A dictation app you buy once — here's the actual math
Popular dictation tools charge a recurring monthly subscription — month after month, forever. SaySo is $19.99 one time: pay once and it is simply yours. This page lays out what you pay, what you don't, and the tradeoffs — with nothing hidden.
The full cost picture
The API usage is billed by the providers to your own accounts, not through us — we never mark it up because we never touch it. New Deepgram accounts start with free credit, and you only pay while you are actually speaking. Provider pricing can change; check current Deepgram pricing and Groq pricing.
Why pay-once is possible here
Subscription dictation apps pay for cloud servers that process every user's voice — a real, recurring cost they must pass on to you every month. SaySo skips the middleman: your audio goes straight from your computer to your own Deepgram account, and cleanup text to your own Groq account. With no per-user server bill, there is nothing to charge rent for. That architecture is called BYOK — bring your own key — and it is explained in full here.
What one purchase includes
- The full app on Mac and Windows (Windows currently beta) — one license activates on up to 2 devices.
- Push-to-talk and hands-free dictation, AI Clean and Formal styles, per-app rules, ten auto-detected languages, personal vocabulary, and local history.
- Your license key delivered by email right after checkout, handled by Polar, our merchant of record.
The honest tradeoffs
- Setup is on you. You create your own Deepgram account (and optionally a Groq one) and paste one required key — plus one optional — in about two minutes with the key guide. It is a step subscriptions hide from you.
- Your providers bill you. Usage costs are small but real, and their pricing is theirs to set.
- No offline mode. Dictation runs through your cloud providers, so it needs internet.
Common questions
Is "pay once" hiding something?
The whole model is on this page: $19.99 to us, once; API usage at provider rates to your own accounts. At roughly 50¢ per hour of actual talking, even an hour of dictation every workday comes to a few dollars a month of Deepgram usage.
What if I get a new computer?
Deactivate SaySo in Settings on the old machine and the license slot frees up — two active devices at any time.
Do I need both API keys?
Only Deepgram is required. Groq is optional and adds the AI cleanup styles; without it you still get accurate dictation with punctuation. Details in the FAQ.
One payment. Two devices. No monthly SaySo subscription.