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General

Yes. Core transcription features are free forever — local and cloud models, AI enhancement with your own API key, custom shortcuts, voice log, and more. The Free plan also includes 5 Command Mode runs per day, 5 hours of meeting notes, 3 workflows, 3 memory items, 1 tone, 1 custom text expansion, and 10 manual file transcriptions. The Pro plan removes those caps and unlocks advanced features like custom AI instructions, speaker diarization, real-time preview, automatic translation, cloud sync, and integrations. See the full breakdown on the Pricing page.
Only if you choose to use a cloud transcription model. When using local models (Whisper, Parakeet), everything stays on your machine — no internet required. Even with cloud models, audio is sent directly to the provider you choose (Groq, Deepgram, etc.) and is not stored by Vowen.
Vowen uses open-source components internally (Whisper.cpp, Parakeet) but the application itself is not currently open source. Open-sourcing is being considered for the future.
Yes, always. We will never paywall features that are currently free. The Pro plan is for new, advanced capabilities only.
macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows (x64). ARM64 Windows is experimental. Linux is not currently supported.
Yes, but Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) is recommended for best performance with local models. Some larger models may be slower on Intel.

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Permissions

Fully quit Vowen (right-click the menu bar or tray icon > Quit Vowen) and relaunch it. macOS in particular requires a full restart after granting Accessibility permission before the change takes effect.
Launch Vowen at least once. The app registers itself with macOS on first launch. If it still doesn’t appear, try dragging the Vowen app from Applications directly into the permission list in System Settings.
Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > [Permission Type], find Vowen, and toggle it on. If the toggle is greyed out, click the lock icon at the bottom of the window and authenticate to make changes.

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Updates

Check your internet connection. If you are behind a VPN or firewall, try disabling it temporarily. Some regions may have slower connections to our update server.
Manually quit Vowen (right-click the menu bar or tray icon and choose Quit) and relaunch from Applications or the Start menu.
Use Settings > General > Check for Updates to force a manual check. The daily auto-check can be delayed if your machine was offline or asleep at the scheduled time.

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Transcription

It depends on your priorities:
  • Speed (macOS): Tiny or Base
  • Speed (Windows): Groq cloud model (free tier)
  • Accuracy: Large v3 Turbo or Groq Whisper Large v3
  • Non-English: Large v3 or cloud models
  • Offline/Privacy: Any local model (Whisper or Parakeet)
  • Real-time preview: Parakeet, Deepgram, Soniox, or Mistral
See the full Models Guide for detailed comparisons.
Local models run entirely on your device — they work offline and keep your data private, but may be slower on some hardware.Cloud models send your audio to a third-party API (Groq, Deepgram, etc.) for transcription — they’re faster and more accurate for complex vocabulary, but require an internet connection and an API key.
Groq serves two purposes in Vowen:
  1. Transcription (Whisper Large v3 / Turbo) — converts speech to text
  2. AI Enhancement (Llama, etc.) — polishes and formats the transcribed text
They’re different model types serving different stages of the pipeline.
Vowen supports 99 languages via Whisper models and 25 European languages via Parakeet. Set your language in Settings > Language. For best non-English results, use the multilingual Large v3 model or a cloud model.
Yes. Go to the Transcribe tab in the settings window to drag-and-drop or browse for audio/video files. Supports common formats with timestamps in the output. The Free plan includes 10 manual file transcriptions total; Pro removes the cap.

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Models

Check your internet connection and available disk space. Downloads can be resumed if interrupted; just click download again.
The model file may be corrupted. Delete the model and re-download it. If the issue persists, check that your antivirus hasn’t quarantined the model files.
The first transcription after launching Vowen (or switching models) takes longer as the model loads into memory. Subsequent transcriptions are faster.

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Accuracy

This is a known Whisper quirk: when it detects silence, it sometimes hallucinates “Thank you.” Vowen’s junk detection catches and discards this in most cases. If it persists, speak immediately when you press the shortcut.
Pause for a brief moment (half a second) after pressing the shortcut before speaking, and after finishing before releasing. This gives the audio capture time to start and stop cleanly.
Slow down slightly, or switch to a larger model. Cloud models (Groq, Deepgram) handle fast speech better than smaller local models.
Add them to your Custom Vocabulary (Settings > Dictionary). For consistent misspellings, create a Thread replacement rule.
This occasionally happens with local models. Re-record the phrase. If it happens frequently, try a different model or enable AI Enhancement, which catches and removes repetitions.

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AI & Enhancement

Yes. Vowen supports 10+ AI providers including OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude), Google Gemini, Groq, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, and more. Bring your own key — no Vowen subscription required for AI enhancement.
It lightly cleans up your transcription: fixes spelling and grammar, removes filler words (um, uh), applies formatting (bullet points, paragraphs), and converts spoken numbers to digits. It preserves your voice and wording — it does not rewrite your text.
Yes. Many developers use Vowen to dictate prompts to AI coding tools. For code-related dictation, we recommend disabling AI Enhancement so you get the literal transcription without any cleanup.
Yes. Use Command Mode (default: Alt+Shift). When you have text selected, it automatically becomes context for your voice command. Say things like “rewrite this more formally” or “fix the grammar” and the AI will process your selected text.

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Features

Press the hands-free shortcut again to toggle it off, or press the stop button in the recording indicator. You can also enable auto-deactivate in settings, which stops recording when you click your mouse or press a key.
Vowen works globally, but you can set up Tones (Pro) to automatically change behavior per app. For example: formal writing in email apps, casual in chat apps, no AI enhancement in code editors.
Locally on your device:
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/vowen/
  • Windows: %APPDATA%/vowen/
Transcription history is in transcription-history.json. Meeting notes are in meeting-notes.json.
Yes. Vowen’s Meeting Notes captures system audio silently — no bot joins the call, no banner appears to other participants. Works with Zoom, Teams, Meet, Slack Huddles, and any app that produces audio. Available on both macOS and Windows. Free plan includes up to 5 hours of recording.
Go to Settings > Privacy > Export Data. You can export in JSON, CSV, or Markdown format. Select specific date ranges or export everything. Import / Export is a Pro feature.
Yes. Select your Bluetooth device in Settings > Audio. Note: on macOS, if your Bluetooth headset is connected, Meeting Notes will capture both system audio and your microphone through the Bluetooth device.

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macOS

macOS can break event taps after sleep. Vowen auto-recovers in most cases, but if it doesn’t, fully quit and relaunch.
Restart Vowen after granting Accessibility permission. The Fn key requires a fresh keyboard hook initialization to start picking up.
On first launch after enabling this setting, the Dock icon may briefly appear. It will be hidden on subsequent launches.

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Windows-Specific

The app is not yet code-signed with an Extended Validation (EV) certificate, which is expensive for indie developers. The app is safe to use. You can whitelist it in your antivirus settings.
Some apps don’t support standard Ctrl+V paste. Switch to Direct insertion method in Settings > General > Text Insertion Method.
With dual monitors, the indicator may appear on the wrong screen. Restart Vowen and it recalculates position. This has been improved in recent versions.
Some antivirus software quarantines Whisper model files. Add the Vowen data directory (%APPDATA%/vowen/) to your antivirus exclusion list, then re-download the model.
Right-click the icon in the system tray (hidden icons) and select Open Settings. Direct taskbar clicks opening the app window is a known UX issue being addressed.
The Option key on macOS corresponds to the Alt key on Windows. So “Option+Shift” becomes “Alt+Shift” on Windows.
Three options:
  1. Use a cloud model — Groq offers a generous free tier and is very fast
  2. Enable GPU acceleration — If you have an NVIDIA GPU, download the acceleration module from Settings > Models
  3. Use a smaller model — Tiny or Base models are faster than Medium/Large