Aqua Voice is a polished dictation app that runs on Windows, but its free plan stops at 1,000 words. PipeVoice is a free, open-source alternative for Windows 10 and 11 with no word cap, no account, and an offline mode. If you dictate all day, that difference decides which one fits.
Quick take: Choose Aqua if you want a managed service with many languages and no setup. Choose PipeVoice if you want to dictate without a word limit, keep the tool open source, or run it fully offline. Download PipeVoice for Windows.
What Aqua Voice offers
According to Aqua's own pricing page, the plans are:
- Free: 1,000 free words.
- Pro: $8 a month billed annually or $10 a month billed monthly, with unlimited words.
- Max: $24 a month billed annually or $30 monthly, adding Realtime Mode.
Aqua lists Mac, Windows and iOS as available, with Android on a waitlist, and says it understands 49 languages. It also has a Privacy Mode where "nothing is stored on our servers at all". Its pages do not say whether it can run offline, and they do not mention open-source licensing.
PipeVoice vs Aqua Voice: comparison
| Feature | PipeVoice | Aqua Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Windows 10/11 only | Mac, Windows, iOS (Android waitlist) |
| Price | Free, open source (MIT) | Free plan, then Pro from $8/month billed annually |
| Free-tier limit | No word cap | 1,000 words |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | Not stated on the pages we checked |
| Offline | Yes (Local Whisper, plus Ollama for cleanup) | Not stated on the pages we checked |
| Languages | Auto-detect, five English variants, plus Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese | 49 languages |
| Types into any app | Yes, real keystrokes or clipboard paste | Yes, works across compatible apps |
| Account | No account, no telemetry | Not stated on the pages we checked |
The word cap is the practical difference
1,000 words is a few emails. If you dictate prompts to an AI coding agent or write all day, you hit that quickly and move to a paid plan. PipeVoice has no word limit because it does not run a service to meter. The core stays free. If you pick a cloud engine (Deepgram or OpenAI Whisper) you pay that provider directly on your own key, roughly pennies a day. The Local Whisper engine needs no key and costs nothing.
Offline and open source
PipeVoice can run with nothing leaving your PC: Local Whisper (a model of about 150 MB, running on CPU) for transcription and Ollama for the optional cleanup. The code is MIT-licensed at github.com/Powleads/PipeVoice, so you can read what it does. See offline voice typing for Windows for the setup.
Where Aqua is the better pick
- Zero setup. Aqua is a managed service. PipeVoice's cloud engines need you to paste your own API key, and Local Whisper is slower than cloud.
- More languages. Aqua lists 49; PipeVoice's language picker is shorter.
- More platforms. If you also dictate on a Mac or iPhone, Aqua covers them. PipeVoice is Windows only.
If you are on Windows, dictate a lot, and would rather not have a word meter or a subscription, PipeVoice is the one to try. It also has per-app profiles, so your terminal, chat app and editor can each behave differently, and it works well for dictating into Claude Code and Cursor.
Try it: Download PipeVoice for Windows, see the PipeVoice vs Wispr Flow comparison, or read the Wispr Flow alternative for Windows guide. Compared free plans? See the best free dictation software for Windows.