If you use Dragon Professional Anywhere or Dragon Legal Anywhere, you need an alternative — and sooner than you might think.
Microsoft have confirmed that Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere reach end of life on 31 December 2027. New orders stop on 31 December 2026 — under five months away.
If you already have a licence you are not cut off in December. Existing users can keep using both products and renew on a pro rata basis through to 31 December 2027. What closes at the end of this year is the ability to place a new order.
This page covers exactly what changes and when, what the vendor-sanctioned migration path is, and what the alternatives are.
When is the last day I can buy Dragon Professional Anywhere?
New orders stop
31 Dec 2026
End of life
31 Dec 2027
Existing users can renew until
31 Dec 2027
Vendor migration path
Dragon Professional v16
31 December 2026 for new orders. 31 December 2027 for the product itself.
Those are two different dates and the distinction matters. After 31 December 2026 you cannot place a new order for Dragon Professional Anywhere or Dragon Legal Anywhere. If you already hold a subscription, the solutions remain available to you and you can continue renewing on a pro rata basis right up to 31 December 2027, when both reach end of life.
In other words: if you are already a customer, you have until the end of 2027. If you are not, you have until the end of 2026 to become one.
What is ending, and when?
| Product | New orders stop | Existing users can renew until | End of life |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Professional Anywhere | 31 Dec 2026 | 31 Dec 2027 (pro rata) | 31 Dec 2027 |
| Dragon Legal Anywhere | 31 Dec 2026 | 31 Dec 2027 (pro rata) | 31 Dec 2027 |
| Dragon Anywhere Mobile | Ended 30 Jun 2026 | 30 Jun 2027 (pro rata) | 30 Jun 2027 |
| DPA+DAM / DLA+DAM bundles | 31 Dec 2026 | DAM element to 30 Jun 2027 | See above |
Dragon Anywhere Mobile went end of sale on 30 June 2026. It has not vanished — existing users can renew on a pro rata basis until 30 June 2027 — but no new DAM-only subscriptions have been possible since July 2026.
If you hold a DPA+DAM or DLA+DAM bundle, you keep the mobile element until 30 June 2027, provided your subscription covers that period. Any new subscription purchased after July 2026 is DPA or DLA only, with no mobile app included.
Where these dates come from
These dates are set out in a partner statement issued by ORdigiNAL, the authorised distributor, which states that Microsoft have confirmed the changes. We are not reproducing the statement here; if you hold a subscription, your own supplier or Partner Success Manager can confirm the position for your account.
Confirm the current status of any product directly with your vendor or authorised partner before acting on it.
What does this mean for me?
What is the official replacement for Dragon Professional Anywhere?
Dragon Professional v16, available as a subscription. ORdigiNAL have stated they will assist in moving users with existing DPA or DLA profiles across to v16, which offers more voice commands, integrated control of desktop applications and high levels of accuracy. That is the vendor-sanctioned path, it comes with migration assistance, and for a good number of users it will be the right answer.
It is worth understanding what the move actually involves, because Dragon Professional v16 is a locally installed desktop product, not a cloud service. That is a change of category rather than a version upgrade, and it changes several things you may currently take for granted.
| Dragon Professional Anywhere / Legal Anywhere what you have now | Dragon Professional v16 the stated migration path | Speech Recognition Cloud a cloud alternative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where recognition happens | Cloud | On your PC | Cloud |
| Voice profile | Held in the cloud, follows you | Held locally on the machine | None — no profile is created |
| Voice training / adaptation | Adapts continuously | Builds and adapts a local profile | No training of any kind |
| Installing on several machines | No limit | Limited under the standard licence; volume and group licensing differ | No limit — per person |
| Companion mobile app | Was available via Dragon Anywhere Mobile, now end of sale | No | Yes, on Professional and Medical |
| Improvements | Delivered server-side | Arrive with a new version | Delivered server-side |
| Works offline | No | Yes | No |
| VDI / virtual app deployment | Yes | Varies by deployment | No |
Read that table in both directions. If offline dictation matters to you — you work somewhere with poor connectivity, or your security posture rules out cloud processing — then v16 is genuinely the better product and the fact that it runs locally is the whole point. Take the migration assistance. Specifications, feature detail and current pricing for v16 are on the Dragon software range.
But if what you valued about Dragon Professional Anywhere was the cloud model — a profile that follows you between machines, no installation ceiling, improvements arriving without a version purchase, a phone in your pocket acting as a microphone — then moving to a locally installed product gives those things up. On architecture, the closest equivalent to what you have now is another cloud product, not a desktop one.
That is not a criticism of Dragon Professional v16. It is a well-regarded product doing a different job. It is simply worth knowing which of the two things you are being offered before you accept the default, because the official path and the closest-equivalent path are not the same path.
Speech Recognition Cloud is one cloud option and it is the one we build, so weigh that accordingly. Price it against v16, run both if you can, and choose on evidence.
Should I buy Dragon Professional Anywhere now?
There is limited benefit in starting fresh on it. A new subscription taken now runs to the end of 2027 at the latest, after which you migrate anyway. If you are choosing dictation software from scratch at the moment, you are choosing between Dragon Professional v16, Speech Recognition Cloud, and everything else — not between those and DPA.
What happens to my existing licence?
You are in a better position than a new buyer. The solutions remain available to existing users, and you can continue renewing on a pro rata basis until 31 December 2027. You are not cut off at the end of this year.
What you do lose at the end of 2026 is the ability to place new orders — and at the end of 2027, the product itself. So a migration is coming, but you have roughly seventeen months to plan it rather than five.
Can I add seats for new staff during 2027?
Check with your supplier. The statement says new orders stop on 31 December 2026 and that existing users may continue to use and renew their subscriptions — it does not spell out whether adding seats to an existing subscription counts as a new order.
If your team is likely to grow in 2027, that ambiguity is worth resolving now rather than discovering the answer when you need the seat.
How long do I realistically have to decide?
It depends which side of the line you are on.
If you do not yet have a licence and want one, you have until 31 December 2026 — realistically three to four months of decision time once evaluation, budget and approval are accounted for, since December is not a month in which decisions move quickly.
If you already have a licence, you have until 31 December 2027. That is roughly seventeen months, which is enough to plan a migration properly rather than react to one. Organisations with a standard operating environment should still start scoping in 2026, because seventeen months disappears quickly once budget cycles and user training are factored in.
Why this is different from Dragon 15 reaching end of life
When boxed software reaches end of life you can keep using it. It stops receiving updates and eventually falls out of step with Windows, but the copy on your machine continues to run for as long as you tolerate it.
These are cloud services, not installed software
Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere run the recognition on vendor infrastructure, not on your computer. When the service ends, the product ends — there is no offline copy to fall back on and no gradual decline to ride out.
That is what makes this a deadline rather than a recommendation.
What should I do?
1. Do not sign a multi-year agreement
No term can run past 31 December 2027. Renewals are on a pro rata basis for exactly this reason. If a multi-year deal is offered between now and December, check what happens to the portion beyond the end-of-life date.
2. Start evaluating while there is no pressure. Migrations forced by a deadline tend to go badly; migrations chosen with runway tend to go fine. Running an alternative alongside your existing Dragon for a fortnight — real work, real documents, real vocabulary — costs nothing while your licence is still live.
3. Audit what you would actually be losing. Before assuming a like-for-like replacement is required, check what you genuinely use:
- Custom voice commands and macros. Years of scripted Dragon commands do not port. This is the hardest element to replace and worth quantifying first.
- Your voice profile and custom vocabulary. The adapted profile Dragon has built for you does not transfer to any other product. Custom vocabulary generally has to be rebuilt — Speech Recognition Cloud handles this through templates and text replacements.
- VDI or virtual app deployment. If you deploy through Citrix or a virtualised standard operating environment, that is a real constraint and narrows the options considerably.
- Central seat administration. If IT provisions and revokes licences centrally, you need something that supports it.
- Everything else. For most individuals and small teams the honest audit comes back as “I dictate into Word, Outlook and my line-of-business software” — a more easily met requirement than the enterprise feature list suggests.
4. If you are an organisation, scope it this quarter. For one person a migration is a weekend. For a team of twenty on a standard operating environment it is a project with budget, IT approval and user training attached, and it cannot start with a purchase decision made in late December.
What are the best Dragon Professional Anywhere alternatives?
The strongest alternative for most Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere users is Speech Recognition Cloud, which is the product we build. It performs the same core function — verbatim dictation at the cursor in any Windows application, no voice training of any kind, unlimited installs per person, with a mobile companion app on the Professional plan — at US$159 a year on the Professional plan against roughly US$560 to US$630 for Dragon Professional Anywhere. There is a free Starter plan with no expiry, so it can be tested against your real work at no cost before any decision.
One architectural difference is worth knowing before you switch. Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere build a voice profile and continuously adapt it, stored in the cloud with your custom vocabulary — you never have to sit through enrolment, but the training is happening. Speech Recognition Cloud does no voice training at all: no profile, no adaptation data, nothing about how you speak retained on our servers. For anyone who has to answer questions about what a vendor holds, that is a materially simpler answer.
It is not a like-for-like replacement in every respect. It does not support VDI or virtual app deployment, has no central seat management console, has no macOS version, and requires an internet connection. If any of those are hard requirements, they need solving separately and early.
The full comparison across the whole Dragon range is on the best Dragon alternative page. Clinicians should see the Dragon Medical One alternative comparison. Teams should start at dictation for business teams, and current plan details are on speech to text software pricing.
Pricing accurate at time of publication. Verify current pricing before purchasing. Dragon figures are approximate and vary by vendor, territory, term and seat count.
Frequently asked questions
When exactly do Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere end? End of life is 31 December 2027. New orders stop earlier, on 31 December 2026. In between, existing users can continue using both solutions and renewing on a pro rata basis.
Can I keep using it after end of life, like old boxed Dragon? No. These are cloud services and the recognition runs on vendor infrastructure rather than your computer. There is no local copy that keeps working after 31 December 2027.
Is there a replacement product? Yes. Dragon Professional v16 is the stated replacement, available as a subscription, and ORdigiNAL have said they will assist in moving existing DPA or DLA profiles across to it.
Is Dragon Professional v16 a like-for-like replacement for Dragon Professional Anywhere? Not architecturally. Dragon Professional Anywhere is a cloud service; Dragon Professional v16 is installed and runs on your own computer. That means the voice profile is held locally rather than following you between machines, the standard licence limits how many computers you can install on, improvements arrive with a new version rather than server-side, and there is no companion mobile app now that Dragon Anywhere Mobile has gone. In exchange, v16 works offline, which the cloud products do not. If offline capability is what you need, v16 is the stronger choice. If the cloud model is what you valued, the closest equivalent is another cloud product.
Does this affect Dragon Medical One? Dragon Medical One is not on this end-of-life schedule, which covers Dragon Professional Anywhere, Dragon Professional Anywhere Legal and Dragon Anywhere Mobile. Clinicians should not assume Dragon Medical One is affected on the basis of this page.
What happened to Dragon Anywhere Mobile 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 DAM-only subscriptions have been available since July 2026. It is a separate product from Dragon Professional Anywhere, the cloud-hosted desktop product; the names are frequently confused. Speech Recognition Cloud includes a mobile companion app on its Professional and Medical plans.
What happened to my DPA+DAM bundle? Existing bundles keep access to the Dragon Anywhere Mobile element until 30 June 2027, provided the subscription covers that period. Any new subscription purchased after July 2026 includes DPA or DLA only, without the mobile app.
How reliable are these dates? They are set out in a partner statement issued by ORdigiNAL, the authorised distributor, which states that Microsoft have confirmed the changes. Dates can still change. Confirm the position for your own account with your supplier or Partner Success Manager before making a commitment.
Dragon, 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 is a trade mark of Microsoft Corporation. These marks are used solely to identify and describe those products factually. Speech Recognition Cloud is not affiliated with, authorised by, endorsed by or sponsored by Nuance Communications, Inc. or Microsoft Corporation.
End-of-life and end-of-sale dates stated on this page are drawn from a partner statement issued by ORdigiNAL, the authorised distributor, which states that Microsoft have confirmed them. They are summarised here in good faith and remain subject to change by the vendor. Confirm the position for your own subscription with your supplier before acting. Third-party pricing is approximate and varies by vendor, territory, term and seat count; nothing here constitutes an offer or quotation. Information is believed accurate at the date of publication. If you believe any statement here is inaccurate, please contact us and we will review it promptly.