OBS Studio with AI Caption plugins

by OBS Project + community plugins

OBS hosts third-party AI live-caption plugins (e.g. obs-localvocal) for streamers.

TL;DR

OBS hosts third-party AI live-caption plugins (e.g. obs-localvocal) for streamers.

Best for twitch / YouTube streamers who want live on-screen captions without a paid service. Pricing: free.

Category
Desktop apps
License
—
Stars
—
Last push
—
Pricing
free
Platforms
macOS, Windows, Linux

What it is

OBS Studio is the free streaming workhorse. Plugins such as obs-localvocal (Whisper-cpp based) add live AI captions on-stream; Closed Caption Generator plugins route to Twitch CC tracks. Streamer-side speech surface.

Best for: Twitch / YouTube streamers who want live on-screen captions without a paid service.
Watch out for: Caption accuracy depends on chosen plugin + local model; CPU/GPU load grows with model size.

Install / use

obsproject.com

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeNo
Languages supportedNone
HIPAA eligibleNo

OBS Studio with AI Caption plugins vs Whipscribe

FeatureOBS Studio with AI Caption pluginsWhipscribe
CategoryDesktop appsTranscription APIs
Pricingfreefree beta
Speaker diarization—Yes
Word timestamps—Yes
Streaming—No
Languages—99
PlatformsmacOS, Windows, LinuxWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to OBS Studio with AI Caption plugins

MacWhisper
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Polished Mac app for Whisper — the default pick if you're on macOS.

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SuperWhisper
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Always-on system-wide dictation for macOS and iOS, powered by local Whisper.

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Aiko
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Free Mac App Store Whisper app — drag, drop, done.

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Whipscribe is a managed faster-whisper + whisperX service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.