Is Spokenly free?
Short answer: yes, and more completely than most free tiers. Spokenly's local Whisper and Parakeet models are free forever with unlimited use, run offline on Apple Silicon, and need no account. There is a second free route as well, where you bring your own API key for a cloud provider and Spokenly charges nothing on top. The paid Pro tier exists, at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, but what it sells is convenience rather than access. Understanding those three states is the difference between a useful answer and a yes, and it connects to the wider question of what free dictation on a Mac really costs.
Where a paid one-time app fits against a good free tier
If Spokenly's free local models cover your work, they cover it, and no case needs making against that. Parakeety is a different trade: one model, the NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, on the Apple Neural Engine, with nothing to configure and no model picker to get wrong. $25 once with a 7-day trial first and no card up front. What you are buying is a decision already made rather than a capability you cannot get free, and that is worth nothing at all to someone who enjoys configuring their own stack.
The three states, not two
The first free state is local models. Spokenly's local Whisper and Parakeet models cost nothing forever, carry unlimited use, run offline on Apple Silicon and need no account. For dictation into apps on a reasonably current Mac, this is a complete product rather than a trial.
The second free state is bring your own key. Spokenly supports cloud engines including OpenAI, Deepgram and Groq, and charges nothing itself when you supply your own credentials. You pay the provider directly for what you use. It is free of Spokenly, not free of cost, and the distinction matters when you are budgeting.
The third state is Pro, at $9.99 a month or $99.99 billed annually, which the site presents as $8.33 a month. It adds premium managed cloud models such as GPT-4o Transcribe, Deepgram Nova 3 and Soniox, AI text cleanup, device sync and priority support. The free tiers already include offline dictation across 100+ languages and apps for macOS, Windows, Linux and iOS.
What Pro is actually selling
Read the split carefully and Pro is not gating the ability to transcribe. Local transcription is unlimited and free, and cloud transcription is available free if you hold your own keys. What Pro sells is not having to hold keys, plus a cleanup layer and sync.
That is a legitimate thing to sell and it suits people who do not want a provider account and a billing relationship for the sake of dictation. It is also the reason the honest answer to is Spokenly free is yes rather than yes, but.
Where it leaves you depends on which annoyance you would rather have. Managing API keys is friction. A monthly bill is friction. Neither is capability.
Reading a free tier without getting caught out
Free tiers usually restrict one of four things: minutes, model quality, features, or how long the offer lasts. Spokenly's free local route restricts none of those in the usual sense, since it is unlimited, uses real models and has no expiry.
The cost sits elsewhere, in the shape most local-model apps share. You choose the model, you manage the download, and quality is whatever the model you picked delivers. That is a configuration cost rather than a money cost, and for a lot of people it is the better deal.
| Route | Cost | What you get | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local models | $0 forever, unlimited | Whisper and Parakeet, offline, no account | Pick and manage your own model |
| Bring your own API key | $0 to Spokenly | OpenAI, Deepgram, Groq and similar | A provider account and its bill |
| Pro | $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr | Managed cloud models, AI cleanup, sync, priority support | A subscription |
FAQ
- Is Spokenly free forever?
- Yes for the local models. Spokenly's local Whisper and Parakeet models are free forever with unlimited use, run offline on Apple Silicon, and require no account. It is not a time-limited trial or a monthly minute allowance. The paid Pro tier exists alongside it and adds managed cloud models and convenience features rather than unlocking basic transcription.
- What does Spokenly Pro add?
- Premium managed cloud transcription models such as GPT-4o Transcribe, Deepgram Nova 3 and Soniox, plus AI text cleanup and polish, device synchronization and priority support. It is $9.99 a month, or $99.99 billed annually which the site presents as $8.33 a month. Local transcription does not require it and is unlimited on the free tier.
- Does Spokenly need an account?
- Not for the free local models, which Spokenly states work with no account required. Bringing your own API key means holding an account with that provider rather than with Spokenly. A Pro subscription naturally involves an account, since there is a payment relationship to manage.
- Can I use my own OpenAI key with Spokenly?
- Yes. Spokenly supports bring-your-own-key cloud transcription with providers including OpenAI, Deepgram and Groq, and charges nothing on top of what the provider bills you. It is one of the two genuinely free routes through the product, though free of Spokenly is not the same as free overall, because the provider still meters your usage.
Try it
If a free tier covers your work, use it. Parakeety is for the different case: you want one model chosen for you, running on the Neural Engine, with no picker, no keys and no subscription. Hold the section key, talk, release, and the words paste at the cursor. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required, and after that it is $25 once.