Voicy review: is the Voicy dictation app safe to use?

Voicy is a cloud dictation app for Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome, iPhone and Android, and nothing on its official pages gives a reason to call it unsafe. Its regular dictation sends your audio to a third-party speech service (Groq) under a zero data retention setting, and its desktop apps have an offline mode that keeps audio on your computer. If "safe" for you means your voice never leaves the machine, turn that offline mode on, or use an app that only works locally.

This review is based on Voicy's own website, pricing page, privacy policy and refund policy, all read on October 31, 2026. We haven't run Voicy ourselves, so you won't find claims here about how it feels to use. We make Sayburst, a Mac dictation app, and there's a short section on it near the end.

#Voicy at a glance

Sources: usevoicy.com, pricing, privacy policy and refund policy, checked October 31, 2026.

#Is Voicy safe? What its privacy policy says

"Safe" usually means two questions: is the download legitimate, and what happens to what I say? The second one is answered in Voicy's privacy policy, and it's more specific than most.

• Your audio goes to Groq. In normal use, Voicy sends your recording to the Groq API, which transcribes it and does the post-processing, and the text comes back to Voicy.
• Zero data retention. Voicy says it has turned on Groq's Zero Data Retention settings, so Groq doesn't keep what it receives, and Voicy says it doesn't store recordings or transcriptions itself. Transcripts are kept on your device.
• Where the servers are. The policy says Voicy runs servers in the EU and the US, with US users routed to US servers and everyone else to the EU.
• No selling, no training claim. The policy says Voicy doesn't sell data. The homepage adds that recordings aren't used to train AI models.
• Offline mode is different. On Mac, Windows and Linux you can download a speech model once and dictate offline. Voicy says nothing is sent to its servers or to Groq in that mode.

What the pages don't tell you is also worth knowing. The privacy policy doesn't name the company behind Voicy or its country, and we found no security certifications listed on the homepage or pricing page. That doesn't make it unsafe. It does mean you're relying on the policy text rather than an audit, which is common for small apps.

So the honest answer to "is Voicy safe?" is: by its own description, your words pass through a cloud provider briefly and aren't kept. If your work involves client names, health details or anything under an NDA, that brief trip may still be one trip too many, and offline mode (or a local-only app) is the better setting.

#Is the download safe? Check it yourself

Any Mac app can be checked in a minute, and this works for Voicy, Sayburst or anything else:

1. Get it from the source. Download from the vendor's own site or the App Store, never from a mirror or a "free download" site.
2. Let Gatekeeper look at it. macOS warns you when an app isn't from an identified developer. If you see that warning for a commercial app, stop and re-download from the official site.
3. Read the permission prompts. A dictation app needs Microphone (to hear you) and Accessibility (to type into other apps). Those two are normal. Screen recording or Full Disk Access would deserve a question to the developer.
4. Look in System Settings › Privacy & Security later to see which apps hold those permissions, and switch off any you no longer use.

#About "Voicy Network"

People also search for "Voicy Network". voicy.network is a separate website that happens to share the name; it isn't the usevoicy.com dictation app, and this review doesn't cover it.

#Pricing

Voicy's free option is a trial measured in time, not words: 30 minutes of recording with every feature and no card. After that:

• Pro is $8.49 a month. The pricing page advertises 20% off annual billing, and the FAQ puts the annual price at $82 a year.
• Lifetime is $260, paid once.
• Team is $6.79 per user per month with a minimum of three users.
• Students and people with disabilities get 20% off, and there's a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Voicy also publishes a pledge that its price will never be more than 20% above its total costs. For a direct comparison with a one-time Mac app, see Sayburst vs Voicy.

#Features

The homepage describes Voicy as dictation that works in every app and website, with automatic punctuation and formatting, AI rewriting, and support for 50+ languages with automatic detection. Its reach is the standout: one subscription covers unlimited personal devices across desktop and mobile, plus a Chrome extension for people who live in the browser. The offline mode covers 25 languages on desktop.

#Who Voicy suits

• Good fit: you dictate on several platforms (say, a Windows work laptop and an Android phone), you're fine with cloud transcription under zero retention, and a low monthly price matters more than owning a license.
• Weaker fit: you want every dictation local by default, or you'd rather pay once without spending $260. Voicy's cloud path is the default, and offline mode has to be set up per desktop.

#If you're on a Mac: Sayburst

Sayburst is the Mac-only answer to the "where does my voice go" question: speech recognition runs on your Mac every time, and Sayburst never uploads your audio. There's no cloud mode to remember to turn off. After the speech model downloads once, you can switch off Wi-Fi and keep working.

Hold fn, talk, let go, and cleaned-up text lands at your cursor. A note to a client, said the way people talk:

"Hi Tomasz, uh, I've attached the draft contract. The, the payment terms are on page four, sorry, page five. Let me know if anything looks off."

What lands in Mail:

Hi Tomasz, I've attached the draft contract. The payment terms are on page five. Let me know if anything looks off.

The filler and the stutter are gone and the correction resolved, all on the Mac. Sayburst costs $29 once for one Mac or $49 for up to three, with a 7-day free trial and no card. It needs an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later, so if you also dictate on Windows or a phone, Voicy covers ground Sayburst doesn't. More on the trade-off in local vs cloud dictation, and every head-to-head is on our compare page.

Our take

Voicy looks like a reasonable, transparent cloud dictation app: audio goes to Groq under zero data retention, there's a desktop offline mode, and it runs on nearly every platform for $8.49 a month. If you want local transcription without having to remember a setting, and you only need a Mac, Sayburst does that for $29 once.

Questions people ask

Is Voicy safe?

Nothing on Voicy's official pages suggests it isn't. Its privacy policy says regular dictation is sent to Groq for transcription with zero data retention, and its desktop offline mode keeps audio on your computer. Download it only from usevoicy.com or the official app stores.

Does Voicy send my voice to the cloud?

By default, yes. Voicy's privacy policy says audio goes to the Groq API for transcription. The offline mode in the Mac, Windows and Linux apps transcribes on your computer instead and sends nothing to Voicy or Groq.

Is Voicy Network the same as Voicy the dictation app?

No. voicy.network is a separate website that shares the name. This review covers only the dictation app from usevoicy.com.

How much does Voicy cost?

Voicy has a 30-minute free trial, then Pro at $8.49 a month, a $260 lifetime license, or a team plan at $6.79 per user per month with a three-user minimum. Prices from usevoicy.com, checked October 31, 2026.

Is there a safer option for dictation on a Mac?

If you want your voice to stay on your Mac every time, use an app that transcribes locally. Sayburst runs speech recognition on your Mac and never uploads audio, for $29 once.