# Flit vs Raycast

Canonical page: https://flit.fyi/alternatives/raycast

Flit keeps your audio on your Mac, with no 20-minute limit on a dictation. Checked against Raycast's own site in September 2026. Flit is ours.

**Short answer:** Raycast added dictation to a launcher that thousands of people already keep open, and if you are on Pro it costs nothing extra. Flit is the choice when the dictation itself is the reason you are looking: Raycast sends your audio to its speech-to-text partner to be transcribed, requires a Pro plan at $10 a month or $8 billed annually, and caps a session at 20 minutes. Flit runs on your Mac, has no account, no session limit and no subscription, and is $15 once. If you already pay for Raycast and dictate occasionally, its built-in dictation is a sensible free upgrade. If you dictate all day, or your words should not leave the machine, that is the switch.

| | Flit | Raycast |
|---|---|---|
| Where transcription happens | Your Mac, always | Cloud, via their speech-to-text partner |
| Price | $15 once, one Mac | Pro only: $10/mo, or $8/mo billed annually |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Platforms | macOS today, Windows in the works | macOS, plus the Raycast keyboard on iOS |
| Works with no internet | Fully | No |
| Session length limit | None | 20 minutes per dictation |
| Custom vocabulary | Unlimited terms stored, 40 per dictation | 50 words, 20 characters each |
| Reads screen context | Locally, in memory only | App Context: app, focused field and nearby text, sent with the request |
| Knows your codebase | Indexes it locally | No |
| Exact times and commands | Fixed rules | Model decides |
| Languages | 1,600+, 30 streaming | No list published |

## Why people pick Flit

- Your audio never leaves the Mac. Raycast’s own documentation says it is sent to their speech-to-text partner to produce the transcription, and not retained afterwards. Not retained is a promise; not sent is an architecture.
- $15 once against $96 a year, every year, for a plan you may be buying mostly for other features.
- No 20-minute ceiling on a dictation. Long-form is the case Flit is built for, and the project index covers your file and folder names without you adding any of them to a list.
- It works on a plane and in a dead zone. Raycast dictation stops when the connection does.
- A local index of your open project, so spoken file and folder names come out right without adding each one to a vocabulary list.
- Times, prices, spoken punctuation, snippets and dictionary words are handled by fixed rules rather than by a model deciding each time.

## Where Raycast differs

- Included with Raycast Pro at no extra cost.
- Dictates into AI Chat and Notes inside the launcher.
- The Raycast keyboard brings dictation to iPhone.
- Styles, vocabulary and instructions sync through Cloud Sync.

## What decides it

### A feature in a launcher, against a product

This is the frame for the whole comparison. Raycast is a launcher with an enormous surface: clipboard history, window management, notes, extensions, AI chat, and now dictation. Dictation is one item on that list and is priced as part of it. Flit does nothing except turn speech into finished text, which is why it can afford things a feature cannot: streaming as you speak, formatting rules that cannot drift, an index of the project you have open, and different tone per app. If dictation is a convenience for you, a feature beats a second app. If it is how you write, the depth is the point.

### The two limits worth knowing before you commit

Raycast documents a 20-minute cap per dictation session, after which the session ends and whatever it has is transcribed, and a custom vocabulary of up to 50 words at 20 characters each. Neither matters if you dictate Slack replies. Both matter if you talk through a long document in one go. Flit has no session cap. On vocabulary the comparison is closer than it looks and worth stating precisely: Flit stores as many terms as you like, but sends at most 40 into any one dictation, picked by how often you use them and filtered to the language you are speaking. The larger difference is that its project index covers the names in your open codebase without you listing any of them by hand.

## The verdict

you already pay for Raycast Pro, dictate in bursts, and want one less app on the machine

dictation is how you write, or your audio should not be sent anywhere at all

## Questions

**Is Raycast dictation free?**

No. Raycast’s own pricing page lists Dictation under Raycast Pro, which is $10 a month, or $8 a month billed annually. The free plan does not include AI features. Flit is $15 once with no plan behind it.

**Does Raycast dictation run on my Mac?**

No. Raycast’s documentation states that your audio is sent to their speech-to-text partner to produce the transcription and is not retained on Raycast servers afterwards, and that your voice is never used to train models. Flit transcribes and formats on your Mac, so nothing is sent to anybody.

**Does Raycast dictation work offline?**

No, because the transcription happens in the cloud. Flit works with wifi off.

**Can I use Flit alongside Raycast?**

Yes, and many people will: they are not competing for the same key. Keep Raycast as your launcher and leave its dictation off, and Flit handles the talking. Nothing about the two conflicts.

Every comparison: [Flit alternatives](https://flit.fyi/alternatives). Ranked: [the best dictation apps for Mac](https://flit.fyi/best-dictation-app-for-mac). Flit: [flit.fyi](https://flit.fyi/).