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OpenWhispr is a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. There’s no web version and no browser extension: it runs on your machine so it can hear your microphone and type into whatever app you’re using.

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The short answer

Dictating with OpenWhispr Cloud asks very little of your computer — the transcription happens on our servers. Running models on your own device is the demanding part, and it’s covered below.

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Running models on your device

Local transcription and local AI models are downloaded on first use and run entirely on your machine. Two things matter: disk space for the model, and enough speed to keep up with you.
  • Disk — a small Whisper model is a few hundred megabytes; the larger ones run to several gigabytes. Local reasoning models are larger again. Everything lives under a cache folder you can clear later — see where your files live.
  • Speed — a recent Apple Silicon Mac or a machine with a discrete GPU runs the bigger models comfortably. On older hardware, pick a smaller model or use the cloud. Local models explains the trade-off and which model to start with.
  • Graphics acceleration — Metal on Apple Silicon works with no setup. On Windows and Linux, NVIDIA cards use CUDA and AMD or Intel graphics use a Vulkan runtime you can install from Settings in one click.
Some on-device components need a newer operating system than the app itself does. If a local model downloads but won’t start, tell us your exact OS version when you write in — that’s the first thing we check.

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What needs a newer macOS

Two capabilities are gated on the macOS version rather than on your hardware: Below macOS 14.2 the app can still record a meeting through your microphone; it just can’t capture what the other participants are saying. Capture both sides of a meeting covers what that means in practice.

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Architecture and downloads

Two separate downloads — one for Apple Silicon, one for Intel. Pick the one that matches your Mac; if you install the Intel build on an Apple Silicon machine by mistake, OpenWhispr notices and moves you onto the Apple Silicon build at the next update.

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Network

The app talks outbound over HTTPS on port 443, and everything else it runs binds to your own machine by design. It honours system proxies on all three platforms. If your network filters outbound traffic, network allowlist is the page to hand your firewall administrator. Local transcription works with no internet connection at all, once the model is downloaded.