Comparison
Golos vs SuperWhisper
SuperWhisper is a macOS dictation app powered by OpenAI Whisper. Golos is a free, open-source alternative that gives you push-to-talk speech-to-text from the terminal — no subscription required.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Golos | SuperWhisper |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $8-16/mo |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Push-to-talk | Yes | Yes |
| Paste to any app | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Custom dictionary | Yes | Yes |
| STT engine | Deepgram Nova-3 | OpenAI Whisper |
| Processing | Cloud (Deepgram) | Local + Cloud |
| CLI interface | Yes | No |
| stdout output | Yes | No |
| GUI app | No | Yes |
| Local-only mode | No | Yes |
| Windows / Linux | No | No |
Why choose Golos over SuperWhisper?
Completely free
SuperWhisper starts at $8/month. Golos is free and open source. You bring your own Deepgram API key, which has a generous free tier that covers most personal usage.
Developer-first workflow
Golos is a CLI tool. Run it in the background, pipe output to stdout, configure via TOML files, and integrate it into scripts. Perfect for developers using Cursor, Claude Code, or terminal-based editors.
Faster transcription
Golos uses Deepgram Nova-3 for cloud-based transcription, which returns results near-instantly. SuperWhisper's local mode is private but can be slower, especially on older hardware.
Lightweight
Golos is a single binary — no large AI models downloaded to your machine. SuperWhisper's local Whisper models can take several gigabytes of disk space.
When SuperWhisper might be better
SuperWhisper shines if you need fully offline, local-only transcription with no data leaving your machine. It also has a polished GUI with visual feedback and doesn't require any API keys. If privacy is your top priority and you don't mind the subscription, SuperWhisper is a solid choice.
Try Golos for free
Install in one command and start dictating in under a minute:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/basilysf1709/golos/main/install.sh | bash