Speechnotes Review

What Is Speechnotes?

Speechnotes does one thing well: give you a clean text area and let you fill it with your voice. There's no complex feature set, no team collaboration layer, no AI summarization — just a distraction-free notepad that converts speech to text. The web app works at speechnotes.co, the Chrome extension adds dictation to other websites, and mobile apps cover Android and iOS.

At $1.90/month for the premium tier or completely free with ads, Speechnotes targets students, casual writers, and anyone who wants basic voice typing without a learning curve or a hefty subscription. It also runs a separate transcription service for uploaded audio files at $0.10/minute with speaker diarization and .srt export.

Pricing: $1.90/Month or Free With Ads

The free plan gives you the full dictation notepad and Chrome extension, supported by ads. The $1.90/month premium plan removes ads, adds premium support, and unlocks the full Chrome extension features. That's it — no tiers, no seat licenses, no complex pricing matrix.

For the transcription service (uploaded audio files), pricing is $0.10 per minute with no monthly commitment. Each upload gets speaker diarization, timestamps, AI summaries, and caption export in .srt format. This is a separate product from the live dictation notepad.

The Dictation Experience

Open the Speechnotes web app and you see a blank white page with a microphone button. Click it, start talking, and text appears. The interface is deliberately minimal — no toolbars, no sidebars, no feature menus competing for attention. Voice commands handle formatting: say 'period', 'comma', 'new line', 'exclamation mark', or 'question mark' and Speechnotes inserts the correct punctuation.

Automatic capitalization kicks in at the start of sentences. Continuous listening means the app doesn't time out and stop recording after a few seconds of silence — it keeps listening until you explicitly stop. This matters for writers and thinkers who pause between sentences.

Chrome Extension: Dictation on Other Sites

The Speechnotes Chrome extension adds a dictation button to text fields on other websites. It's more limited than Voice In's 10,000+ site compatibility — Speechnotes works best on common sites with standard text inputs. For complex web editors or CRM platforms, Voice In's Advanced Mode is more reliable.

The extension uses the same speech recognition as the web app (Chrome's Web Speech API), so accuracy and language support are identical between the notepad and extension. The premium plan removes ads from both.

Transcription Service: Audio File Processing

Separate from the live dictation tool, Speechnotes offers an audio/video transcription service at $0.10/minute. Upload an MP3, MP4, WAV, or other audio file and get back a transcript with speaker diarization (labeling who said what), timestamps, and the option to export as .srt caption files.

AI-generated summaries of the transcription are included for quick review. The service integrates with Zapier and offers a REST API with webhooks for automated workflows. At $0.10/minute, it's competitive with Sonix ($0.25/hour) and significantly cheaper than human transcription services.

Mobile Apps: Android and iOS

Speechnotes has dedicated Android and iOS apps that mirror the web experience — a clean notepad with voice input. The apps are useful for on-the-go note-taking, quick voice memos, and drafting text when you don't have a laptop open. They use the respective platform's speech recognition (Google on Android, Apple on iOS) rather than Chrome's Web Speech API.

Language Support

Speechnotes supports the languages available through Chrome's Web Speech API and the native mobile speech engines. Major languages — English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean — work well. The full list depends on your browser and device language packs, which varies by platform and region.

Speechnotes vs Voice In

Voice In is built to inject text directly into any website's text fields. Speechnotes is primarily a standalone notepad that also has a Chrome extension. If your workflow is 'dictate a note, then paste it somewhere,' Speechnotes is simpler and cheaper. If you want to dictate directly into Gmail, Salesforce, or ChatGPT without copy-pasting, Voice In handles that better.

Voice In Plus costs $60/year; Speechnotes premium costs $22.80/year. For budget-conscious users who don't need direct website injection, Speechnotes saves $37/year while covering basic dictation needs.

Speechnotes vs Google Docs Voice Typing

Google Docs Voice Typing is free and offers similar accuracy, but it's locked to Google Docs. Speechnotes gives you a dedicated notepad that's faster to open (no need to create a new Doc), plus a Chrome extension for other sites, mobile apps, and a transcription service for uploaded files. If Google Docs is your primary writing environment, the built-in option works. For a dedicated dictation notepad, Speechnotes is more focused.

Limitations

Speechnotes is simple by design, which means it lacks features that heavier tools include: no custom voice commands, no text expansion snippets, no team sharing, no AI writing assistance. The Chrome extension's website compatibility is narrower than Voice In's. There's no desktop app — you're limited to the web, Chrome extension, and mobile apps. And accuracy depends on Chrome's Web Speech API, which means no offline dictation and no local processing.

Verdict

Speechnotes is the best value in voice typing for users who want simplicity over features. At $1.90/month (or free with ads), it's hard to beat for students, casual writers, and anyone who just needs to speak and see text. The transcription service at $0.10/minute is a solid bonus for podcasters and content creators. Best for budget-conscious users who want a clean, no-frills dictation experience. Skip if you need direct website injection, custom voice commands, or desktop-wide dictation.