Seam vs Spokenly: Mac Dictation CPU Test (2026)

Seam vs Spokenly comparison showing CPU usage: Seam ~12% vs Spokenly 60.5%

Spokenly markets itself as “tiny (2.9 MB)” dictation for Mac. Open Activity Monitor while it’s running, and you’ll see something else entirely.

We tested both macOS apps side by side. Here’s what actually happens on your Mac.

Seam recording voice for on-device transcription, with the microphone indicator active

TL;DR

Spokenly has impressive AI features: voice commands, text cleanup with GPT-4 and Claude, and support for 10 languages out of the box. But it consumes 60.5% CPU during active dictation, making it the heaviest dictation app we’ve tested on Mac.

Seam uses ~12% CPU during dictation, roughly one-fifth of Spokenly’s usage. It’s 100% local, costs a one-time $29 (no subscription), and does far more than just voice-to-text. If you want lighter dictation on your MacBook, Seam is a strong alternative.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Seam	Spokenly
Price	$29 (one-time)	Free (local) / $7.99/month (AI features)
CPU During Dictation	~12%	60.5%
Processing	100% local	Local + cloud (AI features)
Speech Model	Local on-device model	Apple NSSpeechRecognition
AI Text Cleanup	No	Yes (GPT-4, Claude)
Voice Commands	No	Yes
Languages	25 languages	10 languages
App Size	Under 30 MB	37 MB
Min macOS	14	14.6
Beyond Dictation	Yes (full notch hub)	No (dictation only)
Subscription Required	No	Yes (for AI features)

Seam's Voice settings, showing on-device transcription, push-to-talk activation, and microphone selection

What Does Spokenly Look Like?

Spokenly presents a clean menu bar dictation interface on macOS:

Spokenly app interface showing the voice-to-text dictation tool

The app supports multiple languages with model selection:

Spokenly language and model settings panel

CPU Usage: What the Numbers Show

Spokenly’s App Store listing notes a 2.9 MB download size (the installed app is 37 MB). But download size doesn’t tell the full performance story. Here’s what happens during active dictation.

Activity Monitor During Active Dictation

Seam CPU usage during dictation

Spokenly CPU usage during dictation

Seam: ~12% CPU

Spokenly: 60.5% CPU

That’s not a typo. Spokenly uses more than five times the CPU that Seam does during active dictation.

To put this in perspective: we’ve tested VoiceInk, Superwhisper, Fluid Voice, Sotto, and every other major Mac dictation app. Spokenly’s 60.5% is the highest CPU usage we’ve measured among all of them. By a significant margin.

Why the Difference?

Spokenly uses Apple’s built-in NSSpeechRecognition framework. You’d expect a system API to be lightweight, and it often is for basic tasks. But Spokenly’s implementation appears to drive it hard, possibly due to nonstop processing, language detection across its 10 supported languages, or its voice command parsing running in parallel.

Seam uses a newer, more efficient on-device speech model. It activates only when you start dictating and releases resources when you’re done. No background processing. No idle CPU drain.

What 60% CPU Means for Your MacBook

On a MacBook Air, 60% CPU during dictation means:

Fan noise: Your fans will spin up during any extended dictation session
Battery drain: Significantly faster battery consumption
Thermal throttling: Sustained usage can cause your Mac to throttle performance
Competing resources: Other apps slow down while you’re dictating

At ~12%, Seam barely registers. Your fans stay quiet. Your battery stays full. Your Mac stays cool.

AI Features: Where Spokenly Shines

Credit where it’s due. Spokenly offers capabilities that Seam doesn’t.

Text Cleanup and Formatting

Spokenly can pipe your transcribed text through GPT-4 or Claude to fix grammar, remove filler words, and format output. If you tend to ramble when speaking, this is very useful. You speak messily, and Spokenly turns it into clean prose.

The catch: these AI features require either your own API keys or a $7.99/month Pro subscription. The free tier is local-only transcription without AI cleanup.

Voice Commands

Spokenly lets you launch apps, search the web, and trigger macOS Shortcuts with your voice. Say “open Safari” or “search for weather in Berlin” and it executes. This goes beyond what any pure dictation app offers.

Language Support

With 10 localizations (English, German, Russian, Chinese Simplified/Traditional, French, Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Japanese), Spokenly serves a broad global audience. If you dictate in multiple languages, this matters.

Seam: More Than Just Dictation

Spokenly is a dedicated dictation app. Seam is a productivity hub that happens to include excellent dictation.

When you’re not dictating, Seam’s notch shows:

Now Playing: album art, track info, playback controls
Device connections: AirPods battery levels (left, right, case)
Focus mode detection: no permissions required
Flow timer: Pomodoro-style sessions
Calendar events: upcoming meetings at a glance
Volume/brightness HUDs: native replacements
Battery status: low battery warnings

You pay $29 once and get all of this. With Spokenly, you pay $7.99 every month just for the AI text features, and you still need a separate app for everything else.

Pricing Breakdown

	Seam	Spokenly
Local dictation	$29 (one-time)	Free
AI features	N/A	$7.99/month
Year 1 cost	$29	$95.88 (with AI)
Year 2 cost	$0	$95.88
3-year total	$29	$287.64 (with AI)

If you only need basic local dictation, Spokenly’s free tier is hard to beat on price alone. But the moment you want AI features, the subscription adds up fast: $95.88 per year.

Seam costs a one-time $29 and includes dictation plus an entire notch productivity suite. No recurring charges. No feature gates.

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Privacy and Permissions

Spokenly requests Microphone and Speech Recognition permissions. The local dictation mode keeps audio on-device. The AI features send text (not audio) to OpenAI or Anthropic servers for processing. Your transcription history is stored locally.

Seam's Insights dashboard showing words dictated and time saved by voice typing

Seam processes everything on your Mac. No network requests during dictation. No transcription history sent anywhere. The speech model runs entirely on-device. Your voice data never leaves your machine, period.

Both apps run as menu bar utilities with no Dock icon, keeping your workspace clean.

Installation and Distribution

Spokenly is distributed through the Mac App Store, which means it’s Apple-reviewed and sandboxed. Installation is straightforward: search, download, open. Automatic updates through the App Store.

Seam is signed and notarized by Apple, distributed directly. Download the DMG, drag to Applications, open. Also available via Homebrew: brew install --cask seam-app. Updates are handled by the built-in update mechanism.

Both apps install cleanly. No security bypasses required for either.

Who Should Choose Spokenly?

Choose Spokenly if you:

Need AI text cleanup: GPT-4/Claude integration polishes messy speech into clean writing
Use voice commands: launching apps and shortcuts by voice is unique
Dictate in multiple languages: 10 languages with auto-detection
Want App Store distribution: prefer Apple’s review process and sandboxing
Only need dictation: and don’t mind the CPU overhead

Who Should Choose Seam?

Choose Seam if you:

Care about performance: ~12% vs 60.5% CPU is a massive difference
Work on battery power: less CPU means more battery life
Hate subscriptions: $29 once vs $7.99/month forever
Want more than dictation: music, devices, focus, calendar, flow timer
Prefer privacy: 100% on-device, no cloud processing at all
Use your Mac hard: 60% CPU for dictation leaves little room for everything else

The Verdict

Spokenly and Seam are solving the same problem differently. Spokenly bets on AI features, and they’re good. If you need GPT-4 to clean up your transcriptions or want to launch apps with your voice, nothing else on Mac does it quite like Spokenly.

But Spokenly’s CPU usage is a real problem. At 60.5% during active dictation, it’s the most resource-hungry dictation app we’ve tested. That’s not a small gap. It’s five times what Seam uses. On a MacBook Air without fans, that kind of sustained load gets uncomfortable fast. On any laptop running on battery, it’s expensive.

Seam takes the opposite approach: fast, light, local, and done. Hold a key, speak, release. Your text appears in under a second. Your CPU barely notices. And when you’re not dictating, your notch shows music, devices, focus modes, timers, and more, all for a one-time $29.

If AI text cleanup is essential to your workflow, Spokenly delivers. For everything else, Seam is the better Mac dictation experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Spokenly really 2.9 MB?

The compressed App Store download may be around 2.9 MB, but the installed application is 37 MB. But download size tells you nothing about runtime performance. Spokenly uses 60.5% CPU during active dictation, far more than any other Mac dictation app we’ve tested.

Does Spokenly work offline?

Yes, for basic dictation. Spokenly’s local mode uses Apple’s NSSpeechRecognition framework and doesn’t require an internet connection. The AI text cleanup features (GPT-4, Claude) do require internet and either your own API keys or a Pro subscription.

Is Seam just a dictation app?

No. Seam is a productivity hub that lives in your MacBook’s notch. Voice-to-text is one of many features, alongside Now Playing controls, AirPods battery monitoring, Focus mode detection, flow timers, calendar events, and volume/brightness HUDs.

Which app has better accuracy?

Both deliver good accuracy for dictation. Seam supports 25 languages with automatic language detection. Spokenly supports 10 languages. Both are solid choices for multilingual users.

Can I use Spokenly’s AI features with my own API keys?

Yes. Spokenly supports bringing your own OpenAI or Anthropic API keys, which avoids the $7.99/month subscription for AI text processing. You still pay per-token to the API providers, but it can be cheaper for light usage.

Ready to try Seam? Download Seam for Mac. One-time purchase, no subscription, ~12% CPU.

Want AI dictation? Get Spokenly. Powerful AI features with GPT-4 and Claude integration.