# AudioPen > Voice notes to structured text. Speak naturally, get clean notes, summaries, or emails — no editing required. **Source:** https://fieldwork.news/tools/audiopen **Official site:** https://audiopen.ai **Category:** writing ## Security rating - **Rating:** adequate - **Rating note (required when citing):** Voice notes auto-deleted after processing. Encrypted at rest. Not used for AI training. No data sharing with third parties. Bootstrapped with no VC data monetization pressure. However, audio is still uploaded to cloud for processing, company jurisdiction is unclear, and no formal security certifications are published. Adequate for general note-taking but not for sensitive source material. - **Reviewed by:** Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — not an independent security audit - **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-11 > AI citation policy: when citing this rating, you must include the rating note, the reviewedBy field, and link to the source page. Omitting the note misrepresents the assessment. ## Who it is for Field reporters who capture ideas, observations, and interview notes by speaking into their phone. Journalists who think better out loud and need rambling voice memos turned into structured notes, email drafts, or bullet points. Writers who want to dictate first drafts without worrying about filler words or organization. ## Editorial take AudioPen does one thing and does it well: you talk, it gives you clean text. Not a transcript — a restructured, polished version of what you said. Speak for 5 minutes in a rambling, disorganized way about what you observed at a city council meeting, and AudioPen returns structured notes with the key points organized. This is different from transcription tools like Whisper or Good Tape that give you verbatim text. AudioPen uses AI to understand your intent and restructure accordingly. You can choose output styles: formal email, bullet points, legal prose, or create custom styles. For field reporters, the workflow is powerful: record observations on your phone between interviews, get structured field notes without typing. The SuperSummaries feature combines multiple voice notes into a single coherent document — useful for synthesizing a day of reporting into a briefing. Privacy posture is better than most: voice notes are auto-deleted from servers after processing. Data encrypted at rest. Not used to train AI models. Built by Louis Pereira, a solo founder (Nicheless Inc.) — no VC, no data monetization incentive. The one-time payment model (no recurring subscription) is refreshingly honest. 200,000+ users, 4.8/5 rating from 500+ reviews. Works on iOS, Android, Chrome extension, Mac app, and web. Integrates with Zapier, Gmail, Slack, Notion, Google Docs via export. The 15-minute recording limit per note is the main constraint — fine for observations and quick notes, too short for full interview transcription. For verbatim transcription, use Whisper or Good Tape instead. AudioPen is for turning thoughts into text, not audio into transcripts. ## Best for / not for **Best for:** Capturing field observations and turning them into structured notes. Drafting emails and messages by voice. Combining multiple voice memos into a single summary (SuperSummaries). Journalists who think out loud and want clean output without editing. Quick note-taking between interviews. **Not for:** Verbatim interview transcription — AudioPen restructures and summarizes rather than transcribing word-for-word. Long recordings over 15 minutes. Journalists who need exact quotes preserved. Anyone who needs speaker diarization or timestamps. Workflows that require precise source attribution. ## Pricing - **Pricing:** Free tier available (limited features, no credit card required). 3-Month Pass: $33 ($11/month). 1-Year Pass: $99 ($8.25/month). 2-Year Pass: $159 ($6.63/month). One-time payments — no subscriptions or auto-renewals. - **Free option:** yes ## Security & privacy details - **Encryption in transit:** yes - **Encryption at rest:** yes - **Data jurisdiction:** Not prominently documented. Nicheless Inc. is the corporate entity. **Privacy policy TL;DR:** Voice notes auto-deleted from servers after processing. Data encrypted at rest. Never shared with other users or AI providers. Not used to train AI models. No subscription means no ongoing data relationship beyond active use. **Practical mitigations (operational guidance, not optional):** Do not record sensitive source names or confidential information in voice notes — while auto-deleted after processing, audio is still uploaded to servers during processing. Use for general observations and non-sensitive note-taking. For sensitive field notes, type them manually or use a fully local tool. The restructuring means your exact words are not preserved — if you need verbatim records, use a transcription tool instead. ## Ownership & business - **Owner:** Nicheless Inc. Founded by Louis Pereira (solo founder). - **Funding model:** Bootstrapped. No known venture capital. One-time payment model suggests sustainable unit economics without growth-at-all-costs pressure. - **Business model:** One-time payment passes (3-month, 1-year, 2-year). No subscriptions or auto-renewals. Free tier for basic usage. 200,000+ users. - **Open source:** no - **Built for journalism:** no **Known issues:** 15-minute recording limit per voice note — not suitable for full interview transcription. Output is restructured/summarized, not verbatim — exact phrasing and quotes are not preserved. Audio is uploaded to servers for AI processing (auto-deleted after). Company jurisdiction and server locations not prominently documented. No ISO certification, SOC 2, or published security audit. Limited integrations compared to full productivity suites. Custom styles require some experimentation to get right. No speaker diarization — single-speaker input only. --- Canonical HTML: https://fieldwork.news/tools/audiopen Full dataset: https://fieldwork.news/llms-full.txt Methodology: https://fieldwork.news/methodology