Before you come in
It's about your computer, and what your dictation app puts it through all day.
AI dictation your computer won't feel and you'll never wait for, on Mac and Windows. Hold a key, talk, let go.
4.6 MBon your Mac0% CPU when idletext in about half a second½ s
GmailNew message to Priya
Hold to talk
Works in every app you type in
And anywhere else with a text field. Names and logos belong to their owners.
New on Mac: Smart mode
Hold Right Option and say what you want. It writes it where your cursor is, or rewrites the text you've selected.
Nothing selected
You say: write an email to priya, the deck will be late, it'll be ready friday, sorry
GmailNew message to Priya
Hi Priya,
I wanted to let you know that the deck will be late. It will be ready by Friday. Sorry about that.
Best,
Rohityour name, added
Text selected
WhatsAppTeam
The meeting is moved to 4 pm tomorrow. Please bring your laptops.
You say: make it funny
WhatsAppTeam
The meeting's been nudged to 4 pm tomorrow, bring your laptops, or at least your best coffee mug.
See what Smart mode does Free to use. Coming to Windows.
Why light matters
A dictation app starts with your Mac and waits for one key, from morning to night.
Most weigh up to 596 MB and run all day, eating memory your Mac needs for everything else. Some download 75 MB to about 3 GB more to understand speech.
One native process: 4.6 MB on disk, 31 MB of memory and 0% CPU while it waits.
As installed, measured October 1, 2026.
Measured on October 1, 2026 on a MacBook with Apple silicon (macOS 26), from each app's own download, without opening it. Electron apps are built like websites and carry everything needed to run one, which makes them big. “+ models” means speech models download separately (75 MB to about 3 GB each, by the makers' own lists) and aren't counted here. Featherweight Dictation's memory and CPU are Activity Monitor's figures with the app at rest. Speed is the time from letting go of the key to the finished text, measured through the live service from 12 cities on October 3, 2026: 0.32 s (Oregon) to 0.59 s (Mumbai), the median of four takes each.
| App | Version | Download | On disk | Built on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Featherweight Dictation | 0.3.0 | 3.6 MB | 4.6 MB | native |
| Aqua Voice | 0.20.10 | 260 MB | 596 MB | Electron |
| Wispr Flow | 1.6.1021 | 303 MB | 535 MB | Electron |
| MacWhisper | 15.3 | 168 MB | 266 MB | native + models |
| Superwhisper | 2.18.5 | 68 MB | 200 MB | native + models |
| Willow Voice | 2.5.1 | 84 MB | 121 MB | native |
| VoiceInk | 2.21 | 51 MB | 116 MB | native + models |
Your Mac will thank you.
See for yourself: open Activity Monitor, choose Memory, and search for your dictation app.
What it does
An email in Mail, one line in Slack, and a list when you count one out.
Let go, and it's typed. We timed it from 12 cities.
Most major languages, punctuation and all.
How it works
Right Alt on Windows. In any app.
Ums and do-overs are fine.
Your words land, laid out.
Free to use
Questions
The Mac's Dictation is free and types what you say. Featherweight Dictation finishes the text: ums removed, spoken corrections applied, numbers and symbols written out, and laid out for the app (an email as an email, a list as a list), on any Mac with macOS 14 or later, Intel included. You hold the key while you talk and let go to type. See them side by side.
Yes: everything is included, with a weekly allowance of free words. It starts the first time you sign in from the app on your Mac or PC, and needs no card. Each computer gets one free account.
No. Your audio and your words are never stored. We keep only numbers, such as how many words you dictate, to run your plan and show you the time you save. The Privacy Policy has the details.
Any app where you can type: Mail or Outlook, Slack, Teams, Notes, your browser, Docs, Notion, ChatGPT and the rest. If there's a text cursor, Featherweight Dictation can fill it.
No. Your speech is turned into text on our servers, so you need an internet connection. That's also why the app on your computer can stay so small.
Featherweight
