Raycast Dictation: what it costs, where your voice goes, and a free alternative
By Ryleigh Newman · Published · Updated
Raycast Dictation is not free: Raycast's manual marks it Pro Exclusive, and Pro costs $10 a month or $96 a year. It was free while Raycast 2 was in beta, and the 2.0 release notes of August 25, 2026, moved it into Raycast Pro. Its privacy page says your audio is sent to a speech-to-text partner to be transcribed. YapToText, the app I built, is a free alternative that does the speech recognition on your Mac, with no account.
I built YapToText, so read what I say about Raycast with that in mind. Everything about Raycast here comes from Raycast's own manual, pricing page and release notes, read on October 6, 2026. I have not tested Raycast Dictation hands-on, so nothing here ranks the two by accuracy or speed.
This app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.
On this page: 8 sections
Side by side
Checked October 6, 2026, on manual.raycast.com and raycast.com/pricing.
| Raycast Dictation | YapToText | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Part of Raycast Pro: $10 a month or $96 a year | Free |
| Where speech is recognized | Audio is sent to Raycast's speech-to-text partner | On your Mac |
| Account | A Raycast account with a Pro plan | None |
| Runs on | Mac, Windows and iOS | Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later |
| Formatting by app | Styles with Auto Styling; Email and Messaging built in | Modes with Auto mode; seven built in |
| Your own words | A vocabulary of up to 50 words, 20 characters each | Dictionaries of substitutions |
| One dictation | Up to 20 minutes | A safety stop at 30 minutes |
| History | Saved on your device; the last 25 recordings kept | On your Mac: the last 500 dictations for 30 days by default |
The two differences that decide it are the price and where your voice is turned into text.
What Raycast Dictation costs
Dictation sits in the paid column of Raycast's pricing table: not included in Free, included in Pro. If you already pay for Raycast Pro, Dictation costs you nothing more. If you do not, it is $10 a month for one feature you wanted.
- Pro. $10 a month, or $96 a year. It also brings Raycast AI with monthly credits, Cloud Sync, the Translator, unlimited Notes and custom themes.
- Plus and Max. $20 and $50 a month. They add more AI credits and top-tier models, not more dictation, as far as the pricing table shows.
- Teams. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $144 per user a year.
- A trial. The pricing page says eligible new accounts can start a free Pro trial. The 2.0 release notes describe it as seven days, with no credit card.
- Students. Raycast offers verified students 50 percent off the Pro plan.
- Why it stopped being free. The 2.0 notes say Dictation and AI Chat were free during the beta while Raycast tested them, and are part of Pro from that release on.
For how the other dictation apps charge, see the pricing comparison.
Where your voice goes
Raycast's privacy page is direct about the route your voice takes. Your audio leaves the Mac to be transcribed, and Raycast says it is not kept on its servers or used to train models.
- The audio. Raycast says it is sent to its speech-to-text partner solely to produce a transcription, is not retained on Raycast servers after the request completes, and that partners are contractually prohibited from training on it.
- The model. Raycast does not name the partner or the speech model on the pages I read.
- The transcripts. Saved to the app's database on your device, not in Raycast's cloud. The manual says the 25 most recent recordings are kept as .wav files in a dictation-recordings folder.
- App Context. An option that reads the frontmost app's name, the field you are in and visible text nearby, and passes it to the transcription model. It needs the Screen Recording permission, and Raycast says the context is discarded after the request.
- At work. Raycast for Enterprise has a Dictation Control switch, and that page describes Dictation as turning speech into text via Raycast's servers.
Those are Raycast's statements, and I have no way to check them. With YapToText the speech model runs on the Mac and the code is public, so the claim can be checked. The private dictation guide explains how to verify that for any app.
Where Raycast is ahead
Raycast's manual describes things YapToText does not have. If you need the same dictation on Windows or an iPhone, Raycast has it and YapToText does not.
- Windows and iOS. Dictation is listed for Mac, Windows and iOS. On an iPhone it lives in the Raycast Keyboard, which hands off to the Raycast app to record.
- It is inside a launcher you may already use. Dictate to Note saves straight into Raycast Notes, and Control M dictates into AI Chat and Quick AI.
- Moving in. Raycast can import your vocabulary and hotkey from Wispr Flow, Superwhisper, MacWhisper, Aqua Voice, VoiceInk or Handy, if one is installed.
- Styles shared with a team. Since June 2026, teams can share Dictation Styles across an organization.
- Checking a bad result. Dictation History has Copy Raw Transcription, so you can see whether recognition or the cleanup step got it wrong.
Where YapToText is different
YapToText is one app that does one job, on one platform. It is free, it needs no account, and the speech recognition and the cleanup both run on your Mac.
- Free, with nothing locked. There is no plan, no trial and no word quota. Tips are optional.
- On device. Whisper Large v3 Turbo and the model behind Clean Up are included in the download, so dictation works with no connection.
- Open source. The code is public under GPL-3.0.
- Auto mode. It reads each dictation and the app you are in, and picks a mode: a letter becomes an email, a short chat message stays as spoken.
- Quick Edit. Select text in any app, tap Right Option, say the change, and tap again.
- Files too. Drop or choose an audio or video file and get the text, on the Mac. Plain text only: no timestamps or speaker labels.
- What it does not do. No Windows, no iPhone, no Intel Macs, no sync between devices, and no launcher: it is only dictation.
YapToText is on the Mac App Store, and the source is on GitHub.
Raycast Dictation vs Wispr Flow
The search people make most is Raycast Dictation against Wispr Flow. Both send audio to a server. The differences are price and reach. Raycast Pro is $10 a month with a launcher attached. Wispr Flow has a free tier and an Android app.
Raycast checked October 6, 2026. Wispr Flow from its pricing page, checked October 3 and reread October 6, 2026.
| Raycast Dictation | Wispr Flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Free use | None; a Pro trial for eligible new accounts | 2,000 words a week on desktop |
| Paid | $10 a month or $96 a year, as Raycast Pro | $15 a month or $144 a year |
| Runs on | Mac, Windows, iOS | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android |
| One dictation | Up to 20 minutes | Up to 20 minutes |
| Where speech is recognized | A speech-to-text partner's servers | In the cloud |
The Wispr Flow pricing page has its plans in full, and the Wispr Flow alternative page compares it with YapToText.
The short version
- Already on Raycast Pro. Dictation is included, and it works on Windows and iOS too.
- Not on Pro. It is $10 a month, and your audio goes to a server to be transcribed.
- Want it free and on the Mac. Use YapToText: there is no account and no quota, and speech is recognized on your Mac.
Pay for Raycast Pro if you want the launcher's paid features. Do not pay for it just to dictate. If Raycast has changed something this page says, tell me on GitHub and I will fix it.
This app is completely free. You don't have to make an account. There are no subscriptions, no difficult downloads, and nothing is locked. Made for Apple silicon Macs. Source on GitHub.
Related
Sources
- https://manual.raycast.com/ai/dictation (checked 2026-10-06)
- https://manual.raycast.com/ai/raycast-ai-privacy-security (checked 2026-10-06)
- https://manual.raycast.com/enterprise/dictation-control (checked 2026-10-06)
- https://manual.raycast.com/new-in-v2 (checked 2026-10-06)
- https://www.raycast.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-06)
- https://www.raycast.com/changelog/macos/2-0 (checked 2026-10-06)
- https://wisprflow.ai/pricing (checked 2026-10-06)
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yaptotext/id6786382289 (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://github.com/ryleighnewman/YapToText (checked 2026-10-03)
Questions
Is Raycast Dictation free?
No. Raycast's manual marks Dictation Pro Exclusive, and Pro is $10 a month or $96 a year. It was free during the Raycast 2 beta and became part of Pro with the 2.0 release on August 25, 2026. Eligible new accounts can start a free Pro trial.
Which model does Raycast Dictation use?
Raycast does not say on the pages I read. Its privacy page says audio is sent to its speech-to-text partner to produce a transcription, without naming the partner or the model.
Does Raycast Dictation work offline?
Raycast's manual describes no offline mode. Its privacy page says audio is sent to a speech-to-text partner, and its enterprise page says speech is turned into text via Raycast's servers.
Does Raycast Dictation work on iPhone?
Yes, per Raycast's manual: it lives in the Raycast Keyboard on iPhone and iPad. Starting a session opens the Raycast app first, because iOS keyboards have no direct microphone access.
How is Raycast Dictation different from Wispr Flow?
Raycast Dictation comes with Raycast Pro at $10 a month and has no free tier. Wispr Flow is free up to 2,000 words a week on desktop, costs $15 a month for Pro, and also runs on Android. Both send audio to a server.
Is there a free alternative to Raycast Dictation?
YapToText is free on the Mac App Store, with no account and no word limit, and it recognizes speech on your Mac. It runs only on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later.