Aiko alternatives for Mac in 2026

Aiko, by Sindre Sorhus, does one thing: it turns audio and video into text on your device. On a Mac it runs Whisper large v2; on an iPhone, the medium or small model, depending on memory. It supports 100 languages and exports plain text, SRT subtitles, JSON and CSV. It's $24 once for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro, and you can try the full app for 14 days through TestFlight. Nothing is uploaded.

That's a lot to like, and if it covers your files, keep it. Aiko's own page is clear about what it leaves out, and those are the reasons people look around:

• No speaker labels. Naming speakers is something the author would like to add later.
• No live transcription: it works on recordings, not as you speak.
• No editing of the text inside the app.
• No built-in batch mode; the site shows a Shortcuts workaround.
• One language detected per file, so mixed-language audio is unreliable.
• Translation only into English, and not at the same time as the original transcript.
• No .ogg files.

We make Koi, one of the apps below, so read this with that in mind. We didn't run accuracy tests. Facts about the others come from their own sites, checked October 21, 2026.

In Aiko you open a file or drop it in, choose the language if it doesn't guess right, and copy or export the result as text, SRT, JSON or CSV. In Koi:

1. Click Tools on Koi's dock and pick Transcribe a file, or choose File, Transcribe Audio or Video… in the menu bar. You can also drop the file on the Documents window.
2. The page opens at once and fills in as it's heard. A card at the foot shows progress, with Cancel.
3. Edit the text right there, then open the page's menu, Export, for Subtitles (SRT) or (VTT), Word or PDF.

The language Koi uses is the one you picked for dictation, in Settings, Dictation, where you also choose the speech model.

From each app's own site. “Not listed” means the site doesn't say.

Aiko's page says its older builds for macOS 13, 14 and 15 won't run on newer macOS versions, so check you have the right one. MacWhisper 15.2 needs macOS 15. Superwhisper recommends Apple silicon for its offline models, and the free Buzz Classic is listed for Intel Macs. Koi needs macOS 14 or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel.

Aiko uses Whisper large v2 and doesn't let you swap it. Koi lets you pick in Settings: NVIDIA's Parakeet v3 is built in and the fastest, in 25 European languages, and Whisper Base, Small and Large v3 Turbo, Cohere Transcribe, Qwen3-ASR and Granite Speech are free downloads. Our post on Koi's speech models explains the tradeoffs.

• Copy or export what you want to keep: Aiko exports text, SRT, JSON and CSV.
• Check the formats you use. Koi reads m4a, mp3, wav, aiff, caf, mp4, mov, m4v and voice memos. MacWhisper lists mp3, wav, m4a, ogg, opus, mov and mp4.
• Check whether you need an iPhone app. Aiko has one; Koi and MacWhisper are Mac apps.
• Check how you like to pay. Aiko, MacWhisper Pro and Koi Lifetime are paid once; Superwhisper Pro and TurboScribe are subscriptions, and so is Koi Pro.

Aiko isn't free, but its 14-day TestFlight trial is the full app. For free and local after that, Buzz Classic is free and open source, and MacWhisper's free version transcribes files on your Mac. TurboScribe's free plan does 3 files a day of up to 30 minutes, in the cloud. Koi isn't free either: Pro starts with a 3-day trial that needs a card, and every plan transcribes with no limit on minutes. See the plans.

Many people use Aiko on recordings they made somewhere else: a voice memo of a class, a Zoom export, a phone recording of an interview. If the recording happens on your Mac, Koi can skip that step. Tap Fn + ⌃ and pick In person for a class or a meeting in the room, or Online call for Zoom, Meet or Teams, and it's written down as it happens, on your Mac. A class also gets study notes and flashcards if you say yes. Our guide to recording a lecture on a Mac shows how.

If you chose Aiko, you probably chose it because nothing leaves your device. That's worth keeping. A local app doesn't need a server to hold your recordings, doesn't keep a copy on a server you can't see, and works on a plane. The cloud services here, TurboScribe and Happy Scribe, are faster on huge batches and add speaker labels and translation, but every file goes to them first.

Among the local options, the choice is mostly about what else you need. Koi adds an editable page, call and in-person recording and dictation, and needs an account and a plan; it checks the plan with its server before a recording, and keeps nothing about it. MacWhisper adds speakers and batches, paid once. Buzz adds nothing but costs nothing.

Aiko detects one language per file, which its page says makes mixed-language audio unreliable. Koi writes a file down in the language you picked for dictation, in Settings, Dictation, and its built-in Parakeet model works out which of its 25 European languages it's hearing by itself. For a file in a language outside those, pick a Whisper model and that language first. Neither app is built for a recording that switches language every few sentences, so test one before a big batch.

• An editable transcript on your Mac, plus calls, lectures and dictation? Koi.
• Speaker labels and batches, still local, paid once? MacWhisper.
• Free and open source? Buzz.
• Mostly dictation, files now and then? Superwhisper.
• Hundreds of files and you're fine uploading? TurboScribe.
• Subtitles with a human check? Happy Scribe.

See Koi's plans, our list of Whisper apps for Mac, or how to record a lecture on a Mac.