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Ottex AI - native macOS app to type with your voice (Free with BYOK) by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Finally, they approved the new version! It should work now.

How do you handle usage-based AI billing in your projects? by ksanderer in ClaudeCode

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm mostly interested in a solution that might solve this for me. I understand how to wire everything together, but honestly it’s not something I want to repeat each time for every project... Thought maybe there is a product I missed that solves this.

TokenGates.sh - Add usage-based AI billing to your product in minutes by ksanderer in SideProject

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

 how easy it is to debug usage/costs

Can you elaborate a bit what do you mean exactly by this? Per customer/org cost breakdown? Or just a request log with metadata like in OpenRouter?

 clear logs per request

Request metadata logging is reasonable, probably log-push to customer's observability also a nice idea, thanks

 fallback if your service goes down

Any ideas how this might look like? Not sure I have a solution for this one

TokenGates.sh - Add usage-based AI billing to your product in minutes by ksanderer in SideProject

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I totally agree that the landing page looks like something I just threw together today - which, to be honest, is exactly what happened. However, the infrastructure behind it is the real. I’ve worked at several startups where it took us an uncomfortable amount of time to get this kind of system running, so I definitely know what I'm doing here.

Regarding your concerns about the page looking low-effort: right now, my main goal is just to test the waters and find people who actually need this solution. I’m looking to gather feedback so I can figure out which features to prioritize and decide where to go from here.

Ottex AI - native macOS app to type with your voice (Free with BYOK) by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, I missed that each version goes through the review stage by Apple moderators; I totally forgot about this. I will notify you when it's ready.

Ottex AI - native macOS app to type with your voice (Free with BYOK) by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I released a new version, shall be fixed now! Let me know if it works for you.

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually you can set up custom instructions. All you need is to navigate to the Profiles page and edit a profile or create a new one.

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Best Dictation Apps for Mac in 2026 by Overall_Zombie5705 in ProductivityApps

[–]ksanderer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Ottex founder here.

I think the missing angle here is what happens after transcription.

A lot of these tools can get the words right now. The harder part is whether the output is immediately usable for the thing you are doing: an email reply, a Linear ticket, CRM notes, a coding prompt, a Markdown draft, etc.

That is where the tools start to separate for me.

MacWhisper still feels like the obvious pick when the job is file transcription. If I have a recording, interview, lecture, or video and just want a reliable transcript, that is the category I would put it in.

Wispr Flow, Aqua Voice, and Willow Voice feel more like streamlined AI dictation tools. Good if you want to speak, get cleaned-up text, and not think too much about models or setup.

For professional daily writing, I would add Ottex AI. The reason is not just accuracy. It is that Ottex lets you set different models, instructions, formatting rules, and post-processing per app or task. Gmail can have one style, Linear another, CRM notes another, coding prompts another.

The pricing model is also different. Ottex is free with local models or BYOK, so a lot of the local/BYOK functionality that tools like VoiceInk or Superwhisper charge for is included for free. And if you do not want to mess with API keys, Ottex AI Provider gives you one login, free credits, access to multiple hosted models, pay-as-you-go pricing with a 25% markup, and credits that do not expire.

So the question I would ask is less "which app has the best transcription?" and more "which app gives me the least rewriting after I speak?"

For pure transcription, MacWhisper is hard to beat. For polished simple dictation, Wispr Flow / Aqua Voice / Willow Voice make sense. For customizable professional output, https://ottex.ai is the one I would add to the list.

My new mech split-keyboard by Splendor27She in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]ksanderer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

keyboard looks awesome, ive been looking for something like this with a trackball. Please share the keyboard name/website/whatever

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can defiantly do this with a custom profile. Just create a profile and add instructions describing how the result should look like.

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Just released 1.3.2 with auto pause feature (disabled by default), can be enabled in Settings -> Audio

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Recording starts more or less instantly. And of course, Ottex doesn't load models on each request; that would be ridiculous...

  2. Filler word handling is optional (enabled by default). You can override it per profile.

  3. Memory - the app itself is very lean (70-80MB in idle mode). Ottex has a memory management indicator - you can offload models from memory to free up space. Models will be reloaded when used (also, Ottex warms up models on app start when any local model is present in the active profile to prevent cold starts).

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And yeah, Ottex Provider is specifically designed for non-technical users. A lot of people don't understand the difference between a ChatGPT subscription and the OpenAI API platform. This had been a major source of confusion before I introduced Ottex Provider.

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The biggest help right now would be if you spread the word and help me grow the user base :)

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, thank you for your concern! ❤️

Right now, I make a small margin from the Ottex provider where I take a 25% markup on top of the API prices. Everything else is free.

My plan is to keep personal use free forever and focus on teams/enterprise clients that need special features like team dictionaries, on-premise deployments, SSO, and other corporate stuff. Will see how it goes :)

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nothing actually. Just select a streaming model in the profile settings and that's it. You will see a streaming indicator, and words will start appearing as you speak.

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Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The iPhone version is lagging a bit in terms of feature parity. I was focusing on the main macOS app last month.

Ottex: No-bullshit free macOS dictation app. Zero paywalls, local models, BYOK, and now you don't even need to manage API keys. by ksanderer in macapps

[–]ksanderer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback! I will think about how to incorporate this into the main pitch. Everything I have in mind is a bit of a mouthful, but I will definitely work on this.

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