Price terms as published
Each line is the vendor’s own wording, split from the price capture checked on 2026-09-19. Nothing here is rounded, converted or re-worded — the full sentences stay in the review below. Lines that carry only a price continue the plan named on the line above, in the vendor’s own order.
| # | Plan / term | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25 | 2026-09-19 |
| 2 | $39 | 2026-09-19 |
| 3 | $49 one-time lifetime (1 | 2026-09-19 |
| 4 | 2 | 2026-09-19 |
| 5 | 3 Macs) | 2026-09-19 |
| 6 | free if built from source | 2026-09-19 |
One-liner: VoiceInk is an open-source dictation app for macOS that transcribes your speech on-device through Whisper (whisper.cpp), so audio never leaves the machine — with $25 for one Mac, $39 for two, and $49 for three, all lifetime. Every price and feature below is from VoiceInk’s own site and two independent sources, checked on 2026-09-19; we did not install it, so there is no score.
What it does
Hold a shortcut, speak, and text lands at your cursor in whatever app is open — email, Slack, a code editor, a browser. The transcription model runs locally on Apple’s Neural Engine, so the core feature works without a network connection.
Three features matter more than the rest:
- Power Mode / auto-switching — define different transcription and enhancement settings per context (email, chat, social posts) and have VoiceInk detect the active app or site and apply the matching profile automatically. That is the feature third-party reviewers single out as its signature.
- Custom words and Smart Replace — teach it names, product names, and identifiers; expand a short phrase into exact text, or swap one word for another on the fly.
- Rewrite-in-place — select a rough passage and say what should change; VoiceInk replaces it with a cleaner version at the cursor.
Cloud Enhancement is opt-in, and when it is, only the transcribed text goes out — never the audio.
Price and licensing: two real paths
| Tier | Price | Devices |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | $25 one-time | 1 macOS device |
| Personal | $39 one-time | up to 2 macOS devices |
| Extended | $49 one-time | up to 3 macOS devices |
| Build from source | $0 | as many as you want to compile |
Every tier is a one-time purchase with lifetime access and lifetime updates, and all carry a 14-day money-back guarantee. There is no subscription and therefore no lifetime-deal promo to wait for — the standard license already is one.
The second path is the unusual part. The code is GPL v3 open source on GitHub as beingpax/VoiceInk, so anyone with Xcode can clone, compile, and run it forever at zero cost. What a paid license actually buys is convenience — a code-signed build, automatic updates, and priority support — not access to anything the source does not already give you.
That reframes the whole category comparison: you are not paying for the app, you are paying to avoid building it.
Privacy and ownership
Because the code is public, the privacy claim is auditable rather than asserted. Third-party review of the repository puts the license at GPL-3.0, version at v2.13, repository age at two years, and the last commit at roughly 12 hours before our check, with 6,390 stars including 563 gained in the preceding 30 days. Whether or not you read the code, that is a live, maintained project rather than an abandoned repo behind a pretty landing page.
Requirements and limits
- Apple Silicon only. Intel Macs are not a supported target.
- macOS 14.4 or later; 8 GB RAM recommended.
- macOS is the only platform — no Windows, no Android.
- Cloud Enhancement needs an external API key, which is one more thing to configure if you want the cloud features.
- Indie, solo-developer project. No formal support SLA, and third-party reviews are candid that it trails commercial tools on polish — one scores it 7/10.
Where to stay honest
- The official homepage still advertises $29 / $49 / $69 while the transactional
/pricingand/buypages show $25 / $39 / $49. We cite the pricing page, because that is the surface you actually pay on. If you see older third-party reviews quoting $29/$49/$69, they are stale. - “99% accuracy” is third-party framing, not a number VoiceInk prints on its own site. Treat it as a reviewer’s characterization.
- No hands-on testing by us — everything here is from the official site and third-party sources, so there is no rating.
- VoiceInk vs superwhisper, on the facts we can verify. Both are local, on-device Mac dictation tools, but the business model and platform scope differ. VoiceInk is open source (GPL-3.0) with a one-time $25 / $39 / $49 lifetime license (or free when built from source) and stays Mac-only on Apple Silicon; superwhisper is a polished commercial product sold by subscription and, per its own marketing, covers more platforms including Windows and iOS. The honest read from the published material is: VoiceInk wins on ownership, auditability and no recurring cost; superwhisper leads on polish and platform breadth. We have not hands-on tested either app, so this is a factual comparison of licensing and stated platform support, not a daily-driver verdict.
Related
- Loqua vs Wispr Flow — a different axis: cross-platform subscription dictation versus a Mac-only one-time purchase
- Voiskey — another voice-typing tool aimed at keeping your tone across apps
- Loqua — Mac voice typing with translation baked in