Can I vibecode Superwhisper?

YES · one-shottable

price $8.49/moyou'd save $101.88/yrbuild time one sittingcategory 🗣️ dictationreplaced by 14 people

A push-to-talk recorder that transcribes and pastes text into the active app is very buildable for one person, especially on macOS.

the prompt

Build me a push-to-talk dictation tool for macOS to replace Superwhisper. Requirements:

- A global hotkey (default: hold right Option) records my mic while held, stops on
  release. A small Swift menu bar app or a Hammerspoon script, pick the simpler to
  ship.
- Record with ffmpeg (avfoundation) to a temp wav, transcribe locally with whisper.cpp
  (small.en by default, model path in a config file). Works fully offline, no cloud
  speech APIs.
- Paste the result into whatever field has focus (simulate Cmd+V via CGEvent or
  osascript, then restore my previous clipboard).
- Optional cleanup mode on a second hotkey: send the transcript to an LLM (key in
  .env) to fix punctuation and drop filler words, then paste. If no key is set, this
  mode just does a plain paste.
- Menu bar icon shows idle/recording/transcribing; clicking it lists the last 10
  transcripts with copy buttons.
- Append every transcript to ~/Dictation/YYYY-MM.md with a timestamp, and delete the
  audio after transcription. No accounts, no telemetry.
- Out of scope: per-app presets and custom vocabulary tuning. One good general mode.
- README: mic + accessibility permissions to grant, how to download the whisper
  model, and a note that the first run will trigger macOS permission prompts.

$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter) or copy it raw · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR

why people still pay

They pay for the low-friction menu-bar experience and dictation profiles.

what you lose

xbeautiful native UX

xpresets

xvocabulary/profile tuning

xapp-wide polish

xsupport

share on X ↗"I just replaced Superwhisper ($8.49/mo) with one prompt"

the escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These folks already made it free.

VoiceboxVoice cloning studio attached to a global dictation hotkey; overkill, free overkill.50kjun 2026open source↗

HandyPress a key, talk and get plain text in the app you were already using. No cleanup magic, no invoice.29kaug 2026open source↗

FluidVoiceFast Mac dictation with local cleanup; even the fancy part stays on the machine.9.4kjul 2026open source↗

all 8 free alternatives to Superwhisper →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real

the numbers

Superwhisper pricing

plan	monthly	annual (per mo)	what you get
free	$0	$0	Basic dictation; no local models or custom modes; current numeric cloud-usage cap is not published.
pro monthly	$8.49	—	Unlimited cloud and local models; license covers personal Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPad devices.
pro annual	—	$7.08	Unlimited cloud and local models; same personal-device license.
pro lifetime	custom	—	One-time $249.99 purchase; unlimited cloud and local models under the lifetime license terms.

free tierBasic dictation; no local models or custom modes; the current numeric cloud-use allowance is not published.

billingmonthly, annual and one-time lifetime purchase; direct-web prices

hidden costsApp Store pricing is higher because of Apple fees, but the current exact App Store amounts were not published in the official Pro documentation.

verified 2026-08-11 · source ↗

questions

Is Superwhisper free?

A free version covers basic dictation; Pro adds unlimited cloud and local models. Paid is Pro at $8.49/mo (checked 2026-08-07).