Guides

Aqua Voice pricing: the 1,000 free words, Pro, Max and Business

By Ryleigh Newman · Published October 5, 2026 · Updated October 6, 2026

Aqua Voice pricing starts with 1,000 free words and no credit card, and Pro costs $8 a month billed yearly or $10 month to month, on aquavoice.com as of October 5, 2026. Max is $24 a month billed yearly or $30 month to month, and Business is $19 per seat a month billed yearly or $24 month to month, with a two-seat minimum. Every plan runs Avalon, Aqua's own speech model, in the cloud. What changes as you pay more is the word allowance, then live Realtime Mode and voice commands on Max, then team controls on Business.

I built YapToText, a free dictation app that runs on the Mac, so read the last sections with that in mind. Everything about Aqua here comes from aquavoice.com, read on October 3 and October 5, 2026, and the prices matched on both days. Each source is listed at the end of the page.

Download for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

Steps

1. Install YapToText from the Mac App Store and open it.
2. On the permissions page of the tour, press Continue next to Microphone and next to Accessibility, and switch YapToText on in System Settings.
3. Keep Right Command or record Fn/Globe with Hold to talk, click into a text field and dictate a sentence.
4. Select a name, tap Right Option, say add this to my dictionary, and tap Right Option again.
5. Add your Aqua Replacements as snippets on the Commands page, under Say this and Inserts.

Every Aqua Voice plan and price

Checked October 5, 2026, on aquavoice.com. Prices are in US dollars. Prices change, so check before you buy.

The pricing page lists the yearly price as a monthly figure, so Pro billed yearly works out to $96 a year by my arithmetic, and Max to $288. Business is the one plan where Aqua prints the yearly total itself: $228 per seat. Students get a discount on Pro and Max, covered in the next sections. For one person, the choice is the 1,000 free words, then Pro, or Max if you want Realtime Mode.

What the free words include, and what paid plans add

Aqua's free plan is 1,000 words with its Avalon model and no credit card. Aqua's Mac page puts that at about 7 minutes of talking, and Aqua calls the free plan a test drive. For scale, this page is longer than 1,000 words. The free plan is a trial measured in words, not a plan to dictate on every day.

Here is what each step up adds, according to Aqua's own pages:

• Free. Dictation into any app with Avalon: on a Mac you hold Fn, talk and let go. Edit Mode is on every plan: select text, hold the Aqua key and say the change, and Aqua says saying undo that walks an edit back.
• Pro. No word limit, Custom Instructions that set your writing rules, and an expanded custom dictionary for names and jargon.
• Max. Realtime Mode, which shows your words live as you speak. Aqua says Realtime Mode streams audio to a third-party speech provider. Max also adds Send It, which submits a message when you end with send it, and early access to new features. Computer Control, which works your cursor and keyboard from plain requests, is a macOS beta on Max and Business.
• Business. Everything in Max, plus centralized billing, SSO/SAML and SCIM, advanced reporting, Zero Data Retention and team-wide dictionaries, for at least two seats.

Two features are not tied to a plan in what I read. Deep Context, which uses what is on screen to get names and code right, is off until you turn it on. Replacements turn a short spoken phrase into longer text. If one of them matters to you, check which plan it needs in the app before you pay.

What a year of each plan costs

Paying yearly saves a fifth on Pro and Max. Here is what each plan adds up to over twelve months, worked out from Aqua's prices, before any tax:

Worked out from aquavoice.com prices, checked October 5, 2026.

Students who sign up with a school email get 70 percent off Pro and Max: Pro becomes $2.40 a month billed yearly or $3 month to month, and Max $7.20 or $9. Aqua says verification accepts .edu addresses and international academic domains such as .ac.uk, .ac.jp, .ac.kr and .ac.in. For comparison, Wispr Flow Pro is $12 a month billed yearly or $15 month to month, and the Wispr Flow pricing page has every plan. Aqua Pro is one of the cheaper cloud Pro plans, and Max costs three times as much.

Climb this ladder, smallest commitment first:

1. The 1,000 free words. No credit card, enough to hear how Avalon handles your vocabulary.
2. Pro, month to month. $10 for a month, if you are not sure you will keep it.
3. Pro, billed yearly. $96 a year, if you dictate every day and know it fits.
4. Max. $24 or $30 a month, only if you want Realtime Mode, Send It or Computer Control.
5. Business. From two seats, when a team needs single sign-on and Zero Data Retention.

Where your voice goes on every plan

Aqua's Mac page says it processes audio in the cloud, where Avalon runs, and that there is no offline mode. Its FAQ adds that offline availability varies by platform, app version and mode. Paying more changes what Aqua keeps, not where your words are transcribed.

If you start on the free words, the first thing worth doing is turning Privacy Mode on, because Aqua says it starts off. The guide to private dictation on a Mac explains what to look for in any app's privacy page, and the offline dictation guide shows how to test an app with Wi-Fi off.

Where Aqua is the better buy

Aqua is good software, and for some people Pro is money well spent. If you dictate on a PC, a phone or an Intel Mac, Aqua goes where YapToText cannot. It is the better choice if you need any of these:

• Windows and iPhone. Apps for Mac and for Windows 10 and 11, and a voice keyboard for iPhone on iOS 17 or later, with Android on a waitlist. YapToText runs only on the Mac.
• An Intel Mac. Aqua runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. YapToText needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.
• A model built for jargon. Aqua publishes its own benchmark, AISpeak, built from AI and technical vocabulary, and says its Avalon model beats Whisper Large v3 on it by a wide margin. That is Aqua's test, and I have not repeated it. If you dictate code and product names all day, try the free words on your own vocabulary.
• More languages. 49, with Auto-Detect, against YapToText's 29 plus auto-detect. The languages guide lists all 29.
• Your screen as context. Deep Context and File Tagging, which turns a spoken file name into an editor tag in Cursor or Windsurf. YapToText has nothing like either.
• A team. SSO/SAML, SCIM, advanced reporting and team-wide dictionaries on Business. YapToText has nothing for teams.

At $8 a month billed yearly, Pro also costs less than Wispr Flow Pro. If the cloud is fine with you and you dictate on more than one kind of device, those are real reasons to pay. The roundup of Wispr Flow alternatives ranks Aqua beside six other apps.

Where a free on-device app fits

YapToText is free with no paid tier, no word allowance and no account. The speech model and the cleanup model both run on your Mac, and the App Store download ships both, so it dictates with Wi-Fi off from the first launch. Tips are optional and buy no features. The parts Aqua sells by the month are free in YapToText, on one Apple silicon Mac.

• No word count. Word 1,001 costs the same as word one. The Statistics page counts your words only to show how much typing you skipped, never to send you a bill.
• Your own instructions. Aqua keeps Custom Instructions for Pro. In YapToText you can rewrite any mode's instructions in plain language, and Auto mode, on by default, picks a treatment for each dictation. The Auto mode guide has the details.
• Your words. Dictionaries shape what the speech model hears, not just what it types, with no Pro tier for a bigger list. The Dictionaries guide shows how.
• Editing by voice. Quick Edit: select text, tap Right Option, say the change, and tap again. The Quick Edit guide lists what you can ask for.
• Words as they form. The floating panel shows your words while you talk, worked out on the Mac, and types the finished text at your cursor when you stop.

The trade is real. It runs only on an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later, the download is about 2.9 GB, it lists 29 languages plus auto-detect, and there is no Windows or iPhone version and nothing for teams. My hands make typing difficult, so I dictate every day, and I wanted dictation that keeps working with the Wi-Fi off and costs nothing on word 1,001. The free Aqua Voice alternative page compares the two app to app.

Try the free route in ten minutes

If you are weighing Aqua Pro, it costs nothing to try YapToText on the same Mac first. Quit Aqua while you test, so two apps are not listening for your keys at once; that is caution, not something I measured.

Step 1: Install YapToText

• You: Get YapToText from the Mac App Store and open it.
• YapToText: Opens a short welcome tour. Both models are already inside, so there is nothing else to download.
• Check: The tour reaches a page titled A couple of permissions.

Step 2: Allow the microphone and Accessibility

• You: Press Continue next to Microphone, then next to Accessibility.
• macOS: Asks once for the microphone, then opens System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, where you switch YapToText on yourself.
• Check: Both cards read Granted. Without Accessibility, dictations go to the clipboard instead of your cursor.

Step 3: Keep your Aqua habit, and dictate once

• You: On the tour's Your controls page, keep Right Command, or record Fn/Globe and choose Hold to talk if your hands learned Aqua's Fn habit. Then click into a text field, dictate a sentence, and stop.
• YapToText: Shows your voice as a wave and your words as they form, then types the finished text at your cursor.
• Check: The words land where your cursor was. If the wave stays flat, the app is not hearing your microphone yet.

Step 4: Bring your words over

Say: Select a name anywhere on screen, tap Right Option, say this, and tap Right Option again.

add this to my dictionary

What happens: The Quick Edit card says the word was added to your dictionary, and from then on YapToText spells it the way you selected it.

• You: Add the rest of your Aqua dictionary on the Dictionaries page. For your Aqua Replacements, open Snippets on the Commands page, press Add Snippets, and put the phrase under Say this and the text under Inserts.
• YapToText: Uses your dictionary words to prime the speech model, so it hears them as well as types them.
• Check: Dictate a sentence with one of them. It comes out spelled your way.

While Require the word insert before a command is on, which is the default, you say insert before a snippet's phrase. The first dictation guide covers the floating panel and the keys you can press while you talk. If YapToText does the job, you keep the $96; if it does not, Aqua's free words are still there.

What each one cannot do

Neither app does everything, and the gaps point in opposite directions. Aqua asks for the cloud and, after 1,000 words, a plan; YapToText asks you to stay on one Mac.

Aqua Voice

• No offline mode on the Mac. Its Mac page says audio is processed in the cloud.
• A short free start. 1,000 words, about 7 minutes of talking, before you need Pro.
• Privacy Mode starts off. Until you turn it on, transcripts may be stored to improve the product.
• Live words cost more. Realtime Mode is on Max, and it streams audio to a third-party provider.

YapToText

• One kind of computer. An Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later, with no Windows, iPhone or Intel version.
• Whisper, not Avalon. It runs Whisper models only, on your Mac, and has not been tested against Aqua's benchmark.
• Fewer languages. 29 plus auto-detect, against Aqua's 49.
• No screen context or Mac control. Nothing like Deep Context, File Tagging or Computer Control.
• Nothing for teams. No shared dictionaries, single sign-on or admin reports.

If you are still choosing between cloud apps, the ranking of AI dictation apps sorts them by where the AI runs, and the Willow Voice pricing page covers another cloud app with a free plan.

The short version

• Free. 1,000 words with Avalon and no credit card, which Aqua calls a test drive.
• Pro. $8 a month billed yearly, or $10 month to month, for unlimited words, custom instructions and a bigger dictionary.
• Max and Business. Max at $24 or $30 adds Realtime Mode and Send It; Business at $19 or $24 per seat, two seats minimum, adds SSO, SCIM and Zero Data Retention.
• Cloud on every plan. No offline mode on the Mac, and Privacy Mode is off until you turn it on.

Aqua charges for words, live text and teams; YapToText charges nothing and stays on one Mac.

If a price or plan here no longer matches Aqua's site, open an issue on GitHub and I will fix it. Every one gets read.

Download for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Related

• A free Aqua Voice alternative with no subscription and no cloud
• The best Wispr Flow alternatives for Mac in October 2026
• Wispr Flow pricing: what the free plan allows and what Pro adds
• The best AI dictation apps for Mac in October 2026, ranked by where the AI runs
• Willow Voice pricing: what the free plan allows and what Pro costs
• Wispr Flow vs Aqua Voice on a Mac: two cloud dictation apps, and a free on-device third option

Sources

• https://aquavoice.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://aquavoice.com (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://aquavoice.com/mac (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://aquavoice.com/info/faq (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://aquavoice.com/info/privacy (checked 2026-10-05)
• https://aquavoice.com/edit-mode (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://aquavoice.com/ios (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://aquavoice.com/llms.txt (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://wisprflow.ai/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yaptotext/id6786382289 (checked 2026-10-03)
• https://github.com/ryleighnewman/YapToText (checked 2026-10-03)

Questions