Plaud Pricing 2026: Can You Skip the $99.99 Subscription?

Before a Plaud recorder transcribes a single word, you've spent at least $159.

The recorder costs $159 to $189, and the plans are Starter $0 (300 minutes, device required), Pro $99.99/yr or $17.99/mo, Unlimited $239.99/yr or $29.99/mo, and Team $20/seat/mo annual.

The cheapest recorder comes with the free Starter plan, which transcribes about five hours of audio a month. Yes, you can skip the subscription, as long as five hours a month is enough.

Plaud pricing, checked November 5, 2026, comes down to three numbers:

• The recorder: $159 for the Note or NotePin, up to $189 for the Note Pro.
• The AI plan: Starter at $0, Pro at $99.99 a year or $17.99 a month, Unlimited at $239.99 a year or $29.99 a month.
• The minutes: Pro gives you 1,200 a month, and Unlimited removes the cap entirely.

Plaud's help center says the three plans differ only in minutes. Your choice comes down to hours: how many you record, and for how many years you'll keep at it.

Key Takeaways

How Voibe Work compares

Voibe Work is the meeting-notes plan from Voibe, the app we build. It costs $149 a year, and there's no device to buy.

• Against a Plaud Note plus a year of Pro: Voibe Work is $109.99 (42.5%) less.
• Over three years: Voibe Work lifetime ($399) is $59.97 (13.1%) less than a Note with three years of Pro.
• Dictation included: type by voice in any app on your Mac or PC, at no extra cost.

Voibe Work wins at the desk. It records online calls in any app, and in-person meetings through your Mac or PC's mic.

Plaud suits days away from a desk, when you want a recorder clipped to your shirt or a call recorded on your phone.

• Where a Plaud recording goes after it syncs: Is Plaud safe?
• Recorders and apps that replace it: Plaud alternatives
• The no-hardware method: how to record an in-person meeting on your laptop
• Every note taker's price side by side: AI meeting note taker pricing

How I checked the numbers

On November 5, 2026, I went through every public page where Plaud states a price or a rule:

• Plaud's pricing page, with every monthly and annual toggle flipped both ways
• Its store catalog, for device, bundle and accessory prices
• Its refund policy, its warranty page and the help center

I read Plaud's pricing page, help center, privacy policy and trust center, checked November 5, 2026, and every fact below is attributed to them.

I priced each setup over one, two and three years. A percentage is always the difference divided by the Plaud price. Voibe's prices come from getvoibe.com/pricing.

A Plaud device costs $159 to $189, and no plan works until you own one. Plaud sells four recorders today, with a fifth on a waitlist.

These are regular US store prices. No sale was running on the standalone devices on November 5, 2026.

Plaud's homepage shows a 4.9 out of 5 badge; on the App Store it rates 4.88 from 24,174 ratings (November 5, 2026).

Specs come from Plaud's device comparison page, and prices from its US store, both checked November 5, 2026.

If you record phone calls, it's the Note or Note Pro

Only the two card-shaped recorders record phone calls. They attach to the back of your phone, where a vibration-conduction sensor picks up sound from the phone's speaker.

The NotePin and NotePin S record the room and nothing else. Great for a client lunch. If you take client calls from the car, you want a Note.

Every recorder comes with Starter

• The free Starter plan is included, with 300 transcription minutes a month.
• The recorder stores audio on 64GB of memory, so recording works without a connection.

Transcription runs in Plaud's cloud, though. The Note and both NotePins need a paired phone and internet before you see any text.

Bundles and the small extras

Plaud also sells a device and a year of a plan together. Not every bundle saves you money:

• Note with Pro annual: $248.99, which is $10 off the $258.99 you'd pay for both separately.
• NotePin S and Note Pro bundles: no discount at all, so buy whichever way is convenient.
• Magnetic phone cases: $19.99, for clipping a Note to the back of your phone.
• Wristbands: $19.99 to $29.99, for wearing a NotePin on your wrist.

None of these extras is expensive alone. They do add up once you kit out a recorder properly.

Plaud sells four AI plans, and the three individual ones share every feature. Starter, Pro and Unlimited differ only in transcription minutes, per Plaud's help center (November 5, 2026).

Team adds admin tools on top of Unlimited.

Prices come from Plaud's AI plan pricing page, checked November 5, 2026, and match its store catalog.

Annual beats monthly if you're staying a year

The toggle promises up to 54% off. The Pro maths holds up, and the Unlimited saving is smaller. Billed monthly for a year, each plan costs:

• Pro: 12 × $17.99 = $215.88, so annual saves $115.89 (53.7%, which Plaud rounds to 54%)
• Unlimited: 12 × $29.99 = $359.88, so annual saves $119.89 (33.3%)

If you know you'll record all year, I'd take annual on Pro without much thought.

What you get on every individual plan

Plaud's feature matrix ticks the same boxes on Starter, Pro and Unlimited:

• AI transcription in 112+ languages, on every tier, Starter included
• More than 10,000 summary templates, plus any templates you add yourself
• Ask Plaud, which lets you search across every recording you've made
• Unlimited cloud storage, the Plaud Desktop app and Plaud MCP
• Connectors for Notion, Slack and Zapier, several still marked Preview while Plaud finishes them

That's generous for a free tier. It also means Unlimited's extra money pays for minutes and nothing else.

What Team adds

Team gives every seat the full Unlimited plan. On top of that you get:

• Shared team files, centralized billing, and seat and device management
• A Data Processing Agreement for the workspace
• Plaud Desktop without a device, which no other Plaud plan allows

Team pays by credit card only and needs at least two seats.

Plaud's Starter plan costs $0, but it needs a Plaud device bound to your account.

Recording, transferring files and using your membership benefits all start from a bound device, per Plaud's help center (November 5, 2026).

The cheapest way in is a $159 Note or NotePin. Free starts at $159.

What Starter gives you

• 300 transcription minutes a month, which is five hours of audio
• The same AI features as Pro and Unlimited, including templates and Ask Plaud
• Unlimited cloud storage and the Plaud app on iPhone and Android

What happens at minute 301

Only transcription pauses, per Plaud's pricing FAQ. Your recordings and every other feature keep working.

Minutes reset at the start of each billing month. Unused ones don't carry over, so a quiet month banks nothing for a busy one.

Plaud Desktop needs the device too

Plaud Desktop records online meetings from your computer, and no bot joins the call. It looks like a way around the hardware. It isn't.

On an individual plan, Desktop still needs a Plaud device bound to the account, per Plaud's Desktop download help article. Only Plaud Team runs Desktop without hardware.

Starter against Voibe Free

Voibe Free costs nothing and needs no hardware. It's a dictation plan:

• $0 forever, with no hardware to buy first
• Dictation in any app, on one Mac or Windows PC
• 2,000 cloud words a week, with AI clean-up included

Plaud Starter covers meetings, but only after you buy the recorder. Voibe's meeting notes come with Voibe Work, at $19 a month, $149 a year or $399 lifetime. Every new Voibe account starts with a 7-day trial of every Voibe Work feature, with no credit card.

Plaud doesn't hide fees. The subscription just isn't the whole bill.

Seven costs sit off the main price cards, and the first one shapes most budgets.

1. Pro's monthly minute cap

Pro's 1,200 minutes add up to 20 hours a month, just under an hour per working day. Minutes reset each billing month, and the ones you don't use are gone.

If your week is back-to-back client calls, that ceiling comes up quickly.

2. Extra Minutes packs

Run out, and Plaud sells top-ups. Per hour of audio, the bigger packs cost less:

• 600 minutes for $12.99, or $1.30 an hour of audio
• 3,000 minutes for $59.99, or $1.20 an hour of audio
• 6,000 minutes for $99.99, or $1.00 an hour of audio

A pack must be activated within 12 months of purchase. It then lasts 24 months and covers transcription only.

How you buy them matters more than the sticker on each pack:

• A 600-minute pack every month on Pro: $255.87 for the year, which is $15.88 more than Unlimited.
• One 6,000-minute pack a year on Pro: $199.98, or $40.01 less than Unlimited, adding about 500 minutes a month.

If you run over often, I'd buy the big pack once rather than the small one every month.

3. Plaud Credits for agent tasks

Plaud Credits are a separate meter, per Plaud's help center. They pay for tasks Plaud Agent carries out in Ask Plaud's Work mode, such as creating a document.

• Chat, recording, transcription and summaries don't use any credits.
• Each plan gets a one-time trial grant of 600, 2,400 or 6,000 credits.
• I couldn't find a credit pack's price on any public page.

4. A second device for calls and the room

Every individual plan needs a bound device, and a NotePin can't record calls. If you want a wearable for the room and phone-call recording too, you're buying two recorders.

The Note Pro and NotePin S bundle costs $368.

5. Team's launch prices end November 30

Team's $20 a seat (annual) and $28 (monthly) are launch offers, and both go up:

• Annual rises from $20 to $25 a seat after the first year.
• Monthly rises from $28 to $35 a seat after November 30, 2026.
• Two seats on annual cost $480 in year one and $600 a year after that.

6. Refunds stop once a plan is used

Plaud refunds a digital service within 30 days only if it hasn't been used or activated. Activation codes can't be refunded once redeemed.

Partial periods aren't refunded either, unless the law requires it. Once Pro transcribes your first meeting, you're committed.

7. No plan works without the cloud

Transcription runs in Plaud's cloud on every plan, with no on-device option. You can record on a plane. The transcript waits until the audio syncs over an internet connection.

Over three years, a $159 Plaud Note with Pro costs $458.97. With Unlimited it costs $878.97. You pay for the device once, and the plan keeps the line climbing.

Each Plaud row is the list price of the device plus the annual plan. A bundle shaves $10 off year one for the Note.

Voibe Work annual: ahead early, behind by year four

Voibe Work annual starts $109.99 (42.5%) below a Note with Pro. The gap narrows every year, because Plaud Pro costs $49.01 a year less once the recorder is paid for.

• After two years, Voibe Work is $60.98 (17.0%) less.
• After three years, it's still $11.97 (2.6%) less.
• In year four, Plaud pulls ahead by $37.04.

Voibe Work lifetime: the long game

• At two years, lifetime costs $40.02 more than a Note with Pro ($399 against $358.98).
• At three years, lifetime is $59.97 (13.1%) less.
• Against a Note with Unlimited, lifetime comes in $479.97 (54.6%) less over three years.

If you already own a Plaud

Then the device is a sunk cost, and the maths changes. Pro alone costs $299.97 over three years, $99.03 less than Voibe Work lifetime.

Pro takes almost four years to pass $399. Unlimited alone passes $399 within its second year. If Pro covers you, I wouldn't switch on price alone.

What Plaud owners rate it

People who own a Plaud rate the app highly:

• US App Store: 4.88 out of 5 from 24,174 ratings
• Google Play: 4.6 stars from 11.1K reviews
• Trustpilot: a TrustScore of 4.7 from 2,914 reviews

The few low-star Trustpilot reviews I could see mostly named shipping delays and speaker identification. It's a thin sample, so read it as a hint rather than a pattern.

No. Every Plaud plan sends audio along the same cloud path, from Starter to Unlimited. Paying more gets you minutes. Team adds admin tools and workspace-level data residence.

The table draws on Plaud's privacy policy, trust center, pricing page and security help article, all checked November 5, 2026.

On paper, Plaud's compliance story is stronger

Plaud says it holds SOC 2 Type II and has obtained a HIPAA Validation Report. It applies both to every plan, and I'll give it that one.

Voibe makes no certification claim. Its privacy case rests on architecture, with a BAA available on request. Plaud's claims are its own, and the full trail is in Is Plaud safe?.

Consent is on you either way

People forget a recorder on the table. Plaud's help center says you're responsible for informing all participants and getting any consent the law requires.

When you start recording, Voibe Work prompts you to tell everyone you're taking notes. The law where you are is still yours to follow.

Our recording consent laws guide covers the all-party consent states.

Plaud's discounts are annual billing, $10 off two bundles, and 10% off for eligible groups.

• Eligible groups: in the US and Canada, students, educators, healthcare workers and military get 10% off full-priced devices on official Plaud stores, per Plaud's help center.
• Bundles: the Note and NotePin bundles with an annual plan take $10 off.
• Annual billing: the toggle promises up to 54% off against paying monthly.

I found no lifetime plan and no free trial of Pro or Unlimited. Starter is how you try Plaud's AI, after you've bought a device.

Returns, refunds and warranty

• Devices get a 30-day no-reason return and a full refund, per Plaud's refund policy (November 5, 2026).
• Plaud pays the return shipping and refunds within 5 to 10 business days.
• A device that's faulty on arrival gets a 7-day replacement or full-refund window.
• Plans are refunded within 30 days only if they haven't been used or activated.
• App Store purchases are refunded through Apple, not through Plaud.
• Every device carries a 12-month warranty from the date of delivery, per Plaud's warranty page.

The device side is generous. The plan side is strict, so don't buy a plan you aren't ready to use.

Where Voibe lands on discounts and trials

Voibe has no student or education discount. If you qualify, Plaud's 10% wins that round.

• Voibe Work comes with 7 days of every feature, no credit card and no automatic charge.
• After the trial you move to Voibe Free unless you buy a plan.
• Every paid plan carries a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• The pricing page marks the $399 lifetime option as limited time.

You can cancel a Plaud plan at any time. It stays active until the end of the billing period, then your account drops back to Starter. Plaud says cancelling doesn't delete your recordings.

Cancel where you subscribed

• App Store and Google Play subscriptions have to be changed in those stores.
• Upgrades take effect at once, while downgrades wait for the end of the billing cycle.

Export before the paid period ends

Back on Starter, you keep your recordings but get only 300 minutes of transcription a month. Plaud exports in more than 27 formats.

Copy what you need while the paid plan is still running. I'd do it the week you decide to cancel, not the day it lapses.

Switching to Voibe after you cancel

If you're leaving a paid Plaud plan, email the cancellation confirmation to hi@getvoibe.com. Voibe's switch offer then gives you Voibe Work free for the time left, plus one bonus month, up to 12 months.

Team works differently

Plaud Team can't be converted to or from an individual plan. Moving a group back to personal plans means starting new subscriptions.

In year one, Voibe Work is $109.99 (42.5%) less than a Plaud Note with Pro, because there's no $159 device to buy. It also covers your dictation.

If you already own a recorder, the maths changes. Plaud Pro is $99.99 a year against $149, so Voibe Work costs $49.01 (49.0%) more for meetings alone.

The headline row's maths: $258.99 − $149 = $109.99, then $109.99 ÷ $258.99 = 42.5%.

Minutes against meetings

Pro caps transcription at 1,200 minutes a month. Voibe Work has unlimited meetings, each up to 4 hours.

In a heavy month, the fairer match is Plaud Unlimited. That costs $90.99 more a year than Voibe Work.

Where Plaud wins

• Away from a desk, a NotePin clips to a shirt or wrist with no laptop open.
• The Note and Note Pro record phone calls. Voibe has no phone app.
• The recorder keeps audio on its 64GB and syncs later. Voibe Work meeting notes need the internet.
• Plaud has iPhone and Android apps, plus a 10% discount for students, educators, healthcare workers and military members.
• Pro's $99.99 a year undercuts Voibe Work's $149 once the device is paid for.

Where Voibe Work wins

Voibe Work records the meetings that happen at your computer, and there's no device to buy. It captures them from your Mac or Windows PC, and no bot joins:

• Calls in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Slack huddles or any other meeting app
• In-person meetings in the room, recorded through your Mac or PC's mic

Where the meeting audio goes

The audio goes to open-source models on zero-retention cloud providers. It's deleted as soon as processing completes.

The transcript and summary are saved on your computer, not on Voibe's servers. They're never used to train AI.

What else comes with Voibe Work

• Speaker labels with a time on every line, and renaming a speaker updates the summary
• Templates for each type of meeting, plus custom templates you create yourself
• Chat with your meetings, with one-click copy and PDF export
• Unlimited meetings of up to 4 hours each, on Mac and Windows
• Voibe Dictation included, which Plaud has no equivalent for

Further reading on Voibe Work

• Launch details: Voibe Work: meeting notes with no bot
• The 4-hour meeting limit: our October update
• Phones: Voibe doesn't run on iPhone or Android, so Plaud is the better buy there

Answer five questions in order, and stop at the first answer that fits.

1. Do your meetings happen away from a computer?

If they happen at your desk, or around a table with your laptop open, Voibe Work ($149 a year) records both without a device.

If you're on site visits, walking or on the phone, Plaud is built for you, so carry on.

2. Do you need phone calls recorded?

• Yes: pick the Note ($159) or Note Pro ($189), the only two that record calls.
• No, just the room: the NotePin ($159) or NotePin S ($179) is lighter to wear.

3. Will five hours a month do?

Then stay on Starter ($0). Your total cost is the device, and for light use that's a good deal.

4. Will 20 hours a month do?

Then pick Pro ($99.99 a year, or $17.99 a month). Only running over now and then? A 6,000-minute pack ($99.99) is cheaper than moving up.

5. Do you need more than that, or a team?

• Unlimited costs $239.99 a year and removes the minute cap.
• Team fits two or more people who need admin tools, or who want Plaud Desktop without buying hardware.

Cheat sheet: match your week to a plan

Quick answers on Plaud's devices, plans, minutes and refunds, grouped by theme.

How much is Plaud a month?

Plaud's monthly prices, checked November 5, 2026:

• Pro: $17.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed annually ($99.99 a year).
• Unlimited: $29.99 a month, or $20 a month billed annually ($239.99 a year).
• Starter: free, but every plan needs a Plaud device, which costs $159 to $189.

How much is a Plaud device?

The Plaud Note and NotePin cost $159, the NotePin S $179 and the Note Pro $189, at regular US prices checked November 5, 2026.

Only the Note and Note Pro record phone calls. The Plaud One earbuds are $249.99, but they're waitlist-only now.

Is the Plaud annual plan worth it?

Yes, if you'll keep recording for a year. Pro annual saves $115.89 (53.7%) against 12 monthly payments, and Unlimited saves $119.89 (33.3%).

Plaud refunds a plan only if it hasn't been used, so try a month first if you're unsure.

How much is Plaud Team?

Team is $20 a seat a month on annual billing for the first year, then $25. Monthly billing is $28 a seat until November 30, 2026, then $35.

Team needs at least two seats, so the first annual year costs at least $480.

What is the difference between Plaud Pro and Unlimited?

Only the minutes. Pro gives 1,200 transcription minutes a month for $99.99 a year or $17.99 a month.

Unlimited removes the cap (up to 24 hours a day) for $239.99 a year or $29.99 a month. Plaud says all plans share the same features.

Does Plaud have a student discount?

Yes. In the US and Canada, Plaud gives students, educators, healthcare professionals and military members 10% off full-priced devices on official Plaud stores.

Voibe has no student or education discount.

How much does Plaud cost over three years?

A Plaud Note ($159) with Pro annual costs $258.99 in year one, $358.98 over two years and $458.97 over three.

With Unlimited annual it costs $398.99, $638.98 and $878.97. The device is paid once; the plan renews every year.

Is Plaud free?

Plaud's Starter plan is free and includes 300 transcription minutes a month. It only works with a Plaud device bound to your account, and the cheapest is $159. The real entry price is $159.

Can I use Plaud without a device?

Only on Plaud Team, which runs on Plaud Desktop without hardware and needs at least two seats. Individual plans, including Starter and Plaud Desktop, need a Plaud device bound to the account.

What happens when I run out of Plaud minutes?

Transcription pauses until your next billing month, while recordings and other features keep working.

Plaud sells Extra Minutes packs: 600 minutes for $12.99, 3,000 for $59.99 and 6,000 for $99.99. Plan minutes don't roll over.

Do Plaud minutes roll over?

No. Plan minutes reset at the start of each billing month, and unused minutes don't carry over. Extra Minutes packs work differently: they last 24 months once activated.

Does Plaud offer refunds?

Yes for devices, and only narrowly for plans:

• Devices: a 30-day no-reason return from delivery with a full refund, and Plaud pays the return shipping.
• AI plans: refunded within 30 days only if the service hasn't been used or activated.
• Activation codes can't be refunded once they've been redeemed.

Does Plaud train AI on my recordings?

Plaud's privacy policy says it won't use your content to train AI models unless you give explicit, informed consent first.

Plaud also says the AI model providers it uses, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, are contractually barred from training on your data. The full picture is in Is Plaud safe?.

Is Plaud cheaper than Otter or Granola?

Not in year one. A Note with Pro costs $258.99, which is $159.03 more than Otter Pro at $99.96 a year, and $90.99 more than Granola Business at $168.

Otter and Granola record in person through their phone apps. Plaud adds a dedicated recorder and phone-call capture.

Is Plaud cheaper than Voibe Work?

Once you own the device, yes: Plaud Pro's $99.99 a year is $49.01 less than Voibe Work's $149. In year one, a Plaud Note with Pro costs $258.99, so Voibe Work is $109.99 (42.5%) less.

Over three years, Voibe Work lifetime ($399) is $59.97 (13.1%) less than a Note with Pro ($458.97).

Plaud's pricing is fair for what the hardware does. A $159 recorder with five free hours a month is a reasonable way in. Pro at $99.99 a year is cheap for 20 hours of transcription.

The device is only the down payment, though. The minutes are the bill that keeps coming.

Where the costs hide

• Every individual plan, the desktop app included, needs a $159-plus device.
• Pro's 1,200 minutes reset monthly, and unused ones are lost.
• A 600-minute top-up every month costs more than Unlimited over a year.
• Plans are refunded only if unused, and Team's launch prices end November 30, 2026.

When I'd pick Voibe Work instead

If your meetings happen on your computer, or around a table with your laptop open, I'd skip the hardware. Voibe Work is $149 a year, $109.99 less than a Note with Pro in year one.

• Unlimited meetings and dictation are both included in that price.
• A 7-day trial covers every feature on Mac and Windows, with no credit card and no automatic charge.
• Consent works the same way on both: Voibe reminds you to tell people, and the recording consent law where you are is yours to follow.

It has no phone app and can't record a call on your phone. For that, keep Plaud.

Try Voibe Work free for 7 days →

Switching from a paid Plaud plan

1. Cancel your Plaud Pro or Unlimited plan as usual.
2. Email the cancellation confirmation to hi@getvoibe.com.
3. Voibe's switch offer then gives you Voibe Work free for the time left on your Plaud plan.
4. You also get a bonus month on top, up to 12 months in total.

For more options, see the best AI meeting note takers and the best no-bot meeting note takers.