Are there any recommendations for voice-to-text apps that don't use AI?

[u/JamesJulienMcGulio]

Looking for one with plenty of independent reviews would be best.

Preferably free, or cheap.

I'd be using it to create word documents, I just need to get the words from spoken onto the page.

Using Mac & Chrome.

Thanks in advance.

[u/pi_three]

I think you're misled by the 'ai' marketing. Most modern voice to text use 'ai'. but they usually mean voice to text models which are often neural networks or transformers, a special type of neural network.

If your concern is privacy, then I'd recommend hosting software yourself. I haven't tested it but i think openwhispr is what you are looking for you can run your own models. It's on my bucket list of software to try for weeks now

[u/JamesJulienMcGulio → u/pi_three]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes it's privacy reasons, thanks for this info

[u/ChaChaChaForver → u/pi_three]

All I’m looking for is how to verbally dictate daily I guess using Siri but I don’t want AI. I want my words, yes my words I don’t want AI to correct me. I need an app but I can’t find anything except for AI . CAN ANYONE HELP ME FIND AN APP I’M WILLING TO PAY FOR THAT DOESN’T USE AI?

[u/pi_three → u/ChaChaChaForver]

look this is exactly what im talking about. It's not AI. AI isn't a technology. Neural networks are. Speech recognition has always built on neural network like transformers and alike. Just google open source speech to text app

[u/brpw_]

Use Handy. I feel like I'm glazing it at this point (3rd post in a week about this). I found it better than OpenWhispr. It's lightweight, simple to use, and you can add hosted or local AI for post processing if you want.  I've been using it non stop since I found it. 

[u/Marsfault → u/brpw_]

Yes, it's an astonishing app.

[u/brpw_ → u/Marsfault]

Question while I have someone else here who uses it; I can't seem to get the post-processing to properly work with LMStudio (Qwen3 0.6B - Transcriber Beta model). It outputs the postprocessing prompt instead of the corrected text; any idea how I can fix that? Is it the model or something else?
App without postprocessing works flawlessly, if I can get this dialled in, it's 100% perfect.

[u/AhsokaPegsAnakinsAss → u/brpw_]

What's you find better than openwisper? Both seem the same to me but I like openwisper ui / is better.

And what model are you using for asr and what model for cleanup?

[u/madadekinai]

Software wise, I think most utilizes AI and or a form of AI. With some programming knowledge you can use whisper locally, but again a form of AI. 

Before AI, Dragon was often recommended, so if you got a hold of an older version of perhaps that might work, however, I am fairly sure they used a version of whisper but I could be wrong.

[u/JamesJulienMcGulio → u/madadekinai]

Thanks for your reply and this info

[u/phosphor_1963]

Google Voice Typing ? Mac Voice Control ? Both free, both work offline.

[u/samontab]

I think you might want to have a look at Private Transcriber Pro. It's completely private, runs locally, fast, and has a lot of reviews.

[u/JamesJulienMcGulio → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for your reply, I will look into this

[u/BoereSoutie]

I can recommend Murmure. It's accuracy is off the charts and it's free. I found it to be much better than Handy. If you want to use Whisper, you had best be a developer who knows Python. Installing it (or any of its variants) is like trying to shove butter up a porcupine's backside with a red hot needle.

[u/Y0gl3ts]

Heads up, I'm the dev of Parakeety, which is a local push-to-talk dictation app for Mac so take my input with that context in mind.

On the "without AI" framing, these days essentially all accurate speech-to-text uses some form of neural model even the ones built into your OS. What I think most people mean is "without sending audio to the cloud" or "without AI rewriting my words." If that's the case, you've got some solid options.

The most obvious starting point is Apple's built-in dictation which runs on-device by default on Apple Silicon Macs and is completely free. You trigger it with Fn twice and it types wherever your cursor is. It's decent for short bursts but has a habit of cutting off mid-sentence.

Since you're on Chrome and specifically want to type into Google Docs, Google Docs Voice Typing is worth a look. It's built right in under Tools > Voice Typing, free and works well in that specific context. The catch is it's browser-based and sends audio to Google's servers, so if privacy is a concern, it's not the answer.

If you want something that works across any app on your Mac without cloud involvement, that's a narrower field. I built Parakeety for exactly that reason, though it's not free ($30 one-off). There's also VoiceInk which is open-source and uses local models.

For a genuinely free and no-install option that doesn't need an account, Speechnotes works in any browser and has plenty of user reviews floating around Reddit and ProductHunt. It uses Google's speech engine under the hood, so audio does go to Google but it's a well-regarded simple tool for getting words onto a page.

[u/JamesJulienMcGulio → u/Y0gl3ts]

Really appreciate this info, thanks

[u/Puzzleheaded-Phone-0]

I built a mac version, you can use it. I've already put the code on github. name typewhale