What is the cheapest way to get an AI voice notes app: yearly, lifetime or free?
For Sentio, the lowest upfront cost is the $49 yearly plan, and the lowest cost over a long stretch is the $149 one-time lifetime plan, because a fourth yearly payment is where yearly overtakes it. There is no free plan on the pricing page. The free option is a no-signup tool that pulls action items from a clip of up to 60 seconds. We did not compare other apps' prices, so this answers only which Sentio option costs least.
Last reviewed October 23, 2026
The options as the pricing page lists them today
On the date above, the pricing page lists Yearly at $49 per year, renewing yearly until canceled, and Lifetime at $149 one time, with a limited launch allocation at that price. A separate Founder Beta is $99 one time for one year of web access, not a lifetime plan, with founder-led onboarding, email support and a 14-day refund window. The page frames all of these as pre-orders. Yearly lists unlimited recording, transcription, summaries and action item detection, search, the web app with cloud sync, and the Obsidian beta and webhook workflows; Lifetime says it includes everything in Yearly.
The arithmetic
Three yearly payments come to $147, which is $2 less than Lifetime. The fourth takes yearly to $196, so Lifetime is cheaper only if you expect to keep using Sentio for more than three years, and Yearly is cheaper if you are unsure or may stop. The Founder Beta costs $50 more than Yearly for its first year; what that buys, per the page, is the onboarding, email support and refund window. Launch pricing is described as limited, so these numbers can change, and a future price is not a reason to assume today's.
The free option is a demo of one feature
The action items page offers a try-it tool with no signup: record or upload audio up to 60 seconds and 5 MB, and get a checklist back. It has a daily limit on tries, and it can reach capacity for the day. It is useful for judging whether the extraction suits the way you talk, but it is not a free tier of the app, and we have not verified that it saves anything to an account. If you only ever need short clips turned into a to-do list, it may be all you need.
What the price does not tell you
Cheapest is not the same as right. The product is available in the browser today; native iOS and macOS apps are in development, Android is coming soon, and team features are not available. The page lists unlimited recording, but we have not confirmed whether daily transcription limits apply to your plan, so ask before you rely on very heavy use. We have also not reviewed what the terms say a lifetime plan means, so read them before paying. And since the page calls these pre-orders, check what you can sign up for and when it starts.
Common questions
Is there a free trial of Sentio?
The pricing page does not list a free plan or trial. The no-signup action items tool is free but limited to short clips and a daily number of tries.
Does the yearly plan renew automatically?
The pricing page says it renews yearly until canceled.
Does Lifetime include Obsidian and webhooks?
The page says Lifetime includes everything in Yearly, and Yearly lists the Obsidian beta and webhook workflows.
How does this compare with other apps' prices?
It does not. We did not re-check competitor pricing for this page, so we make no price comparison. Check each product's own pricing page on the day you decide.