Free voice typing for Windows: hold a key, talk, and your words land in any app - cloud or fully offline
PipeVoice is a quiet tray app for Windows that turns speech into typed text anywhere. Hold a hotkey, talk, let go: the transcript lands in the focused app - terminal, code editor, browser, chat box. A toggle mode frees your finger, a clipboard mode pastes instead of typing for apps that dislike synthetic keystrokes, and a small overlay shows the live meter with words forming as you speak.
It was clearly built by someone who dictates to AI coding agents all day. Per-app profiles let you say 'Terminal: raw text plus Enter. Chat app: polished and auto-send.' Spoken commands like 'new line', 'scratch that' and 'send it' work out of the box, a custom vocabulary list keeps your project names from coming back as poetry, and accent selection covers US, British, Australian, Indian and New Zealand English. A local history keeps your last fifty dictations, saved on your PC.
You pick the privacy dial per moment. Bring your own Deepgram or OpenAI key for fast cloud transcription, clean up transcripts for free through Google's Gemini free tier or OpenRouter free models, or go fully offline with a local Whisper model on CPU plus Ollama - no GPU or CUDA obstacle course, and nothing leaves your PC. API keys stay in a local file and there is no telemetry. A meeting recorder captures your mic and system audio as separate streams and produces notes with named speakers and action items. Windows 10 and 11 only, MIT licensed, with a built-in auto-updater.
Our article has the full picture: https://www.freewares.org/blog/pipevoice-voice-typing-windows
Types into whatever window is focused, anywhere in Windows
Dictate hands-free without holding the key
Pastes instead of typing for fussy apps
Listening meter with words forming as you speak
Yes. A local Whisper model on CPU handles transcription and Ollama handles cleanup, so nothing leaves your PC - and no GPU is required. Cloud engines (Deepgram, OpenAI) are optional and use your own keys.
In whatever window is focused when you release the hotkey: terminal, code editor, browser or chat. A clipboard mode pastes instead for apps that reject synthetic keystrokes.
Yes - MIT licensed, no account, no subscription, no telemetry. Optional cloud engines bill their own usage through your own API keys.