Vokalu is voice dictation and bot-free meeting notes for Windows and Mac. No subscription: from 1.5¢ per minute, with a free plan. Read our review.
Researched and fact-checked by Bartu Cavusoglu · Updated October 26, 2026
Vokalu is a voice dictation and meeting notes app for Windows and Mac. You hold a shortcut, speak, and release, and the app inserts text wherever your cursor is. It is operated by Dennis Kaczmarowski, based in Wisconsin, United States, and it is billed by the minute of speech rather than by subscription. It runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 13 or later.
Its main pitch is cleanup. With smart formatting, Vokalu removes filler words, follows spoken corrections such as "three... actually, four," and can turn a spoken thought into a bullet list. A second feature writes meeting notes without a bot joining the call. There is no phone app yet. Claims here come from Vokalu's own website, which describes its guides as vendor-authored.
Click where you want to type, hold the shortcut, speak, and release. The default is Ctrl + Win on Windows and Control + Option on Mac, and every shortcut can be changed in settings. Vokalu works in messages, email, documents, browsers, code editors, and terminals, with no browser extension or app-by-app integration needed. Hands-free mode is also listed among its dictation features.
Speech is processed online by third-party speech and AI services. Vokalu says it never keeps your audio, and dictation history stays on your computer for 24 hours unless you shorten or turn it off. The speech provider may retain audio and transcripts to improve its models. Private mode recognizes speech on your computer instead, using a downloaded on-device model, even with no internet.
With the Dictate + Format tier, formatting adapts to the app: email gets an email layout, notes get concise points, and chat stays casual. Voice instructions let you end a dictation with a request such as "translate to Spanish." Command Mode edits text by voice, and a dictionary learns your words. Vokalu supports 60+ languages, with auto-detect for switching mid-sentence between languages such as English, Spanish, and German.
Meeting notes transcribe your microphone and your computer's audio separately and tell speakers apart. Notes list attendees, topics, and next steps with owners, or follow templates such as MEDDPICC, discovery call, 1:1, standup, or retro. You can upload audio or video files up to 3 hours long, ask questions about a meeting, and connect Claude Desktop or Cursor through MCP. Reading aloud is Windows-only for now.
Vokalu is a voice dictation and meeting notes app for Windows and Mac. You hold a shortcut, speak, and release, and it inserts cleaned-up text into the app you are using.
Vokalu has no subscription. Dictate costs 1.5¢ per minute of speech, Dictate + Format 2¢, and meeting notes 3¢ per minute of talking. Credit is added in advance, from $2.
Yes. It gives a 75¢ welcome credit plus 25¢ of free dictation every week, about 50 minutes with Dictate + Format in the first week. No card is needed, and the free plan is one per computer.
No. It transcribes your microphone and your computer's audio separately and tells speakers apart. Vokalu advises letting everyone know you are taking notes.
Yes, with Private mode. Download an on-device speech model in Settings and dictation is recognized on your computer. On-device dictation without AI formatting is free.
It runs on Windows 10 and 11 and macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. It supports 60+ languages, and there is no phone app yet.
Speech is processed online by third-party speech and AI services unless you use Private mode. Vokalu says it never keeps your audio, but its speech provider may retain audio and transcripts to improve its models.
Yes. Upload an audio or video file up to 3 hours long on the Notes page. It costs the same 3¢ per minute of talking, and the file itself is never uploaded or stored.