The Aqua Voice alternative — a free tier you can actually live in

Aqua Voice and ListenIn both turn speech into finished text anywhere on your Mac, and Aqua’s Pro plan is cheaper than ListenIn’s. The difference that decides it for most people is what happens before you pay at all.

The short answer

Pick ListenIn — Pick ListenIn if you want a free tier that renews every week instead of running out, if you mix Chinese and English when you speak, if you want to route cleanup through your own API key or a local model, or if you would rather buy once.
Pick Aqua Voice — Pick Aqua Voice if you want the lowest monthly Pro price, or if you want its Realtime Mode and “Send it” voice command, which live on the Max plan.

Side by side

	ListenIn	Aqua Voice
Free tier	8,000 cleaned words every week	1,000 free words
Account to use the free tier	Not required	No credit card required
Pro price	$12/mo · $96/yr	$10/mo monthly · $8/mo billed annually
Higher tier	None — Pro is the top plan	Max $30/mo monthly · $24/mo annually
One-time licence	$149	Not offered
Mixed Chinese + English	What the cleanup layer is tuned for	Not stated on the pricing page
Bring your own model	Any API key, or local Ollama	Not offered
Custom dictionary	Yes, and it learns from your corrections	Expanded Custom Dictionary on Pro
Realtime on-screen text	Deliberately off by default	Realtime Mode on Max

Prices and plan contents as listed on the vendor’s own pricing page, checked 22 September 2026. Plans change — check the source before deciding. Aqua Voice pricing

Where ListenIn wins

The free tier renews. 8,000 cleaned words a week, every week, against 1,000 words once — and ListenIn asks for no account and no email to give you that.
Mixed Chinese–English speech is the tuning target, so English technical terms survive inside Chinese sentences.
Cleanup can run on your own API key, or entirely on your Mac through Ollama.
The dictionary is not just a list you maintain: correct a misheard word once and it is learned, with an offer to fix the other occurrences in the field.
$149 once, if you would rather not subscribe at all.

Where Aqua Voice wins

Pro is cheaper — $8 a month billed annually, or $10 month-to-month, against $12.
Realtime Mode shows words as you speak, and the “Send it” voice command submits without touching the keyboard. Both are Max-plan features; ListenIn deliberately keeps live transcript display off.
A 70% student discount, and team plans from $12 per user per month.
A clearer upgrade ladder for teams, with centralised billing and enforced privacy settings.

The bottom line

If you dictate enough to pay for it and want the cheapest Pro, Aqua Voice wins on price. If you want to find out whether dictation fits your work before paying anything — or you speak two languages in one sentence — a weekly 8,000-word allowance with no sign-up is a very different starting point from 1,000 words once.

Frequently asked

How does ListenIn’s free tier compare with Aqua Voice’s?

Aqua Voice’s Starter plan includes 1,000 free words and needs no credit card. ListenIn’s free tier is 8,000 cleaned words per week, renewing weekly, and needs no account or email at all.

Is Aqua Voice cheaper than ListenIn?

At Pro, yes: $8 a month billed annually or $10 month-to-month, against ListenIn’s $12. Aqua’s Max plan is more expensive than either, at $24–$30 a month. ListenIn also offers a $149 one-time licence, which Aqua Voice does not.

Does ListenIn show the words as I speak?

Not by default. A live transcript panel under the cursor turned out to be more distracting than useful, so it stays off. Aqua Voice’s Realtime Mode, on its Max plan, is built for people who want the opposite.

Can I use my own AI model with either?

With ListenIn, yes — any API key, or a local Ollama model that keeps text on your Mac. Aqua Voice’s pricing page does not offer bring-your-own-model.

Want the wider picture? the full four-way comparison, or read exactly what leaves your Mac and what never does.