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Wispr Flow vs Superwhisper vs Rambleproof
Three ways to dictate on a Mac: one that sends your voice to a server, one that gives you a workbench of local models, and one that picks the settings for you and keeps the audio on the machine. Here is the difference, with the numbers sourced.
By Moe Lueker, founder of Rambleproof. Facts checked . We make Rambleproof, so read this as an editorial comparison with a stake in the outcome, not a neutral review.
The short version
Wispr Flow transcribes in the cloud and runs on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. If you move between a laptop and a phone all day, it is the only one of the three that follows you. It needs an account and a network.
Superwhisper is the workbench. Local models, cloud models, modes, AI instructions and activation rules, on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. If you enjoy tuning a tool until it fits exactly, it gives you the most to tune.
Rambleproof is the opinionated one. Apple Silicon Macs only, local by default, with one-time activation and defaults chosen so the first sentence works without a setup session. Cloud routes exist, are optional, and use your own API key.
Accuracy and speed
This is where most comparison posts start inventing numbers, so it is worth being precise about what can and cannot be measured.
Superwhisper and Rambleproof run speech engines that are published and independently benchmarked. The first group below compares two of those engines, Parakeet v2 and Whisper large-v3, on the same audio. Both apps can use Parakeet, so that group compares engines and does not rank the apps. Wispr Flow and Apple keep their engines private, so no leaderboard covers them. They appear in a second group instead, against the measurements that do exist: an academic study of Apple's speech API for one, a direct competitor's benchmark for the other. Those used different audio in different years, so they get their own axis and carry the name of whoever produced them. Where two publishers measure the same product and disagree, and for Apple they disagree by 2.5 times, both numbers are shown.
Accuracy and speed
- Rambleproof, or the engine family it runs
- Other tools and engines
19% fewer words wrongwith Parakeet v2 than with Whisper large-v3, on the same audio. These are speech engines, not apps.
Same audio, independent leaderboard
* Measured elsewhere, on different audio
Lower is better. Rows marked * or † were measured elsewhere. Parakeet v2 makes about 14 fewer word errors per thousand than Whisper large-v3 on an independent leaderboard. It compares two engines, not two apps. Superwhisper can run Parakeet too, and Rambleproof's default English model is Parakeet Unified, a different configuration. Wispr Flow and Apple come from other sources.
Sources and the numbers as a table
- *Not the same test as the unmarked bars: different audio, in a different year. Wispr Flow 8.7% is published by Superwhisper, a direct competitor, and another rival puts it at 6.2%. Apple is the University of Washington's figure for single words read aloud, measured in 2022: 14% for the best-served speaker group, 24% for the other three.
Sources: Open ASR Leaderboard, English short-form. * Scott, Liang, Wassink and Levow, University of Washington (arXiv:2510.22495).
The leaderboard measures speech engines, not whole apps, averaged over 8 datasets: AMI, Earnings22, GigaSpeech, LibriSpeech clean, LibriSpeech other, SPGISpeech, TED-LIUM v3, VoxPopuli. Before 1.0.9, Rambleproof's own end-to-end time was 1.32s median over 37 dictations (key release to cleaned text at the cursor, MacBook Air M4, macOS 26.5.1); 1.0.9 streams transcription while you talk and brings that to about 1 second.
| Tool | What was measured | Accuracy | Measured by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parakeet v2 | Parakeet TDT 0.6B v2 | 6.05% | Open ASR Leaderboard, English short-form |
| Whisper large-v3 | Whisper large-v3 | 7.44% | Open ASR Leaderboard, English short-form |
| Wispr Flow | engine not disclosed | 8.7% | Superwhisper, a direct competitor |
| macOS Dictation | Apple Speech API, single words, 2022 | 14.0% | University of Washington |
What everyone else publishes, and who published it
The full set of figures the dictation industry publishes about itself, including the ones the chart above draws. Every one was produced by a company selling one of the products being scored, and none publishes a corpus you could use to check the result, which is why they are charted apart from the independent benchmark rather than beside it. Where two of them measure the same product, both are listed, disagreement included.
| Tool | Figure | Value | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wispr Flow | Word-error rate | 6.2% | LumeVoice A competing dictation app, ranking itself first in the same table. No corpus or method published. |
| Superwhisper | Word-error rate | 3.6% | LumeVoice Same table, same publisher. Disagrees with the independent leaderboard figures for the Whisper and Parakeet engines charted above, both engine families Superwhisper offers. |
| macOS Dictation | Word-error rate | 20.9% | LumeVoice Same table. Other dictation blogs put the same product between 7.8% and 18%, which is the spread you get when nobody shares a corpus. |
| Wispr Flow | Word-error rate | 8.7% | Superwhisper A direct competitor measuring Wispr Flow. Publishes more of its method than most, but is still a contestant scoring a rival. |
| Wispr Flow | Time to final text | 0.80 s | Embertype A competing dictation app. No trial count and no method stated. |
| Superwhisper | Time to final text | 1.40 s | Embertype Same post, same absence of method. |
| macOS Dictation | Time to final text | 0.30 s | Embertype Same post. Yapper measures the same product at 760 ms, which is 2.5 times slower. |
| macOS Dictation | Time to first character | 760 ms | Yapper A competing dictation app, but the best method of the set: 100 trials per app on an M3 Pro, timed off 120 fps screen capture. It measures the first character, not the finished text. |
The only numbers on this page we measured ourselves are Rambleproof's, and we say exactly how: in 1.0.9, about 0.3 seconds from letting go to raw text and about 1 second to cleaned text at the cursor, on a MacBook Air M4 (1.32 seconds median across 37 dictations before 1.0.9). The one competitor timed the same way is Wispr Flow, from its own logs on the same Mac, shown in the chart's speed tab.
Side by side
| Question | Wispr Flow | Superwhisper | Rambleproof |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where speech is processed | Cloud transcription | On-device models plus optional cloud models | Local by default; optional bring-your-own-key cloud routes |
| Works offline? | No | Yes, with local models | Yes, with local engines |
| Account in the app | Yes | License activation | One-time account or license activation |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android | Apple Silicon Mac, macOS 15+, including 27 (26+ recommended) |
| Published language scope | 100+ languages | Varies by selected model | English benchmarked; support varies by selected engine |
| Free tier | Weekly desktop soft and hard word caps | Voice dictation and basic transcription | Unlimited raw dictation; 15,000 AI-cleaned words a week |
| Monthly and annual | $15 monthly; $12 monthly billed annually | $8.49 monthly; $84.99 annually | $12 monthly; $96 annually |
| Lifetime | Not offered | $249.99 | $200 list; $150 founding |
Which one to pick
Pick Wispr Flow if you dictate on a phone as much as a laptop, or if you are on Windows. Neither of the other two can do that, and no amount of local processing makes up for the app not being on the device in your hand.
Pick Superwhisper if you want to choose your own model, write your own AI instructions and set per-app activation rules. It is the most configurable of the three, and configurability is a real feature when you have a specific workflow to fit.
Pick Rambleproof if you want your voice to stay on your Mac without reading a model comparison first, and if you want dictation that keeps working offline. The trade is narrower: one platform, one opinionated set of defaults.
Official sources
- Wispr Flow product and pricing pages.
- Superwhisper product and pricing pages.
- Open ASR Leaderboard, the independent benchmark the chart draws from.
- How we measure speed and accuracy, including what we measured and what we did not.
Related reading
- Wispr Flow vs Rambleproof, in more depth.
- Superwhisper vs Rambleproof, in more depth.
Where Rambleproof fits
Unlimited raw local dictation forever, with 15,000 AI-cleaned words each week at Light or Medium, then basic cleanup (fillers and punctuation, no AI rewrite) until Monday. Activate once with an account or license. Every safety feature stays available on Free.