• Picks
  • Discover
  • Alternatives
  • About

© 2026 Willet

  • Newsletter
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
Join the Discord (opens in a new tab)
CJ Pais avatar

Handy

Offline desktop dictation that types your speech into any text field

  • AI media
  • Productivity
View on GitHub
Website

What it is

A cross-platform desktop app for local speech transcription: hold or tap a keyboard shortcut, talk, and the transcribed text is pasted into whatever app has focus. It runs Whisper or Parakeet models on your own machine, with Silero voice activity detection to trim silence, so no audio leaves the computer. Writers, people who rely on accessibility tools, and anyone who would rather dictate than type can use it without a subscription or cloud account.

Images

Facts

Stars
34,198 GitHub stars.
34,198

Forks
3,233
Commits
895
Contributors
175
Language
Rust
License
MIT
Last commit
Oct 20, 2026
On GitHub since
February 2025
First release
June 2025
Platforms
macOS, Windows, Linux
Self-hostable
No
Alternative to
Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Wispr Flow, SuperWhisper
Author
CJ Pais
Tags
  • speech-to-text
  • local-ai

Last synced from GitHub on Oct 20, 2026

The 10 best overlooked open-source projects, every Monday.

Share and more

Comments

No comments yet. Start the conversation.

Similar projects

  • ALTIC avatar

    FluidVoice

    On-device voice dictation for macOS with local AI text cleanup

    12.3k
  • OpenWhispr avatar

    OpenWhispr

    Hotkey voice dictation with local or cloud speech models

    9.6k
  • Jamie Pine avatar

    Voicebox

    Local desktop studio for voice cloning, speech generation, and dictation

    58.1k

What people are saying

Updated Oct 21, 2026
  • Hacker NewsHandy – Free open source speech-to-text appJan 15, 2026 · 247 points · 110 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsHandy – Free open-source speech-to-text app written in RustSep 27, 2025 · 237 points · 98 comments (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Your weekly reminder that every single paid speech-to-text app on MacOS is a scam – they all cost $0 to run because they're using a free local model. Download…”Aug 26, 2026 · 157 likes · 7 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Finally got around to taking handy.computer for a spin this weekend. Superb software. My new recommendation for local dictation, I think.”Jul 23, 2026 · 64 likes · 11 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“👍 Local Speech-to-tech with local model 💪 Works with my arch/gnome/wayland setup 😍 I've been using it with my AI agents, notes, emails and Slack for 2 months…”Feb 23, 2026 · 8 likes · 3 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“I had handy.computer set up, but your rec to use hex.kitlangton.com on macos really sealed the deal for me”Jul 18, 2026 · 5 likes · 2 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Handy is really cool. all the others seem to charge, but this one (w/ "Parakeet Unified EN 0.6B" is working pretty well for me rn! surprisingly so... on my…”Oct 2, 2026 · 5 likes · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Local is just fine for this. I'm using a fork¹ i made of handy.computer with parakeet. works great on cpu alone. i bound it to the useless copilot key lol…”Sep 19, 2026 · 5 likes · 0 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“- Claude Code as my daily driver (opus is great!) - Google Antigravity for mantaining my personal website - handy.computer for dictation when my wrists ache…”Oct 13, 2026 · 2 likes · 2 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“walkie talkie voice to text input feat. teenage.engineering x handy.computer”Sep 23, 2026 · 2 likes · 2 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“I tried Wispr Flow but much prefer handy.computer, the free, open source, local-running alternative check it out if you're interested.”Jul 18, 2026 · 3 likes · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“It's namesake is indeed accurate. 🙌 Similar to Whisperflow, it's a free and open source app that transcribes speech to text. #free #opensource”Jul 12, 2026 · 4 likes · 0 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Hacker NewsShow HN: Handy – Free open-source speech-to-text app written in RustJun 17, 2025 · 3 points · 1 comment (opens Hacker News in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“I'm dictating nearly everything that I write these days with nvidia's parakeet and canary models, which are fabulous and can run on cpu or even phone…”Aug 12, 2026 · 1 like · 2 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Guessing it's hard to speak with this in your mouth but it would be such a cool combo together with handy.computer”Jul 26, 2026 · 2 likes · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“Handy.computer is also quite good. Big rebuild under way, excited to see what's cooking there.”May 8, 2026 · 2 likes · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“📷 CJ's Workshop - Video "Introducing Handy: The free and open source speech to text app"... handy.computer ========================== #librecanada #linux…”Jul 23, 2026 · 2 likes · 0 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“by handy you mean this one right?”May 1, 2026 · 2 likes · 0 replies (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“🤯 5 Websites That Feel So Illegal 👇 1️⃣ ACX.com Get paid to read. Seriously. 2️⃣ Handy.computer Free & open source speech to text app. Enjoy. 3️⃣ ViralityAI…”Oct 9, 2026 · 0 likes · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)
  • Bluesky“RT @Itsdotdev: Have you tried”Sep 23, 2026 · 0 likes · 1 reply (opens Bluesky in a new tab)