Jompter
An Aqua Voice alternative that stays on your Mac.
Jompter is a free Aqua Voice alternative that runs on your Mac: local transcription on Apple Silicon, with screenshots and screen recordings in the same prompt, instead of a subscription. Aqua Voice is fast AI dictation; Jompter is a voice-to-prompt tool for developers.
Free on your Mac · no card · Apple Silicon, macOS Ventura+
Quick answer
Pick Aqua Voice if you want fast cloud dictation with formatting in every app on Mac and Windows. Pick Jompter if you want dictation that runs on your Mac for free and carries screenshots and screen recordings into your coding agent's prompt.
What Aqua Voice does well
Aqua Voice is quick, cloud powered dictation that formats as you speak and works in any app on Mac and Windows. If you dictate everywhere and like the output tidied up for you, it does that well.
Where Jompter is different
Jompter keeps speech on your Mac with Whisper, Parakeet or Nemotron, so it works offline and dictation is free and unlimited. It's aimed at the prompt you send Claude Code, Cursor or Codex: your words, an annotated screenshot and key frames from a recording, all in one place.
Same task, both apps
Tell Claude Code about a button that jumps when the page loads.
With Aqua Voice
- 1Take a screenshot with Shift+Command+4.
- 2Dictate the description into Claude Code with Aqua Voice.
- 3Switch back, paste the screenshot with Ctrl+V, and point at it in words.
- 4For a bug that moves, record the screen separately and describe what happened, because the agent can't watch the video.
With Jompter
- 1Hold Right ⌘ and describe the bug.
- 2Press ⌘⇧S mid sentence and box the button. The screenshot lands between your words.
- 3For a bug that moves, record it with Video Prompt. The key frames and your narration join the same prompt.
- 4Paste one line into Claude Code, and it reads the whole prompt over MCP.
How to switch from Aqua Voice
- Download Jompter and sign in with a free account.
- Pick Local in setup and download a speech model once: Whisper, Parakeet or Nemotron.
- Hold Right ⌘ to dictate, or rebind it in Settings. Keep Aqua Voice on its own hotkey if you still want it for other apps.
- Turn on MCP and connect Claude Code, Cursor or Codex, so your agent reads prompts itself.
Dictation gives you words. Coding agents need context.
Prompts, not just text.
Dictation tools stop at words. Jompter bundles your voice, screenshots, annotations, and screen recordings into one AI-ready Markdown prompt for Claude Code, Cursor, or ChatGPT.
Free on your Mac.
Dictation, prompts and the MCP hand-off are free and unlimited on your Mac, with no meter and no card. Screenshots, recordings, boards and Remote are free within limits, and a one-time license removes them, no subscription required.
Context that persists.
Plans keep the running context of a debugging session (the error, the screenshots, what you tried), so a follow-up is one line added, not everything explained again.
Private by architecture.
Transcription runs on-device, so the privacy story isn't a policy, it's physics. Nothing is uploaded unless you opt into cloud features.
Speak the bug. Snap the screen. Paste one prompt.
Your words, the annotated screenshot and the key frames from a recording land in one Markdown prompt, ready for Claude Code, Cursor or ChatGPT.
- Voice, on-device. Whisper, Parakeet and Nemotron transcribe on Apple Silicon, no audio leaves your Mac.
- Screens, redacted. Annotate with pen, arrow, box, text or blur before anything is shared.
- Copied in one click. Markdown and images together, straight into your agent.
Jompter vs Aqua Voice
Both tools are good at what they're built for. The question is what you're building prompts for.
Based on each product's public positioning, checked September 2026. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Which one should you pick?
Different jobs, different tools. Here's the fair split.
Pick Jompter if…
- You want your voice and code to stay on your machine
- You're prompting coding agents and need visual context, not just words
- You'd rather dictate free on your Mac than rent another subscription
Pick Aqua Voice if…
- You dictate everywhere and want cloud-powered formatting in any app
- You're not primarily feeding an AI coding agent
Free on your Mac. $99 once to lift the limits.
Dictation on local models is free and unlimited. Cloud is optional and separate.
Dictation
ForeverLocal models · no word cap
License
Best valueor — / year · on-device, offline
Cloud
OptionalHeavy — / month · cloud transcription + AI transforms
Switching from Aqua Voice?
The questions developers ask before trying Jompter.
Aqua Voice is general-purpose cloud dictation. Jompter is built for AI coding workflows: local transcription, screenshots with annotation, screen-recording frames, and persistent Plans that compile into one Markdown prompt for Claude Code or Cursor.
Modern speech models on Apple Silicon are fast and accurate. You pick the model size that fits your machine, and you can switch any time in-app.
Free on your Mac: unlimited dictation, prompts, the MCP hand-off, local AI transforms, translation and read-aloud. Screenshots, screen recordings, boards and Remote are free within limits, and a one-time license removes them. Cloud transcription is an optional separate subscription.
Download Jompter and sign in with a free account, pick Local and download a speech model once, then hold Right ⌘ to dictate. You can keep Aqua Voice on its own hotkey for other apps. Turn on MCP to connect Claude Code, Cursor or Codex.
Yes, on your Mac. Dictation, prompts, the MCP hand-off, transforms, translation and Speak are free and unlimited. The heavier features are free within limits — 20 screenshots a day, 5 screen recordings, 3 boards and one 10-minute Remote session a day — and a $99 one-time license removes every limit.