber, but i think they are cost cutting on inference and all of the features which i mentioned got severely degraded. thi", "context": "former annual plan subscriber", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 800827872, "item_id": 50051742, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50051742", "by": "apparent", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste.", "excerpt": "Interested to give this a try. I've tried Wispr Flow and found it to be quite good, but a bit pricey for my taste. I guess I assumed there were equally good models that were cheaper, and I suppose this is one of them. I'll be curious to see how the existence / popularity of tools like this end up affecting the pricing of paid tools like Wispr Flow.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 800716272, "item_id": 50044767, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50044767", "by": "ProofHouse", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO", "excerpt": "To be honest, I used Wspr so much I only recently started realizing just HOW bad it gets trying to 'improve' your diction, especially coding. I have seen totally opperate directives. I had no idea it was potentially occuring, but it gets past a point where it is WAY to confident in guessing what you meant, sometimes to the extent of changing DON'T to DO, for example.", "context": "Heavy user", "use_case": "dictation for coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: BetterWispr \u2013 Free, open-source dictation for Mac"}, {"id": 797062673, "item_id": 49816417, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49816417", "by": "jaypio", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "after struggling with windows voice typing and wispr flow", "excerpt": "i built https://typewaveai.com after struggling with windows voice typing and wispr flow. give it a try", "context": "", "use_case": "voice typing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone using a Wispr Flow alternative that is non-cloud?"}, {"id": 795953953, "item_id": 49747122, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747122", "by": "nr378", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "found WisprFlow the least accurate of the 4.", "excerpt": "Is it actually better than Microsoft's MAI-Transcribe-2? That generally seems like the best model right now and it's not included in their benchmarks. I switched from Superwhisper->WisprFlow->Spokenly->Fieldwork and found WisprFlow the least accurate of the 4.", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "Superwhisper", "story": "Canto: A speech model built for the real world"}, {"id": 785166560, "item_id": 49072910, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072910", "by": "goghdali", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I tried dictating (WisprFlow etc) but there\u2019s still the work of splicing sentences together", "excerpt": "Hi! I am trying to recreate the glass tablet the mc uses for writing in Passengers (2016). It\u2019s a tablet where you dictate, and you point and talk for editing like it\u2019s a scribe (no keyboard etc). I always get tired from the mechanical work when writing essays for class or other personal writings. I tried dictating (WisprFlow etc) but there\u2019s still the work of splicing sentences together and maintaining punctuation a", "context": "student writing essays", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Trying to make the glass tablet for writing from Passengers"}, {"id": 783580288, "item_id": 48973768, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973768", "by": "briangru", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use wisprflow a lot", "excerpt": "Interesting, I use wisprflow a lot, will check this out and compare. Does this have a high impact on battery usage?", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "EnviousWispr, open-source WisprFlow alternative"}, {"id": 782369057, "item_id": 48898066, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898066", "by": "j_aime", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I need an alternative to Wispr flow", "excerpt": "Thanks for this. I need an alternative to Wispr flow. Going to try this out. Any plans for a windows version?", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Rekody, free on-device voice dictation for macOS"}, {"id": 781349360, "item_id": 48834335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48834335", "by": "QuantumGood", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "My snippet expansion entry in Wispr is \"Chess Knight\" = \"Knight\"", "excerpt": "Of course, over time, I use custom entries. My snippet expansion entry in Wispr is \"Chess Knight\" = \"Knight\" (\"Knight to f3\" without customization was more reliable than \"Chess Knight\") I also use \"dot bullet\" = \"\u2022\", as I like to separate thoughts with \u2022 more than ;", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Local, CPU-Friendly, High-Quality TTS (Text-to-Speech) with Kokoro"}, {"id": 774833505, "item_id": 48427094, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427094", "by": "CPLX", "date": "2026-06-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use aqua and wispr flow depending on which one seems to be returning the best results that day.", "excerpt": "This is exactly my workflow and it\u2019s just incredible. I use aqua and wispr flow depending on which one seems to be returning the best results that day.", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "What was your \"Oh Shit\" moment with GenAI?"}, {"id": 771096898, "item_id": 48193556, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193556", "by": "adamcharnock", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also really like Wispr Flow", "excerpt": "FWIW - I also really like Wispr Flow, but I moved to running the 'Whisper Large' model locally using Handy (https://github.com/cjpais/Handy), which has been essentially as good, while also having lower latency.", "context": "", "use_case": "speech to text", "switched_from": "", "story": "New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence"}, {"id": 767643824, "item_id": 47977739, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47977739", "by": "nerdsniper", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WhisprFlow produces much better speech-to-text for long text messaging-by-voice", "excerpt": "On just the transcription side: WhisprFlow produces much better speech-to-text for long text messaging-by-voice (dictation / transcription) than apple's speech-to-text does. Whisper models in general seem to do a lot better than most built-into-OS/app models. Which is interesting, because there's nothing stopping them from just using Whisper models. I love MacWhisper personally. Also, Gumroad is a fantastic app distr", "context": "", "use_case": "dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app"}, {"id": 752317536, "item_id": 47019846, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47019846", "by": "sheunl", "date": "2026-02-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Flow might be what you are looking for https://wisprflow.ai", "excerpt": "Flow might be what you are looking for https://wisprflow.ai", "context": "", "use_case": "voice coding dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Tools to Code Using Voice?"}, {"id": 740354657, "item_id": 46272166, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46272166", "by": "k9294", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I realized I was spending around \u20ac35/mo (\u20ac420 a year) on two apps for AI features that cost just pennies to run.", "excerpt": "Working on https://ottex.ai/ - BYOK alternative to Wispr Flow and Raycast AI shortcuts. I love global voice-to-text transcription (especially when working with Claude Code or Cursor) and simple AI shortcuts like \"Fix Grammar\" and \"Translate to {Language}\". I realized I was spending around \u20ac35/mo (\u20ac420 a year) on two apps for AI features that cost just pennies to run. So I built Ottex - a native macOS app with a tiny ", "context": "", "use_case": "voice-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}, {"id": 738159457, "item_id": 46134966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46134966", "by": "FrankDierolf", "date": "2025-12-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Wispr Flow and HyperWhisper don't support Linux", "excerpt": "Hola everyone, I run Omakub, OpenCode, NeoVim \u2013 terminal for everything. Wanted voice input for prompting AI, but Wispr Flow and HyperWhisper don't support Linux. Local Whisper wasn't cutting it. So I built whis. Speak, hit Enter, text lands in your clipboard. Uses OpenAI's Whisper API (~$0.006/min). There's also a hotkey mode \u2013 `whis listen` runs in background, Ctrl+Shift+R from anywhere. Works on X11 and Wayland. S", "context": "terminal-centric Linux user", "use_case": "voice input", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Whis \u2013 Voice-to-Clipboard for Linux"}]}