MacWhisper for Windows

No. MacWhisper is Mac-only, and there is no Windows version or announced Windows roadmap. It is sold in two forms, both Mac-only: a one-time MacWhisper Pro on macwhisper.com (via Gumroad) and a free-to-start app called Whisper Transcription on the Mac App Store.

If you want MacWhisper's core idea, on-device transcription with a one-time price, on Windows, Whisperstream is the closest match. It types your speech into any window from a push-to-talk key, transcribes audio files you drag in, runs entirely on your CPU, and never uploads your audio.

For the primary sources, see MacWhisper on the Mac App Store and the MacWhisper listing on Gumroad. Both list macOS as the only supported platform.

MacWhisper and Whisperstream both keep transcription on your device with a one-time purchase option, and both can run NVIDIA Parakeet locally. The split that matters is the operating system, and the job each one is built for. Here is the practical shape of each, side by side.

Pricing

Free to start; MacWhisper Pro is €59 one-time (Gumroad), or paid Pro on the App Store

Platform

macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon for WhisperKit and on-device Parakeet)

On-device

Yes (OpenAI Whisper, plus NVIDIA Parakeet on Apple Silicon)

Best for

File and batch transcription with speaker labels, on Mac

• Two ways to buy: a one-time MacWhisper Pro (€59) on Gumroad, and a free-to-start Whisper Transcription app on the Mac App Store with paid Pro tiers.
• Runs OpenAI's Whisper locally, and can also run NVIDIA Parakeet on Apple Silicon. All transcription happens on your Mac, nothing is uploaded.
• Strong file and batch workflows: drag in audio or video, get a transcript with automatic speaker labels, edit, and export to SRT, VTT, CSV, DOCX, PDF, and more.
• Also handles system-wide dictation and meeting recording. Around 99 languages, inherited from the Whisper model.

MacWhisper is made by indie developer Jordi Bruin (Goodsnooze) and is the most established of the apps people compare here. Its signature strength is turning recorded files into clean, labeled transcripts: drop in an interview or a meeting recording, get speaker-separated text, and export to the format you need.

It transcribes locally with OpenAI's Whisper, and on Apple Silicon it can also run NVIDIA Parakeet. The fastest, WhisperKit-accelerated Whisper models are Apple Silicon only: the MacWhisper docs note that WhisperKit models are only available on M-Series Macs and are not supported on Intel-based machines. Either way, it is a Mac app.

If you use MacWhisper for live dictation, that habit moves to Windows cleanly. Whisperstream does the same thing: hold a push-to-talk key, speak, and it types the text into whatever window has focus, entirely on your CPU with nothing uploaded. It also transcribes audio files you drag in, so the import-and-transcribe habit carries over too.

There is even a model connection. MacWhisper can also run NVIDIA Parakeet on Apple Silicon, and Whisperstream runs NVIDIA Parakeet V3 on Windows. Same model family, so the on-device Parakeet feel carries over. Parakeet V3 is a 2025 NVIDIA model that beats Whisper Large v3 on English word-error-rate (6.3% vs 7.4% on the Open ASR Leaderboard), fast enough for live dictation without a GPU.

Whisperstream transcribes audio files now, but it is not a full replacement for MacWhisper's recorded-file workflow. Drag a recording into Whisperstream and you get the transcript text, a searchable history, and a copy button. What you do not get is speaker labels or file export: no automatic speaker separation, and no SRT, VTT, DOCX, or PDF files.

So if you mainly reach for MacWhisper to caption a video, produce a speaker-separated interview transcript, or hand off a formatted document, keep it on your Mac for that. Whisperstream covers live dictation and quick file transcription on Windows, with the bonus that its history is encrypted at rest. The two can happily coexist.

Pricing

$29 once (covers 2 PCs)

Platform

Windows 10/11 x64

On-device

Yes (NVIDIA Parakeet V3 via ONNX Runtime, on CPU)

Best for

Live push-to-talk dictation on Windows

• $29 one-time and activates on up to 2 of your own PCs, with a 30-day refund and a 7-day free trial on first install.
• NVIDIA Parakeet V3 via ONNX Runtime, running entirely on your CPU. Audio never leaves your PC.
• Push-to-talk hotkey (default right shift) that pastes text into whatever window has focus.
• Drag in recorded audio files to transcribe them too, kept in a searchable history that is encrypted at rest on your PC.
• Optional on-device AI cleanup (a local model on a capable GPU, free cloud fallback) trims filler and fixes punctuation. No API key, off by default.

Whisperstream is built for Windows the way MacWhisper is built for the Mac: a one-time purchase, audio that never leaves your machine, and a fast push-to-talk loop you can map to whatever key feels right. The model is NVIDIA Parakeet V3, running on your CPU through ONNX Runtime, so there is no GPU requirement and no cloud round-trip. Beyond live dictation, it transcribes audio files you import and keeps a searchable history encrypted at rest, so your transcripts stay private on your PC.

If you split your day across a Mac and a Windows PC, you do not have to force one app onto both. Keep MacWhisper on the Mac for speaker-labeled, exportable transcripts, and install Whisperstream on the Windows PC for fast, on-device dictation and file transcription.

If you came from VoiceInk rather than MacWhisper, see VoiceInk for Windows. For the full Windows field ranked, see the Wispr Flow alternatives roundup, and for the most-asked head-to-head, see Whisperstream vs Wispr Flow. If you mainly dictate into your editor, the comparison with the free Windows Voice Typing covers the built-in option too.