A Dictation App With a One-Time Payment, Not a Subscription

A lot of dictation and voice typing software runs your audio through a server: you speak, your voice is sent over the internet, a remote model transcribes it, and text comes back. That approach works, but it isn't free to operate - every minute of audio processed costs the company running the server real money, on an ongoing basis, for as long as you keep using the product. Charging a recurring fee is the natural way to cover a recurring cost. We're not going to name names or guess at anyone else's current pricing, because that changes and we can't verify it - but the shape of the model is the same across most cloud-based dictation tools: you keep paying because they keep paying, on your behalf, every time you dictate.

Kokukeyboard doesn't send your audio anywhere. Transcription runs through Whisper, an open-source model, entirely on your own computer's CPU or GPU. Once you've downloaded the model during setup, there is no server on our side doing any work when you dictate - so there's no ongoing cost for us to recover from you. We charge once because, past the download, it genuinely costs us nothing more per word you speak. That's the honest mechanism behind the pricing, not a marketing line: a local app with no server in the loop doesn't need rent to stay running.

$14.99 covers two computers - a desktop and a laptop, say - under one license, with core updates included for as long as you use the app. There's no tier where the price you already paid stops working until you pay again. Need a household machine beyond the first two? Extra computers can be added at a small one-time cost per seat, never a subscription of their own. The same one-time price applies on Windows and on macOS - seeoffline dictation for Mac.

Prefer to spread the cost instead of paying it all up front? Kokukeyboard also offers a fixed 10-month installment plan that ends automatically and leaves you owning the app outright - it's a different way to reach the same one-time ownership, not a recurring plan that continues indefinitely. Details are on the homepage.

Two computers is deliberately not one. Most people who dictate regularly do it from more than a single machine across a day or a week - a desktop at a desk, a laptop everywhere else - and a license that only covered one would push you back toward paying twice for the same habit. Covering both under a single one-time payment keeps the "buy it once" promise honest in practice, not just on the pricing page.

Because nothing about how Kokukeyboard works depends on an ongoing server relationship, there's no future point where a subscription gets introduced to keep the lights on for you specifically - your computer is doing the transcribing, today and years from now. You get a 14-day free trial with no card to confirm it fits how you work, and a 30-day refund after purchase if it turns out not to. Everything the app can do - dictating in 90+ languages, working with no internet connection once set up - is covered by the one payment, not held back for a higher tier of subscriber.

That's also why the trial itself needs no card: there's no billing relationship to start and later forget to cancel. You either buy the app once, or you don't - there's nothing in between that quietly renews. See how offline dictation works for the full mechanics, or head to the homepage for pricing details. Need to process existing recordings rather than dictate live? That's the separate batch transcription tier, also sold once.