BlaBlaType vs Aiko: Dictation vs Transcription

BlaBlaType and Aiko both turn speech into text on your Mac, and both run local models, so it is easy to assume they compete. They do not. One is a dictation tool that types as you speak, the other is a transcription tool that converts recorded files. Picking the right one starts with knowing which job you actually have.

Dictation vs transcription: the core difference

The words sound similar, so people use them interchangeably. In practice they describe two different moments in the voice-to-text pipeline. Dictation happens live. You speak, and text appears in whatever field your cursor sits in, whether that is an email, a Slack message, a code comment or an AI chat box. Transcription happens later. You already have a recording, a meeting, a voice memo, an interview, and you want a written version of it.

BlaBlaType is built for the first case. It listens through a global shortcut, runs speech recognition on your Mac, then pastes the finished sentence into the active app. Aiko, from developer Sindre Sorhus, is built for the second case. You drop in an audio or video file and it returns a transcript you can copy or export. Both use local Whisper style speech recognition, so neither needs to send your audio to a server. That shared foundation is why they get compared, but the workflows barely overlap.

Where each tool fits your day

Think about when you reach for voice. If you are drafting a message, replying to a customer, adding notes to a ticket or talking to an AI assistant, you want the text to land right there without a copy and paste detour. That is dictation, and it is where BlaBlaType lives. Because most people speak around three to four times faster than they type, dictating directly into the field can save real time across a workday.

Now think about the other pattern. You recorded a 40 minute podcast, a lecture or a client call, and you need it written down. That is transcription, and a file-based tool like Aiko is a clean fit. You are not typing into anything, you are converting one finished artifact into another. If your work is mostly recordings, a dedicated transcriber will feel more natural than a live dictation app. If you often want to repurpose one voice note into several content pieces, you may even use both in sequence.

BlaBlaType vs Aiko compared

The table makes the split clear. Aiko is a free, focused, on-device transcriber that also runs on iPhone and iPad, which is genuinely useful if your recordings live on mobile. BlaBlaType is a macOS dictation app that types system-wide and adds an AI cleanup pass to remove filler words, fix punctuation and adjust tone before the text ever lands. Neither replaces the other. For a wider view of the category, see our roundup of the best dictation software for Mac.

Why AI cleanup matters for dictation

Raw speech is messy. You restart sentences, drop in filler words and forget punctuation. A pure transcriber writes down exactly what it heard, which is correct behavior for a recording you want faithfully preserved. But when you are dictating a message, faithful is not the goal, readable is. BlaBlaType runs an on-device cleanup step powered by Apple Intelligence that turns a rambling sentence into something you would actually send, without your words leaving the Mac.

That difference in intent is the real reason to keep both categories in your toolkit rather than forcing one to do the other's job. A dictation tool that cleans up your speech is a writing tool. A transcription tool that preserves every word is an archival tool. If you compare on-device against cloud approaches more broadly, our piece on on-device versus cloud dictation goes deeper on the trade-offs.

Which should you choose?

Match the tool to the moment. If you write in a browser, editor or chat window all day and want your voice typed in as you go, a dictation app like BlaBlaType is the answer, and you can start with a free trial from the pricing page. If your job is turning finished recordings into transcripts, subtitles or notes, a file transcriber like Aiko is the better fit, and it is free. Many people run both: dictate live, then transcribe the occasional recording. If you also want hands-free control of your Mac rather than just text entry, that is a different category again, closer to Talon and full voice control, and worth reading before you decide. You can explore Talon's own approach on the Talon site. And if your main use is chatting with an assistant, our guide to talking to ChatGPT with your voice on Mac shows dictation in action.