The best voice to text app in 2026, on any device
Lven Instant is the best voice to text app when the words matter: the speech model runs on your own device, it works offline, there is no word cap, it types what you said without rewriting it, and one membership covers Windows, Linux and Android. If your device cannot hold the model, Lven Cloud does the same job from our servers at the lowest monthly price on this list. On a Mac or an iPhone, where Lven does not ship, Superwhisper or Typeless.
- Where your voice is processed
- What happens to your words after recognition
- Platforms covered by one purchase
- Word caps and price
- Works offline
The only paid dictation product compared on this site that is always on-device, never rewrites your words, has no usage cap and ships on Linux — and after two months of membership the builds are yours to keep.
Right for: Anyone who dictates every day on Windows, Linux or Android and wants the text to be exactly what they said, with nothing uploaded.
The same bubble and hotkey with the transcription done on our servers — for the device that cannot run a local model — at a third of Wispr Flow's price, with no word cap, no rewrite, and nothing kept after delivery.
Right for: An older or low-memory device, at the lowest monthly price on this list.
The best-known cloud dictation app. Polished, fast, and it rewrites your words: in July 2026 the company traced accuracy complaints to a default that changed words users had not asked it to touch.
Right for: A Mac or iPhone user who wants dictation rewritten into finished prose and does not mind cloud processing.
Cloud dictation whose whole pitch is rewriting: its own description is turning your words into polished messages and reorganising spoken lists. Ships on Android as well as Mac, Windows and iPhone.
Right for: Someone who wants their speech rewritten and restructured for them, on a Mac or an iPhone.
Push-to-talk speech to text with a mix of offline and cloud models and AI formatting modes. The offline models are real; the cloud ones are a setting you have to keep checking.
Right for: A Mac or iPhone user who wants offline models available and AI formatting on top.
The professional suite: deep voice commands, corrections by voice, medical and legal vocabularies, at professional prices and with a real learning curve.
Right for: Hands-free control of the whole computer, or a workplace that already standardises on Dragon.
Free, built in, and on most configurations it sends your audio to Microsoft's online speech service. Fine for an occasional sentence.
Right for: Occasional dictation with zero setup and zero cost, when cloud processing is not a concern.
Built into Gboard and every vendor keyboard. On most phones the audio goes to the keyboard vendor's service; some devices process some languages on the phone.
Right for: An occasional sentence, when cloud processing is not a concern.
Common questions.
What is the best free voice to text app?
Which voice to text app works offline?
Is there a voice to text app for Linux?
Which voice to text app does not rewrite what I say?
- Wispr Flow pricing page — Pro $15/user/mo monthly or $12/user/mo billed annually; free tier 2,000 words/week on desktop
- Digital Trends — Wispr Flow traces accuracy complaints to an over-aggressive Auto Cleanup that changed words
- Typeless — home page and pricing page: Mac, Windows, iOS and Android; polished-writing rewrite; free tier 8,000 words/week; $12/member/mo billed yearly, $30 monthly
- Superwhisper — AI voice to text for macOS, Windows and iOS; offline and cloud models
- ClassEve — server vs on-device dictation engines, measurement on consumer-grade hardware (RTF, WER, latency)
- ClassEve — What the polish pass changes: the 31-case golden corpus