AudioNote vs AudioPen
AudioNote
luminantsoftware.com
AudioPen
audiopen.aiSide by side
| Figure | AudioNote | AudioPen |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $8.25/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 8 |
| Spec score · Voice Note Apps | 9.4 (#1) | 9.4 (#2) |
| Intended users | The maker's page highlights class and presentation notes, including note-taking directly on PDF slides. | The site names writers, creators, salespeople, lawyers, therapists, and people who find typing slow or painful among its intended users. |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 4.2 out of 5 from 118 ratings | 4.7 out of 5 from 177 ratings |
| Support documentation | The public help center contains FAQs covering file transfer, playback speed, folders, trimming, deleted notes, product keys and installation errors. | The official FAQ covers plans, limits, platforms, offline mode, uploads, integrations, privacy, MCP and troubleshooting. |
| What it does | AudioNote combines note taking and voice recording, linking notes to the exact point in the recording. | AudioPen records or accepts speech, transcribes it, and can rewrite the result into structured text in a selected style and language. |
Plans
AudioNote
- AudioNote for Windows demoFree
- AudioNote for Windows viewerFree
- AudioNote Pro trialFree
- AudioNote for iOS$12.99, paid once
- AudioNote 2 for Mac$14.99, paid once
- AudioNote 2 - Voice Recorder (Mac)$14.99, paid once
AudioPen
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Prime (3 months)$33, paid once
- Prime 3 months$33, paid once
- Prime (1 year)$99, paid once
- Prime 1 year$99 a year
- Prime (2 years)$159, paid once
- Prime 2 years$159 a year
In their own words
AudioNote
AudioNote links notes to voice recordings so users can select a note and seek to its related audio. It supports typed, handwritten, and photo notes, with customizable fonts, colors, and shapes. During playback, notes highlight and scroll automatically; playback speed is adjustable with automatic pitch correction. Users can also annotate PDF slides and organize notes into subject folders. AudioNote is available on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, and the maker lists iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and other sharing options for syncing between devices. The maker advertises a one-month free trial of Pro. On Windows, the demo allows unlimited viewing of existing notes, but new recordings are limited to five minutes per note until a valid Product Key is entered. The Mac version costs 14.99 USD once and requires macOS 13.0 or later. The app can be used free to view notes recorded elsewhere; purchases are handled separately by app stores. Transcription is not a product feature. The Mac App Store listing says transcription runs on-device and audio and transcripts are never transmitted.
AudioPen
AudioPen turns spoken thoughts into written text by transcribing speech and rewriting it in a style the user chooses. Users can set a low, medium, or high rewrite level, change output length, describe a style, or provide a sample to match. It can produce writing in a different language from the spoken input, and its site lists many supported languages. Voice typing works in text fields in apps such as Gmail, Slack, Notion, and Google Docs. Zapier and webhooks can send saved notes to other apps; Prime MCP provides ChatGPT or Claude read-only access to notes. Its iPhone, Android, Mac, and Windows apps offer on-device offline transcription, but AI rewriting needs an internet connection. The free plan permits recordings up to 3 minutes. Prime plans support recordings up to 15 minutes, with unlimited rewrites and note storage. The service is intended for individual thought: it does not join Zoom calls or label speakers. Voice-note audio is deleted from servers within 48 hours, and voice-typing audio is not saved.