In short
Zack Typing’s Large tier uses Whisper Large v3 and requires Basic or above. Small (Canary) is free. All three models run on your PC after download.
Local speech models in Zack Typing
| Level | Model | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Small | NVIDIA Canary 180M Flash; English, German, Spanish, French | Free |
| Medium | NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, with language detection | From Basic |
| Large | OpenAI Whisper Large v3, with language detection | From Basic |
Other Windows apps with Whisper
- Handy: free and open source, dictates with Whisper or Parakeet into the active text field.
- Buzz: free and open source, transcribes files and YouTube links and exports subtitles.
Provider sources, 17 October 2026: Handy on GitHub, Buzz on GitHub. We develop Zack Typing.
When cloud recognition is used
An enabled offline model takes over without internet or when the service is unreachable. With internet and credits, Zack Typing uses the cloud. Selecting a model does not enable a local-only mode.
Related questions
Does offline dictation use credits?
No. Local recognition uses no credits. Chips and automatic dictionary learning still need a connection.