Offline voice dictation · Windows and Linux You talk, it types.
ChatonLM’s dictation turns your voice into text, on your own computer. Press a shortcut, speak in any app, and the text is copied, ready to paste. Nothing goes online.
Three steps, not one more.
Press the shortcut
Wherever you are: in an email, a document, a chat. Ctrl+Alt+D by default, and you can change it.
Speak
Normally, at your own pace. ChatonLM recognizes speech on your computer; a model can then restore punctuation and remove hesitations.
Paste
The text is already in the clipboard. Ctrl+V, and it is where you were typing.
What it can do.
99 languages
Two engines to choose from: Parakeet, fast, for 25 European languages, which detects the spoken language on its own; Whisper, for 99 languages.
Your own words
A personal dictionary keeps the spelling of names and of the terms of your trade.
Clean text
If you want, a local model tidies the transcript: punctuation, filler words, self-corrections. You set its instructions.
Two ways to dictate
Press once to start and once to stop, or hold the key while you speak.
No graphics card needed
Speech recognition runs on the processor. Whisper needs a processor with AVX2; Parakeet works on any 64-bit PC.
In every app
The shortcut is global: it answers over your browser, your mail, your word processor.
Your voice stays home.
Many dictation services send your voice to a server to transcribe it. Here, the recording never leaves your computer: recognition happens on the spot, and nothing is kept online. One exception, which is yours to decide: if you point ChatonLM to an Ollama server on another machine, the transcribed text is sent to it to be tidied.
The details, connection by connectionQuestions about dictation
Does dictation work without the internet?
Yes. Once the speech recognition model is downloaded, the first time you use it, everything happens on your computer, even offline.
Which languages can I dictate in?
99 languages with Whisper, including English, French and Spanish. Parakeet covers 25 European languages and recognizes on its own the one you speak.
Does it work in every app?
Yes: the shortcut is global, and the text is copied to the clipboard for you to paste wherever you like. On Windows, you choose the shortcut in the settings. On Linux, it goes through KDE Plasma 6 or GNOME 48 and later; on another desktop, you bind a command to the key you want.
Do I need a powerful computer?
No. Recognition runs on the processor, with no graphics card. Whisper needs a recent processor (AVX2); Parakeet works on any 64-bit PC.
Is it really free?
Yes. Dictation is part of ChatonLM, open-source software under the MIT license: no subscription, no account.