Open Source AudioPen Alternatives
A curated collection of the 2 best open source alternatives to AudioPen.
The best open source alternative to AudioPen is VoiceInk. If that doesn't suit you, we've compiled a ranked list of other open source AudioPen alternatives to help you find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternative to AudioPen is Amical.
AudioPen alternatives are mainly Input & Dictation. Browse these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of AudioPen.
Native macOS dictation that transcribes speech locally, for anyone who wants voice to text without sending audio off the machine.
VoiceInk transcribes what you say into text almost instantly, natively on macOS. Processing happens entirely offline, which removes the usual trade between good dictation and handing your audio to somebody else's servers.
Local AI models do the work, built on whisper.cpp, on FluidAudio for the Parakeet model, and on transcribe.cpp for local GGUF models, with SenseVoice Small available for multilingual use. The author worked on the app for five months before opening the source.
Daily use is shaped by a handful of features.
- Global shortcuts: start recording with configurable keys, including push to talk.
- Modes: detect the app or address you are working in and apply the settings you configured for it.
- Context awareness: reads screen content so the transcript suits what you are actually doing.
- Personal dictionary: teaches the model custom words and industry terms, with smart text replacements.
- AI assistant: offers a conversational voice mode inside the same app.
VoiceInk requires macOS 14.4 or later and installs from the project site or with a Homebrew cask, and it can be built from source using the included instructions. Buying a license funds continued development and adds automatic updates and priority support. The code is under GPL v3, but the project is not accepting pull requests at present, so forking is the route for anyone wanting to change it, while bugs and feature ideas still go through issues.
A local-first dictation app that transcribes speech with Whisper on your own machine and formats the result for whichever app you are using.
Dictation and note-taking in Amical happen entirely on your own machine. Whisper handles speech to text and open source language models handle the processing layered on top, so the privacy cost of talking to your computer is zero rather than a paragraph in someone's policy.
What makes the output usable is context. Amical detects the active application and formats your speech accordingly, so drafting an email, chatting on Discord, writing a prompt in an IDE, and messaging a friend do not all come out in the same register. Local models are set up in one click inside the app, and everything works offline.
The project marks its features by what has shipped and what has not.
- Fast dictation: speech to text with AI-enhanced accuracy, already shipped.
- Context awareness: formatting adapts to the active app, already shipped.
- Floating widget: frictionless start and stop with custom hotkeys, already shipped.
- Extensibility: hotkeys, voice macros, and custom workflows, already shipped.
- Smart voice notes: summaries, tasks, and structured notes, in progress.
- MCP integration: voice commands that control your apps, planned.
- Meeting transcription: real-time capture of microphone and system audio, planned.
The stack is Electron and TypeScript with Ollama, TailwindCSS, shadcn, Better-Auth, Zod, Vitest, and Turborepo. macOS installs through a Homebrew cask and Windows is supported, but Linux is not, because the app has no native helper there yet. Local Whisper transcription needs macOS 15 or later, and the code is released under MIT.
