Amical vs Handy

Amical

• People who want free, unlimited offline dictation on Mac or Windows
• Users who want a hosted cloud model without managing API keys
• Small teams that want to share a custom vocabulary

Handy

• People who want free dictation that never uploads audio
• Dictating on Linux as well as macOS and Windows
• Developers who want a small codebase to fork and extend

Amical

• The Free plan caps cloud dictation at 2,000 words a week; once reached, cloud transcription pauses until the weekly reset while local models keep working.
• The mobile apps are betas: Android is a public beta on Google Play, iOS is distributed through TestFlight, and the pricing page still labels mobile apps as coming soon.
• The desktop app supports macOS and Windows only; the README says Linux is not supported.
• AI formatting is labelled Alpha, and the docs list MCP integrations and custom prompts as planned, not yet shipped.

Handy

• It transcribes microphone input only and cannot capture system audio from calls or videos.
• There is no live streaming transcription: Handy records a segment, then transcribes it, and recordings work best under 3 to 5 minutes.
• Spoken punctuation commands are not supported, and AI post-processing is an alpha feature that needs your own API key or a local model.
• There are no mobile apps; downloads cover macOS, Windows and Linux.

Amical

Dictation in any app

Hold a key for push-to-talk, or click the floating widget for hands-free recording, and the words are typed into the focused app. The site lists 100+ languages with automatic detection.

Local Whisper models

Whisper variants from Tiny (about 78 MB) to Large v3 (about 3.1 GB) download inside the app and run on the computer, with no account and no data leaving the machine.

Amical Cloud

After sign-in, audio can be streamed to Amical's hosted speech model instead. Vocabulary and preferences follow the account across devices, and the vendor says audio is not stored or used for training.

App-aware AI formatting

A language model adds punctuation and structure and fits the output to the focused app, such as email or chat. It is marked Alpha and runs on Amical Cloud or a local model through Ollama.

Custom vocabulary and snippets

Add names and jargon the recognizer should know, and define trigger phrases that are replaced inline with saved plain text such as an address or signature.

Notes panel

A built-in notes panel holds notes with a title and a rich-text body to dictate or type into, plus a floating notes window that stays above other apps.

Handy

Shortcut-driven dictation

Press a shortcut to start and stop recording, or hold it for push-to-talk, and the text is pasted into the app you are typing in. Shortcuts can be remapped in settings.

Local speech models

Choose from Parakeet, Whisper, Moonshine and other models that run on the device, with GPU acceleration when available. Parakeet V3 covers 25 European languages and Whisper 99+.

Optional AI post-processing

An experimental feature runs the transcript through a language model to fix grammar or reformat it, using a cloud provider key, an OpenAI-compatible local endpoint or Apple Intelligence.

Custom words

List names and jargon that are often misheard, and Handy corrects similar-sounding words to match. The docs describe this matching as imperfect.

Transcription history

Past transcriptions are kept with a timestamp and the original audio, and entries can be copied, starred or deleted. A limit setting controls how many are stored.

Command-line control

Flags such as --toggle-transcription and --cancel control a running instance, and --start-hidden launches Handy straight to the system tray.

Amical

• Free$0

  Unlimited local dictation on unlimited devices, 2,000 words a week of cloud dictation, custom vocabulary, AI formatting and community support.

• Premium$7

  per month, billed annually ($84), or $10 billed monthly

  Unlimited cloud dictation, plus shared vocabulary, team management, email support and priority access to new features.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Private model hosting, custom models, SSO/SAML, centralized billing, seat-based licenses and volume discounts. SOC 2 is listed as in progress.

Handy

• Handy$0

  The full app for macOS, Windows and Linux with every local model. Donations and GitHub Sponsors are optional.

Amical

• Annual discount

  Save 30% with yearly billing

  Premium costs $7 a month when billed annually at $84, against $10 a month billed monthly. The pricing page describes this as 30% off.

Handy

No public discounts listed.