Willow Voice: Price, Privacy and Platforms

Willow Voice is an AI dictation app: you press a key, talk, and Willow types the finished text ¹ wherever your cursor is, on a Mac, a Windows PC or an iPhone ². The basic plan is free with no credit card, with unlimited use of a weaker speech model ³, and Pro costs $15 a month, or $12 a month billed annually ^{4 5}. Willow's service runs on cloud infrastructure in the United States ⁶, and in Private Mode, the default, Willow says it does not retain dictated audio, dictated text or screen content ⁷. That default is stricter than the defaults of Wispr Flow and Aqua Voice, as the comparison below shows. Its gaps: there is no Android app yet ⁸, and offline dictation is a Pro feature ⁹ that Willow describes only for Mac and iOS ¹⁰.

This guide is part of our overview of dictation software. Every price and policy below comes from a page we read, mostly Willow's own, and every number links to its source. Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows that competes with Willow, so we stick to checked facts and quote Willow's own words wherever a policy matters.

Willow Voice is cloud AI dictation for Mac, Windows and iPhone

Willow is cloud dictation with an AI editing step. You place the cursor in any text field, press your hotkey and speak, and Willow types the result where the cursor is ¹¹. On a Mac the default key is fn ¹², which starts and stops dictation. It supports 100+ languages ¹³ and a dictionary where you add your own terms ¹⁴, its version of custom vocabulary.

The app works in two steps. First, automatic speech recognition turns your audio into raw words; then a second model, which Willow calls the edit model, rewrites them into the text you meant to type ¹. TechCrunch reported that Willow's text pipeline for formatting and personalization is based on Meta's Llama models ¹⁵, a kind of large language model. Willow does not name its speech recognition model. The company says it uses cloud-based AI models because they are faster and more reliable than what local models can do today ¹⁶. Our guide to AI cleanup for dictation explains what the rewriting step changes and where it can go wrong.

Scribe writes from what you mean, not what you say

The second feature is Scribe, which Willow describes as AI writing from your intent ¹⁷. Instead of dictating word for word, you describe the message ("tell Sarah I can't make Thursday, suggest Friday") and Scribe drafts it. It has its own hotkey: Fn + Control on a Mac and Left Windows key + Left Shift on Windows, and a pencil icon in the iPhone keyboard ¹⁸. Free accounts get 20 Scribe uses a week ¹⁹. Scribe is closer to a writing assistant than to dictation, so read its drafts before you send them.

A small Y Combinator company with $4.5 million raised

Willow is listed in Y Combinator's directory as founded in 2025, in the Spring 2025 batch, with a team of 7 in San Francisco ²⁰. TechCrunch reported that it had raised $4.5 million from Box Group, Y Combinator, Burst Capital and angel investors ²¹. For scale, Y Combinator's standard deal today is $500,000 for 7 percent of a company plus a later equity amount ²², and Wispr Flow has announced a $280 million Series B ²³. Willow's home page says it is trusted by more than 150,000 professionals ²⁴, a marketing figure with no published definition.

If you searched for "Willow" and found a voice assistant on GitHub, that is a different project: HeyWillow's open-source Willow, a voice assistant project whose repository had 3,130 stars in October 2026 ²⁹. It is not related to Willow Voice.

iPhone ratings are high, from about a thousand US users

On the US App Store, the iPhone app averaged 4.60 stars from 1,073 ratings on October 26, 2026 ^{30 31}. Outside the US the counts are small: 97 ratings in the United Kingdom ³², 44 in Germany ³³, 38 in France ³⁴, 26 in Brazil ³⁵ and 9 in Japan ³⁶.

On the same day Wispr Flow had 18,110 US ratings ⁴² and Aqua Voice had 99 ⁴³, so by rating count Willow sits between Wispr Flow and Aqua Voice. Ratings count only iPhone users who were asked to rate, so they say nothing about the Mac or Windows apps. Several of the pages that rank for "Willow Voice review" are published by competing dictation apps, which is worth knowing when you read them (we make one too, which is why this guide sticks to dated, sourced facts).

Free and paid plans

Willow's free plan is now a real working plan rather than a trial: unlimited dictation with the smaller Frontier Mini model ³, limited personalization and 20 Scribe uses a week ¹⁹. Each free dictation can run up to 5 minutes, against 8 minutes on paid plans ⁴⁴. Pro adds offline dictation ⁹, covered in its own section below.

The free plan changed in July 2026

Willow's own help center plan chart still shows a free word limit of 2,000 per week ⁴⁸. On July 7, 2026, Willow introduced its Frontier Pro and Frontier Mini models and announced that it was "making dictation free", with Frontier Mini as the smaller, faster version it can run for everyone ²⁸. The live pricing page now lists the free plan as an unlimited weaker model ³. Older reviews that quote the 2,000-word limit ⁴⁸ understate what the free plan gives you.

Willow says that in its own benchmark it returned text faster than the paid dictation tools it tested, and that even Frontier Mini beat them on latency ⁴⁹. The post names no tools and publishes no numbers, so treat it as a claim. The practical test is cheap: the free plan costs nothing, so dictate a week of your own email on it before paying.

Pro costs more than the market median

Over a year, Pro costs $144 billed annually or $180 billed monthly, a $36 difference ⁵⁰. The iPhone app's annual Pro plan costs $143.99 ⁵¹. Across the dictation apps we track, the median price is $10 a month on monthly billing ⁵² and $8 a month on annual billing ⁵³, so Willow Pro sits above both, at the same price as Wispr Flow Pro ^{54 55}. Our guide to what AI dictation costs sets these prices against the cost of running speech models.

Teams should check the plan names before buying. The pricing page shows a Business plan at $35 a month ⁴⁵, while a Willow help article describes a Team Pro plan at $12 per user a month with a minimum of 3 seats ⁵⁶. Ask Willow which one applies before you sign up a group.

Discounts, and how to cancel

Students, educators, non-profit staff and volunteers, and active-duty military and veterans can get 30 percent off Pro with a promo code issued after email verification ⁵⁷. That is a smaller discount than Wispr Flow's 50 percent for students and educators ⁵⁸.

You can cancel at any time, and the plan stays active to the end of the period you paid for ⁵⁹. Where you cancel depends on where you paid ⁶⁰:

1. If you subscribed on the Mac, open Willow, go to Settings > Manage Billing, enter your purchase email, and choose Cancel Subscription in the Stripe customer portal that opens.
2. If you subscribed on the iPhone, manage or cancel the subscription through Apple, not Willow ⁶⁰.
3. To change plans instead, use Plan & Billing inside the Willow app ⁵⁹.

For the short answer on cost, see the question Is Willow Voice free?, and for free alternatives, our guide to free dictation software.

Its privacy terms and data retention

Willow dictation is cloud-based: Willow says it runs on cloud infrastructure in the United States, with data encrypted in transit and at rest ⁶. What stays on its servers afterward is decided by one setting, Privacy Mode, which is on by default. In that mode Willow says it keeps no dictated audio, text or screen content ⁷, discards the recording after transcription ⁶¹, and neither it nor its service providers use your audio for model training ⁶².

The default is stricter than its rivals'

The difference from its competitors is in the default, not in what is possible. Wispr Flow's two data switches, model improvement and cloud storage of dictations, are on unless you or your company turn them off ⁶⁹, and Aqua Voice may store transcripts unless you turn on its Privacy Mode ⁷⁰. Willow starts with nothing kept, and you opt in to share ⁶⁴. If you switch Privacy Mode off, Willow says limited dictation data may be used to improve quality and accuracy, and is never sold ⁶³. The privacy policy calls that mode Help Improve Willow and gives no number of days for how long the anonymized text is kept ⁶⁴. Our guides to voice data retention and to whether dictation apps train AI on your voice compare these terms across apps.

Context Awareness reads the window you are typing in

Context Awareness helps Willow spell names and terms that are already on screen. When it is on, the privacy policy says Willow may temporarily process relevant text from the active window, uses it only for that transcription, does not retain it and does not train on it ⁶⁵. If you dictate while a patient record, a contract or a password manager is open, decide whether you want it on. You can switch it off in Willow's settings.

Three smaller details are worth knowing

First, your transcript history lives only on your device, so it does not follow you to a new computer ⁶⁶, and anyone with access to that computer can read it. Second, Willow does record how you use the app: device and app details, your words-per-minute rate and the number of words you dictate ⁶⁷. Third, the privacy label Willow declared on its US App Store listing says usage data may be used to track you across other companies' apps and websites ⁷¹. Wispr Flow's iPhone label goes further and lists identifiers as well as usage data ⁷².

Certifications and HIPAA

Willow says it has completed a SOC 2 Type II examination by an independent auditor covering the Security criteria ⁷³. Like Wispr Flow ⁷⁴, Willow lets individual users, not only companies, sign its Business Associate Agreement inside the app before dictating protected health information, and with HIPAA mode on Willow says it stores no voice or transcription content ⁷⁵. On the Enterprise plan, admins can enforce Privacy Mode so employees cannot turn it off ⁷⁶, which is how a company gets zero data retention for everyone. A signed BAA and an audit report describe the vendor; they do not make your own practice compliant, as our guide to HIPAA-compliant dictation explains.

Before you dictate anything sensitive with Willow:

1. Open Settings and confirm Privacy Mode is on; check again after updates.
2. Decide whether you need Context Awareness, and turn it off if confidential material is often on screen.
3. For health information, turn on HIPAA privacy mode and sign the BAA inside the app ⁷⁵.
4. For a team, use a plan that lets an admin enforce Privacy Mode for everyone.

For the short version, see Is Willow Voice safe?, and for the tradeoff behind it, our guide to on-device speech recognition.

Platforms, and what Windows users can do

Willow runs on Mac, Windows and iPhone ². It launched on the Mac first, then the iPhone, and then added Windows ²⁷. Android is listed as coming soon on every plan ⁸, almost a year after the company said in November 2025 that it planned Windows and Android apps ²⁶.

Offline dictation is limited to Pro on Mac and iPhone

Willow's security page promises it is "offline when you need it" ⁷⁹, but the details are narrower. The help center lists offline dictation as an Individual Pro feature ⁹, and Willow's own blog places its offline mode on Mac and iOS ¹⁰. None of Willow's pages we read say which languages or features work without a connection, or whether the AI rewriting step runs offline. So on Windows, and on the free plan anywhere, plan on needing an internet connection. If you dictate on planes, in hospitals or in secure buildings, test offline mode on your own device before you rely on it.

What Windows and Android users can do instead

On Windows, Willow itself is now an option, and the free plan is enough to try it. Windows 11's built-in voice typing (press Windows key + H in a text box ⁸⁰) supports 46 languages and locales ⁸¹, but it needs an internet connection ⁸², so it is not an offline option. For dictation that runs fully on the PC, our guide to offline speech to text on Windows covers apps that do, including Yap's Windows app. On Android, Wispr Flow and Aqua Voice both have apps ^{83 84}; see our guide to Android voice typing.

For more, see Is Willow Voice available for Windows? and our guides to the best dictation software for Windows, the best dictation apps for Mac and the best dictation apps for iPhone and Android.

How it compares with Wispr Flow and Aqua Voice

Willow, Wispr Flow and Aqua Voice do the same core job: press a key, talk, and get cleaned-up text in any app, processed in the cloud. Willow's advantages are the most generous free plan of the three and the strictest default privacy setting. Wispr Flow is bigger, better funded, rated by far more users and available on Android. Aqua Voice is the cheapest on Pro.

Where each one is the better fit

Willow suits people who want to dictate a lot without paying, since its free plan allows unlimited dictation ³, and people or teams who want nothing kept by default, including clinicians who want to sign a BAA as individuals. Wispr Flow suits people who need Android, or who want the app with the most US App Store ratings here ⁴², with a free allowance of 2,000 words a week on desktop ⁸⁷. Aqua Voice suits people who dictate AI-related terms, where its own benchmark put its Avalon model ahead of Whisper Large v3 and NVIDIA Canary 1B ⁹⁵, and who want the lowest Pro price. Superwhisper, another rival, takes a different route: its free plan runs local Whisper models and, the company says, nothing dictated leaves the device ⁹⁶; see our Superwhisper guide. The question Willow Voice vs Wispr Flow answers the head-to-head in brief, and AI dictation apps compared covers the whole field.

Built-in dictation may be enough

You may not need any of them. On a Mac, Apple's dictation processes general text on the device and does not send it to Siri servers ⁹⁷, and Windows voice typing supports 46 languages and locales ⁸¹, though it needs an internet connection ⁸². Built-in tools type what you say, with less cleanup, but for a few messages a day that is often enough. Start with our guides to Mac dictation privacy, Windows voice typing and iPhone dictation, then try Willow's free plan if you want AI cleanup. For a ranked view by need, see the best dictation software.