COMPARE · AURORA VS PLAUD
Best Plaud alternative for iPhone
This comparison focuses on Plaud's individual recorder offering and Aurora, an app for the iPhone you already own. It sets out costs, where audio is processed and when hardware is worth it. Plaud Team also offers a route without a recorder.
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Is Aurora a good Plaud alternative if I don't want extra hardware?
For individual recording, Plaud sells recorders plus transcription plans: 300 a month free, 1,200 on Pro. Plaud's policy says transcription and summaries run on its AI providers when you ask. Plaud Team needs no recorder (minimum two seats), with desktop recording and file imports on web or mobile. Aurora transcribes and summarizes on your iPhone, with no extra device. Plaud's wearables suit hands-free recording; Aurora suits conversations processed on the phone. As of 28 October 2026 Aurora is in private beta.
How do Aurora and Plaud compare?
| Question | Aurora On-device speech processing | Plaud Cloud speech processing |
|---|---|---|
| Do I need to buy hardware? | No. Aurora uses the microphone of your iPhone. | Recorders or recorder-free TeamFor the individual recorder offering: Plaud Note $159, NotePin S $179, Note Pro $189 (Plaud store listing). Plaud Team needs no recorder (minimum two seats): record through Plaud Desktop or import files on web or mobile. |
| What does transcription cost? | Free during betaNothing during the private beta, as of 26 October 2026. No per-minute cap is published for the beta. | Metered by plan: Starter 300 minutes a month free, Pro 1,200, Unlimited (plans). |
| Where is speech transcribed? | On the iPhone. | AI service providersBy Plaud's AI service providers when you ask for transcription or a summary. Plaud says only the data needed for the task is sent (AI data usage policy). |
| Where is the data stored? | Local audio; optional text syncAudio stays on the phone and is deleted once more than 7 days old, unless it is awaiting refinement. That audio is kept until refinement finishes; transcripts stay. Optional sync of conversation text goes through your own iCloud and is off by default. | Device storage; optional cloudOn the device by default. Optional Private Cloud Sync uses servers in the United States, Germany, Japan or Singapore by region and is off by default (same policy). |
| Does my content train models? | No transcription uploadRecordings are not uploaded to Aurora to be transcribed, because no transcription server exists to receive them. | Consent required for trainingPlaud says it does not train on your content without explicit consent and bars its AI providers from doing so (same policy). |
| Can it record hands-free all day? | No. It uses your iPhone's battery and storage, and the phone has to be in the room. | Yes. Plaud describes NotePin and NotePin S as hands-free wearable recorders. |
| Does it work offline? | Models required firstRecording, transcription, speaker separation and summaries run on the iPhone, with all required speech and language models installed for offline use. Other network flows are listed in the Privacy Notice. | Offline capture, online AIThe recorder captures on its own; transcription and summaries are Plaud AI features sent to its providers on request. |
| Is the transcript live? | Yes, with each voice in its own lane while people talk. | Not documented on the pages checked. |
| Which platforms? | iPhone on iOS 18 or later. The Mac app is in development. | Mobile app, web and desktop apps. |
| Can I get it today? | By invitation: a private TestFlight beta. | Yes. Recorders ship from Plaud's store. |
What does each cost over a year?
For Plaud's individual recorder offering, hardware costs $159 to $189 plus an optional plan: 300 transcription minutes a month are free, and more minutes need a paid plan. Plaud Team is a separate per-seat offering with a two-seat minimum and no recorder requirement. Aurora is free while the private beta lasts, and its price for the public release is not published here. We will not invent a year-one figure for Aurora; this page will state the price when there is one.
When should I pick Plaud?
- You want to record all day without touching your phone, for example with a wearable on a lapel.
- You need Android or a desktop and web workflow as well as mobile.
- You want a shipping product with a store you can buy from today.
When should I pick Aurora?
- You would rather not carry, charge or pair a second device.
- The transcript should be produced on your phone and not sent to an AI provider.
- You want to read a live transcript with the speakers in lanes while the conversation happens.
- You record on a plane or anywhere with no signal.
What can Aurora not do that Plaud can?
- Calls you hear only in headphones. Aurora hears what the room hears through the phone's microphone, so a call playing in headphones reaches it only as your own voice. Why Aurora records from the room goes through each setup.
- Anything but an iPhone. As of 26 October 2026 Aurora is iPhone only. The Mac app is in development and there is no release.
- Export formats. Plain text is the only format Aurora exports.
- Record without the phone. Aurora needs your iPhone in the room, and a long recording uses its battery and storage. It records sessions much longer than an hour. Audio is deleted once more than 7 days old, except audio awaiting refinement, which is kept until refinement finishes.
What has Aurora measured about itself?
These are Aurora's own figures, each with the device, the date and where the full method is published. They are not figures for Plaud, and no one else's numbers are quoted here as if they were ours.
- On the one device measured (an iPhone 15 Pro, 26 August 2026), a one-hour recording takes roughly five minutes of Neural Engine work. Battery cost per hour is not measured yet. What on-device transcription costs on an iPhone.
- Speaker lanes are not perfect. On real four-speaker earnings calls (Earnings-21) the median word diarization error rate was 0.34, roughly one word in three on the wrong speaker, measured on a Mac on 17 June 2026. With four people around one distant microphone (AMI) it was roughly two in three. What Aurora's speaker attribution actually scores.
- Every network path the app can use is listed in the Privacy Notice, including the model downloads, so the claim is bounded to the speech pipeline: Aurora is local-first, not network-free. On the free tier the app also tells Aurora's own free-minutes service how many minutes you record; that service never receives audio, transcripts or titles.
More questions
Can Aurora record all day like a wearable?
Aurora records sessions much longer than an hour, but it uses your iPhone's battery and storage, and the phone must be in the room. The battery cost per hour has not been measured yet.
Does Aurora need a subscription?
Not during the private beta. The price for the public release is not published yet.
Which iPhones does Aurora run on?
Aurora is built for iOS 18 and newer. The one phone measured is an iPhone 15 Pro, and there is no tested-device table beyond it yet.
Is Plaud private?
Plaud says audio is stored on the device by default and that its AI providers may not train on your data. Transcription and summaries still run on those providers when you request them, so the audio does leave the recorder and phone for that step.
Sources checked
Every Plaud fact on this page comes from the pages below, read on the date shown. Prices and limits change; the date next to each is the last time a person read it.
- Plaud, plans, devices and prices, checked 26 October 2026.
- Plaud, AI data usage transparency policy (updated 20 May 2026 by Plaud), checked 26 October 2026.
- Plaud help center, Plaud Team for v4.0.x or later (updated 23 October 2026 by Plaud), checked 28 October 2026.
How do I try Aurora?
Aurora is in a private beta on TestFlight, free while it lasts. Invites go out in waves to people on the waitlist, one email each when the invite is ready.
How invites work carries the installation steps and what the beta covers. Meeting transcription on the iPhone walks through a session end to end, and What Aurora does lists every capability with its status.
Plaud's individual offering facts checked 26 October 2026; the Team exception checked 28 October 2026 against Plaud's own pages, linked above. Device prices are Plaud's US store prices on 26 October. Aurora's side of every table was written against the same capability list as What Aurora does. If a line here is wrong, it is a bug in this page and we want to hear about it at hello@auroraisyours.com.