Kana as a Voice Type alternative
An on-device dictation app from carelesswhisper.app, sold on the Mac App Store as Voice Type. Whisper-derived models from 27 MB up to 550 MB, and one of the few product pages ranking in the top five for the head Mac dictation terms.
What Voice Type does better
Voice Type runs on Intel Macs as well as Apple Silicon, and Kana never will: Kana is arm64 only. It also ships fully sandboxed through the Mac App Store, lets you pick a model size against how long you are willing to wait, and handles over 100 languages against Kana's 26. On a 2019 MacBook Pro the comparison ends right here.
Where Kana is different
- AI rewriting goes through a proxy that stores nothing, so there is no API key to supply for it.
- File transcription with SRT and VTT export is in the $9.99 app, not an add-on.
- The app bundle is 2.4 MB, with no bundled helper, no login item and nothing in the Dock.
Side by side
| Kana | Voice Type | |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Macs | No | Yes |
| Choose model size | No | Yes, 27 MB to 550 MB |
| Languages | 26 | 100+ |
| AI rewriting | Included, no API key | Bring your own key |
Voice Type pricing: $19.99 once on the Mac App Store, after a 7-day trial.