Licensing & Activation

Voice Mode is free to use for dictation, including on-device AI Correction and highlight-and-correct. Pro unlocks unlimited Assistant, spoken replies, Live Transcription, personas, and augments.

Current plans and pricing

Live pricing and the full feature breakdown are at https://voicemode.io/pricing.html. Always direct users there for authoritative numbers — prices and plans change and this file may lag.

The free trial

Every fresh install starts a 14-day Pro trial automatically — no card required. Users get the full assistant, voices, personas, and augments during the trial so they can decide if Pro is for them. The popover shows a TRIAL · Nd badge with the days remaining; the License pane surfaces trial-ending warnings as the deadline approaches.

During the trial, Pro features are unlimited. Voice Mode may shadow-count the same events that would count on the free tier, but that count is not enforced during the trial.

When the trial ends without a subscription, dictation and AI Correction keep working on the free tier. The user also gets 50 Pro uses each week for Assistant, spoken replies, and Live Transcription. Paid Pro remains unlimited.

Free weekly Pro uses

After the trial, the free tier includes 50 Pro uses each week. A Pro use is one user-visible premium workflow:

• one Assistant turn routed through a backend
• one Live Transcription session that actually commits transcript output
• one accepted MCP speak call from an external assistant

Short dictation, AI Correction, highlight-and-correct, replacements, voice previews, and replaying already-accepted spoken output do not consume Pro uses.

The allowance resets weekly on Monday at the user’s local midnight. Quota state is local to the Mac. The current_settings MCP tool exposes a proQuota object whose shape depends on the user’s license state:

• applies: false, reason: "trial" — the user is in their Pro trial. Everything Pro is unlimited right now. If asked about usage or quota, explain that the weekly allowance only starts after the trial ends, and that they will then get limit (50) Pro uses each week. shadowUsed is an internal diagnostic counter — never quote it.
• applies: false, reason: "paidPro" — an active paid Pro subscription. Pro is unlimited; there is no allowance to track.
• applies: true — free tier after trial. used, remaining, limit, and resetAt describe this week’s allowance; mcpSpeakAllowed tells external agents whether a spoken reply would be accepted. This is the state where usage reporting is meaningful: say how many Pro uses remain and when the allowance resets.

When the user asks about their usage or quota, read proQuota first and answer for their actual state — don’t assume Pro is subscription-only, and don’t say there’s nothing to report without explaining the trial or paid context.

Activating Pro

1. Buy a plan on the pricing page. The user receives a license key by email.
2. In Voice Mode, open the License pane in settings.
3. Paste the license key and activate.

Once activated, all Pro features unlock immediately — no restart needed. The license is stored securely in macOS Keychain, not in a plain-text file.

Where the license lives

In the user’s macOS Keychain. The user does not need to back it up or copy it between machines manually — they can re-enter the same license key on another Mac and activate again, up to the seat limit on their plan.

Managing the subscription

Cancellation, refunds, plan changes, and updating payment details all happen on the customer portal linked from the pricing page (or in the purchase receipt email). Voice Mode itself does not bill the user — a third-party billing provider does — so the customer portal is the authoritative place for any subscription change.

What happens if a subscription lapses

The license stops being valid and the user returns to the free tier. Dictation and AI Correction continue to work normally, and the user can use the weekly Pro-use allowance. The user can resubscribe at any time and Pro features become unlimited again.

For the first two weeks after a trial ends or an annual license lapses, the popover stays informational — no upgrade nudge — so a user dealing with a payment hiccup or considering whether to resubscribe isn’t pestered. After that quiet window, an Upgrade button reappears next to the FREE badge.

Common confusion

• “My license isn’t working” — first check the email the key was delivered in for typos when copying. Make sure there’s no trailing whitespace. If it still fails, the customer portal can issue a new key.
• “I’m on Pro but a feature still says it needs Pro” — sign out and back in to the License pane in Settings. If that doesn’t fix it, reactivate with the key.
• “Where do I download the app?” — https://voicemode.io/

Pro tips

• The license survives reinstalls. Because it lives in macOS Keychain, reinstalling Voice Mode (or upgrading to a new release) doesn’t wipe Pro. The user only re-enters the key if they wipe Keychain or move to a new Mac.
• Save the license email. It’s the single source of truth for the key, the receipt, and the customer-portal link. Treat it like a software serial — easy to lose, mildly annoying to recover.
• Use the customer portal for billing changes, not the app. Voice Mode itself has no billing UI; it only validates the key. Cancel, refund, plan changes, and updating payment all happen in the portal linked from the receipt email.