Cloud services

Instead of a local model, recognition and AI polish can use a service on the internet. Each has its own choice: recognition on the Speech models page, AI polish on the AI models page.

The built-in service

Release packages come with a built-in service, so dictation and AI polish work before you set anything up. It is run by the Voltip project and needs no key. Builds from source have no built-in service.

Providers

Provider	Recognition	AI polish	Key
Built-in service	Yes	Yes	Not needed
This computer	Yes, with a local model	—	Not needed
OpenAI	Yes	Yes	Required
Groq	Yes	Yes	Required
SiliconFlow	Yes	Yes	Required
DeepSeek	—	Yes	Required
Ollama, on this computer	—	Yes	Not needed
Custom, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint	Yes	Yes	Optional; the endpoint address is required

A provider that offers both services uses one key for both.

Setting up a provider

1. On the Speech models or AI models page, expand the provider's card.
2. Choose a model, and for a custom endpoint enter its address.
3. Enter your key. Test connection checks the address and the key and lists the models the provider offers.
4. Choose Use to switch to the provider.

The home page shows which provider is in use and whether it is ready.

Keys

• Keys are stored in the system keychain: Windows Credential Manager, the macOS keychain, or the Secret Service on Linux. They are never shown again after you save them.
• Each key is sent only to the provider it belongs to. When you switch providers or change a custom address, the old key does not follow.
• On Linux, Voltip needs a running Secret Service, such as GNOME Keyring or KWallet. It does not fall back to storing keys in a file.

What is sent

• Recognition: the recording, the model name and your key. If your dictionary has entries, their correct spellings go along as a hint.
• AI polish: the recognised text, never audio, together with the app's name unless you turn that off. See Privacy for the details.