Aqua Voice and Wispr Flow are close rivals. Both run on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, both type finished text wherever your cursor is, and both clean up your speech as they go. They differ on price, on what you get for free, and on their extras: Aqua leans toward editing and coding, Wispr Flow toward meetings and teams.
A disclosure: we make LumeVoice, a third app in the same category, and we haven't used either of these ourselves. Everything below comes from each company's pricing page, help center, privacy pages and app listings, checked on October 20, 2026. Prices change, so confirm them on Aqua's pricing page and Wispr Flow's before you buy.
The short verdict#
Choose Aqua Voice if you:
- want unlimited dictation for less: $96 a year for Pro, against $144 for Wispr Flow Pro
- edit text by voice and don't want to pay extra for it (Edit Mode is on every plan)
- are a student: 70% off brings Pro to $2.40 a month on annual billing
- dictate code and AI prompts, where Aqua's file tagging, command-line tool and MCP server help
- want to watch your words appear as you speak and send messages hands-free (Realtime Mode, on Max)
Choose Wispr Flow if you:
- dictate lightly and want a free plan that keeps going
- want meeting notes from the same app (Notetaker, on Mac and Windows)
- speak a language outside Aqua's 49
- are setting up a small team with no seat minimum, or want a published plan that pairs single sign-on with a signed BAA (Growth)
Aqua Voice vs Wispr Flow at a glance#
| Aqua Voice | Wispr Flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android |
| Free plan | 1,000 words to try | 2,000 words a week on Mac and Windows; smaller weekly caps on phones |
| Pro | $10/month or $96/year | $15/month or $144/year |
| Higher tiers | Max $30/month or $288/year; Business $19 per seat a month billed annually | Growth $18 per user a month billed annually; Enterprise custom |
| Students | 70% off Pro and Max | 3 months of Pro free, then 50% off |
| Edit by voice | Edit Mode on every plan (desktop); voice editing on phones | Command Mode on paid plans (Mac and Windows) |
| Meeting notes | Not offered | Notetaker on every plan (Mac and Windows) |
| Languages | 49 | 100+ |
| Works offline | No offline mode on Mac or Windows | No; transcription always runs in the cloud |
| Default shortcut | Fn (Mac), Right Alt (Windows) | Fn (Mac), Ctrl + Win (Windows) |
| Security reports | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 |
| Refunds | Terms say fees are non-refundable | Terms say refunds only where the law requires |
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As of October 2026, from aquavoice.com, wisprflow.ai and both companies' help pages.
Price: Aqua costs less, Wispr Flow gives more away#
On paid plans, Aqua is cheaper: Pro is $10 a month against $15, or $96 a year against $144 on annual billing. Over three years of annual billing, Aqua saves you $144.
| Over 3 years | Aqua Voice | Wispr Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Pro, paid monthly | $360 | $540 |
| Pro, paid yearly | $288 | $432 |
| Most expensive individual plan, paid yearly | $864 (Max) | $432 (Pro) |
| Student rate, paid yearly | $86.40 (Pro at 70% off) | $216 (Pro at 50% off, after the free months) |
| Two people with single sign-on, paid yearly | $1,368 (Business) | $1,296 (Growth) |
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Prices as of October 2026; totals assume they don't change.
Two things shift the math. First, Aqua's live-text features sit in Max, which at $288 a year costs twice as much as Wispr Flow Pro, so compare the plan you'd actually need. Second, where you subscribe matters at Aqua: its iPhone app lists Pro (Annual) at $119.00 in the US App Store, against $96 on the web (App Store listing). Our Aqua Voice pricing guide and Wispr Flow pricing guide cover every plan.
Neither sells a lifetime license, and neither makes refunds easy: Aqua's terms say fees are non-refundable, and Wispr's say refunds are issued only where the law requires.
Free plans: Wispr Flow wins#
Wispr Flow's free plan doesn't run out. You get 2,000 words a week on Mac and Windows, and its help center puts the phone caps at 750 words a week on iPhone and 1,500 on Android. Each dictation counts once toward a combined weekly total, and the count resets on Sunday at midnight Pacific time (Wispr's free plan limits).
Aqua's free plan is 1,000 words, with its Avalon model and no card. Aqua's Mac page estimates that's about seven minutes of talking, and says that once you reach it, you upgrade to keep dictating (Aqua for Mac). It's enough to test Aqua on your own vocabulary, including a taste of Realtime Mode, but not to live on.
If you dictate a few short messages a week, Wispr Flow's free plan may be all you ever need. If you dictate most of your writing, you'll pay for either, and Aqua's Pro is the cheaper bill.
How you dictate on each platform#
On a computer, both are hold-to-talk, and both use Fn on a Mac by default. On Windows, Aqua's default key is Right Alt and Wispr Flow's is Ctrl + Win. For hands-free dictation, you double-press Aqua's key (or hold it and tap Space), while Wispr Flow's default is Fn + Space on a Mac and Ctrl + Win + Space on Windows (Aqua's Send It post, Wispr's first-dictation guide). Aqua can also start from a middle or side mouse button.
On iPhone, both are keyboards you switch to. Aqua's needs iOS 17 or later and adds an Action Button shortcut on supported iPhones (Aqua for iPhone).
On Android, both float a button over your apps, so you keep your usual keyboard. Aqua's Android app is the newer of the two: it reached Google Play on October 6, 2026, and runs on phones and tablets with Android 10 or later (Aqua for Android).
Aqua syncs your dictionary, replacements and custom instructions across all four platforms on the same account, and Wispr Flow says it syncs across all four too.
Features: editing, meetings and languages#
Editing by voice. Aqua's Edit Mode is the more generous of the two: highlight text in any desktop app, hold your Aqua key and describe the edit ("make it shorter", "translate to Japanese", or just the corrected sentence). It's included on every plan, and Aqua's phone apps can edit by voice too (Edit Mode guide). Wispr Flow's Command Mode does the same job on Mac and Windows, and can also draft a reply or run a web search by voice. It's off by default, needs a paid plan or an active trial, and Wispr says in-place editing isn't currently working on iOS (Command Mode).
Live text and hands-free sending. Aqua's Realtime Mode displays the text in its toolbar while you're still talking, and finishing with "send it" submits the message for you. Both come with Max and Business, on Mac and Windows only (Realtime Mode).
Meeting notes. Only Wispr Flow has them. Notetaker records meetings on your Mac or Windows PC without a bot joining the call, names speakers and lets you ask questions across meetings. Free accounts get a weekly meeting limit, and Pro raises it.
Languages. Wispr Flow supports more than 100 and recommends picking the language you're speaking rather than relying on auto-detect. Aqua lists 49, with an Auto-Detect setting (Aqua's language list). Check that yours is on Aqua's list before you commit.
Coding. Aqua does more for developers: it turns spoken file names into tags in Cursor, Windsurf and some other AI editors, and offers a command-line tool, an MCP server for managing your dictionary from an agent, and an API (file tagging). Wispr Flow lists MCP access for its meeting notes, so you can use them in tools like Claude and ChatGPT.
Speech model. Aqua runs its own model, Avalon, and reports strong results on its own benchmark of technical terms. We don't know of an independent head-to-head test of the two apps, so your own dictation is the fairest test.
Privacy and security#
Both apps process speech in the cloud; neither works offline.
- Wispr Flow lets you decide whether your audio, transcripts and edits can be used to improve its models. On Growth and Enterprise, training is off and locked. A separate "Dictation cloud storage" setting controls whether your dictations are stored on Wispr's servers; switch it off and Wispr keeps them only on your device, deleting the audio after transcription. Context awareness, which reads limited text from the app you're dictating into, can be turned off too (Wispr privacy, data controls).
- Aqua Voice has a Privacy Mode. With it off, its privacy policy says Aqua may store transcripts on its servers to improve the product; with it on, transcripts aren't stored, though session metadata may be. Its terms say it won't train AI models on your content unless you explicitly agree. On desktop, History keeps recent audio on your computer for three days, and Business adds zero data retention (privacy policy, terms).
For compliance, both list a SOC 2 Type II report and ISO 27001 certification. Wispr Flow offers HIPAA-ready dictation with a signed BAA, and its Growth plan enforces HIPAA settings across an organization. Aqua describes itself as GDPR and HIPAA compliant and asks healthcare teams to contact support about a BAA before dictating patient information (Aqua on GDPR and HIPAA). Our guide to private dictation for legal and medical work covers what to check.
Where LumeVoice fits#
LumeVoice is our product, so read this as the maker's view. It's the same kind of tool as both: cloud dictation for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that types clean text where your cursor is, removes filler words and applies your self-corrections ("five, actually six" becomes "six"). It doesn't edit selected text, show live text, take meeting notes or offer a team plan, so if you need any of those, pick from the two above.
Where it differs: it works in 100 languages, detected automatically; it sells a Lifetime license for $249, which neither Aqua nor Wispr Flow offers; Pro Annual is $79.99/year, less than either app's yearly Pro price; new accounts get 3,000 free words, no card required; and anyone who finds typing hard because of a disability, injury or health condition gets 50% off (accessibility discount). Like both, it needs an internet connection. See LumeVoice pricing, LumeVoice vs Aqua Voice and LumeVoice vs Wispr Flow.
Try LumeVoice on Your Own Words
Hold a key, talk, and LumeVoice types the finished text where your cursor is, in Gmail, Slack, Notion or your code editor. Your audio isn't stored after processing, your history stays on your device, and nothing you say is used to train a model.
The bottom line#
Aqua Voice is the better buy if you'll pay for dictation anyway: Pro costs a third less than Wispr Flow's, Edit Mode comes free with every plan, students get 70% off, and developers get the most extras. Wispr Flow is the better fit if you dictate lightly, live in meetings, speak a language outside Aqua's 49, or are rolling dictation out to a team without a seat minimum. Neither works offline, so if that matters, look at our Aqua Voice alternatives instead. Otherwise, try each on a week of real writing; both make that easy.
