Dictation Apps in the App Store Charts, by Country

If you ask where voice apps rank in the App Store, the answer depends on what you call a voice app. General AI assistants with a voice mode dominate the Productivity charts. Apps built only for dictation sit well below them, and paid transcription and note apps do best of all the specialists. The table holds 166 data points ¹, each one an app's position in one chart, in one of eight countries, on the day we read it (October 19, 2026).

AI assistants with voice modes hold the top of every revenue chart

ChatGPT voice mode is number 1 in the US top grossing Productivity chart ². It holds the same position in the United Kingdom ³, Germany ⁴, France ⁵, Japan ⁶, Brazil ⁷, India ⁸ and Canada ⁹. Across all eight countries there is no exception.

Claude voice mode is the constant runner-up. It is number 2 in the US top grossing chart ¹⁰ and holds that position in Japan ¹¹, Germany ¹² and India ¹³.

The free charts are less uniform. ChatGPT voice mode is number 1 in the UK top free chart ¹⁴ but number 2 in the US ¹⁵. Claude voice mode takes first place in Germany ¹⁶ and France ¹⁷. Gemini is a close third force, at number 2 in Japan ¹⁸.

Other assistants follow the same pattern with more variation by country. Grok is number 4 in the French top grossing chart ¹⁹. Perplexity is number 6 in the US ²⁰. Meta AI is number 4 in the French top free chart ²¹ but only number 48 in Japan ²², and number 75 in Brazil's top grossing chart ²³.

These apps are chat assistants first. Voice input is one feature among many, so their rank says how popular the assistant is, not how many people use it to dictate.

Dedicated dictation apps sit far below the assistants

Wispr Flow, the best-known app built around dictation, appears in six of the eight countries in the top free chart. Its positions are number 35 in the UK ²⁴, number 44 in the US ²⁵ and number 73 in Canada ²⁶.

It does better where revenue is measured. In India it is number 23 in the top grossing chart ²⁷, and in the UK number 29 ²⁸. A gap between a free rank and a grossing rank means the app earns more than its download volume suggests, which fits a subscription product.

Typeless shows the same gap in Japan: number 26 for revenue ²⁹ against number 73 among free downloads ³⁰.

The weakest showings belong to the smallest apps. SpeakApp AI is number 81 in India's top grossing chart ³⁸. Voicenotes reaches number 91 in the UK ³⁹. Transkriptor is number 83 in Brazil ⁴⁰.

Paid dictation and notes apps reach the top handful of the paid chart

The top paid chart tells a different story, because one-time purchases favor focused tools. Whisper Notes is number 1 in Germany ⁴¹ and in Brazil ⁴². It is number 3 in India ⁴³ and number 4 in Japan ⁴⁴. Its position fades in the US, where it is number 14 ⁴⁵, and in Canada, where it is number 42 ⁴⁶.

Aiko, another paid transcription app, follows a similar curve. It is number 7 in Brazil ⁴⁷, number 28 in France ⁴⁸ and number 40 in Canada ⁴⁹.

Only these two apps appear in the top paid chart. Every other app in the table is a free download with in-app purchases or a subscription, so the paid chart says little about the market as a whole.

Showing 8 of 15 rows. See every row in the dataset.

Meeting recorders and transcription apps earn well outside the US

Plaud, which pairs a recorder with an app, ranks high by revenue in most countries. It is number 5 in France ⁵², number 6 in Japan ⁵³ and number 7 in Brazil ⁵⁴. In the US it falls to number 34 ⁵⁵.

Otter.ai shows the opposite geography. It is strongest in English-speaking markets, at number 16 in the UK top grossing chart ⁵⁶, and weak in Brazil at number 99 ⁵⁷. Its free chart position in the US is only number 83 ⁵⁸.

Notta looks like a Japan story. It is number 9 by revenue there ⁵⁹ and number 27 among free apps ⁶⁰.

Voice keyboards barely show up

Gboard is the only voice keyboard in the table, and it appears only in the Utilities chart: number 31 in India ⁶¹ and number 60 in Brazil ⁶². That is expected, since a keyboard is an add-on that people install once. The charts count new downloads, so a keyboard that millions already use does not climb.

Countries differ more for specialists than for assistants

The assistants hold nearly the same positions everywhere. The specialists swing widely. Wispr Flow's revenue rank spans a large range from India to the US, and Whisper Notes goes from first place in Germany to a much lower position in Canada. The likely reason is that a chart rewards recent download or revenue spikes, and a small app can rise on a launch, a promotion or a local review. The data cannot confirm any cause. It shows where an app stood on one day.

What the data cannot tell you

• One day per reading. Charts move daily and a weekly reading catches one day. A single rank is a snapshot, not a trend, and the table does not show whether an app is rising or falling.
• Missing rows are not zero users. An app outside the top 200 has no row, which does not mean it has no users. Apps that are absent from a chart may still be popular, particularly those used mostly through other channels.
• Rank is not usage. The charts measure recent downloads and revenue, not how many people dictate every day. A voice assistant can top the charts while most of its users type.
• Categories and stores are limited. Only Productivity and Utilities were read, so apps that file themselves under other categories do not appear. Every row is for iPhone and iPad. The Mac store is not covered, and desktop dictation apps are therefore outside this picture.
• Eight countries only. Rankings in other markets may look different.

What this means if you are choosing how to write

Do not read a chart rank as a quality ranking for dictation. The apps at the top are general assistants, and you may want one of them for conversation, but a rank says nothing about how accurately it turns your speech into text or how well it edits it.

If your goal is turning speech into clean text on a phone, start with the free tools built into the operating system, then compare dedicated apps on accuracy, languages and price. Our overview of dictation software explains what to compare, and the market overview puts these rankings next to what the apps cost and who uses them. For recorded meetings, the transcription specialists in the table are the ones with the strongest revenue showing in several countries, which suggests people do pay for them.

A final caution: a high rank can come from marketing spend as easily as from a better product. Use the table to see what the market is buying, then test two or three apps on your own voice and your own documents before paying for anything.