Which voice and dictation apps charge by the week?

Weekly plans exist, but they are concentrated in a few kinds of app. 50 of 426 apps list a purchase that Apple names as weekly ¹, while 376 apps do not ². Meeting-note and voice-note apps account for most of the weekly plans, and a week costs far more than it looks once you add it up.

Meeting-note apps list the most weekly plans

By count and by share of their kind, meeting-note apps lead: 24 of 111 meeting-note apps sell a weekly plan ³. Voice-note apps follow by share, with 8 of 46 ⁴.

Voice assistants and medical apps list no weekly plan at all, and 79 of 85 dictation apps list none either ¹⁰. If you want plain dictation, a weekly plan is the exception, not the rule.

The weekly price against the monthly price

Several apps price a week at $8.99 and a month at $14.99 to $24.99. The table multiplies the weekly price by four, and by 52 for a year. A calendar month is a little longer than four weeks, so four weeks slightly understates a month of weekly billing.

In each of these listings, four weekly payments cost more than the highest monthly price, and a year of weekly payments costs more than three times the highest yearly price. Audionotes also lists a cheaper Personal tier at $3.99 a week and $9.99 a month, so four weeks is $15.96 and a year is $207.48. Weekly prices in one listing are not always the same: AI Summary - Meeting Notes shows weekly purchases from $6.99 to $9.99, and Cue AI Note Taker shows weekly access from $5.99 to $9.99 against monthly prices of $14.99 and $24.99 ¹⁶.

Some apps offer a week and a year, with no month

CraftNote lists weekly plans at $9.99 and yearly plans from $49.99 to $129.99 ¹⁷. HiNoter lists weekly plans at $8.99 and $9.99 and annual plans from $39.99 to $79.99 ¹⁸. Owll lists weekly recorder plans from $5.99 to $9.99 and yearly plans from $69.99 to $99.99 ¹⁹. Without a monthly option, the choice is between paying weekly and committing to a year, which suits an impulse purchase better than steady use.

The apps that sell weekly plans in the dictation kind are few, and the table lists them so you can see each one's other purchases.

For all kinds together, the first eight apps with a weekly plan are below.

Showing 8 of 50 rows. See every row in the dataset.

What the numbers do and do not measure

A weekly plan here means a purchase that Apple lists under a name that says weekly. Apple shows at most ten purchases per app, so a cheaper or other plan may be missing from the list. A period read from a purchase name can be wrong when the name is unclear, and a trial or introductory price is not shown, so a week that starts free or at a discount is not visible in these numbers. Prices are US prices only, and other storefronts charge in their own currencies and often less. The same plan can appear several times at different prices, which is why the tables show ranges. Nothing here measures how many people buy a weekly plan, how often they cancel, or which plan an app highlights first. The data covers apps with a US listing and leaves out web services and APIs.

What this means for choosing how to dictate

Check the period before the price. A weekly price looks small next to a monthly one, but at these listings a year of weeks costs several times the yearly plan. If an app offers a weekly plan, a yearly plan or a one-time purchase, work out the yearly cost of each before you subscribe, and set a reminder to cancel if you only need it for a short job. Some apps sell a lifetime purchase instead: 60 of 426 apps list one ²⁸.

For everyday dictation, the built-in tools on your phone or computer cost nothing, and our look at which dictation apps are free shows what else costs nothing. You can also see the full dataset, compare App Store prices and dictation app prices, browse products compared in our market overview, read the overview of dictation software, or follow the guide to the best dictation software.