Is SuperWhisper free?
Short answer: there is a free entry point, but sustained use is on a paid tier. SuperWhisper has historically offered both a subscription and a lifetime tier (around $249.99 for the lifetime option). Free use is best treated as an evaluation path. If you want to know whether you would pay, the trial is enough; if you want the full feature menu, you upgrade.
How the pricing is shaped
SuperWhisper’s pricing has changed over time and may continue to; the live tiers and exact numbers are on the SuperWhisper site. The notable shape is that SuperWhisper offers a lifetime tier as well as a subscription, which is unusual in this product category and a useful option for users who prefer one-time payments.
The subscription path covers users who want lower up-front cost and continuous access to whatever models and features SuperWhisper adds. The lifetime path covers users who would rather pay once and own the version they bought, with whatever updates the product chooses to ship to lifetime customers thereafter.
Lifetime price as a comparison point
At $249.99, SuperWhisper’s lifetime tier is roughly eight times the $30 Parakeety lifetime price. The premium pays for breadth: a richer model menu (local and cloud variants, BYOK options for OpenAI and Anthropic), AI cleanup features that reformat the transcript, a more configurable settings surface.
Whether the breadth is worth eight times the price depends on what you actually use. For a user who wants the full menu and will lean on the AI features, $249.99 once is a fair trade. For a user who wants push-to-talk dictation and nothing else, the simpler product is the saner spend.
The simpler-product alternative
Parakeety is a $30 lifetime purchase with no model menu and no AI cleanup features. One model (Parakeet TDT v3), one workflow (hold the section key, talk, paste at the cursor). For users who want push-to-talk dictation that just works and not a configurable tool, Parakeety is the smaller, cheaper answer.
The product-level comparison is in Parakeety vs SuperWhisper.
FAQ
- Is there a free version of SuperWhisper?
- SuperWhisper has a free entry point with limited functionality and a paid tier that unlocks the full feature menu. Free use is best understood as an evaluation path; sustained use is on the paid tier.
- How much is SuperWhisper?
- SuperWhisper has historically offered both a subscription tier and a lifetime tier (with the lifetime tier around $249.99). Pricing changes over time; the live tiers and exact numbers are on SuperWhisper’s own site. Notable shape: a lifetime option does exist, which is unusual in this product category.
- How does the SuperWhisper lifetime tier compare to Parakeety?
- Both are one-time purchases. SuperWhisper’s lifetime tier at $249.99 is roughly eight times the Parakeety $30 lifetime price, in exchange for the richer model menu, cloud model options, and AI cleanup features. Parakeety is the simpler product at the lower price.
- What do I actually get for free on either?
- SuperWhisper free use is functionally a trial. Parakeety has a 7-day free trial of the full app with no card required, after which the $30 lifetime price applies for as long as you want to keep dictating.
Try Parakeety
Parakeety is a Mac menu-bar app. Hold the section key, talk, release; your words paste at the cursor in whichever app you were typing into. Audio never leaves the machine. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required. After that it is $30 once.