Dictation App Prices on the App Store: Every Plan Apple Lists

Dictation, transcription and voice apps on the US App Store mostly charge by subscription. A monthly plan has a median price of 10 US dollars ¹, a yearly plan 79.99 US dollars ², and a lifetime unlock 59.99 US dollars ³. Weekly plans have a median of 7.99 US dollars ⁴, which looks cheap until you add up a month of weeks. Buying the app itself is the exception: the median download price is 7.49 US dollars ⁵.

The table holds 1295 data points ⁶, each a price Apple lists on an app's US page in October 2026: the download price of a paid app and every in-app purchase on its page. The medians hide a very wide spread, which the sections below explain.

Weekly plans cost the most once you count a month

The weekly median of 7.99 US dollars ⁴ is below the monthly median of 10 US dollars ¹, but only per billing period. A month of weekly charges costs far more than the monthly median, and more than three times it. Meeting.ai lists weekly plans from $7.99 ⁷ for Meeting.ai's Plus Weekly to $13.99 ⁸ for its Professional Weekly, which is the highest weekly price in the table.

Wispr Flow shows the effect inside one app. Its weekly plan is $4.49 ⁹ and its monthly plan is $15.00 ¹⁰. A month of weekly payments comes to more than the monthly plan, so the weekly plan suits a short project, not steady use. Its annual plan is $143.99 ¹¹, below twelve monthly payments.

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Yearly billing is cheaper than twelve months, but only for some apps

At the medians, a yearly plan (79.99 US dollars ²) costs less than twelve payments at the monthly median (10 US dollars ¹). That is a comparison of two groups that contain different apps, not a discount any one app offers. Pairs from the same app are a better test.

• Superwhisper lists Pro Monthly at $8.49 ²⁰ and Pro Annual at $84.99 ²¹. Twelve monthly payments come to more than the annual price.
• Otter lists Otter Pro at $16.99 per month ²² and $99.99 per year ²³, so the yearly plan again undercuts twelve months.
• Claude lists Claude Pro at $20.00 monthly ²⁴ and $214.99 annually ²⁵.

The yearly group has the widest spread in dollars. Its highest price is $889.99 ²⁶ for Denti Note Pro, a dental documentation tool. Transcription and meeting-note plans fill most of the other high yearly prices, such as Transcribe Business at $399.99 ²⁷.

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Monthly prices range from under a dollar to clinical and AI-subscription tiers

The monthly group has a median of 10 US dollars ¹. Its top end is not typical dictation. Claude's top Max plan is listed at $249.99 per month ³⁶, an assistant subscription where voice is one feature. Freed's monthly plan, a clinical scribe, is $139.00 ³⁷. These are many times the median, and the price buys a whole service.

Inside the same group, the kind of app matters. Meeting-note apps list the highest monthly prices among the large groups. Meeting.ai's Professional Monthly is $39.99 ³⁸. A plain voice-notes subscription is nearer the median: Hedy's monthly plan is $5.99 ³⁹, and Wispr Flow's student plan is $7.49 ⁴⁰, about half of its standard monthly plan.

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A lifetime unlock has a lower median than a year

The lifetime median of 59.99 US dollars ³ is below the yearly median of 79.99 US dollars ², in dollars. Read that with care: the two groups hold different apps, and the lifetime group is much smaller than the yearly one. The prices run from $399.99 ⁴⁸ for SayCopyPaste's Bravely Premium and $399.99 ⁴⁹ for Yaps Premium, down to small one-time unlocks near the bottom of the range.

The break-even point depends on the app. Superwhisper's Pro Lifetime is $249.99 ⁵⁰, which costs less than three years of its annual plan ($84.99 ²¹) and more than two years of it. Letterly lists two lifetime prices, $199.99 ⁵¹ and $249.99 ⁵², next to yearly plans that cost less than either. A lifetime price pays off only if the app is still maintained and you still use it years from now, and the listing cannot tell you that.

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Packs and plans with no stated period are the hardest prices to compare

Credit and minute packs have a median of 9.99 US dollars ⁶¹, close to the monthly median in dollars, but a pack has no period, so that figure says nothing about monthly cost. The dearest pack is $700.00 ⁶² for Claude's largest usage-credit pack. Large packs can lower the price per credit. Claude's smallest pack costs $20.00 ⁶³, and its largest pack works out to less per credit.

The largest group by count is plans whose name gives no period. Their median is 17.49 US dollars ⁶⁴, above the monthly median, and they run up to $500.00 ⁶⁵ for ChatGPT Pro. A plan named only "Pro" or "Premium" may be monthly, yearly or a one-time unlock. Aqua Voice shows the problem: its "Aqua Voice Pro" is $12.99 ⁶⁶ with no period, next to "Aqua Voice Pro (Annual)" at $119.00 ⁶⁷.

Longer fixed terms are rare. Three-month plans have a median of 47.45 US dollars ⁶⁸ and six-month plans 34.99 US dollars ⁶⁹. The three-month median is higher than the six-month one in dollars, which only shows how few figures sit behind them, so no pattern should be read into it.

Buying the app outright is the cheapest route, with the least choice

The median download price is 7.49 US dollars ⁵, below the weekly median of 7.99 US dollars ⁴. The cheapest paid apps are under two dollars, such as Undertekst at $1.99 ⁷⁰. The highest is E-ScribeVoice at $44.99 ⁷¹. Paid apps include Mac tools such as Steno at $29.99 ⁷².

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What these prices cannot tell you

• Apple lists at most ten purchases per app. An app with more plans can have cheaper or other plans missing.
• The period comes from the purchase's name. A plan called "Pro" has no stated period, and an unclear name can be misread.
• Trials and introductory prices are not shown. Free trial entries are excluded, and a "(Free Trial)" label can sit on a plan that still lists its full price, as with Meeting.ai's Professional Weekly (Free Trial).
• Duplicate names can carry different prices. Meeting.ai lists a "Plus Weekly" at $7.99 ⁷ and another at $12.00 ⁸⁰.
• US prices only. Other storefronts charge in their own currencies, often for less, and the same plan can cost less on the maker's own website, where Apple takes no commission.
• Medians compare different apps. A group median is not a discount. Prices of makers with a wide range of tiers, such as Claude, pull a median in ways a typical dictation app does not.

What this means when you choose

Start with the period, not the headline price. Convert every plan to a cost per month or per year before you compare, and remember that a weekly plan is the dearest way to pay for steady use. If you will use an app for more than a few months, the yearly plan is usually the cheaper subscription, and the lifetime unlock is worth considering only when its price is below a few years of the yearly plan and the maker has a record of keeping the app updated.

Check the kind of app too. Meeting-note and clinical tools sit at the top of the monthly and yearly ranges, while plain dictation apps sit nearer the overall medians. If you need dictation only, check whether a tool built for it costs less than a meeting assistant that includes it.

For prices from the makers' own websites, see our companion dataset of dictation app prices, which covers the same kind of apps outside the App Store. To see how the apps in this table make money, read the data on App Store business models. For a wider introduction to choosing, read our overview of dictation software, and for the companies behind these apps, see the dictation market.