Dragon for Mac is discontinued. EnviousWispr is the modern replacement
Dragon pioneered dictation, but its Mac version was discontinued and Nuance's consumer Dragon is now sidelined under Microsoft. EnviousWispr is free, runs on Apple Silicon, and works offline.
Feature comparison
Dragon NaturallySpeaking set the standard for dictation software. Here is how it compares to EnviousWispr in 2026.
| EnviousWispr | Dragon (Nuance) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. No subscription, no license fee. | Windows only (~$699); no Mac version* |
| Account required | No | Yes, Nuance account + product activation |
| Platform | macOS (Apple Silicon) | Windows only (Mac version discontinued 2018) |
| Audio processing | On-device (Neural Engine) | On-device (after installation) |
| Audio leaves your computer | Never. If you enable cloud AI polish, only the text transcript is sent. | No (local processing) |
| Offline transcription | Yes (after model download) | Yes (after installation) |
| Offline AI polish | Yes. EG-1, local Ollama models, or Apple Intelligence (macOS 26+). | No AI polish at all |
| AI polish / LLM providers | 6 providers: EG-1, Ollama, Apple Intelligence (macOS 26+), OpenAI, Gemini, Claude | None |
| Writing style control | Context-aware Smart Polish adjusts for target app | None. Raw transcript only. |
| Speech engines | Parakeet TDT + WhisperKit | Proprietary Nuance engine (decades of refinement) |
| Voice training required | No. Works immediately. | Improves with use; Nuance claims 99% from first use |
| Custom vocabulary | Custom words for names and terms | Custom vocabularies + macro commands + auto-learning |
| Voice commands | Spoken punctuation and emoji only; no navigation, editing, or macros | Yes. Edit by voice, navigate, format, custom macros. |
| First-word capture | Yes, while the mic is warm (500ms pre-roll buffer); a cold start can still clip | Yes. Always-listening mode with wake word. |
| Starts listening instantly | Keybind press, immediate recording. | Always-listening or manual microphone toggle |
| Text lands in the right app | Yes. Three-tier paste with app reactivation. | Yes. Types into the active window cursor position. |
| Clipboard preservation | Yes, when enabled and no other app changes the clipboard first. | Not applicable (types directly, does not use clipboard) |
| Auto-punctuation | Yes. Neural model + AI polish handle punctuation. | Yes. Built-in auto-punctuation. |
| Auto-stop on silence | Yes. Configurable silence timeout. | Yes. Configurable pause settings. |
| Accessibility | Menu bar app; global keybind; works in any text field | Full accessibility suite; navigation by voice |
| Transcription latency | 0.61s median; ~1.65s with on-device AI polish | Near-instant (local processing, but older engine) |
| Source code | Open source on GitHub (GPLv3) | Closed source |
| Active development | Yes. Shipping updates regularly. | Effectively abandoned. Microsoft/Nuance focus shifted to enterprise and healthcare. |
*Dragon Professional Individual pricing of ~$699 one-time confirmed by third-party retailers (SoftwareAdvice, GetApp) as of August 2026; Nuance's own product page no longer lists a price and directs buyers to contact sales. Consumer Dragon Home has been discontinued. EnviousWispr latency from production PostHog data on Apple Silicon Macs. Dragon claims source-verified from official Nuance pages and product documentation; not firsthand-tested. Competitor claims last verified: 2026-08-21.
Why Mac users choose EnviousWispr over Dragon
Dragon left the Mac behind. EnviousWispr was built for it.
Dragon Professional for Windows costs around $699 for a single license, and it does not run on a Mac at all. EnviousWispr is free. No subscription, no license key, no activation server. Download and use it.
Nuance discontinued Dragon for Mac in 2018. If you are on macOS, Dragon is not an option. EnviousWispr is built natively for Apple Silicon and takes full advantage of the Neural Engine. See how the pipeline works.
Dragon gives you a raw transcript. EnviousWispr can clean up filler words, fix punctuation, and restructure sentences using EG-1, a local Ollama model, or Apple Intelligence (macOS 26+). No extra software, no cloud dependency unless you choose it.
Dragon claims up to 99% accuracy from first use, improving further with corrections over time. EnviousWispr works immediately. Modern speech models like Parakeet TDT are accurate out of the box.
Dragon has not received meaningful updates since Microsoft acquired Nuance in 2022. Their focus shifted to enterprise healthcare. EnviousWispr ships updates regularly with new models, features, and performance improvements.
Every line is on GitHub under GPLv3. Verify what it does. Report issues directly. Dragon is closed source with no public bug tracker.
Two generations of on-device dictation
Both Dragon and EnviousWispr process speech locally. The difference is what happens after the transcript. For more on why on-device matters, read on-device vs cloud dictation privacy.
The details that matter for Mac users
Dragon was the gold standard for Windows dictation. But two fundamental gaps make it irrelevant for Mac users in 2026.
Nuance discontinued Dragon for Mac in 2018. The last Mac version (6.0.8) predates Apple Silicon entirely. It does not run on modern macOS, and Nuance has no plans to bring it back. If you search for "Dragon Mac," you will find forum posts from frustrated users and no download link.
EnviousWispr is built natively for Apple Silicon. It uses Core ML and the Neural Engine directly, meaning transcription runs on dedicated ML hardware rather than general-purpose CPU cores. The app is a lightweight menu bar utility that launches in seconds and uses minimal memory.
This is not a compatibility layer or a port. Every component, from audio capture to paste-back, uses native macOS APIs: AVFoundation for audio, Accessibility API for text insertion, and Core ML for model inference.
Dragon gives you a transcript and expects you to fix it. It has no concept of LLM-based post-processing. Dragon was built in an era before large language models existed, and Nuance has not retrofitted this capability.
EnviousWispr integrates six polish engines for Smart Polish: EG-1 (our own on-device model), Ollama (local models like Qwen or Gemma), Apple Intelligence (on-device, macOS 26+), and cloud options via OpenAI, Gemini, or Claude if you bring your own API key. The polish step removes filler words, fixes punctuation, restructures awkward phrasings, and adapts to the app you are dictating into.
The system is context-aware. Dictating into Slack? The polish keeps it conversational. Writing an email? It formalizes. And all cloud providers only receive the text transcript, never your audio.
Modern models, modern hardware
EnviousWispr runs neural speech models on Apple Silicon's dedicated ML hardware. The result is sub-second transcription with no training needed.
Based on production data from Apple Silicon Macs. Results vary by hardware and settings.
Where Dragon genuinely wins
Dragon pioneered voice dictation and spent decades refining it. These are real strengths, not legacy talking points:
Dragon has been tuning its speech engine since the 1990s. Nuance claims up to 99% accuracy from first use, improving further as you make corrections. The engine learns your voice, your vocabulary, and your correction patterns over time. That adaptive accuracy loop is genuinely impressive.
Dragon lets you edit, format, and navigate entirely by voice. Say "select previous sentence" or "bold that" and it works. You can create custom voice macros for repetitive tasks. EnviousWispr is dictation-only; it does not support voice-driven editing or navigation.
Dragon Medical One and Dragon Legal Individual ship with specialized vocabularies for clinical notes, legal briefs, and industry-specific terminology. These are purpose-built products with EHR integrations. EnviousWispr targets general dictation, not regulated industry workflows.
Dragon has decades of enterprise deployment experience with IT admin tools, network licensing, and compliance certifications. Organizations with existing Dragon infrastructure have switching costs that go beyond the software itself.
If you are on a Mac and want free, actively maintained dictation with AI polish, give EnviousWispr a try.
Common questions
Yes. EnviousWispr is free, runs natively on macOS with Apple Silicon, and processes speech on-device. Dragon discontinued its Mac version in 2018, so EnviousWispr fills that gap without costing $700.
Apple Dictation is the practical choice between the two on a modern Mac. It is free and built into macOS, while Dragon for Mac was discontinued in 2018 and its last Mac release does not run on Apple Silicon. Apple Dictation can process general text dictation on-device depending on language and settings. It supports automatic punctuation in supported languages and simple spoken formatting commands. Sessions can be any length, but Dictation stops when it detects no speech for 30 seconds. Dragon's remaining strengths are advanced voice commands and specialized medical or legal vocabularies, but its current products are Windows or enterprise offerings rather than a supported Mac app. If you need everyday Mac dictation with automatic cleanup, EnviousWispr is free and keeps transcription on-device. Its local polish options can remove filler words and improve punctuation and phrasing. The tradeoff is that EnviousWispr does not provide Dragon-style application control or voice macros.
No. Nuance discontinued Dragon for Mac in 2018. The last Mac version does not run on modern macOS with Apple Silicon. If you need dictation on a Mac, EnviousWispr is a current, actively maintained option.
Dragon dropped its Mac version in 2018, so there is no Dragon for Apple Silicon. Dragon Professional for Windows has cost around $699 one-time. Either way, Dragon does not run on a Mac, and EnviousWispr is completely free with no license fee or subscription.
No. EnviousWispr uses modern neural speech models that work accurately from the first sentence. Dragon improves accuracy as you use it and make corrections, though Nuance claims 99% accuracy from first use. EnviousWispr skips that entirely.
Transcription runs entirely on-device and works without internet after the initial model download. AI polish can also run offline using EG-1, a local Ollama model, or Apple Intelligence (macOS 26+). See the getting started guide for setup.
EnviousWispr focuses on dictation: converting speech to text as fast as possible. It does not support macro commands or application control the way Dragon Professional does. If you need voice-driven automation, Dragon's scripting features are more extensive.
Microsoft completed its acquisition of Nuance in March 2022. Since then, Dragon consumer products have been effectively sidelined. The focus shifted to enterprise healthcare (DAX Copilot), and Dragon Professional remains a Windows-only product that receives minimal updates.
Open source under the GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3), an OSI-approved license. You can read, build, and inspect every line of code on GitHub. Dragon is entirely closed source.
For general dictation, EnviousWispr's neural models are highly accurate out of the box. For specialized medical or legal terminology, Dragon's purpose-built editions (Dragon Medical One, Dragon Legal Individual) have purpose-trained vocabularies that EnviousWispr does not replicate. EnviousWispr's Custom Words feature lets you add names and terms manually, but it is not a substitute for a medical dictionary with tens of thousands of clinical terms.
For dictation, yes. EnviousWispr handles the core workflow Dragon Mac users relied on: speak, transcribe, paste into any app. It adds AI polish that Dragon never had. The main gap is voice commands. Dragon let you edit and navigate by voice; EnviousWispr is focused purely on converting speech to polished text.
Yes. EnviousWispr uses whatever microphone macOS has selected as the input device. USB microphones, Bluetooth headsets, and audio interfaces all work. Dragon similarly supports external microphones on Windows. You can select your preferred input device in System Settings before recording.
Dragon left the Mac. We did not.
Free to download. No account required. No $700 license fee.