# EnviousWispr > Free, private voice-to-text for macOS. Hold a hotkey, speak, release. Polished text lands on your clipboard or pastes directly. Transcription runs on-device with Parakeet (25 European languages) or WhisperKit (99 languages). Optional AI polish can stay on-device with EG-1, Apple Intelligence, or a local Ollama model; Ollama also offers hosted models that run on its servers, and OpenAI, Gemini and Claude are optional bring-your-own-key cloud providers. No account, no subscription. Free download. Maker: Envious Labs LLC (Connecticut, USA). Founder: Saurabh Vaish. License: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3, open source on GitHub). Platform: macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, Apple Silicon only. Last-updated: 2026-08-05 ## Product - [How it works](https://enviouswispr.com/how-it-works/): The end-to-end pipeline: hotkey hold, audio capture, on-device ASR, optional LLM polish, clipboard or paste-to-app delivery. - [Homepage](https://enviouswispr.com/): Download, screenshots, core value proposition, system requirements (Apple Silicon, macOS 14+). - [Best dictation apps for Mac](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/best-dictation-apps-for-mac/): A practical 2026 guide to six Mac dictation options, with honest picks by workflow. - [Compare to alternatives](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/): Index of comparison pages vs WisprFlow, Superwhisper, Apple Dictation, Dragon, MacWhisper, Otter.ai, and others. ## Help - [Help centre](https://enviouswispr.com/help/): All 52 support articles, searchable, with the complete article list on the page. - [Getting Started](https://enviouswispr.com/help/getting-started/): System requirements, download and install, first dictation, granting microphone and accessibility permission, uninstalling. - [Troubleshooting](https://enviouswispr.com/help/troubleshooting/): No text appearing, inaccurate dictation, first word cut off, accessibility permission not sticking, recording that will not stop, Ollama and Apple Intelligence failures, app crashes. - [Recording and Hotkeys](https://enviouswispr.com/help/recording-and-hotkeys/): Push-to-talk, hands-free, toggle mode, changing the recording hotkey, cancelling a recording. - [Speech Engines](https://enviouswispr.com/help/speech-engines/): Parakeet versus WhisperKit, language coverage, downloading and managing models, live transcription. - [AI Polish](https://enviouswispr.com/help/ai-polish/): What polish does, choosing or disabling a provider, Apple Intelligence setup, running a local Ollama model offline, what hosted Ollama models send, context-aware polish, hallucination protection. - [Pasting Your Text](https://enviouswispr.com/help/pasting-your-text/): How text reaches the focused app, spacing and capitals at the cursor, clipboard preservation, what to do when paste fails. - [Audio and Microphone](https://enviouswispr.com/help/audio-and-microphone/): Choosing an input device, AirPods and Bluetooth behaviour, noise suppression, voice activity detection and auto-stop. - [Custom Words](https://enviouswispr.com/help/custom-words/): Adding names and jargon, how correction matches, importing and exporting a word list. - [Features](https://enviouswispr.com/help/features/): Transcript history, filler-word removal, spoken punctuation and emoji, numbers and dates formatting, sounds and appearance. - [Privacy and Security](https://enviouswispr.com/help/privacy-and-security/): What stays on the Mac, what telemetry is collected, what cloud polish sends and to whom, where API keys are stored. - [Updates and Source](https://enviouswispr.com/help/updates-and-source/): Automatic updates, source code and contributing under GPLv3. - [Pricing](https://enviouswispr.com/help/pricing/): Why the app is free, and what bring-your-own-key costs if you choose a cloud provider. ## Comparisons - [vs WisprFlow](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/wisprflow/): Free and on-device vs paid cloud subscription. - [vs Superwhisper](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/superwhisper/): Both on-device, different defaults and model coverage. - [vs Apple Dictation](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/apple-dictation/): How EnviousWispr extends what Apple ships built-in. - [vs MacWhisper](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/macwhisper/): Real-time hotkey dictation vs file-based transcription. - [vs Otter.ai](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/otter-ai/): Personal dictation vs meeting transcription. - [vs Dragon](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/dragon/): Modern on-device alternative to legacy desktop dictation. - [vs Google Docs voice typing](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/google-docs-voice-typing/): System-wide vs Docs-only. - [vs Whisper.cpp](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/whisper-cpp/): Polished consumer app vs CLI/library. - [vs VoiceInk](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/voiceink/): Two Whisper-based Mac apps, head to head. - [vs Willow Voice](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/willow-voice/): Free on-device alternative to a cloud-first subscription. - [vs Notta](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/notta/): Personal on-device dictation vs cloud transcription service. - [WisprFlow alternatives (9 options compared)](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/wisprflow-alternatives/): Listicle ranking nine alternatives by price, privacy, and offline support. - [Compare to alternatives (index)](https://enviouswispr.com/compare/): All comparisons. ## Features - [Dictate in a whisper: soft and quiet speech](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictate-in-a-whisper-soft-speech/): Capturing quiet, whispered, and far-from-the-mic speech so you can dictate at night or in a shared office without raising your voice. - [Say it, get it formatted: dates, numbers, emails](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/spoken-text-formatting-dates-numbers-emails/): On-device conversion of spoken numbers, dates, times, money, percentages, phone numbers, emails, and web addresses into typed form, before any AI step. - [Speaking emoji in your dictation](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/speak-emoji-dictation/): Say "thumbs up emoji" to get the glyph; trigger-word based, 1,500+ emoji, runs on-device, never converts a bare word by accident. - [Dictate for a full hour](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/you-can-now-dictate-for-a-full-hour/): How EnviousWispr handles a single hour-long dictation on-device, with a warning before the limit and no lost transcript at the stop. ## Privacy and architecture - [On-device vs cloud dictation privacy](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/on-device-vs-cloud-dictation-privacy/): What each architecture does with your voice data and what that means for privacy. - [macOS dictation, offline and private](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/macos-dictation-offline-private/): How offline dictation works and why it matters. - [Voice coding on macOS without the cloud](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/voice-coding-macos-without-cloud/): Dictating code locally without sending to a remote server. - [Engineering small models for on-device dictation polish](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/on-device-dictation-polishing-small-models/): Benchmark-backed research on the reliability layers behind local dictation cleanup and the path to EG-1. ## Use cases - [Getting started in under 2 minutes](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/getting-started-enviouswispr-under-2-minutes/): First-run setup walkthrough. - [Dictating emails at the speed of thought](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictate-emails-speed-of-thought/): Email workflow. - [Dictation for developers: code reviews and PRs](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictation-for-developers-code-reviews/): PR descriptions and review comments by voice. - [Dictation for writers: skip the blank page](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictation-for-writers-skip-blank-page/): First-draft workflow for writers. - [Voice input for RSI: keyboard-free workflow](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/voice-input-rsi-keyboard-free-workflow/): Accessibility and hands-free typing. - [Dictation for parents who type one-handed](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictation-parents-type-one-handed/): One-handed parenting workflow. - [Dictation for remote workers tired of typing](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictation-remote-workers-tired-of-typing/): Remote work fatigue. - [Switched typing to dictating git commits](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/switched-typing-to-dictating-git-commits/): Git commit message workflow. - [Take lecture notes by speaking](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/take-lecture-notes-by-speaking/): Student note-taking. - [Essay outline by talking it out](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/essay-outline-by-talking-it-out/): Outlining workflow. - [Voice-to-prose writing workflow](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/voice-to-prose-writing-workflow/): Long-form writing. - [Dictate first drafts that sound like you](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictate-first-drafts-sound-like-you/): Preserving voice in drafts. - [Dictating episode scripts without losing flow](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictating-episode-scripts-without-losing-flow/): Podcasting workflow. - [Meeting notes and polished summaries](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/meeting-notes-polished-summaries/): Post-meeting workflow. - [Podcast show notes to blog posts](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/podcast-show-notes-to-blog-posts/): Repurposing workflow. - [Async communication is better when you speak](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/async-communication-better-when-you-speak/): Async-first communication. - [macOS dictation for healthcare: on-device charting](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/dictation-for-healthcare-on-device-charting/): On-device clinical documentation, no BAA needed for the dictation step. ## Behind the scenes - [The state of our solo Claude Code system](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/claude-code-system-june-2026/): A June 2026 update on how one founder builds and validates EnviousWispr with Claude Code. - [Moving Whisper off the Neural Engine](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/whisperkit-neural-engine-to-gpu/): Why we moved the Whisper-based engine from the Neural Engine to the GPU, with cold-start measurements (about 109 seconds down to about 13). - [Welcome to EnviousWispr](https://enviouswispr.com/blog/welcome-to-enviouswispr/): Launch post. ## Legal - [Privacy policy](https://enviouswispr.com/privacy-policy/) - [Terms of service](https://enviouswispr.com/terms-of-service/) ## Source - [GitHub repository](https://github.com/saurabhav88/EnviousWispr): Open source under GPLv3.