Quick Answer
Free dictation apps like Spokenly and Handy make speech-to-text faster and smarter by running AI models locally on your device. Simply install the app, download an offline model such as NVIDIA Parakeet or Whisper, enable the keyboard or shortcut, and start dictating on your Mac, iPhone, or PC. They automatically transcribe, clean up, and format your speech with better accuracy than standard dictation tools.
Speech-to-text can be very handy, especially if you want a hands-free and fast typing experience. You can simply activate dictation mode and start speaking, and it automatically converts your speech into text in real-time.
While dictating is significantly faster than manually typing on your keyboard, the biggest downside is accuracy. Sometimes it can produce the wrong result and also includes filler words, repetition, and misspellings. You need to review the content and manually rewrite the incorrect text.
While you can still manually edit text, you will end up spending more time fixing it manually, which is definitely not the objective.
Fortunately, this can be solved by using AI Dictation apps, which use intelligence to automatically convert your speech to a polished text by removing any unwanted words and fixing spelling and grammar mistakes. These apps are better than most voice-to-text dictation features found on most devices, including Mac
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Best Free Dictation Apps You Can Use
Over the past few days, I have been testing several free speech-to-text models. And found the two best AI transcription tools that are available for both Mac and Windows, and iPhone.
These free alternatives work completely offline locally on your device, are accurate and very close to paid models, work on all apps, and also support multiple languages. If you are looking for a free speech-to-text alternative, here are my two top picks and how to set up offline.
Spokenly: Best Free Dictation Tool for Mac and iPhone
Spokenly is the best free dictation app for Mac and iPhone. You can run it completely offline through various models. Unlike many of the free alternatives, Spokenly is also available for the iPhone with similar features.
The biggest difference I noticed between free and paid tools is flexibility. Spokenly also offers a paid version, but it also comes with a completely free version with unlimited use by using local models.
On the other hand, Spokenly lets you choose your own model, including the top TTS model from OpenAI and its own model, which runs on the cloud. It also lets you use your own API keys for text-to-speech conversion.
Unlike the other free TTS tools, Spokenly offers multiple local models to choose from. It also includes options from NVIDIA, which is the fastest offline model I have ever used on any tool, along with free Whisper models from OpenAI found on most free tools.
Not only that, but you can also customize the intensity, such as how much you want AI to customize your text with your own customization rules. Since all the text processing happens locally on your PC using offline models, you can also completely switch to offline models for more privacy.
It also supports 100-plus languages and automatically detects language as you speak. You can also convert text into different formats using AI prompts. For instance, if you are using speech-to-text to convert to write an email, you can ask it to format into an email structure, and it does for you without manually copying and pasting or doing it on your own.
Spokenly is available for both Mac and iPhone. Currently, there is no Android or Windows version. If you are specifically looking for the Windows version, try the handy.
Handy: Best Free Dictation Tool for Windows and Linux
Handy offers all the features of Spokenly, but it is completely free to use and also available on Windows. The app uses multiple open-source TTS models, which you can select during setup and switch to any model whenever you want.
It offers plenty of models to choose from, including those from Moonshine, Whisper, and also mini models, which are sized at just 31MB, great for running on low-resource devices, although the accuracy might be less than that of the bigger models.
I have used NVIDIA’s Parakeet V3, which is the same model found on Spokenly. It is fast and accurate.
One unique advantage is that most open-source and free alternatives are available only on the Mac or the iPhone. Fortunately, Handy is available for all Windows platforms, including ARM and Intel, and is also supported on Linux.
However, it is not as context-aware as the paid model and also misses auto-formatting sometimes, but it is still far better than default text-to-speech features found on all devices.
One major drawback of Handy is that it is not available on mobile. It is only available on PC platforms and is free to use forever.
Free Dictation Tools vs Paid Tools
Those are the two best free dictation apps I found. To summarize
- Both Spokenly and Handy offer very accurate text-to-speech conversion and are very reliable for daily use in most cases.
- These models run completely offline and allow you to switch between different TTS options.
- Unlike the paid versions like Typeless, these models are not often context-aware and often miss formatting.
- However, Spokenly also comes with a Pro version. It allows you to use better models like those used by paid apps, such as OpenAI.
So with that in mind, let’s learn how to set up both Spokenly and Handy on your device.
How to Set Up Spokenly on Mac
The best part is that Spokenly is directly available on the App Store, which means you can directly install it on your Mac, download it on your iPhone, and start using it.
Here is the detailed process on how to set up Spokenly on your Mac and iPhone (this process is very similar on Windows, too)
Step 1: Install the Spokenly app from the App Store. Here is the link: Download
Step 2: Open the app and sign in with your account if prompted. You will be taken directly to the general settings screen. From there, using the sidebar, tap on the dictation models.
Step 3: From here, switch to the local tab. Here you can see all the local models that you can use, from NVIDIA Parakeet to Whisper. Choose a model based on your preference. You can see both accuracy and speed scores.
Step 4: Click on the download to download the model locally to your device and wait until it finishes downloading.
Step 5: Once downloaded, select the model.
Step 6: Now use your shortcut to start speaking. To view which shortcut you have assigned, you can go to Keyboard Controls and view it.
Step 7: Open any app, press the shortcut, and start speaking. Once finished, release the button, and you can see the text is automatically transcribed and pasted into the respective apps.
How to Set Up Handy on Mac or PC
Setting up Handy is also very similar to Spokenly. However, it is not available on the App Store. You can visit the Handy website and download it for your device. Here is how:
Step 1: Visit Handy.computer website, select the download file, and tap on it. Here is the link: Download
Step 2: Install the app on your Mac.
Step 3: Tap on the models from the sidebar, select the Parakeet V3 model from NVIDIA, and tap on the download.
Step 4: Once downloaded, you can select the model and start speaking. Your speech will be automatically converted into text. To see the shortcut, you can visit the General tab.
How to Set Up Spokenly on iPhone
Spokenly app is also available on iOS. You can directly download it from the App Store. Here is how to set it up on your iPhone and use it locally:
Step 1: Download the app for free from the App Store. Here is the download link: Download
Step 2: Click on the model selector.
Step 3: Switch to Local Tab
Step 4: Select your preferred model and tap on Download.
Step 5: Once downloaded, select the model. You can tap on it to select.
Step 6: Now switch to the keyboard tab and finish all the necessary permissions.
Step 7: Now, to use it, open any app. Open the keyboard and tap on the globe icon.
Step 8: Click on the record button to start recording and start speaking. Once you finish, click on the right icon.
Bonus app for iPhone users: Google Edge AI Eloquent
Google has quietly entered the AI dictation app space with its new Google Edge Eloquent app. The launch was quiet. The app is currently only available on the iPhone, and it is very easy to set up. It offers a very simple onboarding experience with a few simple steps.
Like other dictation apps, it uses AI to convert your voice into text and polish it. The best part of the app is that it visually shows what it is correcting. I have installed it on my iPhone and, in my testing, it is able to polish the text by removing filler words and correcting unwanted sentences. It can also reformat the text, including the ability to convert it into key points or a formal tone, and create long or short content based on the dictated text.
The app runs completely offline with the local AI model . There is also optional cloud processing, which you can easily turn off from the home screen itself. The biggest difference between the other apps and Google’s Eloquent is that it is a dedicated dictation app, which means it doesn’t have a keyboard. You need to manually convert voice into text inside this app and paste converted text into other apps.
The app is free to use and is currently only available for the iPhone. I tried to install it on my Mac, but it doesn’t work. Finally, You need to sign in with your Google account.
The Best Free Offline Dictation Tools for Most Users
Those are the two best free dictation apps that you can use as an alternative to paid apps for your Mac, iPhone, and Windows. The best part of these three models is that they are not only reliable but also flexible, which lets you choose different models. and they also run completely offline, which is faster than any paid dictation apps. However, the only downside is that these are not available on Android. After using them, I found that these apps are more than enough for most people. You can combine these dictation apps with Grammarly for free to fix all the spelling and formatting issues.
I hope you find this guide helpful. If you have any issues while setting these dictation apps on your device, let me know in the comments below.
FAQs Setting Up Free Dictation Apps
1. Which local model is actually best for most users: speed-first or accuracy-first?
The NVIDIA Parakeet version 3 is the best option. It is both faster and more accurate in my testing.
2. How much storage space do these offline models take on a Mac, Windows PC, or iPhone?
It depends: you can download and use models as small as 32 MB in size, or you can use models that are 1.6 GB in size if you want better accuracy.
3. Do these tools work well in noisy environments like cafes, offices, or while travelling?
If your microphone quality is good, these apps should work well in noisy environments. However, since they depend completely on your voice, they might sometimes not be as accurate.
4. Which app is better for long-form writing like blog posts, emails, or notes?
Both Spokenly and the free Dictation app work well for long-form writing content. However, for better accuracy, you should download the high-accuracy model.
5. What are the minimum system requirements for smooth offline dictation on older laptops or phones?
These models should work and run offline on the latest devices with AI support. There are no exact system requirements for these tools; however, to run the AI models, your processor should support AI processing (NPU), which most modern devices do.
