Gabble vs Aqua Voice: on-device or cloud dictation?

Aqua Voice is a cloud dictation service built on its own speech model, called Avalon. It reads context from your screen so that technical terms and code syntax come out right. Gabble is a free Mac app that runs open speech models on your own machine. These are two different bets: one on a proprietary cloud model, one on keeping everything local.

At a glance

Aqua Voice details come from aquavoice.com, its pricing page and its privacy policy.

Where Aqua Voice is the better choice

You want a speech model built for dictation. Avalon is Aqua's own model, and Aqua publishes its own accuracy and speed figures for it on its website. Gabble uses general-purpose open models, NVIDIA Parakeet and OpenAI Whisper. We have not tested the two side by side and will not guess at the result. If top accuracy on hard vocabulary is the thing you care about most, Aqua is a serious candidate and worth a trial.

You dictate technical text and want screen context. Aqua understands what is on screen, including code syntax. Gabble does not read your screen. It has a Developer mode and a custom dictionary, which is a simpler mechanism: you tell it the terms, it does not discover them.

You want live text. Aqua's Max plan includes a Realtime Mode. Gabble shows nothing until you stop speaking, then pastes the result.

You work across devices. Aqua runs on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. Gabble runs on Apple Silicon Macs only. No Intel, no Windows, no phones.

You are setting it up for a team. The Business plan adds centralised billing, SSO/SAML and SCIM, team-wide dictionaries and a Zero Data Retention feature. Gabble has no team features and no sync.

You speak a language Gabble's default model does not cover. Aqua lists 49 languages. Gabble's default Parakeet v3 handles 25 European languages. Its Whisper Large v3 Turbo model handles 99, with a download of about 650 MB.

Where Gabble is the better choice

You want to dictate without counting words. Aqua's free allowance is 1,000 words, which reads as a total and not a weekly reset. After that you need a paid plan. Gabble is free with no limit.

You do not want an account. Aqua needs a signup even for the free words. Gabble has no account, no sign-in and no licence key.

Your audio must stay on the Mac. Gabble transcribes locally through Core ML. Audio is held in memory, never written to disk, never uploaded.

You want to work without a connection. Gabble needs the internet once, to download a model from Hugging Face. After that, transcription works offline. A cloud service needs a connection.

You want to own the cleanup step. Gabble's AI modes run through Ollama on your Mac or through your own Anthropic or OpenAI-compatible key. You write the prompts for custom modes, and per-app rules select a mode for you. Aqua offers custom instructions on its paid plans.

You want the surrounding tools. Gabble includes voice snippets, a command mode that rewrites selected text by voice, searchable local history, and transcription of dropped audio or video files. We could not confirm snippets or file transcription on Aqua's pages, so check there if you need them.

How do they compare on privacy?

Aqua Voice is cloud-based, so your speech is processed on servers. Its privacy policy says that for users with Privacy Mode disabled it may store transcript data to improve the product, and that otherwise transcript data is not collected. The pricing page lists Zero Data Retention as a Business plan feature. The policy also lists the kinds of third parties it works with: hosting, payments, support, analytics and advertising measurement. Read the policy yourself if this is a deciding factor; it is short.

Gabble does speech recognition on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded, and audio is not saved to disk. Transcripts are kept as local JSON for as long as you choose: forever, 30 days, 7 days, or not at all. If you enable AI cleanup with a cloud API key, the transcript text goes to that provider. Audio never does. With Ollama, nothing leaves.

Gabble is closed source for now, as is Aqua. You cannot verify either from code.

What do they cost?

Gabble is free.

Aqua Voice, as of October 2026, from aquavoice.com/pricing:

• Free: $0 for 1,000 words.
• Pro: $10 a month, or $8 a month billed annually ($96 a year). Unlimited words, custom instructions, expanded custom dictionary.
• Max: $30 a month, or $24 a month billed annually ($288 a year). Adds Realtime Mode and a "Send it" voice command.
• Business: $24 per seat per month, or $19 billed annually, minimum 2 seats.

Students get 70% off Pro and Max with an academic email. No lifetime option is listed. Check the page for current prices.

Verdict

Choose Aqua Voice if you want a specialised cloud model, screen context for technical writing, live text, or the same tool on your phone and PC. Its Pro plan is among the cheaper subscriptions in this category.

Choose Gabble if you would sooner keep speech on the Mac, skip the account, and pay nothing. You trade away screen context, realtime text and every platform except Apple Silicon Macs. Gabble is also a 0.1 beta.

The cheapest way to decide is to use Aqua's 1,000 free words and Gabble on the same piece of work. For more options see Gabble vs Wispr Flow and the Mac dictation roundup.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free alternative to Aqua Voice for Mac?

Gabble is free with no word limit on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later. It runs speech recognition on the Mac and needs no account. It does not have Aqua's screen context or realtime mode.

How much does Aqua Voice cost?

As of October 2026 Aqua Voice lists 1,000 free words, Pro at $10 a month or $8 billed annually, Max at $30 a month or $24 billed annually, and Business from $19 per seat per month billed annually. See aquavoice.com/pricing for current prices.

Does Aqua Voice need an account?

Yes. A free signup is needed to use the 1,000 free words. Gabble has no account or sign-up.

Does Gabble show text live as I speak?

No. Gabble pastes the text after you stop speaking. Aqua Voice offers a Realtime Mode on its Max plan.

Is Gabble as accurate as Aqua Voice?

We do not make that claim. Aqua uses its own cloud model and Gabble uses open Parakeet and Whisper models on your Mac. Test both on your own vocabulary before deciding.

Does Gabble work on Windows, iPhone or Android?

No. Gabble is for Apple Silicon Macs only. Aqua Voice runs on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.