{"slug": "hex", "name": "Hex", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "Open source macOS app for local, push-to-talk speech-to-text transcription.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 8, "warners": 2, "score": 2.996, "rising": 2.35, "first": "2026-02-13", "latest": "2026-10-28", "why": "Liked for near-instant local transcription with Parakeet V3 and for dictating detailed prompts to coding agents.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Fast transcription", "Talking to agents"], "caveat": "macOS only", "short_quote": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/kitlangton/hex", "official_url": "https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Hex", "HEX"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for near-instant local transcription with Parakeet V3", "cites": [{"id": 783497232, "item_id": 48968577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968577", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3.", "excerpt": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3. This is how I speak to Code agents at least 80% of the time. The idea is - I tend to be lazy if I need to type lots of details, so speaking lets me get into details that I otherwise wouldn\u2019t and this helps give more useful context to the agent. This often tends to be an unstructured brain dump so I sometimes ask the agent to repeat back wh", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation to code agents", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Speech Recognition and TTS in less than 500kb"}, {"id": 779307072, "item_id": 48706692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706692", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My current fav STT  is Hex, MacOS only", "excerpt": "My current fav STT is Hex, MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Near-instant accurate-enough transcription using local Parakeet V3. Handy is multi-platform, also great: https://github.com/cjpais/Handy Every time a new STT model or app is announced, I see if it displaces Hex for me but so far none have. I\u2019ll check out Yap though.", "context": "", "use_case": "local speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}, {"text": " and for dictating detailed prompts to coding agents.", "cites": [{"id": 783497232, "item_id": 48968577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968577", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3.", "excerpt": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3. This is how I speak to Code agents at least 80% of the time. The idea is - I tend to be lazy if I need to type lots of details, so speaking lets me get into details that I otherwise wouldn\u2019t and this helps give more useful context to the agent. This often tends to be an unstructured brain dump so I sometimes ask the agent to repeat back wh", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation to code agents", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Speech Recognition and TTS in less than 500kb"}, {"id": 771094928, "item_id": 48193433, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193433", "by": "alasano", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Hex on mac for speech to text", "excerpt": "For me it's because I've been walking 10-20k steps per day on a walking pad at my standing desk while working. I can still type while doing it but it's so nice to just hold a button (or double tap to lock recording) and just brain dump what I need. I type very fast but I feel like the unaltered speech to text allows me to express more quickly any uncertainty or doubt that I have or when I don't know exactly how to be", "context": "works at a walking desk", "use_case": "voice dictation to agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Codex-Maxxing"}]}, {"text": " The main caveat is that it runs only on macOS,", "cites": [{"id": 779307072, "item_id": 48706692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706692", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My current fav STT  is Hex, MacOS only", "excerpt": "My current fav STT is Hex, MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Near-instant accurate-enough transcription using local Parakeet V3. Handy is multi-platform, also great: https://github.com/cjpais/Handy Every time a new STT model or app is announced, I see if it displaces Hex for me but so far none have. I\u2019ll check out Yap though.", "context": "", "use_case": "local speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}, {"text": " and one commenter asks how it differs from other apps using the same model.", "cites": [{"id": 779421553, "item_id": 48713847, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48713847", "by": "youniverse", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "is there a difference with hex or any other transcription app if we are using the same underlying model?", "excerpt": "I use handy and it does the job very well, is there a difference with hex or any other transcription app if we are using the same underlying model? Or just UI/UX stuff?", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Fast transcription", "summary": "Commenters describe transcription as near-instant using the local Parakeet V3 model.", "quotes": [{"id": 783497232, "item_id": 48968577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968577", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3.", "excerpt": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3. This is how I speak to Code agents at least 80% of the time. The idea is - I tend to be lazy if I need to type lots of details, so speaking lets me get into details that I otherwise wouldn\u2019t and this helps give more useful context to the agent. This often tends to be an unstructured brain dump so I sometimes ask the agent to repeat back wh", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation to code agents", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Speech Recognition and TTS in less than 500kb"}, {"id": 779307072, "item_id": 48706692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706692", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My current fav STT  is Hex, MacOS only", "excerpt": "My current fav STT is Hex, MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Near-instant accurate-enough transcription using local Parakeet V3. Handy is multi-platform, also great: https://github.com/cjpais/Handy Every time a new STT model or app is announced, I see if it displaces Hex for me but so far none have. I\u2019ll check out Yap though.", "context": "", "use_case": "local speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}, {"label": "Talking to agents", "summary": "Used to brain-dump detailed context to code agents instead of typing it.", "quotes": [{"id": 783497232, "item_id": 48968577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968577", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3.", "excerpt": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3. This is how I speak to Code agents at least 80% of the time. The idea is - I tend to be lazy if I need to type lots of details, so speaking lets me get into details that I otherwise wouldn\u2019t and this helps give more useful context to the agent. This often tends to be an unstructured brain dump so I sometimes ask the agent to repeat back wh", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation to code agents", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Speech Recognition and TTS in less than 500kb"}, {"id": 771094928, "item_id": 48193433, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193433", "by": "alasano", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Hex on mac for speech to text", "excerpt": "For me it's because I've been walking 10-20k steps per day on a walking pad at my standing desk while working. I can still type while doing it but it's so nice to just hold a button (or double tap to lock recording) and just brain dump what I need. I type very fast but I feel like the unaltered speech to text allows me to express more quickly any uncertainty or doubt that I have or when I don't know exactly how to be", "context": "works at a walking desk", "use_case": "voice dictation to agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Codex-Maxxing"}]}, {"label": "Sticky favorite", "summary": "One commenter says no newer STT model or app has displaced it so far.", "quotes": [{"id": 779307072, "item_id": 48706692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706692", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My current fav STT  is Hex, MacOS only", "excerpt": "My current fav STT is Hex, MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Near-instant accurate-enough transcription using local Parakeet V3. Handy is multi-platform, also great: https://github.com/cjpais/Handy Every time a new STT model or app is announced, I see if it displaces Hex for me but so far none have. I\u2019ll check out Yap though.", "context": "", "use_case": "local speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}, {"label": "Push-to-talk", "summary": "Holding a button or double-tapping to lock recording makes hands-light dictation easy.", "quotes": [{"id": 771094928, "item_id": 48193433, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193433", "by": "alasano", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Hex on mac for speech to text", "excerpt": "For me it's because I've been walking 10-20k steps per day on a walking pad at my standing desk while working. I can still type while doing it but it's so nice to just hold a button (or double tap to lock recording) and just brain dump what I need. I type very fast but I feel like the unaltered speech to text allows me to express more quickly any uncertainty or doubt that I have or when I don't know exactly how to be", "context": "works at a walking desk", "use_case": "voice dictation to agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Codex-Maxxing"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "macOS only", "summary": "It is described as Mac-only, with Handy suggested as a multi-platform alternative.", "quotes": [{"id": 779307072, "item_id": 48706692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706692", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My current fav STT  is Hex, MacOS only", "excerpt": "My current fav STT is Hex, MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Near-instant accurate-enough transcription using local Parakeet V3. Handy is multi-platform, also great: https://github.com/cjpais/Handy Every time a new STT model or app is announced, I see if it displaces Hex for me but so far none have. I\u2019ll check out Yap though.", "context": "", "use_case": "local speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}, {"label": "Unclear differentiation", "summary": "A Handy user asks whether it differs beyond UI/UX if both use the same model.", "quotes": [{"id": 779421553, "item_id": 48713847, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48713847", "by": "youniverse", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "is there a difference with hex or any other transcription app if we are using the same underlying model?", "excerpt": "I use handy and it does the job very well, is there a difference with hex or any other transcription app if we are using the same underlying model? Or just UI/UX stuff?", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}, {"label": "Accuracy", "summary": "Even a fan calls its transcription only accurate enough.", "quotes": [{"id": 779307072, "item_id": 48706692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706692", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My current fav STT  is Hex, MacOS only", "excerpt": "My current fav STT is Hex, MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Near-instant accurate-enough transcription using local Parakeet V3. Handy is multi-platform, also great: https://github.com/cjpais/Handy Every time a new STT model or app is announced, I see if it displaces Hex for me but so far none have. I\u2019ll check out Yap though.", "context": "", "use_case": "local speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}]}], "who": [{"by": "alasano", "context": "works at a walking desk", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193433", "date": "2026-05-19"}, {"by": "d4rkp4ttern", "context": "macOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47948352", "date": "2026-04-29"}], "tags": ["for Mac users", "for dictating to AI agents", "local transcription"], "use_cases": ["business intelligence", "notebooks, sql and dataframes", "bi replacing looker", "non-cloud voice dictation", "voice dictation to code agents", "voice dictation"], "compared": [{"slug": "handy", "name": "Handy", "co": 7, "switched_from": 4, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "parakeet", "name": "Parakeet", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "marimo", "name": "marimo", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "pocket-tts", "name": "Pocket-TTS", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wispr-flow", "name": "Wispr Flow", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265413", "title": "Hex Raises $100M", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48703848", "title": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50212320", "title": "Can we replace a $150k Looker with a bucket of HTML files?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49809670", "title": "Anyone using a Wispr Flow alternative that is non-cloud?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48911793", "title": "Speech Recognition and TTS in less than 500kb", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48189156", "title": "Codex-Maxxing", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804286624, "item_id": 50267914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267914", "by": "tibbar", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Hex at $PREVJOB and it was easily one of my favorite tools.", "excerpt": "I used Hex at $PREVJOB and it was easily one of my favorite tools. It is maybe the one BI tool that I have felt truly attached to in my career", "context": "", "use_case": "business intelligence", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hex Raises $100M"}, {"id": 804265953, "item_id": 50266622, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266622", "by": "upmostly", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "this over complicated mess that is Hex", "excerpt": "We built a much simpler alternative to this over complicated mess that is Hex. If you're interested in using it, you can 1-click deploy. https://dbpro.app/studio", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hex Raises $100M"}, {"id": 804264913, "item_id": 50266557, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266557", "by": "nylonstrung", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to use Hex but Marimo (OSS local first) honestly renders it completely obsolete for me", "excerpt": "I used to use Hex but Marimo (OSS local first) honestly renders it completely obsolete for me It similarly offers the combo of SQL and dataframes, built in dataviz and UI widgets, great LLM integration and essentially everything else one would want from either a notebook or a BI tool", "context": "", "use_case": "notebooks, SQL and dataframes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hex Raises $100M"}, {"id": 803443456, "item_id": 50215216, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50215216", "by": "armcat", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We replaced Looker with Hex [1], which was 7x cheaper (for our use case).", "excerpt": "We replaced Looker with Hex [1], which was 7x cheaper (for our use case). But soon afterwards we built our own in-house data agent platform \"Reef\", which has now effectively changed how the entire company operates, from sales and customer success, to defining commercial and operational strategy. One of my engineers Samuel has done a small writeup about it [2]. Essentially, if you take care of your ETL and make data m", "context": "", "use_case": "BI replacing Looker", "switched_from": "Looker", "story": "Can we replace a $150k Looker with a bucket of HTML files?"}, {"id": 797007856, "item_id": 49812991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49812991", "by": "quinncom", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "is a nice open source app", "excerpt": "[HEX](https://github.com/anomalyco/hex) is a nice open source app, although it\u2019s in the middle of a rewrite into rust and cross-platform support is still in progress.", "context": "", "use_case": "non-cloud voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone using a Wispr Flow alternative that is non-cloud?"}, {"id": 783497232, "item_id": 48968577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968577", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3.", "excerpt": "I use the Hex[1] app on MacOs for near instant transcription with Parakeet V3. This is how I speak to Code agents at least 80% of the time. The idea is - I tend to be lazy if I need to type lots of details, so speaking lets me get into details that I otherwise wouldn\u2019t and this helps give more useful context to the agent. This often tends to be an unstructured brain dump so I sometimes ask the agent to repeat back wh", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation to code agents", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Speech Recognition and TTS in less than 500kb"}, {"id": 779421553, "item_id": 48713847, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48713847", "by": "youniverse", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "is there a difference with hex or any other transcription app if we are using the same underlying model?", "excerpt": "I use handy and it does the job very well, is there a difference with hex or any other transcription app if we are using the same underlying model? Or just UI/UX stuff?", "context": "", "use_case": "voice dictation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}, {"id": 779307072, "item_id": 48706692, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706692", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My current fav STT  is Hex, MacOS only", "excerpt": "My current fav STT is Hex, MacOS only: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Near-instant accurate-enough transcription using local Parakeet V3. Handy is multi-platform, also great: https://github.com/cjpais/Handy Every time a new STT model or app is announced, I see if it displaces Hex for me but so far none have. I\u2019ll check out Yap though.", "context": "", "use_case": "local speech-to-text", "switched_from": "", "story": "Yap \u2013 free offline voice dictation for Mac/Windows/Linux (Wispr Flow alt)"}, {"id": 771094928, "item_id": 48193433, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193433", "by": "alasano", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Hex on mac for speech to text", "excerpt": "For me it's because I've been walking 10-20k steps per day on a walking pad at my standing desk while working. I can still type while doing it but it's so nice to just hold a button (or double tap to lock recording) and just brain dump what I need. I type very fast but I feel like the unaltered speech to text allows me to express more quickly any uncertainty or doubt that I have or when I don't know exactly how to be", "context": "works at a walking desk", "use_case": "voice dictation to agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Codex-Maxxing"}, {"id": 767173632, "item_id": 47948352, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47948352", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "STT with Parakeet-V3 via Hex [1] app for near-instant good-enough transcription", "excerpt": "This was on HN 7 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45114245 Every time a STT/TTS model is posted I wonder if it will change my current workflow on MacOS, which is: STT with Parakeet-V3 via Hex [1] app for near-instant good-enough transcription for talking to AI agents. TTS using KyutAI\u2019s Pocket-TTS, an amazing 100M-param model. I used this to make a \"voice\" plugin [2] for Claude Code So far I haven\u2019t s", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "speech-to-text for AI agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft VibeVoice: Open-Source Frontier Voice AI"}, {"id": 754876032, "item_id": 47179752, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47179752", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-02-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For MacOS I haven\u2019t seen any STT app that has faster transcription than Hex", "excerpt": "For MacOS I haven\u2019t seen any STT app that has faster transcription than Hex (with Parakeet V3), which leverages Apple silicon + FluidAudio: https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex This is now my standard way to speak to coding agents. I used to use Handy but Hex is even faster. Last I checked, Handy has stuttering issues but Hex doesn\u2019t.", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "speech-to-text for coding agents", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Parakeet.cpp \u2013 Parakeet ASR inference in pure C++ with Metal GPU acceleration"}, {"id": 752548576, "item_id": 47034286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034286", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-02-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hex is actually even faster, which I didn't think was possible!", "excerpt": "It's amazing how good open-weight STT and TTS have gotten, so there's no need to subs for Wispr Flow, Superwhisper, Eleven-Labs etc. Sharing my setup in case it may be useful for others; it's especially useful when working with CLI agents like Code Code or Codex-CLI: STT: Hex [1] (open-source), with Parakeet V3 - stunningly fast, near-instant transcription. The slight accuracy drop relative to bigger models is immate", "context": "", "use_case": "speech-to-text for CLI agents", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Why Audio Is the One Area Small Labs Are Winning"}, {"id": 752066304, "item_id": 47004144, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004144", "by": "d4rkp4ttern", "date": "2026-02-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hex is my new favorite STT on MacOS.", "excerpt": "Hex is my new favorite STT on MacOS. Also uses Parakeet V3. I didn't think it could possibly be faster than Handy, but it is much faster - even long ramblings transcribed within a second. It's MacOS only, leverages the CoreML / Apple Neural Engine. https://github.com/kitlangton/Hex Also the transcriptions with hex don't seem to suffer from some of the issues with Handy, such as stutter.", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "speech-to-text on macOS", "switched_from": "Handy", "story": "Ask HN: What's the current best local/open speech-to-speech setup?"}]}