Wispr Flow alternative
A Wispr Flow alternative that is free and open source.
Looking for a Wispr Flow alternative because of the subscription, the weekly word cap on the free plan, or because you want to read the code that listens to you? VocalFlow is a free, MIT-licensed dictation app for macOS and Windows. Hold a hotkey, speak, let go, and the text is pasted at your cursor in whatever app you are using.
There is no VocalFlow account and no VocalFlow server. You paste in your own Deepgram API key, your audio goes from your machine to Deepgram, and Deepgram bills you per minute once its $200 sign-up credit runs out. Wispr Flow does things VocalFlow does not, and the comparison below says which.
Free · MIT license · macOS 13+ and Windows 10/11 · Deepgram Nova-3 · Optional Groq or OpenRouter clean-up
VocalFlow as a Wispr Flow alternative, line by line.
Both turn speech into text in any app. Every Wispr Flow fact below comes from Wispr’s own website as of October 2026. Where we could not confirm something there, we left it out.
| Wispr Flow | VocalFlow | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 billed annually | Free. There is no paid tier |
| Free usage | 2,000 words a week on desktop, 1,000 on mobile | No cap from us. Deepgram bills per minute after a $200 credit |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, iOS and Android | macOS 13+ and Windows 10/11 |
| Source code | Proprietary. The terms forbid reverse engineering it | Open source under the MIT license, on GitHub |
| Where speech is transcribed | Wispr’s cloud: “Transcription always occurs on the cloud” | Deepgram’s cloud, called with your own key. No VocalLabs server |
| Languages | 100+ languages | 30+ through Deepgram, including Hindi, Tamil and Marathi |
| Meeting notes | Notetaker, on Mac and Windows | None. Dictation only |
| Teams | Shared dictionary, workspace and billing on Pro; SSO and HIPAA BAA on Growth | None. Each person installs it and brings a key |
Wispr Flow details from its pricing, data controls and terms of service pages, as of Oct 2026. · Source: Wispr Flow pricing
What a team of ten pays in a year.
Wispr Flow charges per seat. VocalFlow charges nothing, but the speech recognition behind it is not free: each person pays Deepgram for the minutes they actually speak. Here are ten people dictating a heavy 30 minutes every working day.
- Wispr Flow Pro, billed monthly
- $1,800
- Wispr Flow Pro, billed annually
- $1,440
- VocalFlow with Deepgram usage
- $360
- VocalFlow license
- $0
Illustrative. Wispr Flow rows: 10 seats × list price × 12 months, as of Oct 2026. VocalFlow row: 10 people × 30 minutes × 250 working days × $0.0048 a minute (Deepgram Nova-3 streaming, pay as you go, as of Oct 2026), before Deepgram’s $200 sign-up credit. Optional Groq or OpenRouter clean-up not included. · Source: Wispr Flow pricing
What happens between the hotkey and the paste.
Five steps, two of them on services you hold the keys for. Nothing passes through VocalLabs, which is the point of an open source Wispr Flow alternative: you can check that in the code.
- 01Hold the hotkeyRight Option on Mac, Right Alt on Windows, or another key you choose
- 02Your microphoneAudio is captured only while the key is down
- 03DeepgramStreaming transcription, billed to your key
- 04Groq or OpenRouterOptional clean-up, billed to your key
- 05Your cursorPasted into the app you are in
- No VocalLabs server
- VocalFlow has no backend. Audio goes from your machine to Deepgram over an encrypted WebSocket.
- Your keys, your bills
- Deepgram and the clean-up provider bill you directly. Switch models or providers in Settings.
- Clean-up is optional
- Spelling, grammar, code-mix and translation run only if you add a Groq or OpenRouter key and turn them on.
- Works wherever paste works
- Text goes in through the clipboard and a simulated Cmd+V or Ctrl+V, so any field that takes a paste takes dictation.
Where the money goes instead.
VocalFlow has no price. Deepgram does: you pay it for the minutes you speak, and Groq or OpenRouter for clean-up if you turn it on. Groq has a free plan.
- Deepgram Nova-3 streaming, per minute
- $0.0048
Pay-as-you-go list price for one language. Multilingual is $0.0058.
- Minutes of speech for $144
- 30,000
One Wispr Flow Pro seat for a year, billed annually, spent on Deepgram instead. That is 500 hours.
- Deepgram sign-up credit
- $200
No credit card to start. At the rate above it covers about 694 hours of speech.
Deepgram list prices as of Oct 2026. The middle figure is $144 ÷ $0.0048. · Source: Deepgram pricing
Switch from Wispr Flow in four steps.
- 01
Install VocalFlow
Download the .pkg for macOS 13 or later, or the self-contained .exe for Windows 10 and 11. It lives in the menu bar or the system tray.
- 02
Add your Deepgram key
Create a free Deepgram account, copy an API key, paste it into Settings and click Save & Verify. Pick Nova-3 and your language.
- 03
Bring your dictionary across
Add the names and jargon you had in Wispr Flow as Focus Words, and your snippets as trigger : replacement expansions. There is no importer, so this is by hand.
- 04
Pick a hotkey and talk
Right or Left Option, Command or Fn on a Mac; Right or Left Alt or Ctrl on Windows. Turn on Groq or OpenRouter clean-up if you want grammar fixes.
When to stay on Wispr Flow, and when to switch.
A free Wispr Flow alternative should still say where it falls short. Here is where each one is the better choice.
- 01Wispr Flow
You dictate mostly on your phone
Wispr Flow runs on iOS and Android as well as Mac and Windows. VocalFlow is desktop only.
- 02Wispr Flow
You want meeting notes as well
Wispr Flow includes Notetaker on Mac and Windows. VocalFlow does dictation and nothing else.
- 03Wispr Flow
IT needs SSO and a BAA
Wispr Flow’s Growth plan adds SSO with SAML and org-wide HIPAA enforcement with a signed BAA. VocalFlow has no admin console.
- 04VocalFlow
You want to read the code
VocalFlow is MIT-licensed on GitHub. Audit what happens to your audio, change it, or build your own version.
- 05VocalFlow
You would rather pay per minute than per seat
With your own Deepgram key, 100 minutes of speech costs about 48 cents and a quiet month costs nothing.
- 06VocalFlow
You speak Hinglish or Tanglish
Code-Mix Input keeps mixed speech in Roman letters, and Convert to Language rewrites it in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and more.
