If you use Dragon, or you are about to buy it, the range has changed a great deal in the last few years. Several products have been discontinued outright, and two more close to new customers at the end of 2026, and what remains is largely per-user annual subscription at professional and enterprise prices.

This page sets out what each Dragon product currently costs, which are ending, and which alternative is the best fit depending on the Dragon product you are on today. Where a figure is approximate it says so.

What is the best Dragon alternative in 2026?

For an individual, a professional, or a team of up to a few dozen people, the best Dragon alternative in 2026 is Speech Recognition Cloud. It performs the same core function — verbatim dictation at the cursor in any Windows application — for US$159 a year on the Professional plan, against roughly US$490 to US$1,188 a year for the equivalent Dragon products.

It also has a free Starter plan with no expiry, so it can be tested against your actual work before you spend anything.

Two things to be clear about up front

New orders for Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere stop on 31 December 2026, and both reach end of life on 31 December 2027. Existing users can keep using them and renewing on a pro rata basis in between, and Dragon Professional v16 is the stated migration path — see the Dragon Professional Anywhere alternatives page for the detail.

And Speech Recognition Cloud does not do everything Dragon does. There is a section below setting out exactly what it does not do.

How much does each Dragon product cost in 2026?

Dragon productStatusApproximate costNotes
Dragon Professional v16Current~US$700 one-off, or ~US$490/yrUpgrade from v15 ~US$350. Installed locally, works offline. Local voice profile, install limits under the standard licence, no companion mobile app. Stated migration path from DPA and DLA.
Dragon Professional AnywhereNew orders stop 31 Dec 2026~US$560–630 per user, per yearEnd of life 31 Dec 2027. Existing users renew pro rata until then. Migration path to Dragon Professional v16.
Dragon Legal AnywhereNew orders stop 31 Dec 2026~US$595 first year, ~US$905/yr afterEnd of life 31 Dec 2027. Existing users renew pro rata until then.
Dragon Medical OneCurrent~US$1,188 per clinician, per yearSold per clinician through resellers.
Dragon Anywhere MobileEnd of sale 30 Jun 2026Renewals only, to 30 Jun 2027Standalone mobile app. No new subscriptions since July 2026.
Dragon Professional Individual 15WithdrawnNo longer soldReplaced by the Anywhere line. Not Windows 11 compatible.
Dragon Legal Individual 15WithdrawnNo longer soldReplaced by Dragon Legal Anywhere.
Dragon Dictate for MacDiscontinued Oct 2018No longer availableNo Mac Dragon product has shipped since.

Dragon pricing above is approximate and varies by vendor, territory, subscription term and seat count. Obtain a current quotation before relying on any figure.

How much does Speech Recognition Cloud cost?

PlanPriceWhat you get
StarterFree20 minutes per month, core features, no credit card, no expiry
Personal / EducationalUS$99/yrUnlimited dictation, 57 languages
ProfessionalUS$159/yrUnlimited dictation, optional AI Modes, mobile companion app
MedicalUS$439/yrClinical vocabulary, mobile app, AI Modes excluded by design

All plans are licensed per person with no limit on the number of computers. Prices display in US dollars and convert to your local currency at checkout. See speech to text software pricing for full plan details.

Pricing accurate at time of publication. Verify current pricing before purchasing. Dragon figures are approximate and vary by vendor, territory, term and seat count.

Which Dragon products have been discontinued or are ending?

  • Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere — new orders stop 31 December 2026, end of life 31 December 2027. Existing users can continue using both and renewing on a pro rata basis in between. Dragon Professional v16 is the stated migration path. Both are cloud services, so at end of life the service stops; there is no local copy that continues to run.
  • Dragon Anywhere Mobile — end of sale 30 June 2026. Existing users can renew on a pro rata basis until 30 June 2027, but no new subscriptions are available. This is a different product from Dragon Professional Anywhere, and the two are frequently confused.
  • Dragon Dictate for Mac — discontinued October 2018. The final release was Dragon Professional Individual 6 in 2016, and no Mac Dragon product has shipped since.
  • Dragon Professional Individual 15 and Dragon Legal Individual 15 — withdrawn, replaced by the Anywhere subscriptions. Dragon 15 is also not supported on Windows 11.

The pattern is consistent: the lower-cost, one-off, install-and-own Dragon products are the ones that have gone.

Which Dragon do I have, and what should I consider switching to?

I have Dragon 15 and it will not run properly on Windows 11

Dragon 15 is not supported on Windows 11. It often runs, but with the lag, freezing and instability widely reported by users moved onto Windows 11 by a new machine or an IT policy. The upgrade path offered is Dragon Professional 16 — around US$700 outright, or about US$350 to upgrade.

Speech Recognition Cloud is US$159 a year and cloud-based, so there is no local version to fall out of step with Windows and no upgrade purchase to chase compatibility. See the Dragon Professional 16 alternative comparison for detail.

I have Dragon Professional 16

You own a working product and nothing is forcing a decision. The question is what happens at the next paid upgrade. Running the free Starter plan alongside Dragon 16 costs nothing and gives you a real comparison before that decision arrives.

On capability there is not a great deal between these and Speech Recognition Cloud. Neither requires an enrolment step before you start dictating, and both install on as many of your own machines as you need. Dragon Professional Anywhere additionally supports virtual desktop deployment, which Speech Recognition Cloud does not.

There is one real difference in how they work. Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere do train on your voice — you can start using them without doing the old enrolment routine, but the software builds and continuously adapts a voice profile, and that profile is stored in the cloud along with your custom vocabulary. Speech Recognition Cloud does no voice training at all. There is no voice profile, no adaptation data, and nothing about how you speak is retained on our servers.

The differences are price — roughly three to four times — and the end-of-life timetable: new orders stop 31 December 2026 and both products end 31 December 2027. Existing users can renew pro rata in between, so there is time to plan.

The vendor’s stated migration path is Dragon Professional v16, with assistance moving your existing profile across. It is the right answer if you need offline dictation. Be aware it is a locally installed desktop product rather than a cloud service, so the voice profile sits on the machine instead of following you between computers, the standard licence limits how many machines you can install on, improvements arrive with a new version, and there is no companion mobile app. If the cloud model is what you valued, the closest architectural equivalent is another cloud product. Read the Dragon Professional Anywhere alternatives page before signing any renewal.

I am a clinician on Dragon Medical One

At roughly US$1,188 per clinician per year, Dragon Medical One is the most expensive product in the range. Speech Recognition Cloud Medical is US$439 a year, includes clinical vocabulary and a mobile companion app, and excludes AI Modes entirely by design for patient privacy — there is a demonstration of what AI Modes do if you want to see what is being excluded. See the Dragon Medical One alternative comparison and dictation for clinicians.

Speech Recognition Cloud is designed to assist documentation workflows. It is not a medical device and makes no clinical claims.

I used Dragon Anywhere on my phone

It went end of sale on 30 June 2026; existing users can renew on a pro rata basis until 30 June 2027, but no new subscriptions are available. Speech Recognition Cloud includes a mobile companion app on the Professional and Medical plans — usable as a wireless microphone for your PC, or in Voice Notes mode for dictating away from your desk.

How much is the difference over three years?

Over three years, per person, at the approximate figures above:

Dragon Professional Anywhere

~US$1,680

Dragon Legal Anywhere

~US$2,400

Dragon Medical One

~US$3,560

Dragon Professional 16

~US$700

Speech Recognition Cloud Professional

US$477

Speech Recognition Cloud Medical

US$1,317

For one person the gap is roughly US$1,200. For a team of four it is close to US$5,000 over three years.

What does Speech Recognition Cloud not do?

Stated plainly, because it is better to find out here.

  • No offline mode. It is cloud-based and requires an internet connection. The current Dragon cloud products share this constraint; it is a real difference only against the boxed Dragon Professional 16.
  • No macOS version. Windows 10 and Windows 11 only. Dragon has had no Mac product since 2018 either.
  • No VDI or virtual app deployment. If you run Citrix or a virtualised standard operating environment, Speech Recognition Cloud does not support it.
  • No central seat management. There is no administrator console for provisioning and revoking large numbers of licences with centrally governed vocabularies.
  • Bespoke Dragon macros do not port. Years of custom Dragon voice commands and scripted macros stay with Dragon. Speech Recognition Cloud has its own templates and text replacements, but they have to be rebuilt rather than imported.

If any of those are requirements for your deployment, Speech Recognition Cloud is unlikely to be the right fit.

Audio is processed in memory and erased immediately; it is not written to disk on our servers. Transcribed text is not stored on our servers. Data is not used to train AI models. The only item retained is an encrypted email address for the account.

We do not describe the product as compliant with any particular framework, because compliance is a property of a deployment — your policies, your network, your risk assessment — rather than a property of software. The Medical plan excludes AI Modes entirely by design. Practitioners should make their own assessment against their obligations. See dictation for legal work.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to train Speech Recognition Cloud to my voice? No. Speech Recognition Cloud performs no voice training of any kind. There is no enrolment step, no voice profile is built, and no training or adaptation data about how you speak is stored on our servers. Setup takes about two minutes.

Does Dragon train on my voice? The Anywhere products do not require the old enrolment routine, so you can start dictating straight away — but they do build a voice profile and continuously adapt it, and that profile is held in the cloud alongside your custom vocabulary. Older boxed versions such as Dragon 15 required enrolment up front as well. This is a genuine architectural difference: Speech Recognition Cloud trains on nothing and stores no voice data at all.

How many computers can I install it on? As many of your own as you like. It is licensed per person, not per machine. Licences cannot be shared between people, because personal vocabulary and preferences are tied to the individual account.

Will it work in the software I already use? It types at the cursor in any standard Windows application — Microsoft Word, Outlook, browsers and web forms, practice management and clinical software, and line-of-business applications. There is no per-application plugin to install.

Can I try it before paying anything? Yes. The Starter plan provides 20 minutes of dictation a month with core features, no credit card, and no countdown. It does not expire into a paywall.

Is Dragon being discontinued? Progressively. Several products have already gone. Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere close to new orders on 31 December 2026 and reach end of life on 31 December 2027, with Dragon Professional v16 named as the migration path. Dragon Professional v16 and Dragon Medical One remain available.

Is Dragon Professional v16 the same thing as Dragon Professional Anywhere? No. Dragon Professional Anywhere is a cloud service; Dragon Professional v16 runs locally on your own computer. The practical differences are the voice profile living on the machine rather than following you, install limits under the standard licence, improvements arriving with a new version rather than server-side, and no companion mobile app. v16 does work offline, which the cloud products do not.

Dragon, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dragon Professional, Dragon Professional Anywhere, Dragon Legal Anywhere, Dragon Medical One and Dragon Anywhere are trade marks or registered trade marks of Nuance Communications, Inc. and/or Microsoft Corporation. Windows, Microsoft Word and Outlook are trade marks of Microsoft Corporation. These marks are used solely to identify and describe those products in a factual comparison. Speech Recognition Cloud is not affiliated with, authorised by, endorsed by or sponsored by Nuance Communications, Inc. or Microsoft Corporation.

Third-party pricing shown is approximate, drawn from publicly available vendor and reseller listings, and varies by vendor, territory, term, seat count and applicable taxes. Nothing on this page constitutes an offer or quotation in respect of any third-party product. Information is believed accurate at the date of publication; confirm current details with the relevant vendor before purchasing. If you believe any statement here is inaccurate, please contact us and we will review it.