Aqua Voice, but nothing leaves your PC
Aqua Voice runs on Windows, and its Windows page says the two things you should know before you install it: "Aqua processes audio in the cloud, where the Avalon model runs; there is no offline mode", and your first 1,000 words are free. After that it is a subscription, and every word you dictate is a recording sent to a server. Deixis is the other way to dictate on Windows. Hold a key, speak, and the words are typed where your cursor is, with the speech recognition happening inside the app on your own PC. No audio leaves. No account. Free, for everything that runs on your machine, with no word count. And it runs on your Mac and your phone too, with the same recognition on the device.
Aqua is fast and it is polished, and where it does something Deixis does not, more languages, a mode that types as you speak, a voice command that sends the message for you, this page says so first. But the two tools disagree about one thing at the root, and it is the thing you cannot change with a setting: whether your voice has to go somewhere to become text. Aqua's pages say it does. Deixis was built so that it never does.
If you want dictation on Windows that is private because of how it is made rather than because of a promise, and free without a meter, read on.
Why switch
What you gain, and what you give up
Why Deixis
- One tool, on every device you own. Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android, with the same on-device speech recognition on all four; your audio never leaves any of them. On the iPhone it is a keyboard: switch to it, hold the microphone key, speak, and the text lands in the field. On Android it is a floating microphone bubble that dictates into any app, and the phone records and transcribes meetings on the handset as they run. Aqua's download page offers Mac, Windows and iPhone, and nothing for Android.
- Your voice never leaves your PC. Aqua's Windows page says it processes audio in the cloud and has no offline mode; its FAQ says the same. Deixis recognises speech inside the app on your own machine, under every setting, always. Pull the network cable and dictation keeps working, because it never used the network.
- Nothing of yours is kept to train anything. Aqua's FAQ says that by default your transcripts may be retained to improve its model, and that you switch on Privacy Mode to stop that. In Deixis there is nothing to switch on: the transcript is written to a file on your PC and nowhere else, and the only copy is yours.
- Free with no meter, and no account to start. Aqua's FAQ says every account starts with 1,000 free words, which its Windows page puts at about seven minutes of talking; the account comes first, and the meter runs from the first word. Everything local in Deixis is free forever and unmetered: dictation, hands-free notes, both speech models, the dictionary and all five vocabulary packs, screen capture and annotation, screen recording, and meeting recording with transcription on your PC. None of it asks you to sign in. The only time Deixis wants an email address is for the cloud extras, starting with the seven-day trial, and even then there is no card and no password.
- It knows which field you are in without reading your screen. Aqua's home page says your screen is its dictionary, and its FAQ says that screen reading, Deep Context, stays off until you enable it. Deixis never reads your screen to dictate. It sends the name of the app and the field, so a commit message, a chat reply and a ticket are punctuated differently, and never the window title, never a screenshot, never the text on the page.
- Talk and point at the same time. Free mode lets you narrate for as long as you like while grabbing a screen region, picking a button on screen, or taking the text you have selected. What you said and what you pointed at come out as one note, ready to paste into a bug report or a handover.
- Screenshots, screen recording and meetings with the people in them named, all in the same key. Freeze the screen, drag a region, add arrows, boxes, numbered steps or a pixelated patch over anything private, and save. Record the screen, pause it, and stop it with the same key. Record a meeting, your side and theirs, and get a transcript written on your PC with the people in it named: Deixis tells the remote voices apart, you give each one a name, and from then on it recognises that person in later meetings. The voiceprint behind that is a mathematical fingerprint that stays on your machine, is never uploaded, and can be deleted per person. Aqua dictates; it does none of this.
- Nothing about you goes out, and everything of yours stays as a file. Aqua's privacy policy describes session metadata, technical data, a first-party identifier, and app-install attribution that sends a hashed version of your email address with events to the advertising platforms it names. Deixis sends nothing about you at all: no analytics, no crash reports, no identifiers. What it keeps, notes, transcripts, screenshots, recordings and settings, sits in one folder on your PC as ordinary files. Back it up, search it, uninstall Deixis tomorrow and it is all still there and still readable.
Where Aqua Voice still wins
- Forty-nine languages, with auto-detect. Aqua's Windows page lists 49 languages, and its language guide says it can switch between them automatically. Deixis ships English speech models only.
- Words appear as you speak. Realtime Mode, on the Max plan, streams your audio and types as you talk. Deixis types the finished sentence when you release the key.
- A voice command that sends the message. Aqua's "Send it" voice command, also on Max, sends the message for you. Deixis puts the text at your cursor and leaves the sending to you.
- Custom Instructions. On Pro and above you can tell Aqua how you want your text written and it follows the instruction. Deixis adapts to the app and the field it is typing into on its own, and takes transforms you say out loud, but it has no standing instruction you write once.
- An API for its speech model. Developers can call Aqua's Avalon model directly. Deixis has no API; its extensibility is buttons that run your scripts and webhooks that post finished notes to URLs you own.
- Cheaper for students, and team controls. A 70 per cent student discount, and Team and Business plans with centralised billing, an organisation-wide Privacy Mode and single sign-on. Deixis has teams and seats, but no student price and no sign-on integration.
What you get
More than dictation. One key, and everything behind it.
Hold the key and press a letter: free mode, a grab, a meeting, a recording, a translation, your own buttons. All of it on your own device, all of it free, none of it behind an account.
Dictation, where your cursor is
Hold a key, speak, release. Clean, punctuated text lands in whatever has focus, on your PC, your Mac and your phone, with your clipboard handed back.
Free mode: talk and point
Narrate for as long as you like while you grab a region, pick a button on screen or take a selection. One note, what you said interleaved with what you pointed at, pasted where you finish and saved as Markdown.
Screen grabs, annotated
Freeze every screen at the keypress, drag a region, add arrows, boxes, text and numbered steps, and pixelate what is private. Saved as a PNG that stays editable.
Screen recording, shared as a link
Record the screen with your narration. The recording writes itself up with a title, chapters and a summary, and from your Deixis account it shares as a link anyone can open without one. The Loom you can stop paying for.
Meetings, no bot, names included
Your microphone and the other side, transcribed on your machine while the call runs. Deixis tells the voices apart and remembers the ones you name, and never uploads a voice.
Your own buttons and workflows
Add a button to the palette: it gets the note on stdin and types back whatever it prints. Send finished notes to any URL you own. Chain steps: read the text off a screenshot, translate it, summarise it, post it.
Side by side
Aqua Voice and Deixis, side by side
| Row | Deixis | Aqua Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Windows 10 and 11 (any 64-bit PC from 2013 on), Mac (Apple Silicon), iPhone (as a keyboard) and Android (a dictation bubble in any app, plus meetings). One engine on all four, and audio never leaves the device. | macOS, Windows, iOS |
| Speech recognition happens | On your own device, inside the app, on every platform. Your audio never leaves it. | In the cloud |
| AI cleanup happens | On your device, with no provider at all. Or, if you want more, Deixis's cloud, your own Ollama, or your own key. Your choice, in one setting. | In the cloud |
| Leaves your machine | Text only, and only once you switch a cloud feature on. Never audio, never screenshots, never window titles. | Audio, text |
| Account needed | None, ever, for anything that runs on your device. The cloud extras have a seven-day trial you start with an email code. No card. | Required |
| Price | Free forever for everything local, meetings included. Pro is $49 a year for the cloud extras with nothing to set up. | Free tier: 1,000 words on the Starter plan, no card; the Windows page calls that about seven minutes of talking; $10 a month; $96 a year |
| Your transcripts live | In plain files, in one folder you own and can back up. Uninstall Deixis and every note is still readable. | On your device and in the cloud |
| Make it yours | Add your own buttons that run a script, send finished notes to any URL you own, and switch on vocabulary packs for your field. | A custom dictionary and replacements, Custom Instructions on Pro, a Send it voice command and Realtime Mode on Max, and an API for its Avalon speech model |
Aqua Voice facts from home, aquavoice.com, its privacy policy, windows, faq, terms, download, history and languages, read on 5 September 2026. “Not documented” means those pages did not say.
Aqua's Windows page says it processes audio in the cloud and has no offline mode. Its FAQ says transcripts may be retained by default to improve the model, and that switching on Privacy Mode stops that; the rows above describe the default. Transcripts live in two places: an on-device History tab, per its history guide, and on its servers unless Privacy Mode is on, per its privacy policy. Deep Context, its screen reading, is off until you enable it.
What leaves your machine, and what leaves theirs
Deixis publishes every byte it sends, as a table, because there is so little of it. Here is that table beside what Aqua Voice's own pages say.
| What | Deixis | Aqua Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Audio | Never. Recognition happens inside the app on your device; the recording, the model and the transcript stay there. | Your voice, to be turned into text: the Windows page says Aqua processes audio in the cloud, where its Avalon model runs, with no offline mode, and the FAQ says audio is processed in the cloud and never sold or shared for advertising. Realtime Mode streams audio to a third-party speech provider. Its history guide says recent sessions' audio is also kept on your device and deleted after three days.Aqua's cloud, and a third-party provider in Realtime Mode · every dictation |
| The dictated text | The sentence you just dictated, your vocabulary, and your previous sentence in that fieldthe endpoint you chose · only with a cloud endpoint set, and by default only when the local rules are not enough | The transcript is produced in the cloud. By default, the FAQ says, transcripts may be retained to improve the model; with Privacy Mode on they are not, and the home page says nothing is then stored on Aqua's servers.Aqua's servers · every dictation |
| Context around the text | The names of the app and the field the text is going into. Never the window title, never a screenshot.the same endpoint · with that request | Deep Context, its screen reading, stays off until you enable it and, the FAQ says, is not stored; when it is on, the FAQ says it reads what is on screen so that code, names and jargon come out correctly cased. The pages do not say what form the screen content takes when it is sent.not stated · only with Deep Context on |
| Telemetry and analytics | None. No account, no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reports. | Session metadata (timestamps, device type, performance metrics) and technical data (IP address, browser type, operating system). For advertising measurement and app-install attribution, a first-party identifier, and a hashed version of your email address sent with the event to the advertising platforms the policy names.Aqua, its attribution provider and the named advertising platforms · not stated |
| Update check | Nothing but the request; the version check happens on your PCapi.deixis-voice.com · every launch, and when you ask in Settings | not documented |
| Model download | Nothing but the requesthuggingface.co · once, when you press Download on first run | not documented |
| Account and sign-in | An email address, only if you choose to start the trialthe Deixis endpoint · when you start the trial | Name, email address, billing address and payment informationAqua · when you create the account and when you pay |
| Integrations | The finished note, and for a screenshot its file name, never the imagea URL you added yourself · on finish, only for destinations you added | not documented |
Before you switch
Before you switch
Who should not switch
If you dictate in a language other than English, stay with Aqua; Deixis's speech models are English models. If your PC is older than 2013 it will not run Deixis at all, and if your desk is a Linux box, Deixis is not there. And if watching the words appear while you are still talking is what you love about Aqua, Deixis types when you let go of the key, not before; that is a real difference in feel and no setting changes it.
Making the switch
Five minutes from installed to dictating. Here is what maps to what.
The dictation key
Aqua's Windows page describes it as hold the key, talk, release. Deixis is the same gesture with a
different key: hold Ctrl+Win, speak, release, and the text lands at your cursor with the
clipboard put back the way you left it. Double-tap the same key instead and it keeps listening
until you double-tap again, for the paragraph you have not finished thinking yet. You can change
the key in Settings if another one suits your hands better.
The first run
Aqua signs you in and counts your first 1,000 words. Deixis shows one Download button. Press it, wait for a file about the size of a short video, and you are dictating. That is the speech model, fetched once and kept on your PC. Settings offers a second, larger model that is more accurate and slower to decode, and it swaps in without a restart.
Your dictionary and replacements
Aqua has a custom dictionary and replacements. Deixis has both too, and you can add a word without
leaving what you are doing: select it anywhere, press Ctrl+Win+D, done. Five vocabulary packs
ship in the box, for software, finance, business, medicine and law, and switching one on takes a
click. A word it keeps mishearing can be corrected once and fixed forever, and the corrections are
unlimited.
Custom Instructions, and what replaces them
Aqua lets you write instructions for how your text should come out. Deixis works from where the text is going instead: it sends the name of the app and the field along with your words, so the cleanup already knows a terminal from an email. You can also ask for a transform out loud, "make this a bullet list", and it will. What it does not have is a standing instruction you write once.
Privacy Mode, and what replaces it
Aqua's Privacy Mode decides whether its servers keep your transcripts. In Deixis there is no such setting because nothing is sent to be kept. The one choice that matters is whether AI cleanup uses the network, and it is in Settings → Cleanup. Out of the box, Deixis tidies your dictation on your PC with no provider and no key. If you want a language model to polish your sentences, choose between Deixis's cloud, a model running on your own machine, or your own key. Whichever you pick, the page linked at the bottom of this one says exactly what each choice sends, and you also choose how often: only when the local rules are not enough, every time, or never.
History
Aqua's History tab is an on-device record of your sessions, with the audio deleted after three days; by its privacy policy, transcripts may also be stored on its servers unless Privacy Mode is on. Deixis keeps your dictation history in the Library and every note, transcript and recording as a file in one folder on your PC, for as long as you like.
Meetings, screenshots, recordings
Ctrl+Win+M records a meeting, both your voice and theirs, and transcribes it on your PC. The
remote voices come out told apart, and you name them: give each voice a name once, and the next
time that person is in a meeting Deixis recognises them and labels them. The voiceprint it uses is a
mathematical fingerprint that stays on your machine, is never uploaded, and can be deleted per
person. Ctrl+Win+S grabs and annotates a screenshot. Ctrl+Win+V records the screen to a video
file. All of it lands in one folder as files you can open with anything.
Before you ask
Questions people search for
Does Aqua Voice work on Windows?
Yes. Aqua's Windows page says it supports Windows 10 and 11, and that you dictate into anything you can place a cursor in. It also says that Aqua processes audio in the cloud and has no offline mode, and its FAQ adds that it needs a connection. Deixis is the Windows tool that does the recognition on your own PC instead, offline, with no account; it runs on the Mac and on your phone the same way.
Is Aqua Voice free?
The Starter plan gives you 1,000 words free with no card; after that, Pro was $10 a month, or $8 a month billed annually, and Max $30 a month or $24 billed annually, when we checked. Deixis is free forever for everything on your PC, with no word count and no account. Pro, at $49 a year or $10 a month, adds the managed cloud extras with nothing to set up.
Does Deixis type while I am still talking?
No. Deixis types the finished sentence when you release the key, cleaned and punctuated. If you want to keep talking, double-tap the key for hands-free mode and it keeps listening until you double-tap again, then pastes the whole note at your cursor.
Does Aqua Voice work offline?
No. Its Windows page and its FAQ both say it is cloud-based and needs a connection. Deixis works offline in every mode, because the speech recognition never used the network in the first place; the only thing a fresh install does on its own is check for updates.
Does Aqua Voice store my transcripts?
By its own FAQ, by default it may: transcripts can be retained to improve the model unless you turn on Privacy Mode, and its home page says that with Privacy Mode on nothing is stored on its servers. The audio still travels to its cloud to be transcribed either way. Deixis has no servers in the path: recognition happens inside the app on your PC and the transcript is a file in your folder.
Does Deixis upload my audio?
Never, under any setting. Speech recognition happens inside the app on your PC, and on your Mac and your phone it happens on the device the same way. The only things that can ever leave are text, and only once you switch a cloud feature on. The full list, every byte, is one page long and linked at the bottom of this one.
Hold a key. Speak. Keep working.
Deixis is free, needs no account, and runs on your own PC. Everything on this page is in the current release.
v0.9.0 · 64‑bit Windows 10/11 · 46.7 MB · nothing else to install
Facts about Aqua Voice checked on 2026-09-05 against aquavoice.com. Deixis facts are from its README for the current release. Something out of date? Tell us.