Short answer
AICHE and Letterly are not the same tool. AICHE is a system-wide voice input layer: press ⌃+⌥+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows/Linux) in any app, speak, and clean text drops at your cursor. Letterly is a mobile-first rewrite studio: open the app, record, pick one of 25+ rewrite presets, copy the output somewhere else. If you want voice typing directly into Cursor, Claude Code, Slack, your terminal, your email composer, on any OS including Linux, pick AICHE. If you live on iPhone and your main job is turning long voice memos into polished emails and posts, Letterly is purpose-built for that.
What Letterly is selling
Letterly's homepage positions the product as "Voice into perfect text" and is explicit that "This is not just a transcription tool." The pitch is voice-first AI writing: record a voice note, then apply one of 25+ rewrite styles (formal email, X post, friendly message, to-do list, structured text), plus custom rewrite templates you build yourself. Their reputation lives on this rewrite library and a polished native iOS app, which won AppSumo's Tool of the Year 2024 (per daveswift.com's 2026 review) and carries 4.7/5 (880 ratings) on the App Store and 4.8/5 (946 ratings) on Google Play as of May 2026.
The supporting feature set is mobile-heavy: 90-minute recordings, screen-off recording, home-screen widget, Apple Watch capture, offline queueing, tag organization, and 90+ language auto-detection with translation between them. There is a Mac app and a web version. Windows is marked "Soon." Linux is not listed among supported or upcoming platforms on letterly.app. Integrations into other apps happen through Zapier and custom webhooks rather than a documented public API.
Marketing copy mentions "AI tool compatibility (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Perplexity, Gemini, Codex)." In practice this means you can copy or route Letterly's output into those tools. It does not mean Letterly is a hotkey that types into them while they are running.
The feature comparison
| AICHE | Letterly | |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | Yes (global hotkey) | Yes (record-and-rewrite app) |
| Windows | Yes (global hotkey) | "Soon" |
| Linux | Yes (.deb / .rpm / AppImage / Flatpak) | Not offered |
| iPhone / iPad | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Watch | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes (home-screen widget) | Yes |
| Web | Not offered | Yes |
| Chrome extension | Yes | Not offered |
| Obsidian plugin | Yes (Community Plugins) | Not offered |
| Public REST API | Yes (Pro) | No (Zapier + webhooks only) |
| System-wide hotkey, insert at cursor | Yes (⌃+⌥+R / Ctrl+Alt+R) |
No (record inside Letterly, then copy out) |
| Free tier | 7-day free trial, no credit card | Free tier (limits not publicly documented) |
| Cheapest paid (annual) | $3.99/mo (Personal, $47.99/yr) | ~$5.83-$8.33/mo (Pro, $69.99-$99.99/yr range per App Store) |
| True monthly | $4.99 Personal / $9.99 Pro | $19.99 Pro |
| One-time / lifetime | Subscription only | $199.99-$249.99 (AppSumo historical: ~$59) |
| Team plan | Yes (Pro: seats, roles, unified billing) | No public multi-seat plan |
| Custom vocabulary | Yes, 50 entries, synced | No documented dictionary feature |
| Software Development profile | Yes (Pro): code, APIs, CLI flags, snake_case | No code-tuned profile |
| Voice into AI coding agents | Yes: pause-aware auto-send into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Antigravity (Pro) | No native in-loop integration |
| AI cleanup | Filler removal, punctuation, paragraphs | Yes, plus 25+ rewrite presets and custom templates |
| Rewrite presets | Cleanup only (one-shot, no preset library) | 25+ presets + custom templates |
| Recording length cap | No cap | Up to 90 min per note (one independent review at daveswift.com reports a 15-minute cap) |
| Transcription languages | 99 | 90+ |
| UI languages | 28 on mobile; desktop / Chrome / Obsidian in English only | Mobile-localized |
| Auto-translate to English | Yes (all platforms) | Yes |
| Cold start to recording | Sub-100ms (audio prewarm) | Not specified |
| Transcription speed | ~3 seconds for 15 minutes of audio | Not specified |
| Audio retention | Zero retention, audio purged within 1 second after processing | Policy does not specify retention duration |
| Cloud sync encryption | End-to-end encrypted (AES-256-GCM, Argon2id, user-held passphrase) | Cloud sync; no E2EE claim in published policy |
| Named transcription provider | Groq | Lists OpenAI, Firebase, GCP, Sentry, and others as service providers |
Where Letterly wins
Three things, and they are real.
The rewrite library. "Reformat this voice memo as a friendly outreach email" or "as a LinkedIn post" or "as a to-do list" with one tap. Letterly's 25+ rewrite presets plus custom templates is the most useful version of this feature in the category. If your daily loop is "ramble into the phone, ship a polished message," that loop is shorter in Letterly than almost anywhere else. AICHE does AI cleanup (filler removal, punctuation, paragraphing) but does not ship a preset library.
Native iOS polish. Reviewers consistently flag the iOS app as solid: rock-stable, well-designed, great Apple Watch integration, a usable screen-off recording flow, a home-screen widget that just works. Letterly was designed iPhone-first and it shows. AICHE's iPhone app covers the same workflow (record, sync, transcribe, auto-categorize) but Letterly has more years of mobile-first iteration behind it and a deeper App Store track record (4.7/5 across 880 ratings).
Web access. Letterly has a web version. AICHE does not. If you need to dictate from a borrowed Chromebook or a locked-down work machine where you cannot install software, Letterly's web app is a real option. AICHE solves the "install nothing" case with the Chrome extension instead, but if you cannot install extensions either, the web app wins.
Long-form recordings. Letterly supports up to 90 minutes per note. AICHE has no length cap at all, so on paper AICHE is wider, but Letterly is built and tested for the long-meeting use case in a way that influences UI choices and battery behavior.
Where AICHE wins
The six pillars, with specifics.
1. Platform breadth
AICHE runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Chrome, Obsidian, and via REST API. 9 platforms. Letterly runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Mac, and web. Six surfaces, with Windows still pending and Linux absent.
If you work on Linux, the comparison is decided here. Letterly does not offer a Linux client and has not announced one. AICHE ships .deb, .rpm, AppImage, and Flatpak builds. Same hotkey, same workflow, same engine as Mac and Windows.
If you live in a browser, AICHE has a Chrome extension that drops voice text directly into web form fields, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gmail, Linear, GitHub issues, Notion. Letterly does not.
If you live in Obsidian, AICHE is in the Community Plugins directory. Letterly is not.
2. System-wide hotkey vs in-app capture
This is the structural difference and it changes how the tools are used day to day.
AICHE: Press ⌃+⌥+R on Mac or Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows/Linux while you are in Cursor, Slack, Gmail, your terminal, Figma comments, Notion, a Jira ticket, or a Discord DM. Speak. Stop. Clean text inserts at the cursor. You never leave the app you were working in.
Letterly: Open Letterly. Tap record. Stop. Pick a rewrite style. Copy. Switch to the destination app. Paste. The output is polished, but the loop has more steps and a context switch.
Both models are legitimate. If your work is "compose a finished message and ship it once," Letterly's flow is cleaner. If your work is "send 50 prompts and replies a day across 8 apps," AICHE's flow is shorter.
3. Public REST API
AICHE Pro exposes a REST API. You can call it from your own scripts, a build pipeline, a Raycast extension, a custom Slack bot, or anywhere else you can make an HTTP request. We have not seen many users build serious workflows with it yet, but the door is open.
Letterly offers Zapier and custom webhooks for routing the output of a finished note. There is no documented public API for "send me audio, get back a transcript" from arbitrary code. The two are different categories: webhooks fire when something happens inside Letterly; an API lets you initiate from outside.
4. Real team plan
AICHE Pro includes seats, roles, and unified billing as a published, self-serve feature. You can put a 5-person engineering team on it without a sales call.
Letterly's public pricing surface does not include a team or multi-seat plan as of May 2026. If you need three or more people on the same tool with one bill, it is not currently a documented Letterly offering.
5. Built for code
AICHE's Software Development profile (Pro) is a recognition mode tuned for code identifiers, CLI flags, library names, and developer jargon. It preserves snake_case, kebab-case, camelCase. It does not auto-fix npm to "NPM" or "stdout" to "stand out." It does not insert smart quotes that break shell commands.
Voice Code (Pro) goes further: dictate directly into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or Antigravity, with pause-aware auto-send so the prompt ships when you stop talking, no Enter key needed. Voice confirmations let you approve or reject agent actions without touching the keyboard.
Letterly's rewrite presets are content-shaped (email, post, summary, to-do list), not code-shaped. There is no developer-tuned recognition mode and no in-loop agent dictation feature. The "Claude / Cursor / ChatGPT / Codex compatibility" in their marketing refers to copying Letterly's output into those tools, not to dictating directly into them.
6. Pricing
| Plan | AICHE | Letterly |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid (annual) | $3.99/mo (Personal, $47.99/yr, 3 devices) | ~$5.83-$8.33/mo (Pro, $69.99-$99.99/yr range) |
| Mid-tier (annual) | $8.33/mo (Pro, $99.99/yr, 10 devices, API, team, Voice Code) | Same Pro tier as above |
| True monthly | $4.99 Personal / $9.99 Pro | $19.99 Pro |
| Free trial | 7 days, no credit card | Free tier (limits unclear) + 14-day refund |
AICHE Personal at $3.99/mo annual is the cheapest entry into this category at this feature depth. AICHE's monthly Pro at $9.99 is exactly half of Letterly's $19.99 monthly. Letterly's annual tier is competitive with AICHE Pro at the upper end of its $69.99-$99.99 range, but you do not get an API, a team plan, a code profile, or Voice Code in exchange.
Speed numbers, not adjectives
- Cold start to recording: sub-100ms (audio prewarm)
- Transcription speed: ~3 seconds for 15 minutes of audio
- Audio retention: within 1 second after processing, typically 2-3 seconds during processing
Letterly does not publish equivalent speed metrics. Reviewers generally describe transcription as accurate, which it is, but the comparison axis here is "how fast is your pipeline" and AICHE has specific numbers.
Common questions
Q: I'm a Linux user. Which one works for me?
A: AICHE. Letterly does not offer a Linux client. AICHE has .deb, .rpm, AppImage, and Flatpak builds with the same Ctrl+Alt+R hotkey and the same engine as the Mac and Windows apps.
Q: I'm on Windows. Which one?
A: AICHE today. Letterly lists Windows as "Soon" on its homepage but has not shipped it as of May 2026. If a Windows client is a hard requirement now, AICHE is the only one of the two that has it.
Q: I dictate into Cursor or Claude Code. Which one handles snake_case correctly?
A: AICHE with the Software Development profile (Pro). It is tuned for code identifiers, CLI flags, and library names, and it preserves snake_case, kebab-case, and camelCase. Letterly's rewrite presets are shaped for emails and posts, not for code.
Q: I mostly turn long voice memos into polished emails. Which one?
A: Letterly, honestly. Its rewrite library (25+ presets plus custom templates) is the strongest user-visible feature in the category and is the right tool if your workflow is "ramble, then pick a style." AICHE does AI cleanup (filler removal, punctuation, paragraphing) but does not ship a preset library.
Q: I need a public API. Which one?
A: AICHE Pro. You can call AICHE from your own scripts and tools over HTTP. Letterly offers Zapier and custom webhooks for routing finished notes, but no documented public API for initiating dictation from external code.
Q: I want to put my whole team on the same tool with one bill. Which one?
A: AICHE Pro has a real team plan with seats, roles, and unified billing as a published self-serve feature. Letterly does not publish a multi-seat plan as of May 2026.
Q: I work primarily on iPhone and barely touch a desktop. Which one?
A: Both are reasonable. Letterly has a longer track record of iPhone-first iteration, a deeper App Store ratings base (4.7/5, 880 ratings), and the rewrite library that makes mobile-only workflows efficient. AICHE on iPhone covers the same workflow (record, sync, transcribe, auto-categorize, Apple Watch capture) at a lower price ($3.99/mo annual vs Letterly's $5.83-$8.33/mo annual range). If the rewrite presets are the feature you want, Letterly wins; if you also touch a desktop at all, AICHE pays back the cross-platform investment.
Q: My UI needs to be in Russian / Japanese / Arabic. Does AICHE work?
A: On mobile, yes: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Android are localized to 28 languages. On desktop, Chrome, and Obsidian, the menus are English-only. Voice input and transcription work identically across every platform in 99 languages, so a Russian speaker on Linux gets Russian transcription even though the menus are in English. Auto-translate to English is available everywhere.
Q: How long can I record?
A: AICHE has no length cap. Letterly's App Store listing says up to 90 minutes per note, though one independent review at daveswift.com reports a 15-minute cap in practice. The split between free and Pro is not clearly documented on Letterly's site.
Result: AICHE and Letterly are aimed at different jobs. AICHE is a global hotkey that puts clean text into any app on any OS, with a code-tuned profile, a public API, a real team plan, and a Linux client. Letterly is a polished mobile rewrite studio with a deep preset library for turning voice memos into finished messages. If you want a system-wide voice input layer across desktop and mobile, AICHE is the one. If you want a mobile-first content workshop, Letterly is the one.
Try it now: download AICHE, press ⌃+⌥+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows/Linux), and speak one prompt you have been putting off because typing it felt like too much work. 7-day free trial, no credit card. From $3.99/mo billed annually.