9 Mac dictation apps on my real agent prompts
I sprained my wrist, so I talk to my agents now. One recording, replayed into every app. The one I kept is the fastest, not the most accurate.
October 13, 2026 (9d ago)
4 min read
I sprained my right wrist, so I talk to my agents now. I read 3 prompts once, then played the exact same recording into every app. Claude ran the apps and pressed the keys. I didn't touch the laptop.
13 October 2026 · MacBook Pro, Apple M5 Pro, macOS 27.0.1 · one take per prompt
The results
Sorted by accuracy, highest first · click a column to sort
| By prompt | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aqua VoiceAI · Cloud | 100% | 1.8 s | 1.0 GB | $10/mo | Prompt 1: 100Prompt 2: 99Prompt 3: 100 |
 SuperwhisperAI · Cloud | 98% | 1.4 s | 213 MB | $8.49/mo | Prompt 1: 100Prompt 2: 97Prompt 3: 98 |
 FreeFlowAI · Cloud | 95% | 2.5 s | 117 MB | Free | Prompt 1: 86Prompt 2: 100Prompt 3: 100 |
 VoiceInkMy pickRaw · Mac | 92% | 0.7 s | 289 MB | $25 once | Prompt 1: 81Prompt 2: 99Prompt 3: 95 |
 WillowAI · Cloud | 92% | 1.2 s | 273 MB | $15/mo | Prompt 1: 100Prompt 2: 83Prompt 3: 93 |
 ParakeetyRaw · Mac | 91% | 0.6 s | 548 MB | $25 once | Prompt 1: 81Prompt 2: 99Prompt 3: 93 |
 TypeWhisperRaw · Mac | 90% | 0.6 s | 191 MB | Free | Prompt 1: 76Prompt 2: 99Prompt 3: 96 |
Apple DictationRaw · Mac | 89% | 0.8 s | macOS | Free | Prompt 1: 76Prompt 2: 100Prompt 3: 92 |
 Wispr FlowAI · Cloud | 88% | 1.2 s | 1.6 GB | $15/mo | Prompt 1: 81Prompt 2: 96Prompt 3: 87 |
App names link to each app. Some are affiliate links. Price sorts by the cost of the first year.
What I use now: VoiceInk
Aqua Voice won on accuracy, but I ended up on VoiceInk. It is so fast that the text feels instant, and that matters more to me than the last few percent. It runs Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, NVIDIA's speech model, on the Mac itself.
I use it in two modes, one key each:
- Raw (Right Option): Parakeet only, word for word. I use it for agent prompts, where the model reads my words as they are.
- Clean (Fn): Parakeet, then a cleanup pass by Qwen 3.8 27B on Groq. It fixes names, emails and punctuation in about half a second. I use it for messages and emails.
Both modes share a list of word replacements for the names Parakeet gets wrong.
How I measured
- Prompts. Prompt 1 is short and has an email address. Prompt 2 is long and loose, the way I really talk. Prompt 3 is a long release task with product names.
- Accuracy is the share of words that match what I read. Case, punctuation and "um" don't count.
- Speed is the time from the end of my speech to the last character in the text box. Every app gets the same 0.3 s between the end of speech and the stop key.
- RAM is the peak memory of all the app's processes during the take. Apple Dictation runs inside macOS, so it has no number.
- Colors: accuracy is green from 97%, yellow from 90%. Speed is green under 1 s, yellow under 2 s. RAM and price compare the apps with each other.
- AI (cleanup) apps send the transcript through an LLM before they paste. Raw (word for word) apps paste what the speech model heard.
- Prices are from each app's site in October 2026. Earlier runs the same day gave numbers within a few percent.
What each app typed, word by word›
Red words are wrong, struck-through words are missing.
Prompt 1 · short, email
“Are the subagents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to hardeep@coffeecoach.app, and tell me if anything crashed.”
- 100% · 1.0 s
WillowAre the sub-agents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to hardeep@coffeecoach.app and tell me if anything crashed.
- 100% · 1.0 s
SuperwhisperAre the sub-agents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to hardeep@coffeecoach.app and tell me if anything crashed.
- 100% · 1.3 s
Aqua VoiceAre the sub-agents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to hardeep@coffeecoach.app and tell me if anything crashed.
- 86% · 2.1 s
FreeFlowAre the subagents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to Hardeep at the address coffeecoach.app and tell me if anything crashed.
Show 5 more takes ›Hide 5 takes
- 81% · 0.5 s
ParakeetyAre the subagents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to Hardip at the ratecoffeecoach.app and tell me if anything crashed.
- 81% · 0.7 s
VoiceInkAre the subagents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to Hardib at the ratecoffeecoach.app and tell me if anything crashed.
- 81% · 1.1 s
Wispr FlowAre the subagents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to hardeep@theRateCoffeeCoach.app and tell me if anything crashed.
- 76% · 0.6 s
TypeWhisperAre the sub agents done yet? When they finish, email the summary to Hardeep at the ratecoffeecoach.app and tell me if anything crashed
- Apple Dictation76% · 0.8 s
Are the sub-agents done yet when they finish email the summary to Hardeep at the right coffee coach.app and tell me if anything crashed?
Prompt 2 · long, natural
“Do deep research about the most popular apps to use, and also open in Agent Chrome primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and this short prompted style script that I like, you can write that as well, but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.”
- Apple Dictation100% · 0.8 s
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use, and also open in agent chrome primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and this short prompted style script that I like, you can write that as well, but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself
- 100% · 2.5 sFreeFlow
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use, and also open in AgentChrome Primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and this short prompted style script that I like, you can write that as well. But don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.
- 99% · 0.6 sParakeety
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use and also open in Agent Chrome Primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and the short prompted style script that I like, you can write that as well, but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.
- 99% · 0.6 sTypeWhisper
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use and also open in Agent Chrome Primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and the short prompted style script that I like you can write that as well but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.
Show 5 more takes ›Hide 5 takes
- 99% · 0.8 sVoiceInk
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use and also open in Agent Chrome Primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also if you have any hooks for the video and the short prompted style script that I like you can write that as well but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.
- 99% · 1.8 sAqua Voice
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use, and also open in Agent Chrome Primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and the short prompted style script that I like, you can write that as well, but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.
- 97% · 1.4 sSuperwhisper
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use and also open in agent chrome primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and this short prompted style script that I like, you can write that as well but don't make it too long. I'll handle most of the script myself.
i - 96% · 1.2 sWispr Flow
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use, and also open in Agent Chrome, primarily the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and the short prompt style script that I like, you can write that as well, but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.
- 83% · 1.1 sWillow
Do deep research about the most popular apps to use, and also open in agent Chrome primary the links to download all of them. I will return in half an hour to do the testing and make the video. Also, if you have any hooks for the video and the Rewrite the following text to be as concise and compact as possible style script that I like, you can write that as well, but don't make it too long. I will handle most of the script myself.
Prompt 3 · long, release task
“Okay, so I want to ship the next CallLane release today. Bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it and notarize it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that, update latest.json with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare, because the DMG link is cached for four hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error, don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also write a short changelog from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.”
- 100% · 2.1 sAqua Voice
Okay, so I want to ship the next call lane release today. Bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it and notarize it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that, update latest..json with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cached for four hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error, don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also write a short changelog from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
- 100% · 2.9 sFreeFlow
Ok, so I want to ship the next CallLane release today, bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it and notarize it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that, update latest.json with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cached for 4 hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error, don't try to fix it yourself, just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also write a short changelog from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
- 98% · 1.6 sSuperwhisper
Okay, so I want to ship the next call in release today, bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it, and notarize it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that, update latest dot JSON with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMZ link is cached for 4 hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error, don't try to fix it yourself; just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also, write a short changelog from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
- 96% · 0.6 sTypeWhisper
Okay, so I want to ship the next call in release today, bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it and notarize it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that, update latest dot JSON with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cacheted for four hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also write a short change log from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
Show 5 more takes ›Hide 5 takes
- 95% · 0.8 sVoiceInk
Okay so I want to ship the next call in release today, bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it and notarize it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that update latest.json with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cacheted for four hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. So write a short change log from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
- 93% · 0.6 sParakeety
Okay, so I want to ship the next call in release today, bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it and notarize it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that, update latest dot JS withO theN new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cacheted for four hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also, write a short change log from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
- 93% · 1.4 sWillow
Okay, I want to ship the next Corlion release today: - Bump the version to 1.4 - Build the DMG - Sign it - Notarize it - Upload it to the R2 bucket After that, update latest.json with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cached for four hours. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error, don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also, write a short change log from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
so call and then - Apple Dictation92% · 0.8 s
okay, so I want to ship the next call in release today. Bump the version to 1.4, build the DMG, sign it, and notarise it, then upload it to the R2 bucket. After that, update latest.Jason with the new version and purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cache-aid for four hours. If notarisation fails again with that entitlements error, don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. Also, write a short change log from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
- 87% · 1.4 sWispr Flow
I want to ship the next CallLane release today. 1. Bump the version to 1.4. 2. Build the DMG. 3. Sign it and notarize it. 4. Upload it to the R2 bucket. 5. Update latest.json with the new version. 6. Purge both URLs on Cloudflare because the DMG link is cached for 4 hours. 7. If notarization fails again with that entitlements error, don't try to fix it yourself. Just stop and tell me what Apple said. 8. Write a short change log from the commits since the last tag. I will check back after lunch.
okay so after