MacWhisper alternative
A free MacWhisper alternative for dictation.
MacWhisper is built around transcribing audio and video files. Lipik is built for dictation: hold fn, speak, and clean text appears in any app. Both turn speech into text on your Mac, and Lipik is free and open source.
Free and open source, for Macs with Apple silicon.
Lipik and MacWhisper
MacWhisper facts come from its own site, macwhisper.com (checked 29 Oct 2026).
| Question | Lipik | MacWhisper |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, every feature | Free version; Pro is a one-time €64 licence with lifetime updates |
| Built for | Dictation into any app, and meeting notes | Transcribing audio and video files, plus dictation and meeting recording |
| Where speech becomes text | On your Mac | On your Mac |
| Meeting recording | Yes, no bot joins | Yes, no bots join |
| Platforms | macOS, Apple silicon (M1 or later) | Mac |
What Lipik does
- Hold fn, talk, let go: clean text is typed where your cursor is. A small pill shows when Lipik is listening.
- Clean-up on your Mac removes "um", fixes punctuation, keeps your corrections ("four, no, five" becomes 5) and writes in the tone you set for each kind of app.
- A Dictionary for names, snippets, and a history of every dictation on your Mac.
- Meeting notes with speakers, a summary, and Hinglish in Roman letters.
When MacWhisper may suit you better
If your main job is turning recorded files into text, MacWhisper is made for that: you drag in an audio or video file and get a transcript. Lipik is made for speaking into the app you're using.
What needs the internet
After one-time model downloads, dictation works with Wi-Fi off. There is no account, and nothing you say leaves your Mac. The full list of what Lipik sends online is on the free dictation page.
MacWhisper is a trademark of its owner. Lipik is not connected to it.
Questions
Is Lipik free?
Yes. Every feature is free, with no paid version, no account and no word limit. The code is open source under the MIT licence.
Does Lipik use Whisper?
Lipik uses Parakeet, an English model, by default. Free Whisper models can be downloaded in Settings for other languages.
Does Lipik work offline?
Yes, once the models are downloaded. Speech to text and clean-up run on your Mac.
Can Lipik record meetings?
Yes. It records your microphone and your Mac's sound, so no bot joins the call, and writes a transcript and summary on your Mac. It needs macOS 14.2 or later.
Which Macs does Lipik run on?
Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or later).
Get Lipik for Mac.
Free, for Macs with Apple silicon. Open the download, drag Lipik into Applications, and hold fn to start.
curl -fsSL
https://lipik.pages.dev/install.sh | sh
Pasting the line above into Terminal installs Lipik with no security warning. If you use the download instead, macOS asks you to confirm the first time: go to System Settings, then Privacy & Security, and click Open Anyway. Install help