--- a/dictation/config.py	Tue Aug 18 22:18:15 2026 -0700
+++ b/dictation/config.py	Thu Aug 20 20:45:25 2026 -0700
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 import os
 from pathlib import Path
+import sys
 
 
 MODEL_REPOSITORY = "Systran/faster-whisper-small"
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@
     host: str
     port: int
     model_dir: Path
+    device: str
     compute_type: str
     max_sessions: int
     partial_interval_ms: int
@@ -61,9 +63,15 @@
                 str(cache_root / "zenbu" / "faster-whisper-small"),
             )
         ).expanduser()
+        device = os.environ.get(
+            "DICTATION_DEVICE",
+            "cpu" if sys.platform == "darwin" else "cuda",
+        )
+        if device not in {"cpu", "cuda"}:
+            raise ValueError("DICTATION_DEVICE must be cpu or cuda")
         compute_type = os.environ.get(
             "DICTATION_COMPUTE_TYPE",
-            "int8_float16",
+            "int8" if device == "cpu" else "int8_float16",
         )
         if compute_type not in {
             "float16",
@@ -80,6 +88,7 @@
             host=host,
             port=_integer("DICTATION_PORT", 8090, 1, 65535),
             model_dir=model_dir,
+            device=device,
             compute_type=compute_type,
             max_sessions=_integer("DICTATION_MAX_SESSIONS", 1, 1, 8),
             partial_interval_ms=_integer(