Whisper Desktop Apps vs WhisperAI
When people say Whisper Desktop, they usually mean Const-me's WhisperDesktop for Windows, and its own README says it "hasn't been updated since 2023." Buzz and MacWhisper are two other desktop apps that do the same job. All three put the work on your computer: you download a model, check your hardware, and wait while it runs. If what you want is the transcript, not the setup, WhisperAI skips all of it. Upload in your browser, close the tab, and come back to a transcript with the speakers labeled.
By Eman Khoubian, Founder & CEO
Which Whisper desktop app runs on my computer?
Find your computer in the first column.
| Your computer | WhisperDesktop | Buzz | MacWhisper | WhisperAI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows PC (64-bit) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, in any browser |
| Mac with Apple silicon | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intel Mac | No | Yes, but 1.4.5 is the last version for Intel | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| A work laptop you can't install apps on | No | No | No | Yes, it's a website |
- WhisperDesktop is Const-me's free, open-source app. Its last release, 1.12.0, came out in July 2023.
- Buzz comes from Chidi Williams and is free and open source too. Version 1.4.5 came out in August 2026.
- MacWhisper is Good Snooze's Mac app. You can use the free version, or pay about €64 once for Pro.
- WhisperAI gives you 5 free minutes a month, enough to try it on a short clip. Premium is $14.99 a month for 120 minutes, and Business Pro is $24.99 a month with no minute limit.
Is whisperdesktop.com the real WhisperDesktop?
No. The project's own README says: "The website whisperdesktop.com is impersonating this project and should not be trusted." The real WhisperDesktop lives on GitHub at Const-me/Whisper, and that's where its releases are.
Its author now sells a paid, closed-source successor: free to try for 30 days, then a one-time purchase. The open-source app is still on the Releases page, free under the MPL-2.0 license.
How big is the download, and will your computer run it?
Before one of these apps can transcribe on your computer, you need a Whisper model on your disk. They run from 75 MiB for tiny to 2.9 GiB for large-v3. WhisperDesktop's README recommends medium.
Then there's the hardware each app asks for:
- WhisperDesktop needs a graphics card that supports Direct3D 11.0 and a processor with AVX and F16C.
- Buzz needs a processor with AVX2. Its FAQ is blunt about it: "very old computers are not supported."
- MacWhisper needs macOS 14 or later, and its maker says that to use the medium and large models, "your Mac should have more than 8GB of RAM."
After that, your computer does the transcribing. How long an hour of audio takes depends on the model you picked and the machine running it.
Who labels the speakers in a two-person recording?
An interview or a meeting is only readable when each line says who spoke. In some of these apps, the one adding those labels is you.
- WhisperDesktopNo speaker labels listed: mark each line yourself
- BuzzAn Identify speakers button in the transcript view
- MacWhisper FreeAdd up to two speakers by hand
- MacWhisper ProAutomatic: local models on M-series Macs, or ElevenLabs and Deepgram
- WhisperAISpeaker Labels switch on every plan: Auto, or 2 to 10
With WhisperDesktop, whose README lists no speaker labels, you read the transcript back and mark who said what. Buzz has an "Identify speakers" button in its transcript view, and its docs say you can rename the automatic labels to the speakers' real names.
In WhisperAI, you turn on Speaker Labels in the upload settings and leave the number of speakers on Auto, or set it from 2 to 10. Then rename Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 to the real names. That works on every plan, Free included. More on transcripts with speaker labels.
What if you can't install anything, or don't want to?
Then skip the install. There's no model to pick and no graphics card to check, and a locked-down work laptop works as well as anything else.
Upload a file of up to 10 hours or 5 GB, in any of about 40 audio and video formats and 98 languages. Once the upload finishes you can close the tab, and the transcript shows up in your library. Export it as a PDF, a Word file, plain text or SRT and VTT subtitles.
Your audio is encrypted with TLS 1.3 on the way up and AES-256 in storage. The security page has the details.
WhisperAI is an independent product, not affiliated with OpenAI. If you were looking for Whisper in a browser tab instead of an app, see WhisperAI vs Whisper Web. Want Whisper itself without the command line? Read how to use Whisper without coding.
Questions people also ask
Does WhisperAI have a desktop app?
No. WhisperAI runs in your web browser, and there's also an iPhone app. Paid plans add a Chrome extension.
Can a Whisper desktop app translate audio?
Yes. Buzz transcribes and translates audio offline, and WhisperDesktop can translate live audio from a microphone. WhisperAI translates a finished transcript into 87 languages.
Transcribe a recording without installing anything
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