Is WhisPaste available as an AppImage?

Yes. Every release publishes WhisPaste- -linux-x64.AppImage for x86_64, plus a stable unversioned WhisPaste-linux-x64.AppImage that always resolves to the newest release. It is a single executable file: mark it executable and run it, no installer and no package manager involved.

Can I run WhisPaste on Ubuntu without installing it?

Yes — that is exactly what the AppImage is for. It needs no root, touches no system directories, and can live on a USB stick or in your downloads folder. If you would rather install it properly, WhisPaste- -linux-x64.deb is the package for Debian and Ubuntu, and WhisPaste- -linux-x64.tar.gz is the plain bundle you can unpack anywhere.

Do I need Python for WhisPaste on Linux?

No. The speech-recognition engine is whisper.cpp, compiled into a libwhisper library that ships inside the download and is called in-process. There is no Python interpreter, no virtualenv, no pip install, and no build step anywhere in the setup.

Does speech to text work offline on Ubuntu?

Yes. The one thing that needs the network is the initial model download on first launch. Once the model file is in ~/.config/whispaste/models/stt, transcription runs entirely on your machine: no account, no cloud round-trip, and no drop in quality on an air-gapped workstation.

Does it need an NVIDIA card or a CUDA install?

Neither. On Linux WhisPaste accelerates through Vulkan, which covers NVIDIA, AMD and Intel with one single build, and there is no CUDA toolkit to install because none is used. Without a usable GPU driver everything falls back to the CPU, which is a supported configuration rather than a failure mode.

Speech to text on Linux: download a file, make it executable, speak.

WhisPaste ships prebuilt for Linux on x86_64. You download one file, mark it executable, and press your hotkey — the transcript lands wherever your cursor already is, in the editor, terminal or browser field you are working in.

Short answer: yes, there is a single executable file. WhisPaste publishes a Linux AppImage that runs without an install step, a .deb for Debian and Ubuntu, and a plain tar.gz of the release bundle. The speech-recognition engine is compiled into the download — there is no Python environment to create, no pip install, and no compile step.

The three Linux files, by name

Every WhisPaste release publishes the same three Linux x86_64 artefacts on GitHub. The version placeholder is the release number (for example 1.2.65); the AppImage and the .deb are additionally published under a stable, unversioned name that always points at the newest release.

WhisPaste-<version>-linux-x64.AppImage
Single executable file, no installation. Distribution-independent — this is the one to take if you just want to run WhisPaste.
Unversioned alias, always the newest release: WhisPaste-linux-x64.AppImage
WhisPaste-<version>-linux-x64.deb
Debian package for Debian and Ubuntu. Installs into /opt/whispaste with a /usr/bin/whispaste symlink, a desktop entry and an icon.
Unversioned alias, always the newest release: WhisPaste-linux-x64.deb
WhisPaste-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz
The plain release bundle: executable plus its lib/ and data/ directories. Unpack it anywhere, run the binary from the folder. Also the source the AppImage, the .deb and the packaging manifests are built from.

AppImage: one file, no install step

Download the AppImage, mark it executable, run it. In a file manager: right-click the file → Properties → Permissions → "Allow executing file as program", then double-click. In a terminal it is chmod +x on the file followed by running it. Nothing is written into system directories; the app keeps its models and settings under ~/.config/whispaste. To remove WhisPaste again, delete the file.

.deb: the system package for Debian and Ubuntu

If you would rather have WhisPaste in your package manager, install the .deb with apt install ./WhisPaste-<version>-linux-x64.deb. It declares its runtime dependencies (libgtk-3-0, libsecret-1-0, libnotify4, libayatana-appindicator3-1, libasound2, libcurl4, libkeybinder-3.0-0, liblzma5, libc6, zlib1g), so apt pulls in anything missing. The app itself lands in /opt/whispaste and stays read-only there; models and settings still live in your home directory.

No Python, no build, no separate engine download

WhisPaste runs whisper.cpp in-process through a bundled libwhisper library that sits next to the executable inside the download. There is no virtualenv to create, no pip install, no CUDA toolkit, and no compiler invocation — the GPU acceleration is compiled in as well (Vulkan on Linux, covering NVIDIA, AMD and Intel with a single build; plain CPU when no usable driver is present).

One thing is downloaded once: the speech model itself, on first launch, into ~/.config/whispaste/models/stt. After that WhisPaste transcribes with no network connection at all.

What your machine needs

A 64-bit x86_64 CPU and 8 GB of RAM, on Ubuntu Linux or a comparable distribution — that is enough for the compact model on CPU alone. A GPU is never required; with a dedicated card the same transcript is produced roughly five times faster through Vulkan. Prefer to compile it yourself instead? The full source is on GitHub and builds with flutter run -d linux.

All download options, including Windows and macOS

Good questions, honest answers

Is WhisPaste available as an AppImage?: Yes. Every release publishes WhisPaste-<version>-linux-x64.AppImage for x86_64, plus a stable unversioned WhisPaste-linux-x64.AppImage that always resolves to the newest release. It is a single executable file: mark it executable and run it, no installer and no package manager involved.
Can I run WhisPaste on Ubuntu without installing it?: Yes — that is exactly what the AppImage is for. It needs no root, touches no system directories, and can live on a USB stick or in your downloads folder. If you would rather install it properly, WhisPaste-<version>-linux-x64.deb is the package for Debian and Ubuntu, and WhisPaste-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz is the plain bundle you can unpack anywhere.
Do I need Python for WhisPaste on Linux?: No. The speech-recognition engine is whisper.cpp, compiled into a libwhisper library that ships inside the download and is called in-process. There is no Python interpreter, no virtualenv, no pip install, and no build step anywhere in the setup.
Does speech to text work offline on Ubuntu?: Yes. The one thing that needs the network is the initial model download on first launch. Once the model file is in ~/.config/whispaste/models/stt, transcription runs entirely on your machine: no account, no cloud round-trip, and no drop in quality on an air-gapped workstation.
Does it need an NVIDIA card or a CUDA install?: Neither. On Linux WhisPaste accelerates through Vulkan, which covers NVIDIA, AMD and Intel with one single build, and there is no CUDA toolkit to install because none is used. Without a usable GPU driver everything falls back to the CPU, which is a supported configuration rather than a failure mode.