Buzz

• Free where MacWhisper charges. Batch file transcription with good models, at no cost, on three platforms rather than one. If MacWhisper's €59 is the obstacle, this is your answer.
• Cross-platform, genuinely. Windows and Linux users have no equivalent to MacWhisper. Buzz is it.
• Translation, not just transcription. Whisper's translation capability is exposed directly.
• YouTube links as input. Paste a URL and get a transcript without downloading anything yourself.
• Broad hardware acceleration. CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan, so most machines get a fast path.

Where it falls short

• Not a dictation tool. The most important thing to know. It transcribes recordings; it does not type at your cursor. Live microphone input produces a transcript in Buzz's own window, not in the app you're working in.
• The interface is functional, not polished. A Qt application that looks like one. MacWhisper is a nicer piece of software to use, and that's part of what the licence buys.
• No speaker diarisation to speak of. MacWhisper Pro labels speakers; Buzz's story here is much weaker, which matters for interviews and meetings.
• No AI summarisation. Transcript out, nothing else. Vibe offers summaries via the Claude API.
• Local means slow on old hardware. Universal to this group: Whisper Large on CPU is a long wait.

Pricing

Free, MIT.

Who it's for

Anyone on any desktop platform with recordings to turn into text who doesn't want to pay per minute or per licence. It's the default free choice for file transcription and the only real cross-platform one. If you want to dictate into applications, this is the wrong category entirely — see Handy or superwhisper. If you want a more modern interface with summaries and more export formats, Vibe is also free.

Last verified: 9 August 2026.