Dictation Software Prices: What Each App Costs

Dictation apps are cheap to try and moderately priced to keep. The median subscription is 12 US dollars a month when you commit for a year ¹, and 16.99 US dollars when you pay month to month ². Paying once costs a median of 39 US dollars ³. Free plans cost 0 US dollars ⁴, usually with a cap on use or a weaker model.

The table below holds 37 published prices ⁵ from 13 distinct sources ⁶. All were read from the makers' own price pages in October 2026. For the wider picture of how dictation software works, see our overview of dictation software.

Paying for a year up front lowers the monthly price

Almost every app that sells both options charges less per month on the annual plan. The figures for the same plan under both billing choices:

The discount is not uniform. Wispr Flow and Willow Voice both label their annual price as a discount, and the pattern holds on their business plans too: Willow Voice Business falls from 35 US dollars ¹⁹ to 28 US dollars ²⁰. Superwhisper's gap is small. Otter's gap is the widest in the table, with the yearly price at about half the monthly one, which makes its monthly price a poor deal if you plan to stay.

A yearly price is a commitment, not a lower rate you can leave at any time. The per-month figure is a monthly equivalent of one yearly charge. Monologue's page, for example, gives a yearly charge and then divides it for you. If you are not sure you will keep dictating, a monthly plan costs more per month but ends when you stop.

Prices cluster by who the plan is for

Individual plans sit in a narrow band. Most monthly Pro-style plans sit well below the Business plans, and the yearly equivalents sit lower still. Business plans cost more, and they are where the top of each range comes from. Aqua Voice sells a Max plan at 30 US dollars monthly ²¹, and Otter's Business plan is 30 US dollars monthly ²². Willow Voice's Business plan is the most expensive monthly row at 35 US dollars ¹⁹.

Per-seat team pricing adds a further wrinkle. Aqua Voice charges 24 US dollars per seat monthly ²³ or 19 US dollars per seat on the annual plan ²⁴, with a minimum seat count, so the real bill depends on team size. A solo writer and a team are looking at different tables.

The cheapest subscriptions are the ones aimed at one person who mostly wants plain dictation. Spokenly Pro is 8.33 US dollars a month on the annual plan ²⁵, and Aqua Voice Pro is 8 US dollars ¹⁴.

Buying outright is cheaper than it looks, except at the top

The one-time group has the widest spread relative to its median: that median is 39 US dollars ³, but the range runs from a low-priced license to a premium one. Every one-time row is a lifetime license, so you pay once and there is no renewal.

The low end is mostly Mac software that runs on your own machine. VoiceInk's Solo license is 25 US dollars for one Mac ²⁶, the Personal license is 39 US dollars ²⁷, and the Extended license is 49 US dollars ²⁸. Spokenly's Local+ plan is 29 US dollars once ²⁹. At the top, Superwhisper's lifetime license is 249.99 US dollars ³⁰, well above everything else in the group. It covers more platforms, including Windows and phones, which the Mac-only licenses do not.

The one-time rows in full:

The sensible way to compare a license with a subscription is to take the yearly subscription figure, multiply by the years you expect to keep using the app, and compare. That is your own sum, not a figure in the data, because nobody can promise how long a product or its price will last.

Free plans exist, but each one has a limit

Free plans are nearly as common in the table as paid ones, and their median is 0 US dollars ⁴. A zero price does not mean the same thing in each row. Some free plans are capped by usage: Wispr Flow's Free plan carries a weekly word cap ³¹, and Willow Voice's Basic plan limits a weekly feature and uses a weaker model ³². Monologue's free offer is a trial with limits on words and notes ³³.

Others are free because the model runs on your device. Superwhisper's free tier uses local Whisper models, and its paid plan adds cloud models and AI modes ³⁴. Spokenly's free plan also uses local models or your own API keys ³⁵. Speechnotes is free with ads in the browser ³⁶.

Built-in dictation from Apple, Microsoft and Google is free as well, and it is in the scope of this dataset. If your needs are plain text in a document or message, start there before paying for anything.

Where the price pages disagree or hide detail

Several rows carry caveats that change how you should read them.

• Promotions are not list prices. Otter's page shows a promotional price for Business, and the list price is the one used here ²². Its Pro rows exclude a promotion that applies only to cards issued in one country ¹⁷.
• Struck-through prices. Willow Voice prints the regular monthly price struck through beside the annual option, so the monthly and yearly rows come from the same card.
• Sources disagree. For VoiceInk, a comparison site lists different figures than the vendor, so the vendor's price is used ²⁶. A site-wide discount button on its page did not change the prices printed on the cards.
• App store prices. Letterly's Pro subscription is 19.99 US dollars for one month ³⁷, taken from the app store listing because that is where the price is shown. The listing also shows other plans that do not say which is current, so only the one-month price is recorded.
• A license converted to a monthly figure. Braina Pro is priced at a yearly license for one Windows PC, which the table shows as 99 US dollars a month ³⁸. It is not a subscription you can cancel monthly.
• Currency. MacWhisper's free plan is priced in euros on its page. Zero is zero in any currency, so the row records zero dollars ³⁹.

Some price pages also list Superwhisper's plans in more than one place, so a few of its prices appear twice in the table with the same figure. Those repeated rows make Superwhisper count a little more heavily in the medians than other apps.

What the data cannot tell you

Quality. A price tells you nothing about accuracy, speed or how well an app formats and cleans up text. A cheaper plan may use a weaker model, and the table does not rank accuracy.

Privacy and processing. Most rows leave the place where speech is processed as not stated, because the price page does not say. Only some apps are clearly on device, such as VoiceInk ²⁶. If privacy matters, a price page will usually not answer it, and you will need the vendor's privacy documentation.

Features are not equal. A plan called Pro at one vendor is not the same product as a plan called Pro at another. Otter, for instance, is known mostly for meeting notes rather than dictation, so its rows are a loose comparison with apps built for voice typing.

Time. These are prices on one day in October 2026. Vendors change them, add promotions, and sometimes change what a lifetime license covers. A one-time price covers the current version, and the data does not say what future upgrades will cost.

Taxes and teams. Prices are in US dollars and generally do not say whether tax is included. Team and per-seat plans depend on how many people you have.

What this means if you are choosing

1. Start free. Try your device's built-in dictation first, then the free tier of any app you like. Free plans are common enough that paying before testing is rarely necessary.
2. Decide how long you will use it. If you dictate every day, a yearly plan or a one-time license is cheaper than monthly billing. If it is a trial run, pay monthly.
3. Match the platform. Several of the cheapest licenses are Mac only, and a few apps are Windows only. Check the platforms column before the price.
4. Check processing if privacy matters. On-device apps keep audio on your machine. Where the table says not stated, assume nothing.
5. Read the page on the day you buy. Prices, caps and promotions move. For a fuller walk through the decision, see our overview of dictation software and the guide to choosing a dictation app.