Pines Voice vs Wispr Flow
Both type what you say into any app on your Mac. The biggest difference is where the speech turns into text. Wispr Flow transcribes in the cloud. Pines Voice transcribes on your Mac by default, and uses the cloud only if you add your own key.
Facts about other apps checked on their own sites on 25 September 2026.
The facts side by side
| Pines Voice | Wispr Flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. The whole app, no word limit. | Free up to 2,000 words a week on desktop. Pro is $15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly. |
| Transcription | On your Mac by default. Cloud on your own OpenAI, Groq or OpenRouter key if you choose. | In the cloud. |
| Offline | Yes. | No. |
| Types into | Any macOS app with a text cursor. | Any app, with extra help in Cursor, Windsurf and VS Code. |
| Platforms | macOS 12 or newer, Apple silicon. | Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. |
What Wispr Flow does well
- Every device
- Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with one account across them.
- Coding editors
- In Cursor, Windsurf and VS Code it matches spoken names to the identifiers in your open files, so “user ID” can come out as userId.
- Meetings
- A notetaker with speaker identification sits beside the dictation.
- Teams
- Shared dictionaries, single sign-on and HIPAA plans for organisations.
- Free to start
- The free plan covers 2,000 words a week on desktop.
Where Pines Voice fits
- Offline
- Parakeet and whisper.cpp run on the Mac itself. Dictation works on a plane, on a train, or with the Wi-Fi off.
- Your audio
- With the local engine, nothing you say leaves the machine.
- Your own key
- When you want a cloud model, it runs on your own OpenAI, Groq or OpenRouter key, and the cost of each dictation is printed beside it.
- The price
- Free, with no word limit.
Pick Wispr Flow if you want dictation on every device, help with identifiers inside Cursor, or a team plan with single sign-on. Pick Pines Voice if you want free dictation that runs on your Mac with no network.
Questions people ask
Is Pines Voice a Wispr Flow alternative?
Yes. Both are dictation apps that type into any app on the Mac. Pines Voice runs its speech models on the Mac and works with no network. It is free, with a Pines Rocks account.
Does Wispr Flow work offline?
Wispr Flow’s data controls page says transcription always occurs on the cloud. Pines Voice runs Parakeet or whisper.cpp on your Mac, so it works with no network at all.
Does Pines Voice send my audio anywhere?
With the local engine, the audio never leaves your Mac. With a cloud engine, it goes straight from your Mac to the provider whose key you added. Pines Rocks runs no server that receives audio or transcripts.
Is there a word limit in Pines Voice?
No. The whole app is free with no word limit, and the local engine costs nothing per dictation.