What about the AI cleanup features?

AI cleanup (the prompts that reformat the transcript into an email, summary or structured note) call out to cloud LLM providers regardless of which speech model you picked for the transcription. Enabling cleanup means the transcript text leaves the Mac even when the audio path is local.

How do I make SuperWhisper fully on-device?

Pick a local Whisper variant in the model picker (anything from the standard Whisper family bundled on the Mac), and disable the AI cleanup features in settings. In that configuration both the audio leg and the transcript leg stay on the Mac. Anything else (cloud model option, AI cleanup) means some data leaves the device.

Is there a Mac dictation app that is on-device with no configuration?

Parakeety runs Parakeet TDT v3 on the Apple Neural Engine. There is no cloud model option to pick, no AI cleanup setting to toggle. The audio leg and the transcript leg both stay on the Mac because the app does not contain any other data path. For a privacy posture that does not depend on configuration, that simplicity is the answer.

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Is SuperWhisper on-device?

Short answer: it depends on which speech model is configured and whether the AI cleanup features are on. SuperWhisper is a hybrid product by design: local Whisper variants sit alongside cloud model options and AI features that send transcripts to LLM providers. A user-by-user privacy posture, not a built-in architectural one.

Why "on-device" is the wrong question

For most apps the on-device question has one answer: either the speech model runs on your machine or it does not. SuperWhisper deliberately blurs the line. Inside one app you can pick:

A local Whisper variant (Small, Medium, Large) bundled on the Mac.
OpenAI’s cloud Whisper API via bring-your-own-key.
Anthropic-routed transcription via bring-your-own-key.
Other configurations the app may have added.

The right question is not "is SuperWhisper on-device" in general; the right question is "which configuration am I running, and does my data leave the device in that configuration".

What "on-device" means for sensitive content

For Protected Health Information, privileged matter, NDA-bound material or any content with strict handling requirements, "on-device" needs to mean both the audio and the transcript stay on the Mac. SuperWhisper’s local-Whisper configuration handles the audio leg. The AI cleanup features, if enabled, then send the transcript out. That is a different leg of the same data, and it is what trips up the architectural privacy posture.

A practice or firm with sensitive-content obligations cannot rely on "SuperWhisper is on-device" without specifying the configuration. The architectural framing for why this matters is in HIPAA and dictation: architectural vs contractual privacy.

The single-architecture alternative

Parakeety has one architecture and no settings that change it. Parakeet TDT v3 runs on the Apple Neural Engine. There is no model picker. There is no AI cleanup feature. The audio leg and the transcript leg both stay on the Mac, every time, on every install, in every language the model supports.

The trade is the standard one: fewer features in exchange for simpler reasoning about what the app does. The full product comparison is Parakeety vs SuperWhisper.

FAQ

Is SuperWhisper on-device?: Partly. SuperWhisper offers a menu of speech models that includes both local Whisper variants and cloud-hosted options (OpenAI Whisper API, Anthropic-routed models via bring-your-own-key). With a local model selected, transcription runs on the Mac. With a cloud model selected, audio is transmitted to that provider. The product is a hybrid by design.
What about the AI cleanup features?: AI cleanup (the prompts that reformat the transcript into an email, summary or structured note) call out to cloud LLM providers regardless of which speech model you picked for the transcription. Enabling cleanup means the transcript text leaves the Mac even when the audio path is local.
How do I make SuperWhisper fully on-device?: Pick a local Whisper variant in the model picker (anything from the standard Whisper family bundled on the Mac), and disable the AI cleanup features in settings. In that configuration both the audio leg and the transcript leg stay on the Mac. Anything else (cloud model option, AI cleanup) means some data leaves the device.
Is there a Mac dictation app that is on-device with no configuration?: Parakeety runs Parakeet TDT v3 on the Apple Neural Engine. There is no cloud model option to pick, no AI cleanup setting to toggle. The audio leg and the transcript leg both stay on the Mac because the app does not contain any other data path. For a privacy posture that does not depend on configuration, that simplicity is the answer.

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.

Try Parakeety free →