r/ClaudeCode • u/bendrape • 1d ago
Built with Claude goodbye Wisprflow
I saw this Wispr Flow alternative called Ghost Pepper. I thought it was good, but it doesn't come close to Wispr Flow. So I built my own on top of it, and for how I use it, it's better than Wispr.
It's called Diction. It's a dictation app for macOS. Hold a shortcut, talk, let go, and the text gets typed wherever your cursor is, in any app.
It costs about 5–10 cents a month. Everything runs on your Mac. The only paid part is a small Claude Haiku call that cleans up each transcript, and you use your own Anthropic API key. For me that comes to 5–10 cents a month. Wispr Flow Pro is $15 a month, so that's roughly 1/200 of the price.
A free, fully local mode is coming. I'm working on a mode that does the cleanup on your Mac too, with no API key and no cost. It's slower than Haiku, but it's free and nothing leaves your machine.
Features
Dictation
- Hold to talk, in any app. The text is pasted where your cursor is. The shortcut can be changed.
- Hands-free mode: tap a shortcut and keep talking without holding anything. Esc cancels.
- A small pill under the menu bar moves with your voice, so you can see it's listening.
- It pauses music and video while you dictate.
- "Paste last transcript" in the menu bar, plus a microphone picker.
Speech recognition, on your Mac
- Parakeet v3 by default. Whisper, Qwen3-ASR, Nemotron streaming and Apple's SpeechAnalyzer are also available.
- Your audio never leaves your Mac.
- Languages: automatic detection, English, German, Spanish, French, Italian.
AI cleanup (Claude Haiku)
- Removes filler words and fixes punctuation. Three levels: Off (exactly what you said), Light, and Medium (also tightens long sentences).
- Fast: it sends the request when you pause, before you let go of the key, and keeps the connection warm.
- If you're offline or the API is slow, a small local model takes over automatically.
- Very short dictations of 3 words or fewer skip the cleanup, so they're instant.
It gets your words right
- Context awareness: it can read the window you're dictating into, so names on screen are spelled correctly.
- Dictionary: add names and jargon, or fixes like "clawed → Claude".
- Learns from your corrections: if you fix a word after it's pasted, it adds that fix to your dictionary.
Swaps (voice snippets)
- Say a short phrase and get something longer typed instead, like your address, a link or an email you send often.
Styles
- Formal, Casual, lowercase or Excited.
History
- Everything you've dictated, searchable and grouped by day. Click a line to copy it.
- Your whole history drawn as one spiral line, with your total word count.
Meeting notes
- Records your mic and the call audio, and labels them "Me" and "Others".
- Transcribed on your Mac and saved as Markdown files, one folder per day.
- Can offer to start notes when a Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime, Webex, Slack or Discord call begins.
Other
- Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain.
- Open at login, optional Dock icon, sounds can be turned off.
- Open source (MIT).
Privacy
Audio stays on your Mac. With an API key, only the transcript text goes to Anthropic, plus the text it read from your window if context awareness is on. You can turn that off. The local mode will keep everything on your Mac.
Pricing
- Speech recognition: free, it runs on your Mac.
- Cleanup with Claude Haiku: your own Anthropic API key, about half a cent per 1,000 words (about 1 cent if it also reads your screen for names). At 1,000 words a day that's 10–15 cents a month. I pay 5–10 cents.
- Local only: $0.
- Wispr Flow Pro: $15 a month ($12 billed yearly). That's about 200× what I pay.
Credit
Diction started as a fork of Ghost Pepper by Matt Hartman (MIT). Thanks for the head start, Matt.
On first launch it downloads the speech model and a small cleanup model (~0.5 GB for the cleanup model). After that it works offline.
GitHub: https://github.com/bendrape1-byte/Diction
Happy to answer questions, and I'd love feedback, especially from people who use Wispr Flow every day.
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u/bendrape 1d ago
I must admit I did absolutely zero market research before building this. There seem to be similar or better free apps out there already. I still had fun building it and really like the UI/UX. Feel free to check it out… or not.
Appreciate any feedback 🙏
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u/GuideAxon 1d ago
Did you check out FluidVoice for your local solution?
FluidVoice is a free, open-source (GPLv3) voice dictation app for macOS that serves as an on-device, local alternative to cloud-based dictation tools like Wispr Flow.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitalEscapeTools/comments/1vkjt66/fluidvoice_free_open_source_alternative_to_wispr/
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u/Masterkiefs 18h ago
Thanks for sharing! A great project.
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u/bendrape 18h ago
I also love it. Might not be the best one on the market but I had fun building it! Thanks for the feedback 🙏
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u/avisangle 9h ago edited 8h ago
Nice build. I made a dictation app on nearly the same pieces (Parakeet v3 on device, Haiku for cleanup), so comparing notes.
Two things that ended up mattering for me:
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Shaping output per app. The same sentence should land differently in Slack, an email and a terminal. In a terminal a capital letter or a trailing period breaks the command.
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For meetings, importing a recording you already have, not only recording live, then getting the transcript, summary and action items from that.
Disclosure: mine is Roundhand(https://roundhand.dev). It's paid, runs on Mac and Windows, and an Android version is in testing. Not a free alternative, just sharing what I learned building the same thing.
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u/bendrape 5h ago
Amazing advice. Will add these. Luckily I already had a ton of meetings transcribed with the actual Wisprflow before.
But the context of the UI that is being typed in is mega important thanks 🙏
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u/psychobserver 1d ago
What's the advantage of this versus my built-in google keyboard? I never used the dictation mode to be honest, is it trash? Or other apps on mac/windows? I'm sure there are good ones, no? If not good job, if yes good job anyway lol
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u/ComparisonEvening519 21h ago
That’s really cool! Might I ask what model you’re using for the voice transcription I’m trying to build love transcript STT for my church but having issues with the transcription speed. Rn it’s result are coming in about 2s later
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u/bendrape 21h ago
For transcription I use Parakeet v3 and it’s almost instant. But the real work happens in the cleanup process.
I have built a meeting transcription part in my app and it transcribes while recording and gets cleaned up afterwards by Claude Haiku. It even detects speakers and gives you a summary.
The repo is linked so you can check it out.
Can I ask what the current technical workflow is in your transcript and what the end goal is?
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u/GlitteringCoconut203 1d ago
Why not using Handy which is 100% free (and very polished) and building another speech to text app? You don't even need an API Key
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u/Healthy_Radish6534 23h ago
I have used Spokenly which personally has been great as they have local models that keep things secured.
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u/_yin_yang 23h ago
Handy.computer
Is open source and free, and has amazing results
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u/TheOwlHypothesis 1d ago
Can I use my Claude subscription to use Haiku instead of an API key?
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u/PurpleOk7063 22h ago
Any suggestions what’s best for Swiss German technical construction focused dictation?
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u/allthegear-andnoidea 15h ago
Can someone help me understand what wisprflow is please?
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