XAIV

Download

For Windows, macOS and Linux — free for your first 30,000 characters

v0.1.7

macOS needs three permissions first

In System Settings → Privacy & Security, allow Input Monitoring (to know you pressed the key), Accessibility (to type the text) and Microphone. Without them, pressing the key does nothing at all — and no error is shown. The app will guide you on first launch.

If macOS says it cannot open XAIV

XAIV is not yet signed with an Apple certificate, so macOS shows a warning the first time. After moving it to your Applications folder, right-click XAIV in Finder, choose Open, then press Open again. If it still will not open, run this command in Terminal.

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/XAIV.app
For Linux users

We recommend the .deb package (Ubuntu / Debian). The AppImage runs on any distribution, but it does not bundle the libraries needed for keystroke injection, so it may not work everywhere.

Wayland is not supported

By design, Wayland does not let an application receive another application's keystrokes, so the hotkey never fires. Choose an X11 (Xorg) session at the login screen.

Install guideIncludes screenshots of the Windows warning and how to get past itHow it worksShows which key to hold, with diagrams

What happens after you download

1Install

Open the downloaded file and follow the prompts

2Set up

On first launch, XAIV downloads the files it needs for transcription

3Sign in

Sign in from the app to use your first 30,000 characters free

System requirements

OSWindows 10 (64-bit) / Windows 11, macOS 10.15 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel), Linux (X11 session)
Memory8 GB or more (16 GB is comfortable)
Free space2 GB or more
MicrophoneBuilt-in or external, either works
Graphics cardNot required. NVIDIA GPUs (Windows) and Apple Silicon Metal (Mac) are supported and make it several times faster

On Linux, use an X11 session (the hotkey does not work under Wayland).