The best AudioPen alternatives for Mac
Looking for an AudioPen alternative on Mac? Koi, Letterly, Superwhisper, Wispr Flow, Monologue and Voicenotes, compared on rewrites, length limits and price.
Start here
What Voicenotes does well
Voicenotes started as a voice memo app and grew into “the notetaker for your confidential meetings”: memos, meetings recorded without a bot, dictation on the Mac (hold fn), and Ask, which answers from everything you've recorded. It runs on Mac, iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, Wear OS and the web, with a Windows beta.
The free Basic plan gives 100 transcription minutes a week, shared between meetings, memos and dictation, and keeps 30 days of history. Pro is $9 per user a month and Enterprise $24, on Voicenotes' pricing. Its help pages say dictation is a Pro feature after a one-time free allowance.
We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Every fact about another app comes from its own site, help pages or public reviews, checked October 16, 2026. We didn't run tests.
Stay
Stay on Voicenotes if
- You record on your phone or your Watch. Koi has no iPhone, Android or Watch app.
- You want a free plan. Voicenotes has one; Koi doesn't.
- Price matters most. Voicenotes Pro is $9 a month; Koi Pro is $20.
- You need your notes on the web, on Windows, or shared with a team.
- You rely on Ask across every memo, from any device.
If none of those hold you, the rest of this page is about what else is out there, and where your voice goes in each.
Why people look
Why people look for a Voicenotes alternative
Three things come up. The first is the cap: 100 free minutes a week goes fast once meetings share it with memos. The second is the cloud: Voicenotes transcribes in the cloud, and its privacy policy says true end-to-end encryption isn't feasible. The third is reliability. On Trustpilot, where it scores 4.2 from 54 reviews, some people report recordings that disappeared or wouldn't upload, and one says a renewal notice came too late to cancel. Those are individual reports, not a test.
The list
6 Voicenotes alternatives for Mac
1. Koi
Best for: Voice to text on your Mac with no minutes to count, into a real editor
Tap Fn + ⌥ in any app, or on a new Koi page, and talk. Words appear while you speak, with the ums taken out. Speech becomes text on your Mac with Whisper, so nothing has to upload: it works offline, in 57 languages, and it's unlimited on every plan. What you dictate is kept in Recents, marked as dictated.
Tap Fn + ⌃ to record a meeting. An online call keeps your microphone as You and the Mac's sound as Them, plus a video of the screen; in person, it keeps the sound to play back. Recordings are unlimited too, and stay on your Mac. Say yes when one ends and Koi's AI, which is online, writes a summary and your to-dos from the transcript's words. Then everything lives in an editor with tables, charts, LaTeX and to-dos, exported to Word or PDF.
What you give up: phone and Watch apps, a free plan, sync, and sharing. Pro is $20 a month after a 3-day trial that needs a card, or Lifetime from $59 once.
2. Apple Notes
Best for: Free recordings with a transcript, on your Mac and iPhone
Apple Notes records audio inside a note with a live transcript, and Apple Intelligence can summarize it. Apple's guide says it needs an M1 or later Mac and works in 10 languages. It's free, already on your Mac, and syncs to iPhone and iPad through iCloud.
It has no Ask across your notes and no meeting recorder for Zoom or Meet in Apple's guide. For memos on a phone and a free price, though, it's the obvious first try.
3. Monologue
Best for: The same jobs on Apple devices, with local models on the Mac
Monologue, from Every, does dictation, voice notes with summaries and meeting notes without a bot, on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Its local models on the Mac work offline; smart formatting and syncing need a connection. Its site says dictation audio and transcripts aren't saved on its servers.
Pro is $15 a month or $144 a year after a trial of 1,000 words and 10 notes. It's the nearest match to Voicenotes that keeps a phone app.
4. AudioPen
Best for: Memos rewritten into clean notes, emails or posts
AudioPen turns a ramble into tidy writing in a style you pick. Its Mac app, Apple silicon only, transcribes offline and types into any app from a hotkey; the rewrite runs in the cloud, and voice note audio is deleted within 48 hours, by its privacy policy.
Free recordings stop at 3 minutes. Prime is $99 a year, $33 for 3 months or $159 for 2 years, with recordings up to 15 minutes. It's on the web, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch.
5. Mem
Best for: An AI that works across your notes, priced by messages and hours
Mem is closest to Voicenotes' Ask: an agent over your notes, plus Voice Mode and meeting capture without a bot, on Mac, Windows, iPhone and the web. Its plans are metered: Free has 3 hours of voice and 25 AI messages, Plus is $9 a month for 10 hours and 50 messages, and Pro is $29 for 25 hours and 100 messages.
6. Letterly
Best for: Voice notes with rewrite styles, and a lifetime option
Letterly records voice notes, rewrites them in styles, types into other apps and records meetings up to 90 minutes, on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and the web. It records offline but transcribes in the cloud. Free covers 10 notes of up to 3 minutes. Pro comes monthly, yearly or once for life, though its prices aren't published on its site.
Comparison
Voicenotes alternatives compared
From each app's own site, checked October 16, 2026. Paid is the cheapest individual plan.
| Speech to text | Free plan | Paid | Phone app | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicenotes | Cloud | 100 minutes a week | $9 a month | iPhone, Android, Watch | Memos and Ask on every device |
| Koi | On the Mac | None; 3-day trial | $20 a month, or Lifetime from $59 | No | Unlimited voice to text into a real editor |
| Apple Notes | Built in, M1 or later | Free | None | iPhone, iPad | Free memos with a transcript |
| Monologue | Local models on the Mac | 1,000-word trial | $15 a month | iPhone, iPad, Watch | Apple devices, offline on the Mac |
| AudioPen | On the Mac; rewrite in the cloud | 3-minute recordings | $99 a year | iPhone, Android, Watch | Clean rewrites |
| Mem | Cloud | 3 hours of voice | $9 a month | iPhone | An AI over your notes |
| Letterly | Cloud | 10 notes | Not published | iPhone, Android | Rewrite styles |
Head to head
Voicenotes vs Koi
They overlap on the Mac and part ways everywhere else. Voicenotes is a cloud service with apps on every device: you record anywhere, it transcribes on its servers, and Ask finds things across all of it. Koi is a Mac app: it hears you on the Mac, keeps every recording and document there, and has no phone app.
- Limits: Voicenotes counts transcription minutes on its free plan. Koi doesn't count dictation or recordings on any plan.
- Where it's heard: Voicenotes in the cloud. Koi on your Mac, with only its AI features going online.
- What you do next: Voicenotes keeps memos and meeting notes. Koi puts them in a full editor with tables, charts and LaTeX, exported to Word or PDF.
- Asking questions: both can. On a call, ask Koi “what did Sam say about pricing?” and it searches your pages, dictations and calls on the Mac.
- Price: Voicenotes is cheaper, with a free plan. Koi has no free plan, but sells Lifetime.
Before you switch
Bringing your notes over
Export what you want to keep from Voicenotes first. Koi's Import takes PDF, Word, Markdown and plain text, and brings each file in as a page, read on your Mac. Koi can't transcribe old audio files, so if you want the recordings themselves turned into text again, use a file transcriber; our MacWhisper alternatives page lists the ones that work on a Mac.
Choosing
Which Voicenotes alternative should you pick?
- Free, with a phone app? Apple Notes.
- Voice to text on your Mac with no minutes to count, into a real editor? Koi.
- Dictation and notes on Mac, iPhone and Watch? Monologue.
- Rambles rewritten into clean writing? AudioPen or Letterly.
- An AI agent over your notes? Mem.
For a wider list, see the best voice notes apps for Mac, or our AudioPen alternatives if rewrites matter most. Koi's editor is covered on notes and documents, and its recorder on recording calls.
Keep exploring
The best voice notes apps for Mac in 2026
The best note taking apps with voice to text on Mac: Koi, Apple Notes, Voicenotes, AudioPen, Monologue and more, with where audio goes, limits and prices.
Voice to text on Mac, built in or with Koi
How to use voice to text on Mac with Apple's built-in Dictation, step by step, and when Koi does more: Whisper offline, 57 languages, unlimited on every plan.
Notes on your Mac, with tables, charts and math
Koi for Mac is an offline notes app with tables, 11 chart types, LaTeX, to-dos and flashcards. Export to Word or PDF, and start by typing or by talking.
Support
Frequently asked questions
It has a free Basic plan with 100 transcription minutes a week and 30 days of history. Pro is $9 per user a month at the time of writing.
Its transcription runs in the cloud, so turning speech into text needs a connection. Koi, and Monologue's local models, turn speech into text on the Mac.
Apple Notes. It records and transcribes in a note on M1 or later Macs, and syncs to iPhone and iPad, for free.
No. Koi is Mac only, with no sync, so it suits notes made at your Mac rather than memos on a walk.
Export them from Voicenotes as files, then use Koi's Import, which takes PDF, Word, Markdown and text and brings each file in as a page.