Compared · 29 September 2026
Seven apps that say they transcribe on the iPhone itself, with nothing sent to a server: what they cost, whether they tell speakers apart, whether they summarise, and what they export.
I make one of them, Quern, so read this knowing that. Every fact links to the listing or site I took it from, and where a developer doesn't say, the table says so.
UK App Store prices. "Not stated" means neither the listing nor the developer's site says.
| App | Price | Transcript while you record | Speaker labels | Summary on the iPhone | Subtitle export | Also on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voice Memos | Free, built in | Yes | No | With Writing Tools, on iPhone 15 Pro or later | No | iPad, Mac, Watch |
| Whisper Notes | £7.99 once | No | Yes | No (Mac only) | SRT and VTT, with names | iPad, Mac |
| Aiko | £25 once | No | No | No | SRT | iPad, Mac |
| Viska: Local AI Meeting Notes | £6.99 once | Not stated | Yes | Yes, by asking it | Not stated | iPad, Mac (M1 or later) |
| VoiceScriber AI: Offline Notes | Free to download; £29.99 a year or £44.99 once | Yes | Not stated | No | Not stated | Mac (M1 or later) |
| Basil | Free to start; £9.99 a month or £99.99 a year | Yes | Yes | Yes, with actions and decisions | Not stated | iPad, Mac, Vision Pro |
| Quern | Free for 30 days, then £19.99 once | Yes | Yes | Yes, with actions and owners | SRT and VTT, with names | iPhone only |
What it does well, what it leaves out, and who it suits.
It's already on your iPhone. On an iPhone 12 or later it writes a transcript as you record, in ten languages, and lights up each word as it plays back. It doesn't label speakers. For a summary you select the transcript and use Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools, which needs an iPhone 15 Pro or later. You can copy the text out; there's no subtitle or document export.
Suits: Recordings of just you, and anyone who would rather not add an app.
OpenAI's Whisper model, run on the iPhone, for a one-off £7.99. It labels speakers and lets you rename them, and its SRT and VTT exports keep the names. It transcribes after you stop recording, not while you record. The Mac version adds summaries and chat; the developer says these aren't on iPhone yet.
Suits: Interviews you will caption, on a budget, on iPhone and Mac.
£25 once for iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a 14-day trial through TestFlight. It runs Whisper on the device in 100 languages, and the listing is upfront about what it leaves out: no live transcription and no speaker detection. It exports SRT, plain text, CSV and JSON.
Suits: Plain, accurate transcripts in a lot of languages.
£6.99 once. Whisper writes the transcript, and a language model on the phone answers questions about it: ask for the action items and it answers from the transcript. It separates speakers and lets you rename them. Export is plain text for now, with PDF listed as coming. The developer recommends an iPhone 14 or newer.
Suits: The lowest price for speakers and a summary on the phone.
Free to download, then a subscription (£5.99 a week, £9.99 a month or £29.99 a year) or £44.99 for life. Since an update last year it transcribes while you record. It imports M4A, MP3 and WAV files and can print to PDF. It doesn't summarise, and the listing doesn't mention speaker labels.
Suits: Quick transcripts of your own voice notes.
A live transcript, speaker labels, and summaries with action items and decisions, all made on the device, for iOS 26 on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro. It's a subscription: on the App Store, Pro is £9.99 a month, £99.99 a year or £199 for life, and there's a dearer tier for lawyers. It exports Markdown, text, CSV and JSON.
Suits: One subscription across every Apple device you own.
The one I make. It writes the transcript as people speak and labels who's speaking. Apple Intelligence then writes a summary on the phone, grouped into what was decided, what's still open, and actions with the person who took each one on. Each point shows when it was said, so you can go and hear it. It exports Markdown, SRT and VTT with names, and PDF. It's iPhone only, and it needs an iPhone 15 Pro or later.
Suits: Meetings and interviews where you need to check who said what.
It depends on what you record and what happens to the words afterwards.
"Offline" on a listing can mean less than it sounds. Four things worth checking for any app, this one included.
Some well-known recorders don't. Just Press Record's listing and site describe transcription without saying where it runs, so it isn't in this comparison.
Most on-device apps download a speech model the first time. After that, record something with Aeroplane Mode on. If it still transcribes, it's doing the work on the phone.
Every App Store listing has one. "Data Not Collected" is the answer you want from an app that says nothing leaves your phone.
On-device transcription doesn't stop a recording being copied. Several of these apps sync through iCloud, and an iPhone backup includes app data unless you leave it out.
I read each app's UK App Store listing and its developer's site on 29 September 2026. Prices are what the UK App Store showed that day, and developers change them. An app was included if it says its transcription runs on the iPhone. I haven't tested the other apps' accuracy, so this compares what they do, not how well they do it.
If something here is wrong or out of date, email [email protected] and I'll correct it.
Out 19 October on the App Store