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How Lucy compares

Lucy next to one cloud transcription service and three on-device apps. Every competitor fact below comes from that company’s own website or App Store listing, checked 2026-10-24, with the source in the footnotes. Where a vendor does not say, the cell reads “—”.

At a glance

LucyOtterMacWhisperWhisper NotesAiko
Where audio is transcribed On your device In Otter’s cloud1 On your Mac with local models; cloud models optional3 On your device4 On your device6
Account required No Yes, for most features1 — No4 —
Pricing Free for 10 sessions, then $19.99 once Free plan (300 min/month); Pro $16.99/month, or $8.33/month billed annually2 Free tier; Pro €64 once, as shown on its site3 $7.99 once on the App Store; Mac direct download $14 once4 $24 once, with a free trial6
Platforms iPhone, iPad, Mac iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, web7 Mac; an iOS and iPad version is listed on its site3 iPhone, iPad, Mac4 iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro65
Works offline Yes, after a one-time model download — Yes, with local models3 Yes4 —
Speaker labels Yes — up to 4 voices on recordings, more on imported files Yes2 Yes3 Yes4 No5
Export formats TXT, Markdown, PDF, SRT, VTT, chapters — free on every plan Free: MP3, TXT. Pro: MP3, TXT, PDF, DOCX, SRT2 TXT, SRT, VTT; Pro adds MD, PDF, HTML, DOCX3 Transcript with timestamps, SRT; VTT on Mac4 Subtitles (SRT)65

Prices are in US dollars except where a vendor’s page showed another currency. Prices and features change; the vendor’s own page is the authority. MacWhisper is also sold on the App Store as a separate build, “Whisper Transcription”, with different pricing; this row describes the version on macwhisper.com.

How to read this

The biggest difference is where the audio goes. A cloud service sends your recording to its servers to transcribe it; an on-device app does the work on your own iPhone, iPad or Mac. Lucy, MacWhisper with local models, Whisper Notes and Aiko are on-device. Otter is a cloud service, and in return it offers things an on-device app does not, such as Android and Windows apps and team features.

Among the on-device apps, the differences are mostly platforms, speaker labels and price. Lucy’s own numbers, including its worst cases, are in the accuracy report; we have not measured the other apps and make no claim about their accuracy.

Spot an out-of-date cell? Email support@xymex.com and we will correct it.

Sources (checked 2026-10-24)

  1. Otter.ai Terms of Service — “To access most features of the Service, you must register for an account” (§3.1); “Audio is processed in cloud infrastructure” (Appendix). otter.ai/terms-of-service
  2. Otter.ai Pricing — Basic “Free forever”, “300 monthly transcription minutes”, “Speaker identification”; Pro $16.99/user/month (Monthly) or $8.33/user/month (Annual); export formats “mp3, txt” (Basic) and “mp3, txt, pdf, docx, srt” (Pro). otter.ai/pricing
  3. MacWhisper — “Process sensitive content locally without data ever leaving your Mac”; “switch between different models hosted remotely or locally”; “MacWhisper Free €0” and “MacWhisper Pro Pay Once €64 / license”; “Speaker recognition”; exports “.srt & .vtt”, “.txt” and, for Pro, “.txt, .md, .pdf, .html … and .docx”; “iOS & iPad version”. macwhisper.com
  4. Whisper Notes — “Your audio never leaves your device”; “there is no account and nothing is uploaded”; “$7.99 once on the App Store covers iPhone, iPad and the Mac App Store build”, “The Mac direct download is a separate $14 one-time license”; “No internet needed”; “transcripts separate the speakers automatically”; “export a transcript with timestamps or as SRT subtitles, and on Mac as VTT too”. whispernotes.app
  5. Aiko on the App Store (US) — “It does not currently have speaker detection”; “You can export the transcription as subtitles too”; $24.00; iPhone, iPad, Mac. apps.apple.com/us/app/aiko/id1672085276
  6. Aiko — “The transcription runs on your device, so your audio is never uploaded”; “$24, one-time purchase”, “Free Trial”; “Available on macOS, iOS, visionOS”; FAQ “How can I export the transcription as subtitles (SRT)?”. sindresorhus.com/aiko
  7. Otter.ai — “Record directly from your Mac or Windows desktop, mobile device, or your browser”; footer links to the Desktop app, iOS app, Android app and Chrome extension. otter.ai

Otter, MacWhisper, Whisper Notes and Aiko are trademarks of their respective owners. Lucy is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.