COMPARISONEvery claim sourced · verified Jun 2026

Aqua Voice vs Granola: the honest comparison.

Aqua Voice is the dictation pick; Granola is the meeting-notes pick. Ottex is our tool, included as the broader Mac/iOS option for dictation, meetings, and finished outputs.

Ottex

Mac, iOS · Free tier · $14/mo · PAYG

Ottex is unusually broad for a young Mac/iOS-first tool: it turns dictation and meetings into emails, tickets, CRM updates, notes, and docs, but it is not the pick if you need Windows, Android, web, browser extension, or compliance paperwork.

Choose if

You want one tool for system-wide dictation, meeting recording, and finished written outcomes like follow-up emails, Linear tickets, CRM updates, PRDs, and docs
You want a real free path: unlimited local dictation, file transcription, and meetings on Mac with Whisper/Parakeet, or BYOK instead of a forced subscription
You need multilingual dictation with 100+ languages, auto-detection, mixed-language speech, personal vocabulary, and per-app output rules

Look elsewhere if

You need Windows, Android, Linux, web access, or a browser extension
You need mature team infrastructure such as a shared workspace, API/webhooks, third-party note destinations, or assistant chat over transcripts today.

Aqua Voice

Mac, Windows, iOS · Limited free · $8/mo

Aqua Voice is a polished system-wide dictation app for Mac, Windows, and iOS, with 49 languages and strong formatting controls, but it is not a meeting recorder or file transcription tool and dictation is processed server-side.

Choose if

You want fast, system-wide voice dictation across Mac, Windows, or iOS for everyday writing.
You want dictated text cleaned up automatically with punctuation, paragraphs, filler-word removal, snippets, custom vocabulary, and tone rules.
You are comfortable paying $10/month or $96/year after the 1,000-word trial, which is only about 8 minutes of speech.

Look elsewhere if

You need meeting recording, summaries, action items, speaker identification, or calendar-based meeting workflows.
You need audio or video file transcription with timestamps, speaker labels, exports, batch processing, or watch folders.

Granola

Mac, Windows, iOS, Android · Limited free · $18/mo

Granola is a strong bot-free meeting notes tool with polished AI summaries and team memory, but it is not a general dictation or file-transcription app.

Choose if

You want bot-free meeting capture that records from your mic and computer audio without joining calls.
You want AI meeting notes shaped by your own notes, with action items, decisions, follow-up emails, and reusable prompts.
You want a team meeting memory with shared workspaces, folders, cross-meeting Q&A, and Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar support.

Look elsewhere if

You need system-wide dictation, hotkeys, voice commands, auto-formatting, snippets, or text insertion into other apps.
You need imported audio or video file transcription, batch processing, timestamps, or export controls with public vendor claims behind them.

The evidence

What actually differs, claim by claim.

Each section opens with the takeaway. The table underneath is the receipt — every cell carries its source and the date we checked it.

Pricing

Aqua Voice has a 1,000-word free trial, which is only about 8 minutes of speech, then costs $10/mo or $96/yr. Granola is the real free winner for meetings at 25 meetings/month, then $18/seat/mo for unlimited meetings. Ottex has the broadest cheap path with free local AI or BYOK, PAYG at $0.2/hour, and Pro at $14/mo, but only if Mac or iOS works for you.

See the evidence — 12 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Granola
Free tier	YesWhisper & Parakeet run on your Mac. Dictation and meetings, $0.	Partial1,000 free words, no card required	Partial25 meetings/month
Subscription	$14/mo$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.	$8/moFAQ says Pro is $8/month billed annually after the free words.	$18/moBusiness is $18 per member/month or $14 per member/month billed annually.
Pay-as-you-go / one-timeEscape the flat subscription	$0.2/hourHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).	NoSubscription only	NoSubscription only
Bring your own keyPay the model provider, not the middleman	YesOpenRouter, Google AI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and compatible providers.	No public claim	No public claim
Education discount	NoSame pricing for everyone.	YesStudents with a .edu email get 70% off annual plans.	No public claim

Platforms

Granola wins platform coverage with Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Aqua Voice covers Mac, Windows, and iOS, which is enough for many dictation buyers but misses Android. Ottex is Mac and iOS only, so it loses immediately if Windows or Android support is required.

See the evidence — 4 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Granola
Platforms	Mac, iOS	Mac, Windows, iOS	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android
Native app footprintLight on memory, instant to invoke	YesNative Swift app, ~50MB RAM.	No public claim	No public claim

Meetings & team memory

Granola wins meeting capture because it records bot-free from your mic and computer audio, supports calendar workflows, and adds team memory. Aqua Voice has no meetings, speaker identification, summaries, or action items. Ottex also supports meetings, but Granola is the safer pick for mature team meeting memory today.

See the evidence — 17 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Granola
Meeting recordingThe call is captured at all	YesWith speaker separation.	NoNot supported.	YesGranola records and transcribes meetings without joining as a bot.
Bot-free captureNo "recording bot" joins your call	YesSystem-audio capture, no bot joins the call.	NoNot supported.	YesGranola does not send a bot to meetings.
Speaker separation	Yes	NoNot supported.	No public claim
Calendar detection	YesCalendar-based meeting detection.	NoNot supported.	YesGranola surfaces calendar events and can start notes from upcoming meetings.
Cross-meeting search	Yes	NoNot supported.	YesAsk Granola can answer across past meetings.
Shared team memory	PartialPublic share links, not a full team workspace.	NoNot supported.	YesBusiness workspaces include shared notes and folders for teams.

From meeting to finished work

Ottex wins finished work: it turns dictation and meetings into follow-up emails, Linear tickets, CRM updates, PRDs, docs, and notes. Granola is stronger than Aqua Voice for meeting intelligence, with AI notes, action items, decisions, follow-up emails, reusable prompts, shared workspaces, folders, and cross-meeting Q&A. Aqua Voice is not a meeting intelligence tool.

See the evidence — 12 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Granola
Decisions, owners, action itemsLeave the meeting with next steps clear	YesDecisions with owners extracted.	NoNot supported.	YesGranola can extract decisions from meetings through templates and AI notes.
Follow-up email draftedThe outcome is sent, not summarized	YesDrafted from templates or your own.	NoNot supported.	YesRecipes can generate follow-up emails from meetings.
CRM update / ticket draft	YesStructured for the target app.	NoNot supported.	YesGranola lists Attio as an integration for sending meeting notes to CRM records.
Your rough notes steer the result	YesRough notes and instructions steer the result.	NoNot supported.	YesUser notes are used to guide the generated meeting notes.

Dictation & transcription AI

Aqua Voice is the stronger cross-platform dictation pick between Aqua Voice and Granola, with Mac, Windows, iOS, 49 languages, punctuation, paragraphs, filler-word removal, snippets, custom vocabulary, and tone rules. Granola does not offer system-wide dictation, hotkeys, voice commands, auto-formatting, snippets, or text insertion into other apps. Ottex wins breadth for Mac/iOS dictation with local models, BYOK, 100

See the evidence — 11 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Granola
Engines	Cloud: Whisper, Gemini 3 Flash, Voxtral. Local: Whisper, Parakeet v3.Hosted routing, BYOK, or fully local.	Avalon proprietary speech modelAqua says it runs on its own Avalon speech model.	No public claim
Local / on-device optionAudio never leaves the machine	YesWhisper and Parakeet v3 run fully on-device.	NoAqua requires an internet connection and processes audio server-side.	NoGranola states it requires an internet connection to transcribe and generate notes.
Model selection per task	YesChoose the model per task and per provider.	No public claim	No public claim
Languages & mixed speechWork that crosses languages mid-sentence	Yes100+ languages · Mid-sentence language switching.	Yes49+ languages · Language guide says Aqua supports multilingual speakers.	No public claim
Per-app output rules	YesPer-app output rules: exact in AI chats, polished in email.	PartialAqua formats for the destination app, but no per-app rule editor is documented.	NoNot supported

Cost

What a year actually costs at your volume.

Personal or team — switch tabs. Subscriptions are flat; usage-based pricing depends on how much you speak and meet.

You dictate about 3 h a week≈ 23,400 words at ~130 wpm

0 h5 h10 h

and sit in 4 h of meetings a weekhours you'd want captured and turned into follow-ups

0 h7.5 h15 h

Fill the gaps with:

Dictation appadded to meetings-only toolsMeetings appadded to dictation-only tools

OttexOttex Provider — PAYG$135/yrHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).

OttexPro$168/yr$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.

GranolaBusiness$168/yr$168 + $0Business is $18 per member/month or $14 per member/month billed annually. · Unlimited meetings

Aqua VoicePro Annual$264/yr$96 + $168FAQ says Pro is $8/month billed annually after the free words. · Unlimited use

Aqua VoicePro Monthly$288/yr$120 + $168A vendor comparison page lists Pro at $10/month. · Unlimited use

Estimates, not quotes. Striped bar segments are the cost of the second app you picked above to cover the gap — rankings use that combined total. PAYG and BYOK usage are estimated at provider at-cost rates ($0.2/h dictation, $0.5/h meetings) — bring-your-own-key plans still pay the model provider per use. One-time licenses are amortized over 2 years. Subscriptions use published pricing, checked Jun 2026.

FAQ

Questions people actually ask.

Aqua Voice vs Granola: which should I pick?

Pick Aqua Voice if you need system-wide dictation across Mac, Windows, or iOS. Pick Granola if you need bot-free meeting notes, action items, follow-up emails, shared workspaces, and 25 free meetings/month. Pick Ottex if you want dictation, meetings, file transcription, and finished outputs in one Mac/iOS tool.

Is Aqua Voice free?

Aqua Voice has a free trial with 1,000 words, which is only about 8 minutes of speech at normal dictation speed. After that, it is $10/mo or $96/yr for unlimited use. For a genuinely free option, consider Ottex — unlimited with local models or your own key.

Is Granola free?

Granola has a useful free Basic plan for meetings: 25 meetings/month. Unlimited meetings require Business at $18/seat/mo, with Enterprise priced custom. Aqua Voice is cheaper for dictation at $96/yr, but it does not record meetings.

How much does Aqua Voice cost compared with Granola?

Aqua Voice costs $10/mo or $96/yr after its 1,000-word trial. Granola costs $18/seat/mo for unlimited meetings after the free 25-meeting/month Basic plan. Ottex is cheaper for some Mac/iOS workflows because it has free local AI, free BYOK, and PAYG at $0.2/hour.

Is Aqua Voice safe?

Aqua Voice dictation is processed server-side, so it is not the privacy pick if your priority is keeping transcription local. Granola records from your mic and computer audio for meeting notes, but the input does not state a local or on-device option. Ottex is the privacy-oriented option here because it supports local AI on Mac and BYOK.

Is it worth switching from Aqua Voice to Granola?

Switch from Aqua Voice to Granola only if your problem has become meetings, not dictation. Granola adds bot-free capture, meeting notes, action items, decisions, follow-up emails, calendar support, shared workspaces, folders, and cross-meeting Q&A. Stay on Aqua Voice if you mainly dictate into apps and need 49 languages on Mac, Windows, or iOS.

Does Aqua Voice or Granola work on Windows or Android?

Aqua Voice works on Windows, Mac, and iOS, but not Android. Granola works on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, so it wins device coverage between the two. Ottex is Mac and iOS only.

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