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Hush
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The free, open-source Wispr Flow alternative

Dictation that stays on your Mac.

Hush is a free, open-source dictation app for Mac. Hold Fn, talk, let go, and clean, punctuated text appears wherever your cursor is. Your speech is recognized on your Mac, so your voice never leaves it.

Download for MacView on GitHub

Apple Silicon Macs · Version 1.1.0 · Free forever · No account

Chat · #launchStyle: Message

Priya

Review is still on for Wednesday at 3?

Can we move the review to Thursday? The build isn't ready yet.
Pasted into Chat
You say: “um can we move the review to wednesday no wait thursday the build isn't ready yet”. Hush pastes: “Can we move the review to Thursday? The build isn't ready yet.”.
Everywhere

Works everywhere you type

If your cursor is in it, Hush can type into it. Each app gets its own style, so a Slack reply doesn't read like a cover letter.

  • Chat

    Message

    Quick, casual replies without the typos. Fillers and false starts are gone before you hit send.

    Slack, Messages, WhatsApp, Discord

  • Email

    Email

    Say it the way you'd explain it, get a properly punctuated email with paragraphs.

    Mail, Gmail, Outlook, Superhuman

  • AI prompts

    Default

    Speaking is about three times faster than typing, so long, detailed prompts stop feeling like work.

    Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, any chat box

  • Code and terminal

    Code

    Comments, commit messages and instructions, with identifiers left exactly as you said them.

    VS Code, Xcode, Terminal, iTerm

  • Writing

    Default

    Get a first draft out of your head and onto the page, then edit with your keyboard.

    Notes, Docs, Notion, Obsidian

Features

Everything you need to stop typing

What other dictation apps charge every month for, free and on your own Mac. Whisper models understand 99 languages, and the app itself comes in 26.

  • Speech recognition on your Mac

    Pick Fast (Parakeet V3), Live preview (Nemotron Streaming) or Most accurate (Granite Speech 4.1), or Whisper and other open models. Each downloads once and runs on your Mac's GPU, offline.

  • Hold to talk, or tap and go hands-free

    Hold Fn while you speak, or tap or double-tap it and keep talking until you tap again. Text lands wherever your cursor is: mail, chat, docs, the terminal.

  • Live preview

    With the Live preview model, your words appear while you are still talking, so you know it heard you before you let go.

  • Per-app styles

    Default, Message, Email, Code or Raw. Hush writes a quick reply in Slack differently from an email in Mail.

  • Voice snippets

    Say a short trigger and get a longer block of text back: your address, a sign-off, a meeting link.

  • Custom words

    Teach Hush the names, jargon and product terms it should always spell correctly.

  • AI clean-up, if you want it

    Drops the ums, fixes punctuation, and keeps only what you meant after "no wait". Use Apple Intelligence on supported Macs, or your own key for Groq, OpenAI, Anthropic and more.

  • Your music pauses while you talk

    Music and videos pause while Hush listens and carry on when you stop. Or lower the volume, mute, or leave it alone.

  • Paste it again

    Dictated into the wrong window? Ctrl+Cmd+V pastes your last transcript again, and it's in the menu bar too.

  • Local history

    Everything you dictate is kept on your Mac. Optionally keep the recordings too, for as long as you choose.

Compare

A free, open-source alternative to Wispr Flow

Wispr Flow and Superwhisper are good products. If you would rather not pay every month, or you want your speech recognized on your own machine, Hush is for you.

Hush compared with Wispr Flow and Superwhisper
FeatureHushWispr FlowSuperwhisper
PriceFree$15/mo$8.49/mo
On-device speech recognition✓✗✓
Open sourceMIT✗✗
AI clean-up✓✓✓

Based on each product's website, October 2026. They also offer things Hush doesn't, such as iPhone apps.

See the full comparison with VoiceInk, OpenWhispr, Spokenly, Willow and Apple Dictation.

Switching from a paid app? Read about Hush as a Wispr Flow alternative or a Superwhisper alternative.

Privacy

What leaves your Mac

Short answer: nothing you didn't ask for. No account, no analytics, no telemetry. Here's the long answer.

Stays on your Mac

  • Your voice. Audio is recognized on your Mac and never uploaded.
  • Your transcription history, and recordings if you choose to keep them.
  • Your settings, custom words, snippets and API keys.

Leaves only if you choose

Text for AI clean-up
Only if you turn on AI clean-up with a cloud provider. The transcribed text (never the audio) goes to the provider you picked, under your own API key.
Model downloads
When you pick a speech model, Hush downloads it once from Hugging Face or GitHub. After that it runs offline.

The code is public, so you don't have to take our word for it. Read the privacy policy.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Is Hush really free?
Yes. Hush is free forever and open source under the MIT license. There is no time limit, no paid tier, no account and no payment of any kind.
So what's the catch?
There isn't one. Hush runs on your own Mac, so there are no servers to pay for and nothing to charge you for. There are no ads and no data to sell, because Hush never sees your data. The code is public, so you can check.
Which Macs does it run on?
Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 or later). Intel Macs are not supported.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once you have downloaded a speech model, dictation works without an internet connection. Only AI clean-up with a cloud provider needs a connection.
Why does macOS warn me when I first open Hush?
Hush builds aren't notarized by Apple, which requires a paid Apple account, so macOS asks you to confirm the first time you open the app. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway (on macOS 14 and earlier you can also Control-click Hush and choose Open). See the install steps. The source code is public, so you can also build it yourself.
What permissions does Hush need?
Microphone, to hear you, and Accessibility, to listen for your shortcut and paste text into the app you are using.

See all questions

Open source

Built in the open, MIT licensed

No black box. Hush is a community project you can inspect, change and build yourself.

  • Read the code

    Every line that touches your voice is public. Audit it, fork it, learn from it.

    Browse the source

  • Report an issue

    Found a bug or missing a feature? Tell us on GitHub, where everyone can follow along.

    Open an issue

  • Contribute

    Fix a bug, add a language, improve a model integration. Pull requests are welcome.

    How to contribute
Star Hush on GitHub

You talk faster than you type.

About three times faster. Hush turns that into text you can actually send, for free, without your voice leaving your Mac.

Download for MacInstall guide

Apple Silicon Macs · Free and open source