The best lifetime dictation apps for Mac

Koi's Lifetime price climbs as it sells: $59 for the first 25 buyers, $99 for the next 50, $159 for the next 100, then $199 for good. It includes every update, and works on any number of your Macs. Dictation is unlimited: tap Fn + ⌥ in any app and Whisper turns your voice into text on the Mac, offline, in 57 languages it detects by itself. Recording online calls and in-person meetings is unlimited too, transcribed on the Mac.

The limit is the assistant. Talking or typing to Koi, and the notes it writes for a recording, run on cloud AI models, and Lifetime pays for them with credit worth 20% of what you paid, at the models' own cost. That credit never expires, but it's small and there's no monthly allowance on top. Once it's used, top-ups of $10, $25, $50 add more, while dictation and recordings keep working. If you'll talk to the assistant every day, Pro ($20 a month, with Koi usage each month) fits better.

Lifetime can be refunded within 3 days from Settings on your Mac, less the Koi credit used and Stripe's fees, once per person; tax isn't refunded. Koi needs an account, runs on the Mac only, has no snippets and doesn't transcribe audio files.

$25 for one Mac, $39 for two, $49 for three, with lifetime updates and a 14-day money-back guarantee. Dictation runs on the Mac with local models. It works only on Apple silicon Macs, with macOS 14.4 or later, per its pricing page.

Spokenly's Free plan is already unlimited local dictation with no account. Local+ is $29 once and adds the Notch and Capsule recording styles, settings sync and priority support. Cloud models need your own API keys; Spokenly's managed cloud is Pro, at $99.99 a year. It runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, with iPhone coming.

$29 for one Mac or $39 for two, one-time, with a 14-day refund. Watch the fine print: the license is for life, but updates are included for 12 months, then renewing is optional. It works offline after a one-time model setup, in 25 languages by default, on macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon or Intel. It also transcribes audio files you drop in, and a Meeting Mode beta records calls without a bot on macOS 15.

Basic is $39 for one Mac, Flex $49 for three, Studio $149 for ten, with a 14-day refund. It runs whisper-large-v3-turbo on the Neural Engine and needs an M1 or newer. Like Koi, the AI part is separate: Pro cleanup is $2 a month billed yearly, sends text to OpenAI, and Flex includes its first three months.

€64 once, with lifetime updates. MacWhisper is a transcription app first, with dictation added, so it's the lifetime pick if recordings matter more than talking into apps. The Mac App Store edition is sold through in-app purchases instead. The current version needs macOS 15.

$69 once for two devices, which can be a Mac and a Windows PC, with the updates it ships. A 3-day trial needs no card, and there's a 7-day refund. It runs Whisper and Parakeet on the device, supports Intel Macs, and transcribes files.

Voibe sells lifetime seats: Dictation is $199 and Work is $399, each covering Mac and Windows. Voibe says a lifetime seat includes everything in its plan, Cloud Mode and future updates among them. Dictation runs on the device or in a zero-retention cloud mode, and there's a 30-day refund.

$249.99 once, with every Pro feature, the same as the monthly and yearly plans. One license covers unlimited Macs and Windows PCs plus an iPhone and an Android phone, and Superwhisper offers a 30-day refund on all plans. It costs less than three years of its $84.99 yearly plan. Its FAQ says Intel Macs work best with its cloud models.