COMPARISONEvery claim sourced · verified Aug 2026

Aqua Voice vs Wispr Flow: the honest comparison.

Choose Aqua Voice for lower-cost dictation across Mac, Windows, and iOS. Choose Wispr Flow for beta Android access, 100 languages, or bot-free Mac meeting notes. We make Ottex and show it as a reference for local AI, file transcription, and finished work.

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.

Wispr Flow

Mac, Windows, iOS · Limited free · $7.5/mo

Polished system-wide dictation with smart formatting and useful bot-free Mac meeting notes, but it cannot transcribe prerecorded audio or video files.

Choose if

You want polished system-wide dictation across macOS, Windows, iPhone, and beta Android.
You dictate specialized terms and need custom vocabulary, snippets, corrections, and more than 100 languages.
You use a Mac and want bot-free meeting recording with summaries, action items, and transcript chat.

Look elsewhere if

You need to import prerecorded audio or video files for transcription.

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 is the cheaper standard plan at $10/month or $96/year, versus Wispr Flow Pro at $15/month or $144/year. Aqua Voice’s 1,000-word trial is only about 8 minutes of speech, while Wispr Flow’s desktop free tier has a 2,000-word weekly soft cap, about 15 minutes, and a 5,000-word hard cap, about 38 minutes; Wispr Flow does offer unlimited Android dictation and a $72/year Student plan. Ottex is the flexible reference with free local and BYOK paths, $0.20/hour PAYG, or a $168/year Pro plan.

See the evidence — 14 claims across 3 toolsverified Aug 2026Show table

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Wispr Flow
Free tier	YesForever free with local models and BYOK providers.	Partial1,000 free words, no card required	Partial2,000 words (soft cap) and 5,000 words (hard cap) per week on desktop; 1,000 words (soft cap) and 1,500 words (hard cap) on iOS; unlimited on Android; weekly meeting limit not numerically published
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.	$7.5/moThis is discounted Flow Pro pricing for eligible students.
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	NoNot supported
Education discount	NoSame pricing for everyone.	YesStudents with a .edu email get 70% off annual plans.	YesStudents and educators with an education email receive 50% off Flow Pro.

Platforms

Wispr Flow wins coverage with 4 platforms: Mac, Windows, iOS, and beta Android, although its Notetaker is unavailable on Android. Aqua Voice covers 3 platforms—Mac, Windows, and iOS—while Ottex is narrower at 2, Mac and iOS. The digests do not identify any of these apps as Electron-based, so no native-versus-Electron judgment is supported.

See the evidence — 5 claims across 3 toolsverified Aug 2026Show table

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Wispr Flow
Platforms	Mac, iOS	Mac, Windows, iOS	Mac, Windows, iOSSome platforms in beta/waitlist
Native app footprintLight on memory, instant to invoke	YesNative Swift app, ~50MB RAM.	No public claim	YesWispr describes its macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android clients as native apps.

Meetings & team memory

Wispr Flow wins meeting capture because it offers bot-free recording on 1 platform, Mac, with summaries and action items. Aqua Voice has 0 meeting-recording capability and no speaker identification or calendar meeting workflow. Ottex also records meetings on Mac, but Wispr Flow is the better-established choice here when bot-free Mac notes are the priority.

See the evidence — 17 claims across 3 toolsverified Aug 2026Show table

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Wispr Flow
Meeting recordingThe call is captured at all	YesWith speaker separation.	NoNot supported.	PartialNotetaker records meetings and voice memos on Mac only and is unavailable to Enterprise organizations.
Bot-free captureNo "recording bot" joins your call	YesSystem-audio capture, no bot joins the call.	NoNot supported.	YesRecording happens on the user's device without a bot joining the call.
Speaker separation	Yes	NoNot supported.	YesThe refined transcript separates speakers and supports assigning or renaming speaker labels.
Calendar detection	YesCalendar-based meeting detection.	NoNot supported.	YesMac Notetaker detects calls and can show a recording prompt automatically.
Cross-meeting search	Yes	NoNot supported.	YesThe remote MCP server lets compatible AI clients search summaries, notes, and transcripts across meetings.
Shared team memory	PartialPublic share links, not a full team workspace.	NoNot supported.	No public claim

From meeting to finished work

Wispr Flow clearly beats Aqua Voice for meeting intelligence: it provides 3 useful outcomes on Mac—summaries, action items, and transcript chat—while Aqua Voice provides 0 meeting workflows. Ottex goes further as the reference product by turning meetings into follow-up emails, Linear tickets, CRM updates, PRDs, and documents, although it lacks mature shared-workspace and integration infrastructure.

See the evidence — 9 claims across 3 toolsverified Aug 2026Show table

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Wispr Flow
Decisions, owners, action itemsLeave the meeting with next steps clear	YesDecisions with owners extracted.	NoNot supported.	YesMeeting summaries include decisions made during the meeting.
Follow-up email draftedThe outcome is sent, not summarized	YesDrafted from templates or your own.	NoNot supported.	No public claim
CRM update / ticket draft	YesStructured for the target app.	NoNot supported.	No public claim
Your rough notes steer the result	YesRough notes and instructions steer the result.	NoNot supported.	No public claim

Dictation & transcription AI

Wispr Flow wins language breadth with more than 100 languages versus Aqua Voice’s 49, and both offer system-wide dictation with formatting, vocabulary, and snippet controls. Neither has a local option or BYOK, while Ottex supports 100+ languages, local models, BYOK, mixed-language speech, auto-detection, and per-app output rules. Choose Aqua Voice if 49 languages are enough and its $96 annual price matters more than Wispr Flow’s broader language coverage.

See the evidence — 13 claims across 3 toolsverified Aug 2026Show table

	Ottex	Aqua Voice	Wispr Flow
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.	Wispr cloud voice-to-text engineEvery plan uses the same cloud-hosted voice-to-text engine.
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.	NoFlow requires an internet connection for voice transcription.
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.	Partial100+ languages · Code-switching works best with one primary language and occasional foreign words; rapid mid-sentence switching is unsupported.
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.	YesUsers can set styles by destination category: Personal message, Work messages, Email, and Other.

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

Wispr FlowStudent$72/yrThis is discounted Flow Pro pricing for eligible students. · Unlimited dictations; paid-plan meeting allowance not numerically published

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

Wispr FlowFlow Pro$144/yrNotetaker is included at no extra cost but is being rolled out gradually. · Unlimited dictations; higher weekly meeting limit, exact number not published

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

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

Wispr FlowBusiness$456/yr$288 + $168The published price is per seat, and some business-plan accounts may not have Notetaker access. · Unlimited dictations; Notetaker availability varies by business account

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 uses hosted at-cost estimates ($0.2/h dictation, $0.5/h meetings); BYOK is estimated at about a third of that because you pay the model provider directly. 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 Aug 2026.

FAQ

Questions people actually ask.

Aqua Voice vs Wispr Flow: which is better?

Wispr Flow is better if you need more than 100 languages, beta Android support, or bot-free meeting notes on Mac. Aqua Voice is the better buy for straightforward dictation across Mac, Windows, and iOS because its annual plan costs $96 instead of $144.

Is Aqua Voice free?

Aqua Voice gives you 1,000 free words without a card, which is only about 8 minutes of speech, so it is a trial rather than a sustainable free plan. Unlimited use costs $10/month or $96/year.

Is Wispr Flow free?

Wispr Flow is unlimited on Android, but its desktop free tier has a 2,000-word weekly soft cap, about 15 minutes, and a 5,000-word hard cap, about 38 minutes. On iOS, the 1,000-word soft cap is about 8 minutes and the 1,500-word hard cap is about 12 minutes, so the free plan is mainly practical on Android.

How much do Aqua Voice and Wispr Flow cost?

Aqua Voice costs $10/month or $96/year for unlimited use. Wispr Flow Pro costs $15/month or $144/year, while eligible students can pay $7.50/month or $72/year.

Is Aqua Voice safe and private?

Aqua Voice processes dictation server-side, and Wispr Flow does not offer a local option either; the supplied details do not establish where Wispr Flow sends audio. If keeping processing on your device is the deciding factor, Ottex offers unlimited local AI on Mac.

Is it worth switching from Aqua Voice to Wispr Flow?

Switch if you need beta Android access, more than 100 languages instead of 49, or bot-free Mac meeting notes. Stay with Aqua Voice if you only need dictation on Mac, Windows, or iOS and prefer paying $96/year instead of $144/year.

Do Aqua Voice and Wispr Flow work on Windows and Android?

Both work on Windows, but only Wispr Flow supports Android, where its shipping dictation app is still labeled Beta and Notetaker is unavailable. Aqua Voice supports Mac, Windows, and iOS, while Wispr Flow covers those platforms plus Android.

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