PipeVoice: free, private voice typing for Windows that types into any app

Private by default<br>Free forever<br>Types into anything<br>Open source

See it in action

Watch it work — in 3 minutes.

A real walkthrough: dictating a full build into Claude Code by voice, the settings tour, per-app profiles, and going 100% offline.

The honest comparison

Free, private, and built for Windows.

The popular dictation apps are Mac-first, cloud-only, and cost up to $144/year.<br>Here's the trade you're actually making.

PipeVoiceWispr FlowWindows built-in

PriceFree forever$15/mo · $144/yrFree<br>Your voiceStays on your PC (offline option)Uploaded to the cloudSent to Microsoft<br>Built for WindowsNativeMac-first portBasic<br>Types into any appYesYesLimited<br>Works offlineYes · local WhisperNoNo<br>Open source · auditableYesNoNo

Comparison from public pricing & reviews, 2026. Bring your own key (cents/day) or run fully offline, free.

What it does

Less typing. No new habits.

It types real keystrokes into the app you're already in, not a special box you paste from.

Types into anything

Terminal, editor, browser, chat box. Real keystrokes go to the focused window, nothing to copy or paste.

Private by default

Run the fully offline path (Local Whisper plus a local Ollama model) and nothing leaves your machine. No account, no telemetry, no servers of ours. Open source, so verify it.

Built for AI coding

Dictate prompts straight into Claude Code, Cursor, or any terminal, 3 to 5 times faster than typing them. Talk the way you think.

Updates itself, silently

Install once and you're done. PipeVoice checks for new versions in the background, verifies each one with SHA-256, and updates itself. Open the About window any time to see what's new or update on the spot. No uninstall, no reinstall.

Light as a feather

A quiet tray app, not a memory hog. No Electron, no background bloat. It waits in the tray until you hold the key.

Yours to tune

A hotkey for every Voice plus a picker, type or clipboard output, accent and language picker, free-text speech notes, vocabulary boosting and word-fixes for your jargon, push-to-talk or toggle, paste-or-type output, plus min-recording, paste-speed and Deepgram-timeout controls. Open source, so fork it.

Talk in commands

Say "new line", "new paragraph" or "tab key" to format as you go. Say "scratch that" to discard the last bit, or end with "send it" to type and press Enter hands-free. Toggle it on or off.

Dictation history

Every transcript is saved locally on your PC. Open the tray History window to re-copy anything you dictated earlier, marked typed or clipboard. Stored only on your machine, nothing uploaded.

It adapts to each app

Per-app profiles. PipeVoice spots the focused window and switches behaviour to match: raw text and a hands-free Enter in your terminal, polished and auto-sent in chat, no cleanup in your editor. Set the engine, cleanup, Enter and output once per app.

Your stack, your call

Works with your whole stack.

Two stages, your choice at each. Pick where your words go on a spectrum: use the cloud you already pay for, run it free, or keep every byte on your machine. Same hotkey, same typing, different trade.

Cloud Your key, your provider. Deepgram streams live words as you speak, Groq runs real Whisper fast and cheap. Audio goes to the provider you chose, never to us.

Free No OpenAI credit required. Polish your text with Google Gemini's free tier or a free OpenRouter community model. Most people already have a Google account.

Fully offline Local Whisper transcribes, a local Ollama model polishes. No key, no cost, no internet. Nothing ever leaves your PC. The privacy maximalist's setup.

offline mode &middot; airplane on

transcribe Local Whisper &middot; no key

polish Ollama &middot; llama3.2

⏻ network calls this session: 0

Transcribespeech to text

Geminifree tier — one key also does the polishFreeDefault

Groq Whisperreal Whisper, near-instant, ~9&times; cheaperFast & accurateFree key

Deepgramstreaming, live words as you speakStreams live$200 free

Local Whisperfaster-whisper on your machineOfflineNo key

Polishoptional Flow-mode cleanup: fillers, casing, punctuation

Google Geminifree tier — the same key as transcriptionFreeDefault

OpenAIoptional, if you keep a key aroundYour key

OpenRouterfree community modelsFree

Ollamaa local LLM on your boxOfflineNo key

The default is one free Gemini key — it transcribes and polishes, no card. Want zero internet? Pair Local Whisper with Ollama for a 100% offline, key-free pipeline. Cloud connectors use your own key, so audio goes only to the provider you picked, never to us. Privacy.

Made for the terminal

Claude Code's voice stops at the CLI.<br>PipeVoice doesn't.

Anthropic shipped /voice in 2026, but it only types inside the Claude CLI.<br>Your editor, browser, Slack, Jira and terminal panes are still keyboard-only.

PipeVoice types your words into all of them . Hold a key, say the prompt, release,<br>and it lands wherever your cursor...