What is Voxtype?
Voxtype is a free, open-source push-to-talk dictation tool for Linux and macOS. Hold a hotkey, speak, and release, and the transcript is typed at the cursor or placed on the clipboard. It runs as a background daemon that is set up from the terminal, with a choice of speech engines that run on the machine, including Whisper, Parakeet and Cohere Transcribe. A meeting mode transcribes longer recordings with speaker attribution and export.
Voxtype is free to use. See every plan
Good for
- Linux users on Wayland desktops such as Hyprland, Sway or GNOME
- People comfortable setting up a tool from the terminal
- Dictating prompts into terminals, editors and coding agents
Worth knowing
- There is no Windows or mobile version; packages cover Linux and macOS only.
- Setup happens in the terminal: it runs as a daemon, and on Linux the hotkey is bound in the compositor or needs the user added to the input group.
- Prebuilt Linux packages need a recent distribution, such as Ubuntu 24.04, Debian Trixie or Fedora 40 or later.
- Grammar cleanup and meeting summaries are not built in; they rely on a separate tool such as Ollama that you install yourself.
Key features
- Push-to-talk at the cursor
- Hold a hotkey, ScrollLock by default, speak and release, and the text is typed at the cursor, with the clipboard as a fallback. A toggle mode starts and stops with one press each.
- Nine local speech engines
- Whisper, Parakeet, Moonshine, SenseVoice, Paraformer, Dolphin, Omnilingual, Cohere Transcribe and OpenVINO Whisper are switched with one config line. Models load on first use and unload when idle.
- GPU and NPU acceleration
- Whisper runs on Vulkan across GPU vendors, the ONNX engines use CUDA 12 or 13 on NVIDIA and MIGraphX on AMD cards, and OpenVINO runs Whisper on Intel NPUs.
- Meeting mode
- Continuous transcription with automatic chunking and speaker attribution for meetings and interviews, stored locally and exported to Markdown, plain text, JSON, SRT or VTT.
- Text processing
- Spoken punctuation turns words such as "comma" into symbols, replacement tables fix common mistranscriptions, and an optional command pipes the transcript through a local LLM or a shell script.
- Linux desktop integration
- Compositor keybindings cover Hyprland, Niri, Sway, River, GNOME and KDE, with an evdev fallback for X11. It pauses MPRIS media players while recording and shows a floating waveform.
Voxtype pricing
- Starts at
- Free
- Free plan
- Entirely free and open source under the MIT License, with no subscription, cloud service or telemetry. The maintainer says he does not accept donations.
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Voxtype | $0 | The full tool for Linux and macOS with every engine and meeting mode, installed from the AUR, a .deb or .rpm package, Nix, an AppImage or Homebrew. |
Read from voxtype.io on Oct 6, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Voxtype before you buy.
Works with
Voxtype alternatives
- Voxtype vs Handy
Free
- Voxtype vs OpenWhispr
Free plan · from $6.67/mo
- Voxtype vs Talon
Free plan · from $5/mo
- Voxtype vs Spokenly
Free plan · from $8.33/mo
Common questions
Is Voxtype free?
Yes. Voxtype is free to use. Entirely free and open source under the MIT License, with no subscription, cloud service or telemetry. The maintainer says he does not accept donations.
How much does Voxtype cost?
Voxtype lists one plan. Voxtype: $0. Prices were read from voxtype.io on Oct 6, 2026.
What platforms does Voxtype work on?
Voxtype is available on macOS and Linux.
Does Voxtype have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 6, 2026. Voxtype is listed for macOS and Linux.
Does Voxtype have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 6, 2026. Voxtype is listed for macOS and Linux.
Is Voxtype open source?
Yes. Voxtype is open source, according to its own site.
Does Voxtype work offline?
Yes, according to its own site. What works without a connection differs by plan and platform, so check the vendor's page for the detail.
What does Voxtype integrate with?
Voxtype's listing names Ollama, LM Studio, Soniox and Waybar. A listing names up to eight integrations, so it may connect to more.
Who makes Voxtype?
Voxtype is made by Peter Jackson (Faster Agile).
What are the alternatives to Voxtype?
The closest alternatives to Voxtype in our directory are Handy, Whispering, OpenWhispr, Talon and Spokenly. Each one has a side-by-side comparison with Voxtype.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 6, 2026.