Aria · Superwhisper alternative
Comparison
A Superwhisper alternative that costs €5 once
Superwhisper is a good app. It also asks $8.49 a month for Pro. Aria runs the same kind of local speech model on your Mac — no cloud required — and charges €5, one time, for three Macs.
Try Aria free
2,000 words a week, no account, no card. The local engine works with the network off.
macOS 11 or laterSide by side
| Aria | Superwhisper | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid plan | €5 once, three Macs | $8.49 / month; yearly and lifetime also offered |
| Free plan | 2,000 words / week, local and cloud engines | Free tier with core features |
| Local transcription | NVIDIA Parakeet TDT V3, plus Whisper models | Whisper models on device |
| Types into any app | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own API key | Included, no paid tier needed for local use | Part of the paid plan |
| File transcription | Included | Part of the paid plan |
| Speaker identification | Yes, locally | Meeting recording |
| Custom AI modes / prompts | A fixed set: Email, Key points, cleanup | Custom prompt modes |
| Platforms | macOS only | macOS, Windows, iOS |
| Notarised by Apple | Not yet — one trip through System Settings on first launch | Yes |
Superwhisper pricing and feature split read from superwhisper.com in September 2026.
Same idea, different bill
Both apps put a local speech model behind a keyboard shortcut so your words land in the app you are already using. The difference is what happens after the first month. At $8.49 a month, Superwhisper Pro passes €100 inside a year; Aria Pro is €5 and then nothing, ever, on up to three Macs.
Aria also draws the free/paid line differently. Local dictation, file transcription and bring-your-own-key are all in the free version — the only thing Pro removes is the 2,000-words-a-week limit.
Parakeet, not only Whisper
Aria's recommended local engine is NVIDIA Parakeet TDT V3, which is fast on Apple Silicon and strong on everyday dictation. Whisper models are available too, along with cloud engines from OpenAI, Groq, Deepgram, Soniox, ElevenLabs and Mistral when you want to spend accuracy on a difficult recording. With the local engine, dictation makes no network requests at all.
Faithful by default
Aria writes what you said. It restores a capital or a full stop locally, and it does not summarise, translate or restyle unless you pick one of those modes explicitly. If you like heavily prompt-driven rewriting, that is a genuine reason to prefer Superwhisper — see below.
Where Superwhisper is the better choice
- Custom prompt modes. Superwhisper lets you define your own transformations. Aria ships a fixed, deliberately small set.
- Windows and iPhone. Aria is macOS only.
- A notarised, fully mature installer. Aria is signed but not yet notarised, so the first launch needs System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
- A bigger, older track record. Superwhisper has been around longer, with a larger user base and a broader model library.
Questions
Does Aria work with no internet?
Yes, for dictation with the local engine. Only the free plan's weekly counter needs a brief connection; Pro removes that too.
Is €5 really the whole price?
Yes: one payment, three Macs, unlimited words, all future updates.
Can I transcribe existing audio files?
Yes — MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, MP4, MOV — including in the free version.