Picovoice Porcupine

by Picovoice

On-device wake-word engine — runs on micro-controllers, mobile, browsers.

TL;DR

On-device wake-word engine — runs on micro-controllers, mobile, browsers.

Best for developers building on-device wake-word activation into apps, devices, and embedded products. Pricing: Free tier · paid commercial · enterprise.

Category
Products
License
—
Stars
—
Last push
—
Pricing
Free tier · paid commercial · enterprise
Platforms
Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Web, Edge

What it is

Porcupine is Picovoice's wake-word detector. Runs in <200 KB on ARM Cortex-M MCUs, scales up to mobile + desktop. Train custom wake words in the Picovoice Console.

Best for: Developers building on-device wake-word activation into apps, devices, and embedded products.
Watch out for: AccessKey required for non-FOSS use; on-device only — no cloud ASR; pricing tiers by commercial use.

Install / use

picovoice.ai — sign up + grab AccessKey · SDK in 8 languages

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeYes
Languages supported17
HIPAA eligibleNo

Picovoice Porcupine vs Whipscribe

FeaturePicovoice PorcupineWhipscribe
CategoryProductsTranscription APIs
PricingFree tier · paid commercial · enterprisefree beta
Speaker diarization—Yes
Word timestamps—Yes
StreamingYesNo
Languages1799
PlatformsLinux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Web, EdgeWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to Picovoice Porcupine

Otter.ai
Otter.ai

Meeting-bot transcription product for Zoom/Meet/Teams.

free / from $10/mo
Rev
Rev

Human + AI transcription, highest accuracy tier on the market.

AI from $0.25/min · human from $1.50/min
Descript
Descript

Audio/video editor that treats the transcript as the timeline — different product category.

free / from $12/mo

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.