Talk while you do anything else — move your mouse, click between windows, browse. The moment you pause, your words land exactly where you clicked to type: Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windows Terminal, PowerShell, Notepad, Word, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Gmail, Outlook, Notion, any text field in any Windows app. No hotkey. Ever.
30-day money-back guarantee · Your audio stays in your own AI provider account
The problem
Half of them have no voice at all. The other half make you hold a button every time you want to speak — that's push-to-talk, not hands-free. None of them work across every app. DictDrop is the only one that just listens. (Coding tools are just the clearest example — the same broken pattern shows up in Word, Gmail, Slack, and every other Windows app you type into.)
DictDrop is always on — while you're talking, you're free to move your mouse, click into other windows, or keep browsing. Nothing you do with your hands interrupts it. Your words land exactly where you're focused — Gemini CLI, Cline, JetBrains, Cursor, PowerShell, your browser, any app. No activation step. Ever.
Works with
Without switching anything. Without pressing anything.
Also works in every app that accepts keyboard input
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Impact
A few of the ways it removes friction — illustrative, not customer quotes.
"I've got Zendesk in one tab and Gmail in another. I don't hotkey or click into anything — I just start talking, and whichever field has focus is where the reply lands. At our reply volume, that's the difference between keeping up and falling behind."
"Client calls switch between English and Spanish mid-sentence half the time. I used to keep two dictation profiles and swap between them. DictDrop just detects whichever language I'm speaking, utterance by utterance, so I stopped thinking about it entirely."
"I talk through a draft before I know if it's any good, and I used to lose the good version when I second-guessed it and started over. Now every take is saved and searchable, so I can go back and find the line I actually wanted."
"Typing all day isn't really an option for me anymore. There's no hotkey to hold down and nothing to click first — I just talk, and a small indicator shows me it's listening. Email, Slack, forms, all of it, without touching the keyboard."
"I've got source data on one monitor and my notes on the other. Dictating findings while I'm still looking at the numbers, instead of switching screens to type, keeps the whole analysis in one continuous train of thought."
"My audio goes to my own AI provider account, not through someone else's server first — that mattered for the kind of client notes I take. And when one key hit a snag, it failed over to my backup automatically instead of just stopping mid-sentence."
Setup
No terminal. No pip. No configuration files. You won't need any technical setup to install this.
Visit your AI provider's website and create a free account. No credit card required. The free tier covers typical usage -- long messages, notes, prompts, documents. Most people use DictDrop without paying a cent.
The installer bundles everything it needs. The setup wizard opens automatically, walks you through connecting your AI key, and registers DictDrop to start with every Windows login. Nothing to configure after that. No command line, no prerequisites, no maintenance.
Start talking any time — DictDrop is always listening, even while your hands are busy elsewhere. When you want the words to land, just make sure you've clicked into that text field — Claude Code, Cursor, PowerShell, Gmail, anywhere. Pause for 2 seconds and it appears there automatically. No button to click. No hotkey to hold. The only key you press is Enter, after your words are already there.
Privacy
This is the architecture, not a marketing claim.
This is how the free-key edition works: DictDrop has no server on that path. Your audio goes from your microphone directly to your AI provider account — we are not in that chain at all, not during setup, not at runtime, not ever. You can verify every transcription request in your own AI provider dashboard. DictDrop Pro, the subscription tier, relays audio through DictDrop's servers instead — see Pricing for details.
Features
Not a bolted-on dictation tool. Built to fit your existing workflow without changing anything.
There is no activation step. DictDrop runs silently from the moment Windows starts. The instant you speak, it records. The instant you pause, it transcribes. Your words are there before you think to check.
DictDrop pastes your transcribed text wherever you clicked to type — terminal, CLI, IDE, browser, email, everything. Symbols, punctuation, CLI flags, code snippets — they all come through exactly as spoken.
DictDrop registers at install to start with every Windows login automatically. You never launch it. You never think about it. If it ever stops unexpectedly, it restarts itself within minutes. Zero maintenance, ever.
On the Standard plan, audio never leaves your PC — the entire chain: your voice → your AI provider account → text → your cursor. We are not in that path. Not on the first transcription, not after the thousandth. Verify every request in your own AI provider dashboard. (DictDrop Pro works differently — see the Pro plan below.)
On a video call? Need silence? Just say your pause trigger word and DictDrop mutes itself — no keyboard needed. Prefer a key? Press Alt+Shift+V — same shortcut resumes it. Either way, that's the only time you ever need to think about DictDrop at all.
Transcription runs at 5–10× real-time speed — your words land about two seconds after you stop speaking. Handles technical vocabulary — library names, camelCase, CLI flags, version strings — accurately, out of the box.
Switch languages mid-conversation without touching a setting. DictDrop detects the language you're speaking automatically, per utterance — hand the keyboard to a colleague or family member speaking another language and it just works. Want one language locked in? Right-click the tray icon and pin it in one click.
DictDrop keeps a searchable history of everything you've dictated. Older entries roll into a dated archive file in your Documents folder automatically — nothing is ever silently deleted, and it's one click away from the tray icon.
Just talk. Wherever you're focused when you stop is where the text lands — clipboard-safe, restored within a second.
All future version updates are included. No upgrade pricing, no annual renewal.
Uses your system default audio device. Works with headsets, USB mics, built-in mic — anything Windows recognises.
If a background restart ever hiccups, DictDrop relaunches itself the same cycle. Updates stop and restart the app cleanly — no more Windows "close this program" dialogs.
Pricing
Own DictDrop forever with a one-time purchase and your own free AI provider key. Or go with DictDrop Pro — no API key to manage, we relay it for you.
🔒 Locks in $89 for life — price may rise for new buyers, yours never does
Secure checkout via Polar · Instant download
Secure checkout via Polar · Device token emailed instantly
Running cost after purchase
The only ongoing cost is AI provider API usage -- and for most people it is zero. This applies to the Standard edition; DictDrop Pro has no AI provider account to fund at all.
The free tier gives generous daily limits. Most people dictating messages and notes stay within it with $0 marginal cost.
If you exceed free limits, pay-as-you-go transcription pricing is fractions of a cent per minute of audio — far cheaper than any subscription.
You create the AI provider account and own the key. DictDrop never touches your billing or stores your credentials.
About
DictDrop started as a personal tool. It is still run by the developer who built it — no VC funding, no growth team, no marketing budget. Just a tool that solves a real problem.
Most dictation tools share the same handful of limitations: cloud round-trips that add lag, clipboard-paste workflows that break formatting, hotkey-gated activation that adds friction, or no real Windows support at all.
DictDrop closes those gaps directly — Windows-native, always listening with no hotkey required to start or stop talking, and connected straight to your AI provider's API using your own key, so no third-party server sits between your voice and your text.
It runs as a lightweight floating status indicator and works cleanly on locked-down enterprise machines — no admin rights required, no system conflicts.
"No hotkey, no clipboard, no cloud middleman — just talk, and the text lands where your cursor is."
Principles
These constraints shaped every product decision — and will continue to.
Privacy is a constraint, not a feature. Free-key edition: we never collect audio, transcripts, or history — it can't reach us. Pro's relay only sees audio in transit, never stored or logged. Exception: an opt-in, off-by-default crash diagnostic.
A slow voice tool trains you to avoid it. Words land in about two seconds flat — anything that adds lag gets deprioritised.
Subscriptions create incentive to hold features back for higher tiers and to keep you dependent. One-time pricing means we only succeed if the tool is genuinely good — not if the billing is sticky.
The installer bundles Python. There are no system dependencies to install, no environment variables to configure, no admin setup steps. It works from double-click to dictating in under a minute.
The binary you buy today should still work in five years. That means no activation servers, no online-only modes, no features that depend on our infrastructure staying alive.
Requiring someone to pick a language before they can dictate assumes they only speak one. DictDrop detects language automatically because that's how people actually talk.
Contact
Email support@dictdrop.com. Responses within 24 hours on weekdays. For bugs, include your Windows version and the text of any error message shown in the DictDrop console window.
FAQ
Real questions. Straight answers. No marketing fluff.
DictDrop. It works in every terminal, IDE, chat app, document editor, and browser simultaneously, runs always-on with no hotkey to hold, and costs $89 once. Every alternative either requires a subscription, fails in certain apps, or uploads your audio to someone's server.
Install DictDrop. Claude Code's built-in /voice command does not work reliably on Windows. DictDrop is always-on and pastes directly into the Claude Code terminal prompt — speak your instruction, pause for 2 seconds, and it appears. No configuration required after setup.
Yes. DictDrop pastes text wherever you clicked to type — including PowerShell, Windows Terminal, CMD, and WSL prompts. This includes symbols, flags, and punctuation. Windows Voice Access has a known unfixed bug that prevents symbol input in Windows Terminal — DictDrop does not have this problem.
Click into the Cursor or Windsurf chat panel and speak. DictDrop detects your voice, transcribes it, and pastes the text into the focused input field. No configuration per-app — it works the same way in every app on your machine.
On the free-key edition, your audio goes from your microphone to your personal AI provider API account — DictDrop has no server in that chain, and we never receive your audio, transcripts, or any usage data. Verify every API call in your own AI provider's dashboard. DictDrop Pro works differently — it relays audio through DictDrop's own servers instead, so you don't need a separate AI provider account at all; see Pricing for how that works.
Most AI providers offer a free tier that covers typical usage -- most people use DictDrop without paying a cent. If you exceed free limits, pay-as-you-go transcription pricing is typically a fraction of a cent per minute. You will not notice it on your bill.
Claude Code's /voice depends on system audio APIs that do not function reliably on Windows — the command either fails silently or produces garbled output. DictDrop isn't affected by that failure and works reliably in Claude Code on Windows.
Three reasons. First, Windows Voice Typing cannot inject text into Chrome or Edge — Chromium's sandbox blocks the Windows accessibility APIs it relies on. If your browser is any part of your workflow, it simply does not work there. Second, setup silently fails on machines with non-standard audio configurations (virtual audio cables, multiple audio devices). You see "listening" — nothing pastes — no error message, no explanation. Third, your audio is sent to Microsoft's servers and may be retained to improve their speech models — a real concern for anyone speaking confidential content, client names, or business information. DictDrop works in every app including Chrome and Edge, and on the Standard plan your audio goes only to your own AI provider account.
Gemini CLI has no voice input. Once DictDrop is installed, click into the Gemini CLI terminal window and speak. Your transcribed text pastes at the prompt automatically. No Gemini CLI configuration required.
No. Cline has no voice capability. DictDrop adds voice to Cline's task description panel, chat input, and any other text field in VS Code or your browser — just click in, speak, and your words appear.
Warp's voice feature relies on macOS-specific audio APIs and does not function on Windows. DictDrop works natively on Windows and pastes directly into Warp's input without any Warp-specific integration.
DictDrop. Wispr Flow is $15/month ($180/year), does not work in terminal windows, and sends audio to their servers by default. DictDrop is $89 once, works in every terminal and IDE, and on the Standard plan your audio goes only to your own AI provider account.
No. The DictDrop installer is fully self-contained — it bundles everything it needs to run. You do not need anything pre-installed, you do not need to run any commands, and you do not need admin rights after the initial install.
Yes. The installer is digitally signed with a named, verified publisher — you'll see that on the dialog, not "Unknown publisher." Windows SmartScreen can still show this warning for newer software, since trust also depends on real-world download and run history building up over time. To proceed: click "Run anyway." The installer is safe. Don't just take our word for it: right-click the downloaded file, choose Properties → Digital Signatures, and confirm a named, verified signer is listed, not "Unknown" — DictDrop has been signed under that identity since July 2026. If your antivirus flags the file, you can report it to Microsoft directly at microsoft.com/wdsi/filesubmission for review.
Want to verify the file itself hasn't been tampered with, independent of the signature? Open PowerShell and run certutil -hashfile "DictDrop-Setup.exe" SHA256, then compare the result to the official checksum we publish for build —: —. A match confirms your copy is byte-for-byte identical to what we shipped.
Yes. DictDrop is listed on the Microsoft Store, reviewed and distributed under Microsoft's own app certification process — a separate layer of verification on top of our own code-signing. Buy however you prefer: get it straight from the Store, or buy here on this site through Polar for the same $89 one-time price and the same 30-day money-back guarantee. Both paths install the identical app.
No — transcription requires an internet connection to send audio to the AI provider's API. Offline mode with local speech recognition is on our roadmap. Sign up at the bottom of this page to be notified when it ships.
Windows 10 (64-bit, version 1903 and later) and Windows 11. The bundled runtime handles all dependencies — no system changes needed.
30 days, no questions. Email support@dictdrop.com within 30 days of purchase and we will refund you in full. We would appreciate knowing what did not work — but we will not ask you to prove it or jump through hoops.
No. Willow Voice's own setup instructions tell you to place your cursor first, then press a hotkey, then speak — the field has to be chosen before you talk. superwhisper, VoiceInk, and Aqua Voice all require holding a key down for the entire time you're speaking. DictDrop flips this: start talking whenever you want, keep moving your mouse or clicking around, and whatever field you're focused in the moment you stop or pause for 2 seconds is where the text lands. No hotkey, no pre-positioning, no held key.
Yes — over 100 languages, and it's automatic. DictDrop detects which language you're speaking per utterance, so you never touch a setting to switch. Prefer one language locked in every time? Right-click the tray icon and pin it in one click.
Yes. Because language detection runs per utterance with no setting to change, one install handles a shared machine with speakers of different languages without anyone reconfiguring anything — hand off the keyboard and keep talking.
DictDrop. Wispr Flow ships auto-detect but recommends against relying on it and publishes dedicated troubleshooting articles for wrong-language transcriptions. Dragon requires switching your entire user profile to change language — no mid-session switching at all. DictDrop auto-detects every utterance by default and still lets you pin a language instantly from the tray icon if you ever want it fixed — on Windows, at a one-time $89.
Check your spam or promotions folder first — the email comes from support@dictdrop.com and is easy to miss. The big download button in the email is valid for about an hour after it arrives. Any time after that, re-download from your Polar account instead: the email's backup link (or polar.sh) opens your customer portal — find your DictDrop purchase and download from there. It always gives you the newest version. Stuck? Email support@dictdrop.com with your order ID and we'll send a fresh link within 24 hours.
Your license key (it starts with DDROP-) is in the same download email, in a highlighted block near the top. If you can't find it, search the email for "license key," or email support@dictdrop.com with your order ID and we'll resend it. The key never expires and works again if you reinstall.
Windows Settings → Apps → find DictDrop → Uninstall. This removes the program files, your AI API key, your live transcription history, and both background scheduled tasks. One thing stays, on purpose: any history batches DictDrop archived to Documents\DictDrop\History Archive — that folder is your own data in your own Documents, yours to keep or delete. To confirm the app is gone, open Task Manager afterward and check that no DictDrop process remains.
Offline mode, multi-monitor support, and voice sensitivity control are on the roadmap. One email when something ships — nothing else.