Voibe Review 2026: Pricing, Offline Mode, and Verdict
Voibe is an offline-first Mac dictation app that sells privacy as the headline feature and prices a lifetime licence under the bigger names. Of everything in this category, it is the product whose positioning sits closest to ours.
We build Kana. Two products this close invite a review that quietly stacks the deck, so this one keeps to what Voibe publishes on its own site.
Short answer: Voibe is the better choice if you need Intel Mac or Windows support, if you want a lifetime licence for dictation itself, or if you want a refund window before committing. Kana is the better choice if you want to pay $9.99 once and to make no network call at all.
What Voibe actually is
Push-to-talk dictation for the whole machine. The homepage headline is about getting an hour back in your day, and the claim under it is typing 5x faster with your voice.
Source: Voibe (getvoibe.com)
What ships in every plan, by its own list: unlimited dictation, Developer Mode, Memory, Custom Vocabulary, Smart Punctuation, Works Everywhere, and Mac and Windows. Custom vocabulary is described as teaching Voibe your names, jargon and acronyms once so it gets them right afterwards, which is the same job Kana’s vocabulary list does.
The mock document on its homepage is a legal file, and the logo row underneath claims 10 million words spoken, 10,000 hours saved and 2,500+ professionals. Those are Voibe’s numbers.
Pricing in 2026
| Plan | Price | Struck-through price on the site |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $7.50 a month | $9.90 |
| Annual | $59 a year | $89.10, marked as 4 months free |
| Lifetime | $149 once | $198 |
There is a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan. The lifetime tier carries a counter, showing 14 licences remaining when this was written, which is a scarcity device rather than a fact about supply. Take the price at face value and ignore the counter.
$149 for unlimited dictation forever is a fair price for the product. It is also the number to hold in your head for the rest of this review, because Kana is $9.99 once for dictation and $4.90 a month for AI rewriting, which is a different thing being sold.
Offline, cloud, and what that changed
Voibe runs two engines and lets you pick.
On-device mode keeps everything local, and the site is direct about it: nothing leaves your Mac. This requires Apple Silicon, M1 or later.
Cloud mode runs on Groq and Cerebras, which Voibe describes as the fastest inference available, with a zero-retention policy. That mode is what brings Intel Macs into the product, and it is the only mode available on Windows, where the site says dictation needs an internet connection.
This is a sensible structure and it covers hardware Kana cannot reach. A 2019 Intel MacBook Pro is a perfectly good machine that most on-device dictation apps have quietly dropped, Kana included.
The trade is that “offline-first” is now a mode rather than a property of the app. Which engine is running is a setting, and the privacy answer depends on where that setting is pointed.
Kana has one answer because it only has one engine. English and 24 other European languages run on Parakeet on the Neural Engine, Japanese runs on Apple’s SpeechAnalyzer, and Dictation makes zero network calls. That last point is checked in CI. The cost of the simplicity is real: no Intel support, no Windows, no cloud fallback if a model ever struggles.
Source: Voibe (getvoibe.com)
Voibe and Kana side by side
| Voibe | Kana | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs the model on your Mac | Yes, Apple Silicon M1 or later | Yes |
| Intel Macs | Yes, via cloud mode | No |
| Windows | Yes, cloud mode only | No |
| Optional cloud engine | Yes, Groq and Cerebras | No |
| Custom vocabulary | Yes | Yes |
| Per-app routing and a rewriting blocklist | Not listed | Yes |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days, no card |
| Refund window | 30 days | No paid dictation tier to refund |
| Cost to dictate | $7.50 a month to $149 once | $9.99 once, unlimited |
| Cost to transcribe a file | Not listed separately | Included, SRT, VTT and Markdown |
| Cost of AI rewriting | Included | $4.90 a month or $49 a year |
Read that table in both directions. Voibe’s $149 includes the AI layer; Kana’s $9.99 does not, and the trial covers 20 rewrites before you subscribe. If AI rewriting is the part you use constantly, compare $149 once against $4.90 a month and pick on how long you plan to keep it.
What Voibe does better than Kana
It covers hardware Kana cannot. Intel Macs through cloud mode, and Windows through the same route. Kana is arm64 only and has no cloud path at all, so there is no version of this argument where Kana reaches those machines. If your other machine runs Windows, this comparison is finished.
It sells a lifetime licence that includes the AI layer. Kana’s $9.99 buys dictation and file transcription, and rewriting stays a subscription. Voibe’s $149 buys the whole product with no tiering to reason about, which some people will prefer even at a higher number.
A 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan. Kana has no equivalent, because Kana has no paid dictation to refund, but a refund window is a real commitment and it belongs on Voibe’s side of the ledger.
Two engines means a fallback exists. If the local model has a bad day with a name or an accent, Voibe has somewhere else to send the audio. Kana’s answer is the custom vocabulary list and nothing else.
It ships features Kana does not name. Developer Mode and Memory are in every plan. Kana has no equivalent to either.
Where Kana is different
Kana’s dictation is unlimited and does not expire, and file transcription is included too, with SRT, VTT and Markdown export. AI rewriting is the one subscription, and a licence covers three Macs.
The app is a single 2.4 MB executable with no embedded frameworks, no helper process, no login item, no account and nothing in the Dock. The speech model is a separate download of about 480 MB, so the total install is much larger than 2.4 MB.
Two smaller things Voibe does not list: per-app routing, so a Slack message and an email can be rewritten differently, and a blocklist of apps where rewriting never runs at all.
No benchmark appears anywhere in this article because we have not run one. Voibe and Kana both run local models on Apple Silicon, and any accuracy or latency table comparing them would be invented. The Kana and Voibe comparison sticks to the same rule.
Who should use Voibe
- You have an Intel Mac, or a Windows machine alongside your Mac
- You want one price that covers dictation and the AI layer together
- You want a refund window before you commit
- You like having a cloud engine available when the local one struggles
- You would rather one payment covered the AI rewriting too, rather than a subscription on top
Who should use Kana instead
- You are on Apple Silicon and only on Apple Silicon
- You want dictation that costs $9.99 once rather than $149
- You want zero network calls as a property of the build, checked in CI, not a mode you select
- You transcribe audio and video files and do not want that behind a paid tier
- You want per-app rewriting rules, or apps where rewriting never runs
FAQ
How much does Voibe cost?
$7.50 a month, $59 a year, or $149 once. All three come with a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Does Voibe work offline?
In on-device mode, yes, and the site says nothing leaves your Mac. On-device mode needs Apple Silicon, M1 or later. Cloud mode and all Windows use need a connection.
Does Voibe work on Intel Macs?
Yes, through cloud mode. The local engine is Apple Silicon only, so Intel machines send audio to Voibe’s zero-retention cloud instead.
Is there a cheaper Voibe alternative for Mac?
Ours is $9.99 once against Voibe’s $149, after 14 days rather than seven. The honest caveat is that Kana drops Intel and Windows support entirely and charges separately for AI rewriting, so it is cheaper on one axis and narrower on two others.