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Dev tools · October 13, 2026

Sayso, free open source dictation for Mac, Windows, and Linux

Dictation that runs on your own computer. Press a key, speak, and the text lands in the app you are using. Free and open source, for macOS, Windows, and Linux. - watzon/sayso

Sayso, free open source dictation for Mac, Windows, and Linux launched on October 13, 2026 with 25 votes, #521 of 3,234 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches.

Visit github.com ↗Alternativestop 16% of October 2026

In plain words

Sayso is a free, open-source dictation tool for macOS, Windows, and Linux that converts speech to text locally on the user's computer. Users press a key to activate recording, speak their message, and the transcribed text appears directly in their active application. Because it runs locally rather than relying on cloud services, it offers privacy-focused dictation for developers and general users across multiple platforms.

written from the facts on this page · October 2026

Does a similar job

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  • SaylineJan 2026 · sayline.app · ▲83

    I built a voice dictation app for macOS mostly because I was tired of how awful Siri is and I didn't want to pay a subscription for cloud tools. The app uses NVIDIA's Parakeet v3 (TDT) as the primary engine. Inference is handled by the FluidAudio library. It's insanely fast on M-series chips. For Intel users, I added local Whisper support ranging from Tiny up to Large v3 Turbo (quantized to save space). The interesting part was the AI integration. I originally tried to pipeline the ASR output into Apple's Intelligence Foundation Model. It was a nightmare, because the content moderation…

  • DictlyOct 2025 · dictly.app · ▲240

    TL;DR: I built a native macOS dictation app that transcribes locally and instantly. Text appears as you speak (measured ~100 ms first‑character latency). No accounts, no servers, no tracking. Links: • Website: https://dictly.app • Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/dictly-no-keys-just-clarity/id... • Free download; optional Pro tier (pipelines, unlimited history, etc.) What it does Real‑time transcription — streaming text while you talk, not after you stop. Quick‑Capture Overlay (macOS) — global hotkey, drop text into any app/field.…

  • BetterWispr – Free, open-source dictation for Mac11d ago · betterwispr.com · ▲220

    Hold a shortcut, speak, and BetterWispr types clean text into any Mac app. Local speech models, a style for each app, meeting notes and insights. Free and open source, with no account required.

  • DictatoFeb 2026 · dicta.to · ▲93

    I built a macOS dictation app where everything runs on-device. Transcription, auto-correct, translation. No audio or text leaves your machine. It ships with 4 transcription engines you can swap between: WhisperKit (99 languages), NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B (25 European languages, fastest of the bunch), Qwen3-ASR 0.6B (30 languages), and Apple Speech on macOS 26+. They all run through CoreML/Metal. Whisper is the most versatile, Parakeet wins on raw latency for European languages, Qwen3 does better with CJK. I went with a protocol-based architecture so you pick the engine that fits your…

  • SpeakoFlowAug 2026 · speakoflow.com · ▲95

    Free, open-source voice dictation and AI assistant, offline

  • Dictation2018 · dictation.io · ▲118

    The fastest and most accurate speech recognition software

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