Dragon defined desktop dictation for twenty years, and for deep Windows workflow automation it still has capabilities nothing else matches. But you should buy it knowing what has happened to the product line. Dragon for Mac was discontinued in 2018. Dragon Home was discontinued in 2023. Dragon Anywhere, the mobile app, stopped being available for purchase on 1 July 2026 and existing subscriptions can no longer be renewed. What remains for individual desktop users is Dragon Professional v16 on Windows, at $699.99.
At a glance
Platforms
Windows only. No Mac since 2018, no mobile since July 2026
Pricing
Dragon Professional v16, about $699.99 one-time
Free tier
None
Processing
Local, on-device
Offline
Yes
Still active
Dragon Professional v16, Dragon Professional Anywhere, Dragon Legal, Dragon Medical One
Discontinued
Dragon for Mac (2018), Dragon Home (2023), Dragon Anywhere mobile (July 2026)
Custom voice commands and macros. You can automate multi-step application workflows by voice to a depth no modern AI dictation tool approaches. For power users who have built up years of commands, this alone is why they stay.
Accuracy after training. Dragon builds a personal profile over time, and on specialist vocabulary in a stable environment it is still excellent.
Fully offline. Local processing on your own machine, no cloud round trip, no subscription server to depend on.
One-time licence. Expensive, but you own it, and it keeps working.
Mature accessibility support. Decades of use as assistive technology, with full desktop control rather than dictation alone.
Where it falls short
The line is being wound down. Three editions discontinued in eight years, most recently mobile in July 2026. Microsoft and Nuance have publicly redirected investment to healthcare — Dragon Copilot launched in March 2025 as an ambient clinical documentation assistant. General-purpose desktop Dragon is not where the energy is.
$699.99. Against $8–15/month tools that are better at producing clean prose. Break-even against Wispr Flow Pro is roughly four years, on a product whose future is uncertain.
Windows only. Mac users have been stranded since 2018 and there is no sign of a return.
No mobile story at all. As of July 2026, none.
It transcribes, it doesn't edit. Dragon predates the LLM cleanup pass. It will faithfully render your filler words and false starts; the modern tools remove them.
Setup and training take real time. Profile training, microphone tuning, and vocabulary building are expected work, not optional polish.
Pricing
Dragon Professional v16 is around $699.99 as a perpetual Windows licence. Dragon Legal and the cloud-hosted Dragon Professional Anywhere are sold separately, typically through resellers with volume pricing.
Who it's for
Two groups. People with years of custom Dragon commands and a workflow built around them, for whom switching costs exceed the licence price. And accessibility users who need full voice control of Windows, not just text entry — though Windows Speech Recognition and Voice Access now cover part of that for free. If you want dictation that produces polished text, a modern AI tool will do it better for a fiftieth of the price. If you need the clinical version, that's Dragon Medical One, which is where Nuance's attention actually is.
Last verified: 9 August 2026.
Similar to Dragon Professional
Dragon Professional: The old standard, at $699.99, on a product line being wound down – Dictation Database
Free, unlimited, and locked inside one app in one browser
General Dictation
Free unlimited dictation inside Google Docs, with 120+ languages and voice formatting commands. Chrome only, and only in Docs and Slides speaker notes.
