Dictation that
respects you
Lightning-fast voice typing powered by on-device AI. Optimized for Apple Silicon. Zero data ever leaves your machine.
Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon recommended
Live transcript
"The quarterly results show a notable improvement across all product verticals. Revenue is up 23% year over year, driven primarily by..."
Mac-Native
Built with Swift and SwiftUI. Not a web wrapper — feels at home on macOS.
Privacy-First
100% local transcription. Your voice never leaves your Mac. No cloud, ever.
Apple Silicon
Runs on the Neural Engine. 2–3× faster than CPU-bound alternatives.
Open Source
MIT license. No subscriptions, no hidden costs, no lock-in. Forever.
Under the hood
Native CoreML,
not WebAssembly
Cross-platform apps run Whisper inside WebAssembly — a sandboxed browser runtime. Pindrop runs directly on Apple's Neural Engine via CoreML. This isn't just an implementation detail; it fundamentally changes performance on every Mac.
Memory-Mapped Models
Models are memory-mapped, not heap-loaded. The system pages unused portions to disk — no malloc pressure, no GC pauses.
Apple Neural Engine
Transcription runs on dedicated ML accelerators, not general CPU. Better thermals and battery life.
Zero-Copy Audio
Direct CoreML/Metal calls with no JS → WASM → native layers in between. Instant start, no warmup.
WASM limitations you don't have
Cross-platform apps running whisper.cpp in WebAssembly
Capabilities
Everything voice productivity needs
Powerful enough for power users, native enough to feel effortless.
Global Hotkeys
Trigger dictation from anywhere with a fully customizable shortcut. Toggle mode or use push-to-talk for hands-free control.
Transcription History
Search your past dictations, copy to clipboard, or export to text files. Nothing is ever lost.
Multiple Models
Choose your speed-vs-accuracy tradeoff. From Tiny (blazing fast) to Large (broadcast quality).
Custom Vocabulary
Add domain-specific words and phrases. Medical, legal, technical—teach it your language.
How it stacks up
Why Pindrop?
| Feature | Pindrop | Handy | OpenWhispr | SuperWhisper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free & Open Source | Free (MIT) | Free + $6.67/mo Pro | $8.49/mo or $249 lifetime |
| Platform | macOS 14+ | Mac, Win, Linux | Mac, Win, Linux | Mac, Win, iOS |
| Native App | Swift / SwiftUI | Rust / Tauri | Tauri | Swift / SwiftUI |
| ML Engine | WhisperKit (CoreML) | whisper.cpp | whisper.cpp | llama.cpp |
| Transcription Log | ||||
| AI Enhancement | — | |||
| Custom Vocabulary | — | |||
| Diarization | — | — | ||
| Media Transcription | — | |||
| Push-to-Talk | ||||
| Direct Text Insert | Clipboard | |||
| Open Source | MIT | MIT | MIT | — |
Free forever
Ready for truly private dictation?
Join users who've moved to local, fast, and secure voice typing. No account. No subscription. No data sharing.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later required