AI Caption & Translate Pro vs MacWhisper: an honest comparison
Both are one-time-purchase Mac apps that turn speech into subtitles. MacWhisper transcribes on your Mac; AI Caption & Translate Pro is a full subtitle editor and translator. Which one fits you?
Updated 2026-10-08 · Code Boop
Checked on 8 October 2026 against MacWhisper's own website. Prices and features change — if something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
We make AI Caption & Translate Pro, so we're not neutral. That's exactly why this page tries to be fair: MacWhisper is a very good app, and for some people it's the better choice. Here is the short version, then the details.
The short answer
- Choose MacWhisper if you mainly need transcripts — of meetings, interviews, podcasts or dictation — and you want the transcription to happen entirely on your Mac. It's also cheaper.
- Choose AI Caption & Translate Pro if your end product is subtitles for video: precise timing on a waveform, fixing sync, translating into many languages and checking each translation line by line, several subtitle formats, or subtitles for silent films.
Side by side
| AI Caption & Translate Pro | MacWhisper | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | One-time purchase (€129 at the time of writing); first 5 exports free | Free version; Pro €64 one-time, with lifetime updates |
| Where transcription runs | Online: Whisper through Groq's free tier or OpenAI, with your own key (only the audio is sent) | On your Mac, with local models (Whisper, Parakeet and others) |
| Subtitle timing tools | Audio waveform, drag line edges, shift and stretch all times, overlap warnings, live preview on the video | Inline video player with subtitles |
| Translation | 100+ languages, one file per language with the original timing, side-by-side review and editing | Translates transcripts and subtitles (100+ languages) |
| Subtitle formats | SRT, WebVTT, SAMI, TTML — open one, save another | Exports SRT and VTT; Pro adds text and document formats (TXT, MD, PDF, HTML, DOCX) |
| Silent films | Reads intertitles (text cards) into timed subtitles | — |
| Clean-up | Removes repeats, empty lines and recognition artefacts, fixes spelling, AI fix for misheard words — every change reviewed first | — |
| Beyond subtitles | — | Speaker recognition, meeting recording, system-wide dictation, batch processing (Pro) |
Privacy
This is MacWhisper's biggest advantage. Its transcription runs locally, so nothing leaves your Mac. AI Caption & Translate Pro sends the audio — not the video — to the speech service you choose, and the subtitle text to the translation service. Everything else, including all editing, happens on your Mac. For confidential recordings, local transcription is the safer choice.
Subtitles for video
This is where AI Caption & Translate Pro is built for the job. Subtitles need more than text: each line must start and end at the right moment, not overlap the next, and stay readable. You can see the speech on the waveform, fix a single line or shift a whole file that is out of sync, and watch the result drawn on the video. See how to fix subtitle timing.
Translation
Both apps translate. AI Caption & Translate Pro makes one subtitle file per language with the original timing kept, lets you translate into several languages in one go, and shows every translated line next to its original so you can correct it. See how to translate an SRT file.
Can you use both?
Yes, and some people do: transcribe locally in MacWhisper, export SRT, then open the file in AI Caption & Translate Pro to fix the timing, clean it up and translate it.
Try before you decide
MacWhisper has a free version. AI Caption & Translate Pro is free for its first 5 exports, with no account and no card — download it here.