See the difference, live
Aqua Voice refines your words as you speak: punctuation, formatting, and technical terms landed in real time.
Aqua Voice vs Paraspeech summary
Aqua Voice is a managed cloud app built on Avalon, Aqua's proprietary speech model, tuned for accuracy (97.4% on the AISpeak-10 benchmark) and available on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android with real-time, screen-aware dictation. Paraspeech is a local-first Mac app (plus iPhone and iPad apps) that runs speech recognition on your device by default and adds on-device AI rewriting, with either a subscription or a lifetime option. The honest tradeoff: Aqua needs an internet connection and is a subscription ($8/month billed annually, $96/year, with a free 1,000-word Starter tier), while Paraspeech offers local processing on supported Macs and a one-time purchase, but publishes no accuracy benchmark and has no Windows support or screen context.
Choose Aqua Voice if you work across Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android, want published model results (97.4% on AISpeak-10), and value screen-aware, real-time dictation that needs no local speech model download. Aqua runs its proprietary Avalon model in the cloud, so it needs an internet connection, and it is $8/month billed annually ($96/year) with a free Starter tier of 1,000 lifetime words.
Choose Paraspeech if you are Mac-only (or Mac plus iPhone or iPad), want your audio and text to stay on your device by default, and prefer a one-time lifetime option over a subscription. Its local-first design is a genuine privacy advantage, and it supports 100+ languages, though it publishes no accuracy benchmark and has no Windows app or screen context.
What speech model does Paraspeech use?
Paraspeech is openly local-first: it states plainly that supported Mac modes run speech recognition on your device using downloadable local models, and that in those modes your audio and text stay on your Mac. It also discloses a local Qwen model for its on-device AI text rewriting. What it does not publish is exactly which open speech model powers the transcription itself, so we won't guess at one. Subscription plans also add an optional faster cloud mode on top of the local default.
This matters because the model is where dictation quality lives. Local and cloud processing have different connectivity and privacy requirements. Neither architecture alone proves that an app is more accurate. Avalon has published model results, but those results do not measure Paraspeech.
We evaluated Avalon on AISpeak-10, our dataset of technical speech, against Whisper Large v3. The score is the percentage of clips with the key term transcribed correctly:
| Model | AISpeak-10 key-term accuracy |
|---|---|
| Avalon (ours) | 97.4% |
| Whisper Large v3 | 65.1% |
Avalon debuted at #1 among proprietary systems on the public OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut. On the AISpeak-10 benchmark it scores 97.4%, versus 65.1% for OpenAI's Whisper Large v3, a widely used open reference model. We show this as Aqua's own published proof point. It is a comparison against Whisper as a reference model, not a statement about which model Paraspeech runs, since Paraspeech does not publicly name its transcription model.
See the OpenASR leaderboard, or 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 Paraspeech: Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Aqua Voice | Paraspeech |
|---|---|---|
| Speech model | Avalon (proprietary, cloud) | Local on-device speech models (transcription model not publicly named) |
| Cost | $8/mo ($96/yr), free tier | $14.99/mo or $99/yr; $199 lifetime (local models) |
| Public benchmark | 97.4% (AISpeak-10) | None published |
| Technical-term accuracy | Avalon tuned for jargon, code, and names | Depends on local model; no public benchmark |
| Setup / Processing | Install app; no local model download | Downloads local models on first run; on-device after setup |
| Works offline | ❌ (needs internet) | ✅ (on-device modes after model download) |
| Mac | ✅ | ✅ |
| Windows | ✅ | ❌ |
| iPhone | ✅ (App Store) | ✅ (iPhone / iPad) |
| Android | ✅ | Not listed |
| Real-time + screen context | ✅ screen-aware | ❌ no screen context |
| Languages | 49 | 100+ |
| Best for | Cross-platform users who want published model results and screen context | Mac users who want fully private, on-device dictation |
Speech model
Cost
Public benchmark
Technical-term accuracy
Setup / Processing
Works offline
Mac
Windows
iPhone
Android
Real-time + screen context
Languages
Best for
Where Aqua Voice is better
Published model results
Avalon scores 97.4% on the AISpeak-10 benchmark and debuted #1 among proprietary systems on the public OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut. Paraspeech publishes no accuracy benchmark, so these scores do not establish an app-to-app accuracy advantage.
Truly cross-platform
Aqua runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android as a shipping App Store app. Paraspeech is Mac-first with iPhone and iPad apps and no Windows app at all, so Aqua also covers the Windows part of your workflow.
Screen-aware, real-time dictation
Aqua reads the context on your screen and formats in real time, so dictated text lands correctly in the app you are using. Paraspeech offers system-wide dictation but without screen context, so it cannot adapt to what you are doing in the same way.
No local speech models to manage
Because Avalon runs in the cloud, Aqua works instantly with no local models to download, size, or keep updated. Paraspeech downloads local models on first run, and you manage which ones you keep on disk.
Where Paraspeech wins
Privacy is the clearest one. In Paraspeech's local Mac modes, your audio and text stay on your device, and it works offline once the models are downloaded. If you handle sensitive material or simply don't want dictation leaving your machine, that on-device default is something Aqua's cloud model cannot match: Aqua always sends audio to its servers to transcribe with Avalon.
It is also friendlier to buy once. Paraspeech offers a lifetime purchase (for its local on-device models) alongside its $14.99/month or $99/year subscription. If you would rather avoid a recurring bill, that one-time option is appealing, with a $199 lifetime plan for local features. Paraspeech also advertises 100+ languages, more than Aqua's 49, and adds on-device AI rewriting via a local model.
For Mac users who want everything to happen locally by default, Paraspeech is squarely built for that world, and it is honest about being Mac-first with iPhone and iPad apps also available.
Two philosophies: managed cloud accuracy vs local-first privacy
Aqua Voice is built around a single idea: put the best possible speech model behind every dictation, everywhere. That means running Avalon, Aqua's proprietary model, as a managed cloud service. After installing the app, you do not download or manage speech models, updates are instant, and the same accuracy follows you from your Mac to Windows to your iPhone. The cost is a hard dependency: Aqua needs an internet connection to work.
Paraspeech starts from the opposite end. It keeps transcription on your device by default, so your audio and text never have to leave your Mac, and it layers on a local model for AI rewriting. That is a real privacy win, and it works offline once the models are downloaded. The tradeoffs are the ones local-first designs usually carry: it is Mac-first (with iPhone and iPad apps), there is no Windows app, and on-device models don't come with a published accuracy benchmark to compare against.
How to decide
Source: Paraspeech product information, checked September 30, 2026.
Aqua Voice is free to start, so you can compare it against Paraspeech on the words you actually dictate before paying anything.
Frequently asked questions
Does Paraspeech use OpenAI Whisper?
Paraspeech does not publicly name the specific speech model behind its transcription, so we don't state that it uses Whisper or any other named model. What it does disclose is that it runs local, on-device speech models on supported Macs, and that it uses a local Qwen model for AI text rewriting. Aqua Voice uses its own proprietary cloud model, Avalon.
Is Paraspeech available on Windows?
No. Paraspeech is Mac-first, with iPhone and iPad apps, and no Windows app as of this writing. Aqua Voice runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android.
Does Aqua Voice work offline?
No. Aqua is a managed cloud app: it runs Avalon on Aqua's servers, so it needs an internet connection. Paraspeech's local Mac modes are designed to work offline once the models are downloaded, which is one of its main advantages.
How much does each one cost?
Aqua Voice Pro is $8/month billed annually ($96/year), with a free Starter tier of 1,000 lifetime words and a developer API for Avalon at $0.39/hour. Paraspeech is $14.99/month or $99/year with a 7-day free trial, plus a lifetime purchase for its local models ($199 for local features).
Which one is more accurate?
Aqua publishes 97.4% on the AISpeak-10 benchmark, and Avalon debuted #1 among proprietary systems on the public OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut. Paraspeech publishes no accuracy benchmark, and we have not run a controlled app-to-app comparison. Test both apps with your vocabulary and preferred processing mode.
Is my audio private with Aqua Voice?
Aqua sends audio to its servers to transcribe with Avalon, and Aqua has a SOC 2 Type II audit report and is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR and HIPAA compliant. If your priority is that audio never leaves your device at all, Paraspeech's on-device default is built for exactly that, and it is the honest reason to pick it over Aqua.
How many languages does each support?
Aqua Voice supports 49 languages. Paraspeech advertises 100+ languages across its local and broader models. If you need a long-tail language, check both against your specific one before deciding.
