SaypadWe unpacked 8 Mac dictation app installers
On 7 October 2026 we downloaded the current installer of eight Mac dictation apps from their official sites, opened each one read-only and looked at what's inside. Nothing was installed or run. One question mattered most: can the app dictate the moment it's installed, without the internet?
What's inside each installer
| App | Installer | Unpacked | Biggest parts inside | Speech model inside | Before the first dictation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saypad 0.10.0 | 187 MB | 197 MB | Whisper small speech model (190 MB), whisper.cpp | Yes | Nothing – works offline right away |
| Wispr Flow 1.6 | 303 MB | 511 MB | Electron framework (182 MB), app code (127 MB) | No | Sign up; needs internet (cloud) |
| Aqua Voice | 260 MB | 568 MB | Electron framework (372 MB), FluidAudio engine | No | Cloud; the free words come with an account |
| MacWhisper 15.4 | 168 MB | 254 MB | App (92 MB), speaker-separation models (98 MB) | No | Download a model; dictation needs Pro |
| Willow Voice | 85 MB | 118 MB | Interface images (50 MB), app (46 MB) | No | Create an account; cloud by default |
| Superwhisper | 68 MB | 190 MB | ONNX Runtime, MLX and WhisperKit engines | No | Cloud by default, or download a model |
| VoiceInk 2.21 | 51 MB | 110 MB | App (46 MB), whisper.cpp engine | No | Download a model (Parakeet, 494 MB) |
| Spokenly 2.30 | 21 MB | 42 MB | App only | No | Cloud by default, or download a model |
Downloaded from official links and inspected read-only on 7 October 2026. Versions: the latest available that day. “Speech model inside” means a speech-recognition model file; MacWhisper's bundled models are for telling speakers apart, not for recognizing speech.
Four things we learned
- Only one installer can dictate on its own. Saypad ships a light Whisper model (small, 190 MB), so the first dictation works offline. Everyone else needs the cloud or a model download first; Saypad then downloads the larger large-v3-turbo model in the background on Wi-Fi.
- The biggest installers are browsers. Wispr Flow and Aqua Voice are built on Electron: the bundled Chromium engine alone is 182 MB and 372 MB unpacked. Their speech recognition happens on servers.
- Local apps ship engines, not models. Superwhisper carries three inference engines (ONNX Runtime, Apple's MLX and Argmax's WhisperKit SDK), VoiceInk and MacWhisper carry whisper.cpp, Aqua Voice carries FluidAudio. The model – usually 0.5 to 1.6 GB – comes later, in the setup wizard.
- Small download, long setup – or the other way round. Spokenly's 21 MB installer is the lightest, but local dictation needs a separate model download. A one-time 187 MB download that works immediately is a different trade-off, not a better or worse one.
Which one fits you
- Dictate right away, offline, for free: Saypad.
- AI that rewrites and formats what you say: Wispr Flow, Aqua Voice or Superwhisper Pro.
- Open source: VoiceInk (GPL-3.0).
- Transcribing files, meetings and podcasts: MacWhisper.
- The same app on Windows or your phone: Superwhisper, Spokenly, Wispr Flow, Aqua Voice or Willow.
For prices and free limits, see the best free dictation apps for Mac.
Questions
Which Mac dictation app works offline right after install?
Of the eight we unpacked, only Saypad ships a speech recognition model inside its installer, so the first dictation works without downloading anything. Local-first apps like VoiceInk, Superwhisper and Spokenly can work offline too, but only after you download a model.
Why is Wispr Flow's installer so big?
Most of it is Electron – a bundled copy of the Chromium browser engine (182 MB) plus the app's own code (127 MB). Recognition itself runs in the cloud, so there is no speech model inside.
Does a bigger installer mean better recognition?
No. The two largest installers, Wispr Flow and Aqua Voice, contain no speech model at all – they are large because of Electron. Recognition quality depends on the model, which most local apps download after install.
How did you check?
We downloaded each installer from the vendor's official download link, mounted or unzipped it read-only, and searched for speech model files (.bin, .gguf, .onnx, .mlmodelc, .safetensors) and every file larger than 5 MB. Then we deleted everything. Sizes are as reported by the download server and by du for the unpacked app.
Are you neutral?
No – we make Saypad. That's why the method is described above and every other app is credited for what it does better below. Installers change with every release; this is a snapshot of 7 October 2026.