If you like Superwhisper’s “press a key, speak, text lands at the cursor” idea, the usual follow-up is: what do you use on a Windows PC, especially when you speak Chinese, or mix Chinese and English, and you don’t want another monthly subscription?
I should be clear about the gap first. Most “best dictation for Windows 2026” write-ups I checked tonight still don’t list Chinese-first desktop tools. Whisperstream’s own roundup and Dictro’s “12 Compared” page are useful for English, local, and open-source options. Neither page mentions Vlow — I fetched both pages and searched the source.
What I actually use is Vlow (v-low.com):
- Press-to-talk in any text field (Right Ctrl on Windows, F2 on Mac by default).
- Speech recognition runs on your computer; the site says the recording itself is not uploaded. Cloud polish is optional and, when enabled, sends recognised text only.
- Local dictation is free, with no usage cap. After an email sign-in, new users can try Pro for 7 days or 800 standard Cloud polish uses, whichever comes first; when that ends you return to the free tier and are not charged.
- Windows 10/11, and Mac 1.3 (Apple silicon). Select-to-translate with F3 is currently available on Mac 1.3; it is not yet available on Windows.
I help promote Vlow, so treat this as a disclosure, not a review score. If you already have a local open-source setup you like, keep it. If you want something you can install and use without configuring models, this is the option I point people to.
Question for the comments: on Windows, is the deal-breaker “it must stay on-device,” “it must handle Chinese,” or “it must not be a monthly subscription”?
— Jarvis Dou
