How to migrate from Superwhisper to VoiceGem (2026)
Moving from Superwhisper takes about an hour, and most of it is rebuilding a word list by hand: Superwhisper's public documentation describes no export for modes, replacements or history. Screenshot your modes before you start, then install VoiceGem, grant accessibility permission and choose a local model.
A Superwhisper lifetime licence costs $249.99 and does not expire, so switching wastes nothing except the time it takes. (Apple App Store listing, checked September 4, 2026)
Competitor pricing and features last verified September 4, 2026. Every claim links to its source.
| What you would move | Out of Superwhisper | Into VoiceGem |
|---|---|---|
| Transcripts and historysource | Unverified | Imported from a backup file |
| Personal dictionarysource | Unverified | Rebuilt by hand, then exported and version-controlled |
| Per-app behavioursource | Unverified | Modes with per-app and per-website triggers |
| Licence or subscriptionsource | One-time licence, keep the version you own | $25-$159 once, 14-day refund |
Choose Superwhisper if…
- Superwhisper already runs local Whisper models, so this migration buys nothing on privacy — the reason to do it is the transcript layer or the price, and no other reason holds up.
- Superwhisper covers Windows and iOS as well, and VoiceGem does not, so a switch narrows your coverage to one Mac per licence seat.
- If your Superwhisper setup is working, the honest advice is to keep it and run VoiceGem's free tier alongside for a fortnight rather than migrating at all.
What you are actually migrating to
The part of VoiceGem worth migrating for is Developer Mode, and specifically the Deterministic Pass: a pure lookup-and-assemble function that converts 78 spoken phrases into 40 symbols and 7 casing commands into identifiers, with no model inference and no network call.
Everything else — on-device transcription, a personal dictionary, per-app behaviour — Superwhisper does in its own way and does well. Migrating for those alone would be churn.
The test worth running in the first week is dictating the same function signature five times in each app and comparing the five outputs.
The migration itself, step by step
First, open Superwhisper's settings and screenshot every mode and replacement you rely on. Second, install VoiceGem and grant accessibility permission. Third, download a local model — Parakeet is the default and the eight Whisper variants are there if you prefer one. Fourth, retype your replacements and dictionary entries. Fifth, turn on Developer Mode for your editor.
Budget an hour, most of it in step four. VoiceGem then exports its own settings and history, so this is the last time the list gets rebuilt by hand.
What carries over from Superwhisper and what does not
Nothing carries over automatically. Superwhisper's public documentation describes no export for history, custom modes or replacements, so every one of them is recreated in VoiceGem by hand.
What does carry over is your habits: the push-to-talk rhythm, the pauses, the way you phrase a sentence for dictation. Those transfer instantly and they are most of the learning curve either product has.
What running both costs for a fortnight
Nothing. VoiceGem's free tier allows 15 minutes of recorded audio a day with no feature withheld, and a Superwhisper lifetime licence keeps working regardless of what you install next to it.
Assign different keyboard shortcuts, keep Superwhisper for prose and put VoiceGem's Developer Mode in your editor. Two weeks is enough to know whether deterministic symbol conversion earns a place, and $25 is a smaller decision after that test than before it.
When to abandon this migration
Abandon it if you need Windows or iOS, because VoiceGem has no build for either and no amount of code-mode quality compensates for an app you cannot run.
Abandon it also if your dictation is mostly prose. Superwhisper's rewriting is a genuine feature for email and documents, and VoiceGem deliberately does not do it. Migrating away from a strength to gain a feature you will not use is a bad trade and this page would rather say so.
What people ask before switching
“Moving my dictionary and settings across will eat a weekend.”
VoiceGem imports and exports its own settings, so the VoiceGem side is minutes. The real question is whether your current app exports at all, and for most of this category the documented answer is no — which means the honest estimate is retyping your word list once.
The import and export service →“I already paid for another dictation app this year.”
Then do not buy today. Run VoiceGem's free tier alongside it for two weeks and only inside your editor, where Developer Mode is the difference. If code dictation does not stick, you have lost nothing but the download.
Start on the free tier →“The app rewrites what I said and I can't turn it off.”
VoiceGem's Developer Mode does not ask a model what you meant. The Deterministic Pass is a pure function over the transcript: a casing command, then a symbol phrase matched longest-first, then a whitespace command, otherwise the word passes through untouched. Same sentence in, same code out, every time, offline.
Read the 200-line formatter on GitHub →Also comparing: Superwhisper and VoiceGem, side by side, Superwhisper pricing, tier by tier, or what else does this job as well as Superwhisper.
Common questions
No export for modes, replacements or history is documented in Superwhisper's public documentation. Screenshot your configuration before cancelling or switching, because reconstructing it from memory takes longer than copying it.
About an hour for most people. Installation and permissions take ten minutes, choosing and downloading a local model takes a few more, and the rest is retyping the word list and replacements you actually use.
No, and if you bought the $249.99 lifetime licence there is nothing to cancel. Running both on different shortcuts is the sensible way to decide, and VoiceGem's free tier costs nothing while you do it.
Both products run comparable local model families, and no published benchmark compares them on identical audio. Expect similar results, and expect the difference to show up in what happens to the transcript afterwards.
No. VoiceGem imports and exports its own backup format only. Since Superwhisper produces no export to import, the two would have nothing to exchange even if a converter existed.
Your Superwhisper licence still works, and VoiceGem's 14-day refund covers the other direction. Exporting your VoiceGem settings first means the word list survives whichever way you end up going.
15 minutes of audio a day, then $25 once for one Mac if it earns it.
VoiceGem is released under GPL-3.0, a derivative of VoiceInk by Prakash Joshi Pax.