Microsoft Cortana

by Microsoft

Microsoft's voice assistant — consumer surfaces deprecated; remnants live on in Teams.

TL;DR

Microsoft's voice assistant — consumer surfaces deprecated; remnants live on in Teams.

Best for reference only — Microsoft now points Windows users to Copilot for voice and chat. Pricing: Deprecated · use Copilot instead.

Category
Desktop apps
License
—
Stars
—
Last push
—
Pricing
Deprecated · use Copilot instead
Platforms
Windows

What it is

Cortana shipped with Windows 10 in 2015. Microsoft retired the consumer assistant and folded the underlying speech stack into Copilot Voice and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Best for: Reference only — Microsoft now points Windows users to Copilot for voice and chat.
Watch out for: Standalone Cortana app retired August 2023; mobile apps shut down June 2021; Teams retains some Cortana voice commands but the brand is winding down.

Install / use

Cortana app removed from Windows 11 in 2023 · Teams retains voice features

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeNo
Languages supported8
HIPAA eligibleNo

Microsoft Cortana vs Whipscribe

FeatureMicrosoft CortanaWhipscribe
CategoryDesktop appsTranscription APIs
PricingDeprecated · use Copilot insteadfree beta
Speaker diarization—Yes
Word timestamps—Yes
Streaming—No
Languages899
PlatformsWindowsWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to Microsoft Cortana

MacWhisper
Jordi Bruin

Polished Mac app for Whisper — the default pick if you're on macOS.

freemium
SuperWhisper
Sindre Sorhus

Always-on system-wide dictation for macOS and iOS, powered by local Whisper.

freemium
Aiko
Sindre Sorhus

Free Mac App Store Whisper app — drag, drop, done.

free

Whipscribe is a managed faster-whisper + whisperX service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.