Speak any language, Hearsy understands

If your language is among Parakeet's 25 supported languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, Polish, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Greek, Thai, Vietnamese), use Parakeet for faster transcription. For all other languages, use Whisper v3 Turbo which supports 99+ languages.

Yes. You can switch between Parakeet and Whisper instantly in Hearsy's settings or menu bar dropdown. There's no restart required. Some users keep Parakeet as their default for speed and switch to Whisper when they need a language Parakeet doesn't support.

Whisper's language detection is highly accurate for most major languages. It identifies the spoken language within the first few seconds of audio and adjusts accordingly. For very short phrases (under 2 seconds), detection accuracy may decrease. Parakeet also supports auto-detection within its 25 supported languages.

Parakeet TDT v2 supports 25 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, Polish, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Greek, Thai, and Vietnamese. If your language isn't listed, use Whisper instead.

Parakeet typically transcribes in under 200ms (sub-50ms for the neural engine step). Whisper v3 Turbo takes 1-2 seconds for the same audio. The difference is noticeable but Whisper is still fast enough for a smooth dictation workflow. The tradeoff is speed (Parakeet) vs. language breadth (Whisper).

With Whisper and auto-detection enabled, you can switch languages mid-session and Whisper will detect the change. For best results with mixed-language dictation, use Whisper. Parakeet works best when you stick to one language per dictation session.