Comparison
Shruvi vs Wispr Flow
Both are push-to-talk dictation apps that paste cleaned-up text into whatever app you're using. Shruvi is free and built around batched Groq whisper-large-v3-turbo; Wispr Flow is a polished, well-funded paid product. This page lays out where each one wins so you can pick honestly.
macOS 13+ · Windows 10/11 · Free · No credit card
Quick comparison
At a glance
Platform
Shruvi: macOS 13+ and Windows 10/11. Wispr Flow: macOS and Windows.
Pricing
Shruvi: free, no word limits, no credit card. Wispr Flow: free tier with a paid subscription for unlimited use (pricing as published on wisprflow.ai as of 2026-05).
Speech model
Shruvi: Groq-hosted whisper-large-v3-turbo (cloud, batched). Wispr Flow: proprietary cloud speech stack tuned in-house.
AI cleanup
Shruvi: gpt-4o-mini cleans filler words, punctuation, and casing. Wispr Flow: built-in AI formatting and tone shaping.
Push-to-talk
Both support hold-to-talk with a global hotkey and paste into any focused app.
Open source
Neither product is fully open source; both are closed-source desktop apps.
Privacy model
Shruvi: audio is processed in the cloud and not retained after transcription. Wispr Flow: cloud processing with their own retention policy — read theirs before deciding.
Languages
Shruvi: ~99 languages via Whisper. Wispr Flow: 100+ languages advertised.
In Shruvi's favor
Where Shruvi is better
- Genuinely free with no word cap. No trial, no credit card, no per-word ceiling — useful if you dictate all day.
- Lower per-utterance latency on short speech. Audio is buffered in the client and sent in one batched request to Groq's whisper-large-v3-turbo on hotkey release, which is one of the fastest ways to run Whisper today.
- Server-side provider switch. Because the model is selected by an environment variable on our side, every user benefits when we move to a faster or more accurate provider — there's no app update to wait for.
- Lightweight menu-bar footprint on macOS. Shruvi lives entirely in the tray and never opens an extra window unless you ask it to.
In Wispr Flow's favor
Where Wispr Flow is better
- More mature product polish. Wispr Flow has had more time and funding for in-app onboarding, voice command shortcuts, and edge-case UX.
- Tone, style, and formatting controls. Wispr Flow leans heavily into rewriting your speech into different tones; Shruvi keeps cleanup intentionally conservative.
- Larger user community. If you want public reviews, YouTube tutorials, and a deeper template library, Wispr Flow currently has more of that ecosystem.
Decision guide
Which one should you pick?
Pick Shruvi if you want a free, fast, no-friction push-to-talk app you can install on macOS or Windows in two minutes. It's the right choice when you mainly want clean text pasted into Slack, your editor, email, or your terminal — and you don't want to think about quotas or subscriptions.
Pick Wispr Flow if you've outgrown plain transcription and want heavier rewriting, tone shifting, and integrations baked into a paid product, and you're comfortable paying a subscription for the extra polish around it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Shruvi a free alternative to Wispr Flow?
Yes. Shruvi is free with no word limits, no trial period, and no credit card required. Wispr Flow has a free tier but most heavy users end up on a paid plan.
Does Shruvi work offline like Wispr Flow's local mode?
No. Shruvi sends audio to a hosted Groq endpoint running whisper-large-v3-turbo, which means it needs an internet connection but gives near-human accuracy without using your CPU. If you need fully offline transcription, look at SuperWhisper or MacWhisper instead.
Which is faster, Shruvi or Wispr Flow?
Both feel near-instant on a normal connection. Shruvi buffers audio locally and sends it as a single batch on hotkey release, which keeps end-to-end latency low for short utterances.
Can I use Shruvi on Windows?
Yes, Shruvi ships a Windows 10/11 installer in addition to the macOS build, the same as Wispr Flow.