01
Wispr Flow
Best overall right now- Price
- Free, unlimited at launch
- Offline
- No — cloud only
- Languages
- 100+
- Input
- Floating bubble
Launched on Android in February 2026 and immediately set the bar. Unlimited dictation is free with no word cap, it works alongside your existing keyboard rather than replacing it, and it handles auto-punctuation, filler removal and list formatting without being asked. If you just want the best result with the least setup, start here.
The catch: It needs an internet connection for everything, and the desktop version drew real criticism for screenshotting the active window for context. The free-forever framing is also a launch position, not a promise — Flow Pro exists.
Full Wispr Flow comparison →02
Gboard
Best if you want to install nothing- Price
- Free, pre-installed
- Offline
- Yes
- Languages
- Dozens, offline packs available
- Input
- Keyboard mic key
Already on your phone, works offline once you download a language pack, and now has Gemini-powered dictation on newer devices. For short messages it is genuinely hard to beat, and every app below has to justify itself against something you already own.
The catch: It transcribes what you said rather than what you meant. Rambling stays rambling — no filler removal, no restructuring, and punctuation is inconsistent unless you dictate it manually.
03
VoxaType
Best for privacy-conscious dictation- Price
- Free
- Offline
- No — cloud only
- Languages
- 100
- Input
- Floating bubble
Ours. A floating bubble that works in any text field alongside your existing keyboard, with AI cleanup that removes fillers and fixes punctuation. The design decisions that separate it are all privacy ones: it never captures your screen, password and OTP fields are detected and excluded on-device, and there is no training pipeline your dictations could feed.
The catch: Android only — no Mac, Windows, or iOS. It needs an internet connection. There is no command mode or auto-learning dictionary. And it is a solo project competing with funded teams, which is worth knowing before you depend on it.
Get VoxaType →04
Yaps
Best fully offline option- Price
- 7-day trial, then subscription
- Offline
- Yes — fully on-device
- Languages
- 20+
- Input
- Full keyboard replacement
The strictest privacy story of the group, because there is nothing to trust: all speech processing runs on the phone and it works in airplane mode. It asks for exactly one sensitive permission — the microphone — with no accessibility service, no screen capture, and no draw-over-apps.
The catch: It replaces your keyboard entirely, so you inherit its typing experience whether you wanted to or not. Language coverage is 20+ rather than 100+, and it is the only app here with no free tier after the trial.
05
Amical
Best open source- Price
- Free, open source
- Offline
- Yes — with local models
- Languages
- 100+
- Input
- Floating bubble
Open source, free, and unusually flexible: you can point it at cloud models or run everything locally through Ollama or OpenRouter, so nothing has to leave your device. It also adapts tone by app — more formal in Gmail than in Discord. If you want to audit what your dictation tool actually does, this is the only entry you can read the source of.
The catch: Android is still in beta, and the local-model path takes real setup. It is a project you configure rather than an app you install.
06
Typeless
Best cross-platform free tier- Price
- 8,000 words/week free, $12/mo yearly
- Offline
- No — cloud only
- Languages
- 100+
- Input
- Keyboard
Covers macOS, Windows, iOS and Android with one subscription, which matters if you dictate on a laptop and a phone and want the same dictionary and behaviour in both. The free tier is the most generous of any paid app here at 8,000 words a week.
The catch: 8,000 words a week is roughly 30 minutes of steady dictation — comfortable for messages, tight for drafting. Beyond that it is $30/month unless you commit to a year.
07
DictoKey
Best for dictating in another language- Price
- 30 dictations/day free, €4.99/mo
- Offline
- No — cloud only
- Languages
- 52, with translation
- Input
- Bubble, keyboard, or notification
The differentiator is translation on the way out: long-press the bubble and speak in one language to get text in another, across 52 languages. Useful in a way the others are not if you regularly write to people who do not share your language.
The catch: 52 languages is half the coverage of the leaders, the free tier stops at 30 dictations a day, and speech and translation both run in the cloud despite the no-data-collected framing.