1. Apple tells you where Dictation runs; Wispr always uses its cloud
Apple’s Mac User Guide says you can check Keyboard settings to see whether voice input and transcripts for general text Dictation, such as composing messages and notes but not dictating in a search box, are processed on your device and not sent to Siri servers: open System Settings → Keyboard and read the text below Dictation. Apple’s Siri, Dictation & Privacy page, dated September 14, 2026, adds that when the device does not say processing is local, what you dictate is sent to and processed on Apple’s servers, but is not stored unless you opt in to Improve Siri & Dictation.
Apple also says it stores related request data, such as device specifications and performance statistics, tied to a random identifier that rotates several times an hour rather than to your Apple Account, and may keep request history for up to two years to improve its speech services. If you choose Share Audio Recordings when turning Dictation on, Apple stores audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions and may review a sample; you can change that under Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.
Wispr has no on-device path. Its Data Controls page says transcription always occurs in the cloud, and its help center says an internet connection is required. Flow uses the app name and nearby text-box content for formatting; “Improve the model for everyone”, which lets Wispr train on your audio, transcripts, and edits, is on by default for Free and Pro and can be turned off; and Dictation Cloud Storage separately decides whether transcripts and audio are kept on Wispr’s servers.
2. Cost, Mac requirements, and the Wispr account
Apple Dictation is included with macOS and needs no download or sign-up; you turn it on under System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation. Apple notes that Dictation is not available in every language or region and that features vary. On a Mac with Apple silicon you can keep typing while you dictate without stopping it.
Wispr Flow needs macOS 12 Monterey or later on Apple silicon or Intel, with 8 GB of RAM recommended and about 500 MB free. It must live in an Applications folder, and setup asks for Microphone and Accessibility permission so it can insert text. Every user needs a Wispr account. As of October 3, 2026, Free costs $0 with 2,000 words a week on desktop, and Pro costs $15 a month or $12 a month billed annually, with 50% off Pro for students and educators. There is no one-time price.
- Apple Dictation: $0, included with macOS, no word cap.
- Wispr Flow Free: $0, 2,000 desktop words a week.
- Wispr Flow Pro: $180 a year paid monthly, or $144 billed annually.
3. Microphone key or Fn: starting, stopping, and fixing words
Apple’s guide gives three ways to start: press and release the Microphone key in the function row (holding it summons Siri instead), use your Dictation keyboard shortcut, or choose Edit → Start Dictation. You can dictate text of any length without a timeout, and Dictation stops on its own after 30 seconds without speech; Escape or the same shortcut ends it sooner. In supported languages it inserts commas, periods, and question marks for you, emoji can be spoken by name, and ambiguous words are underlined in blue with alternatives to click.
Wispr Flow’s default hotkey is Fn, or Ctrl+Option on keyboards without Apple’s Fn key, and it has a hands-free mode. On desktop it inserts the cleaned-up text after you stop. It adds a dictionary for names and jargon and snippets, and with Auto-add to Dictionary on it watches the text box it pasted into and learns spellings you correct. Command Mode edits existing text by voice.
- Voice Control is a separate Apple feature: while it is on, standard Dictation is unavailable.
- Apple’s “new line” equals pressing Return once; “new paragraph” equals twice.
4. Language lists: Apple’s per-region support against Wispr’s hundred
Apple points to its macOS Feature Availability page for the languages you can dictate in and the ones that get extra features such as automatic punctuation. You can add several languages under Keyboard → Dictation → Languages and switch while dictating by clicking the language shown next to the cursor or pressing the Globe key. Whether a given language runs on the device is part of what the Keyboard settings note tells you.
Wispr advertises more than 100 languages on every plan, including Free, and the same account signs in on Windows, iPhone, and Android. If you write in a language Apple Dictation does not cover, or switch languages mid-conversation, that breadth is Wispr’s clearest advantage.
5. Terminal.app, iTerm2, and dictating to coding agents
Apple says Dictation can enter text anywhere you can type, but its guide does not list Terminal, and the spoken command “new line” presses Return, which at a shell prompt runs the line. Try a harmless sentence in the terminal you use, avoid formatting commands while a shell owns the prompt, and stop Dictation before deciding to press Return. For prompts to Claude Code or Codex that are prose, built-in Dictation is often enough.
Wispr lists Terminal.app, iTerm2, Warp, Ghostty, kitty, Alacritty, Hyper, and VS Code terminals as places where Flow pastes directly once Accessibility is granted. In remote SSH sessions, Linux virtual machines, and terminals inside VNC viewers on a Mac, Flow transcribes but cannot paste, so you press Paste last transcript (Ctrl+Cmd+V) or Copy last transcript (Ctrl+Cmd+C). Wispr also warns that its context-aware formatting can transform shell commands, so read the line before running it.
6. A third option for Mac developers, labelled: IraVoice
This page is published by IraVoice, so read this section with that in mind. If Apple Dictation is not processing on the device for you, or you want Wispr-style held-key dictation without the cloud, IraVoice 1.2.2 runs on macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon and recognizes speech locally with NVIDIA Parakeet; the Parakeet Unified EN model, about 700 MB, downloads once, and then it works offline. Hold Right Command, speak, and release; Esc cancels, and it does not press Return, so a shell command waits for you.
In Terminal, iTerm2, Ghostty, Warp, VS Code, Cursor, Xcode, JetBrains IDEs, and the Claude and Codex desktop apps it spells names from the Git project you are in, so “pipeline dot swift” becomes Pipeline.swift; over SSH, names come from a Git project on your Mac, not the remote host. On a Mac it learns corrections by reading the box it just typed into, once, on the computer. IraVoice Local costs $79 once for one computer, $109 for two, or $149 for three, after a 3-day free trial. It has no phone app, does not run on Intel Macs, and its default model is English; if free Apple Dictation already does the job, keep it.