See the difference, live
Aqua Voice refines your words as you speak: punctuation, formatting, and technical terms landed in real time.
Aqua Voice vs Loqua summary
Aqua Voice and Loqua are close cousins: both put real-time, cloud dictation behind a global hotkey, clean up your speech, and plug into your tools. The differences are price, platforms, and proof. Aqua Voice is $10/month on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android, running its own model, Avalon, with published model results (97.4% on Aqua's technical-term benchmark). Loqua is a Mac and Windows app that describes a proprietary engine but publishes no benchmarks.
You want published pricing; you need dictation on iPhone and Android as well as Mac and Windows; you want accuracy you can verify against public benchmarks and independent tests; or you want a developer API and a proven track record.
You want its specific named integrations (VS Code, GitHub, Linear, Raycast, and the rest); you'll lean on a large free tier (5,000 words/week); you need translation across nearly 100 languages; and you're happy on Mac or Windows.
Accuracy you can verify
Aqua Voice publishes its accuracy and Loqua doesn't. Avalon ranked #1 among proprietary systems on the public OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut and scores 97.4% on AISpeak-10, our benchmark of AI and technical terms. Independent reviewers have checked it too: 9to5Mac measured Aqua at 1 error to Apple Dictation's 17 on the same passage.
Loqua describes a proprietary voice AI engine, but it hasn't published benchmarks or independent tests. That doesn't mean it's inaccurate, just that there's no public number to verify, where Aqua's results are out in the open for you to check.
You can see Avalon's results on the OpenASR leaderboard and read more in our Avalon write-up. Try Aqua Voice free.
AISpeak-10 is Aqua’s English technical-speech dataset. Avalon transcribed the key term correctly in 97.4% of clips, versus 65.1% for Whisper Large v3. This measures key-term recognition, not overall transcript accuracy or a head-to-head test of these apps. See the evaluation and results.
Aqua Voice vs Loqua: Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Aqua Voice | Loqua |
|---|---|---|
| Speech model | Avalon (own, benchmarked publicly) | Proprietary engine (Loqua's claim, no benchmarks) |
| Public benchmark | #1 proprietary on OpenASR (Oct 2025 debut) | None published |
| Technical-term accuracy | 97.4% (AISpeak-10, our benchmark) | Not published |
| Independent test | ✅ 9to5Mac (1 error vs Apple's 17) | None published |
| Mac | ✅ | ✅ |
| Windows | ✅ | ✅ |
| iPhone / Android | ✅ Available now | Coming soon (per Loqua) |
| Languages | 49 | ~100 (translation) |
| Dev-tool integrations | System-wide in any app + Avalon API | Named: VS Code, GitHub, Linear, etc. |
| Free tier | 1,000 lifetime words | 5,000 words/week |
| Pro price | $10/mo ($120/yr) | Monthly and annual Pro; amount not displayed |
| Best for | Value, cross-platform, verifiable accuracy | Named integrations, recurring free tier, Mac/Windows |
Speech model
Public benchmark
Technical-term accuracy
Independent test
Mac
Windows
iPhone / Android
Languages
Dev-tool integrations
Free tier
Pro price
Best for
Where Aqua Voice is better
Published pricing
Aqua Voice Pro is $10/month billed annually. Loqua offers monthly and annual Pro plans, but its public pricing page does not display their current amounts.
Cross-platform today
Aqua Voice runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android right now, on one subscription. Loqua runs on Mac and Windows, with iOS and Android listed as coming soon.
Accuracy you can verify
Avalon's results are public: #1 among proprietary systems on the OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut, 97.4% on AISpeak-10, and an independent 9to5Mac test. Loqua describes a proprietary engine but publishes no benchmarks.
A track record and a developer API
Aqua Voice is an established product with a SOC 2 Type II audit report, ISO 27001 certification, and GDPR and HIPAA compliance, and the same model is available through the Avalon API, OpenAI-compatible, at $0.39/hour of audio. Loqua is a newer, lightly documented entrant.
Screen-context awareness
The desktop app reads the active window to match what you're doing, code-aware in your editor, casual in Messages, so output fits the app you're dictating into.
Where Loqua wins
Named dev-tool integrations. Loqua advertises tailored integrations with VS Code, Terminal, GitHub, Linear, Raycast, Figma, Notion, and Slack. Aqua Voice works system-wide in any app rather than through named hooks, so if you specifically want those tailored integrations, Loqua has them.
A more generous free tier. Loqua's free plan includes 5,000 words per week, versus Aqua Voice's 1,000 lifetime words on the free Starter plan. If you want to use a free tier heavily before paying, Loqua's is larger.
Translation breadth. Loqua advertises translation into nearly 100 languages. Aqua Voice supports 49 languages. If wide language and translation coverage matters most, Loqua has the edge.
Two takes on the same idea
Loqua and Aqua Voice pitch nearly the same thing: press a hotkey, talk, and get clean, formatted text in whatever app you're in, with filler words removed, structure added, and a dictionary that learns your terms. If you've used one, the other feels familiar.
So the comparison comes down to three things: what it costs, where it runs, and whether you can verify the accuracy. That's where they diverge.
How to decide
Source: Loqua product information, checked September 30, 2026.
Aqua Voice is free to start, so you can compare it on the words you actually dictate before paying.
Or just ask ChatGPT.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aqua Voice a good Loqua alternative?
Yes. They share the same idea, a global hotkey that turns real-time speech into clean text in any app, but Aqua Voice has a published $10/month annual plan, runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android today, and publishes independently verified accuracy. Loqua has deeper named dev-tool integrations and a more generous free tier. If iPhone and Android support and published accuracy results matter most, Aqua Voice is the stronger pick.
What's the difference between Aqua Voice and Loqua?
Both are real-time cloud dictation apps with cleanup and editor integrations. Aqua Voice runs Avalon, its own model with published model benchmarks, on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android, for $10/month billed annually. Loqua runs on Mac and Windows and describes a proprietary engine without a published benchmark. Its iOS and Android apps are listed as coming soon.
Is Aqua Voice more accurate than Loqua?
Aqua Voice publishes its accuracy and Loqua doesn't. Avalon ranked #1 among proprietary systems on the public OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut and scores 97.4% on AISpeak-10, our benchmark of AI and technical terms, and Aqua's accuracy has been validated independently (9to5Mac measured 1 error to Apple Dictation's 17). Loqua describes a proprietary engine but publishes no benchmarks, so there's no public number to verify.
Is Aqua Voice cheaper than Loqua?
Aqua Voice Pro is $10/month billed annually ($120/year). Loqua offers monthly and annual Pro plans, but its public pricing page does not show their current amounts. Its Free plan lists 5,000 words per week.
Does Aqua Voice work on Windows and iPhone?
Yes, today. Aqua Voice runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android on one subscription. Loqua also runs on Mac and Windows, but lists iOS and Android as coming soon. Aqua also offers iPhone and Android dictation.
Does Aqua Voice work with editors and dev tools?
Yes. Aqua Voice works system-wide in any app, your editor, terminal, Slack, email, anywhere you can type, and the desktop app reads the active window for context. Loqua advertises specific named integrations (VS Code, Terminal, GitHub, Linear, Raycast, Figma, Notion, Slack), which is a real strength if you want those tailored hooks. Aqua Voice also offers the Avalon API so developers can build on the model directly.
Is Aqua Voice good for coding and AI prompting?
Yes, it's what Aqua Voice is built for. Avalon was trained on the speech developers and AI users produce, reaching 97.4% accuracy on technical terms like programming keywords, framework names, and CLI commands. It also reads the active app for context and offers the Avalon API for developers.
Why choose Aqua Voice over a newer tool like Loqua?
Aqua Voice has a track record and accuracy you can check: a published OpenASR result, a 97.4% AISpeak-10 score, an independent 9to5Mac test, and a developer API. Loqua is a promising newer entrant, but it runs on Mac and Windows and hasn't published benchmarks for its proprietary engine. Aqua Voice also offers iPhone dictation and publishes its Pro price.
