Free offline speech-to-text for Windows — powered by OpenAI Whisper, runs 100% on your PC.
SpeechREC is a free offline voice-to-text dictation tool for Windows. Press a hotkey, speak, and your words are typed into any application — browser, Word, Notepad, Discord, anywhere. No subscription, no account, no cloud. Your voice never leaves your PC.
Press the hotkey, speak, done — works in any app.
👉 Download latest version (Windows)
- Download
SpeechREC_Setup.exe - Run the installer — app starts automatically
- Press your hotkey and start dictating
- 🔒 100% offline & private — your voice never leaves your PC, no cloud, no API keys
- ⚡ NVIDIA GPU support — fast transcription with CUDA (auto-installed on first launch)
- 🖥️ CPU mode — works on any Windows PC, even without a dedicated GPU
- 🌍 Multilingual — German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish
- ⌨️ Works everywhere — types directly into any text field in any app
- 🎯 Customizable hotkey — Ctrl+Win, F9, Caps Lock, mouse buttons, and more
- 🔄 Autostart — launches silently on Windows startup, stays in the system tray
- 💸 Free forever — no subscription, no ads, no account required
- 🔧 Auto-save settings — every change is saved instantly
| SpeechREC | Windows Voice Typing | Dragon NaturallySpeaking | Google Voice Typing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs offline | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | |
| Free forever | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (~$200+) | ✅ |
| GPU acceleration | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | — |
| Works in any app | ✅ | ✅ | ||
| No account required | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Uses OpenAI Whisper | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
- Windows 10 or 11
- 8 GB RAM recommended (4 GB minimum)
- NVIDIA GPU recommended for fast transcription (optional — CPU mode works too)
- Internet connection for first-time setup only (to download the Whisper model, ~1.5 GB)
| Settings Window | System Tray |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- Press your hotkey (default:
Ctrl + Win) - Speak — the microphone icon turns red while recording
- Release the hotkey — AI transcribes your speech
- Text is typed into the active window
Everything happens locally on your PC using OpenAI's Whisper model — the same state-of-the-art speech recognition that powers ChatGPT Voice.
Q: Is this really free?
Yes. No trial, no subscription, no account. Forever.
Q: Does it work without internet?
Yes, once the Whisper model is downloaded on first launch (~1.5 GB, one-time).
Q: Is my voice sent anywhere?
No. Everything runs locally on your PC. No telemetry, no cloud.
Q: My friend has an NVIDIA GPU but no Python installed. Will GPU work?
Yes! SpeechREC v1.1+ automatically downloads the required CUDA libraries on first launch.
Q: Does it support my language?
12 languages out of the box: DE, EN, FR, ES, IT, PT, RU, JA, ZH, NL, PL, TR. Plus auto-detect.
Q: Can I change the hotkey?
Yes — 9 presets available (Ctrl+Win, Shift+Win, Ctrl+Alt, F8, F9, Caps Lock, Mouse4, Mouse5).
- ⚡ 6× faster on CPU — automatically uses Distil-Whisper when model is set to "large" and device is "cpu"
- 🎯 Same quality (<1% accuracy loss vs. standard Whisper Large)
- 💾 49% smaller model — less RAM usage
- 🌐 Multilingual (German, English, and more)
- ⌨️ F1–F12 hotkeys added (previously only F8 and F9)
- 🔄 Auto-update check — notifies you monthly if a new version is available
- 🛡️ Dropdown menus are now read-only — prevents accidental invalid values
- 🔒 Automatic config sanitizer — broken config files are repaired on launch
- 🐛 Fixed GPU memory leak caused by invalid dropdown entries
- 🚀 Automatic CUDA setup — missing GPU libraries are downloaded on first launch
- ⚡ Auto-save — settings are saved instantly, no more save button
- 🧹 Removed unnecessary notifications toggle
- ✅ Installer starts the app automatically after installation
- Offline speech recognition powered by OpenAI Whisper
- NVIDIA GPU support (auto-detected), CPU fallback included
- System tray with hotkey activation
- Autostart with Windows
- Supports 10+ languages
- No subscription, no account, completely free
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If you find SpeechREC useful, consider buying me a coffee — it helps me keep the project free.
