Limits & quotas
The exact numbers. On‑device transcription is unlimited; cloud and AI features are metered. Here's how.
Updated June 2026
Here's the honest, exact version. The headline: on‑device dictation is unlimited and free. The limits below apply only to cloud transcription and AI features, which route through THOHT's service.
Free vs Pro at a glance
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| On‑device dictation (Apple Silicon) | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Cloud transcription | Demo only — 3 per day | No daily cap |
| AI Polish / custom prompts | Demo only — 3 per day | No daily cap |
| Auto‑Translate, AI reformat | — | Included |
| Custom vocabulary words | 5 | 20 |
The free tier exists so you can try the cloud and AI features before subscribing. Day to day on an Apple Silicon Mac, free dictation has no time or usage limits at all.
On-device transcription
On‑device transcription (the default on Apple Silicon) has no daily, weekly, or monthly limit. The only ceiling is per recording:
- 30 minutes per recording. For longer sessions, record in separate takes.
It works offline and nothing is metered, because nothing leaves your Mac.
Cloud transcription limits
Cloud transcription is optional and Pro‑oriented.
| Limit | |
|---|---|
| Max length per recording | 9 minutes |
| Free tier | 3 cloud transcriptions per day (a demo allowance) |
| Pro — rate | about 5 transcriptions per minute |
| Pro — weekly | roughly 5 hours of cloud audio per week |
The per‑minute and weekly numbers are abuse‑prevention ceilings, not day‑to‑day limits — normal use doesn't come close.
AI feature limits
AI Polish, custom prompts, Auto‑Translate and AI reformat share these limits:
| Limit | |
|---|---|
| Free tier | 3 AI requests per day (a demo allowance) |
| Pro — rate | about 10 AI requests per minute |
| Pro — weekly | a large weekly character budget (≈500,000 characters) |
| Per request | very long inputs are trimmed (around 20,000 characters) |
Auto‑Translate and AI reformat are Pro‑only — they have no free demo allowance.
Vocabulary and prompt limits
| Item | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Custom vocabulary words | 5 | 20 |
| Saved prompts (built‑in + custom) | 30 total | 30 total |
| Personal Context | — | up to 500 characters |
All of these limits are per Apple ID, shared across all the devices on that account.
What happens when you hit a limit
THOHT tells you clearly, and nothing breaks:
- Free daily allowance used up — you'll see a prompt to subscribe to Pro to keep using cloud/AI features. Your on‑device dictation keeps working as normal.
- Pro per‑minute rate hit — a brief "try again shortly" message; wait a moment and continue.
- Pro weekly ceiling hit — a "weekly usage limit reached" message; it resets at the start of the next week.
If you think you're hitting a limit you shouldn't be, get in touch.
Something unclear or out of date? Let us know.