#2929th of 51 in VoiceFor voice, speech and music
openwhispr
Cross-platform voice dictation and meeting transcription app with local or cloud models
- Stars
- 9.7k
- License
- MIT
- Last commit
- Oct 2026
- Last release
- Oct 2026
- Language
- JavaScript
2,164 on 1 Apr 20269,714 on 21 Oct 2026
From GitHub's daily star counts.
Checked on GitHub.
Overview
OpenWhispr is an Electron desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. A global hotkey records speech and pastes the transcript at the cursor, using local models (Whisper via whisper.cpp, NVIDIA Parakeet via sherpa-onnx) or cloud providers. It also covers meeting transcription with speaker diarization, notes with semantic search, and a voice assistant that talks to GPT, Claude, Gemini or local models.
Who it is for: Desktop users wanting private dictation and meeting notes
Its own README calls it an alternative to ElevenLabs.
Ranked among open-source alternatives to ElevenLabs (#9 of 10).
Strengths
- Offline transcription with Whisper and Parakeet; audio stays on the device
- GPU-accelerated local Whisper on Metal, CUDA and Vulkan
- Local speaker diarization and voice fingerprinting across meetings
- Public API and MCP server for notes and transcriptions
Weaknesses
- Intel Macs lack live speaker identification and semantic notes search
- Cloud sync, sharing and team spaces depend on OpenWhispr Cloud
- Source setup requires Node.js 24+; no Docker or server deployment
- Enterprise SSO and SCIM controls are listed, with no edition details in the README
What it needs
- GPU optional
- Needs Node.js 24+
- Models: Whisper, NVIDIA Parakeet, Cohere Transcribe, llama.cpp local LLMs, OpenAI
- README: alternative to ElevenLabs
Also in Voice
See all 51| Rank | Project | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | voicestudioDesktop app for voice cloning, dubbing and dictation with local speech models | 83 out of 100 |
| 2 | xiaozhi-esp32ESP32 firmware for a voice chatbot with MCP device and cloud tool control | 80 out of 100 |
| 3 | whisper.cppC/C++ port of OpenAI Whisper for local speech-to-text transcription | 78 out of 100 |
| #4 | VoiceboxLocal voice studio for cloning, TTS, dictation and agent speech | 71 out of 100 |
| #5 | buzzOffline desktop app for transcribing and translating audio with Whisper | 71 out of 100 |