Aqua Voice vs Wispr Flow (2026): price, features, privacy

Aqua Voice and Wispr Flow are the same kind of app: you talk, a cloud model turns it into tidy text, and it lands wherever your cursor is, on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. Aqua Voice is cheaper and leans toward speed and technical vocabulary; Wispr Flow has the larger free plan, more languages, and more features around the dictation itself. Neither works offline.

Facts below come from aquavoice.com, Aqua's pricing page, wisprflow.ai, Wispr's pricing page and Wispr's data controls, checked October 31, 2026. We make Sayburst, a local Mac dictation app; it gets its own section after the comparison.

#At a glance

#Price

Aqua Voice is cheaper at the tier most people buy. Pro is $12 a month or $10 a month billed yearly ($120 a year) and gives unlimited words, custom instructions and a personal dictionary. Max, at $24 a month or $19 yearly, adds Realtime Mode, voice commands and early access.

Wispr Flow Pro is $15 a month or $12 a month billed yearly ($144 a year). There's no tier above Pro for individuals; the Growth and Enterprise plans are for organisations that need SSO, admin controls and HIPAA enforcement. Full detail on our Wispr Flow pricing page.

Students do better at Aqua: 70% off Pro and Max with a school email, against 50% off Wispr Flow Pro.

Over three years on yearly billing, Aqua Pro costs $360 and Wispr Flow Pro costs $432.

#Free plans

These differ more than the prices. Wispr Flow's free plan resets: 2,000 words every week on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. Aqua Voice's free plan is 1,000 words in total, which its own comparison page calls lifetime words. Wispr's free tier is something you can actually live on for light use; Aqua's is a trial in all but name.

#Privacy and where your voice goes

Both are cloud apps, and both say so.

• Wispr Flow's data controls page says transcription "always occurs on the cloud". It always uses the name of the app you're dictating into and the text in the surrounding text box, and with Context Awareness on it can use text from the active window. Data may be used to improve its models unless you switch sharing off in Settings › Data and Privacy; on Enterprise it's off and can't be enabled. More in is Wispr Flow private?
• Aqua Voice says it processes audio in the cloud to run its Avalon model, so it needs a connection. Its privacy policy says that with Privacy Mode off, transcripts may be stored to improve the product; with Privacy Mode on, transcript data isn't collected. Business plans list Zero Data Retention.

On paper, both list SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. Wispr's pricing page offers dictation under a signed BAA for HIPAA; Aqua's comparison page says it's HIPAA compliant. If that matters to you, ask each vendor for the documents rather than relying on a web page, ours included.

#Features

Aqua Voice leans technical. Its Avalon model is pitched on key-term accuracy for things like code and product names, Deep Context reads what's on your screen even on the free plan, and there's MCP, CLI and API access. Max adds Realtime Mode and voice commands. It supports 49 languages with automatic detection.

Wispr Flow leans toward writing. It handles backtracking ("let's meet at 2… actually 3" becomes 3), learns your words into a dictionary, expands spoken snippets into saved text, and adjusts style by app (styles are English and desktop-only). It works when you whisper, covers 100+ languages, and its Notetaker records meetings on Mac and Windows.

#Which should you pick?

• Pick Aqua Voice if you want the lowest price for unlimited cloud dictation, you dictate a lot of technical terms or code, or you want Realtime Mode and voice commands.
• Pick Wispr Flow if you need a free plan you can keep using, a language Aqua doesn't cover, snippets, or meeting notes from the same app.
• Pick neither if your voice shouldn't leave your computer. Both send every dictation to a server, so a client call, a patient note or a draft under NDA goes with it. Our guide to local vs cloud dictation walks through what that means in practice.

#A third option: Sayburst

Sayburst does the same hold-a-key-and-talk job on a Mac, with one big difference: speech recognition runs on the Mac, so your audio is never uploaded and it works offline. There's no account and no word limit.

Hold fn, talk, let go. Here's a reply to a recruiter, with the Email mode in Mail:

"Thanks for, uh, sending the role over. I can do a call on Monday at two, no, Tuesday at two works better, and I'll bring, um, the portfolio link."

What lands in the draft:

Thanks for sending the role over. I can do a call on Tuesday at 2, and I'll bring the portfolio link.

Fillers removed, the correction resolved, punctuation added, all on your Mac. Add names and jargon to the vocabulary and Sayburst spells them your way; switch modes per app so Slack stays casual and Mail gets paragraphs. If you want heavier rewriting, the optional Sayburst Writer runs on the Mac too, or you can connect your own provider.

The price is $29 once for one Mac, $49 for up to three, with a 7-day trial and no card. That's less than three months of Wispr Flow Pro billed monthly. The limits: it's Mac-only, needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later, and inserts text when you finish speaking rather than streaming it into the document. If you need Windows or a phone, stay with Aqua or Wispr. Compare directly: Sayburst vs Wispr Flow, or see every matchup on the compare page.

Our take

Between the two cloud apps, Aqua Voice is the better value for unlimited dictation and technical vocabulary, and Wispr Flow is the better all-rounder with a real free plan and more languages. If you work on a Mac and would rather your voice stayed on it, Sayburst does the core job locally for a one-time $29.

Questions people ask

Is Aqua Voice better than Wispr Flow?

For most individuals Aqua Voice is the cheaper way to get unlimited cloud dictation, and its Max plan adds Realtime Mode and voice commands. Wispr Flow has more languages, a weekly free allowance, snippets and a meeting Notetaker.

Which is cheaper, Aqua Voice or Wispr Flow?

Aqua Voice. Pro is $12 a month or $10 a month billed yearly. Wispr Flow Pro is $15 a month or $12 a month billed yearly. Prices checked October 31, 2026.

Do Aqua Voice and Wispr Flow work offline?

No. Aqua says it processes audio in the cloud to run its Avalon model and needs an internet connection. Wispr Flow says transcription always happens in the cloud.

Which free plan is bigger?

Wispr Flow's. It gives 2,000 words every week. Aqua Voice's free plan is 1,000 words in total.

Is there a dictation app like these that runs on the Mac itself?

Yes. Sayburst transcribes on your Mac, works offline and costs $29 once, but it's Mac-only.