Handy
Free offline speech-to-text for Windows, macOS and Linux; press a shortcut, speak, and your words appear in any text field.
Handy (v0.10.0, Nov 2026, ~37k stars) is a desktop dictation app. Hold or tap a shortcut, speak, and it pastes the text into whatever app you are using. Transcription runs on your own computer with Whisper models (GPU when available) or CPU-friendly Parakeet, and its privacy page says it has no tracking telemetry. MIT, free, with installers for all three systems. Linux has more rough edges: Wayland shortcuts and paste can need extra setup. It does dictation only, so it is not linked to a paid product here.
The facts
| Question | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Yes. Yes; a desktop app that transcribes on your own computer | github.com | Checked yesterday |
| Code licence | Open source. MIT | github.com | Checked yesterday |
| Model weights licence | With conditions. Depends on the model you pick; Whisper is MIT and NVIDIA's Parakeet V3 is CC-BY-4.0. Other download options not checked | huggingface.co | Checked yesterday |
| Commercial use | Yes. The app is MIT; Whisper's MIT and Parakeet's CC-BY-4.0 terms both allow commercial use, with credit for Parakeet | github.com | Checked yesterday |
| Paid services needed? | None required; the app is free | github.com | Checked yesterday |
| Hardware | No minimum figures stated; Parakeet V3 is built for CPUs and Whisper uses a GPU when available | github.com | Checked yesterday |
| Operating systems | Windows, macOS and Linux, with installers for x64 and ARM | github.com | Checked yesterday |
| Setup effort | Easy; download an installer, grant microphone and accessibility permissions, set a shortcut | github.com | Checked yesterday |
Each fact has its own date. Unknown means nobody has published it. We read their documentation; we didn’t install it. Running it yourself costs your hardware, electricity and setup time. Report a correction.
No licence changes since we started watching. Licence changes: follow Handy and we email you if its terms change.