What does radiology dictation software cost in 2026?

The price of radiology dictation software is one of the least transparent numbers in healthcare IT. Two of the four main platforms do not publish pricing at all. A third uses reseller-quoted figures that vary by contract term and seat count. Only one lists a number you can see without speaking to a sales representative first.

This guide pulls together what is actually known about dictation software pricing, what the math looks like over a career, and where the cost models start to diverge depending on how you practice.

Why is radiology dictation software so hard to price?

Most enterprise clinical software is sold through a sales-led process. The vendor quotes based on your institution size, contract term, and integration requirements. This model makes sense for large hospital systems buying 200 seats with embedded EHR and PACS integration work. It is frustrating for a solo radiologist trying to budget before picking up the phone.

The result is that most radiologists either inherit the tool their department pays for, or spend weeks chasing reseller quotes before they have a working number. Neither approach is efficient. If you want to understand why dictation software is priced the way it is, why radiologists hate voice dictation covers the structural reasons.

What do the main platforms actually cost?

PowerScribe One

PowerScribe One, the successor to PowerScribe 360, does not publish pricing. Microsoft sells it through enterprise agreements, and the figure you get depends on account size, contract term, and the feature modules included (structured reporting, ambient AI, findings management). PowerScribe 360 end-of-support landed on August 31 2026, with full end-of-life following on August 31 2027, so the migration conversation is active across many radiology departments right now.

If you are in that process and want to understand the options before committing to a new contract, the PowerScribe alternatives guide covers the full landscape including both cloud platform migrations and standalone dictation tools.

Dragon Medical One

Dragon Medical One also does not publish pricing. Reseller-quoted figures run $79 to $99 per provider per month, plus a one-time setup fee typically quoted around $525. At $79 per month on a one-year contract, that is $948 per year plus $525 upfront, so roughly $1,473 in year one. At $99 per month, year one comes to $1,713. From year two onward, you pay the monthly subscription only: $948 to $1,188 per year, with no known end date.

Three-year cost at the low end (no price increases): approximately $3,400. Five-year cost at the low end: approximately $5,300.

Dragon Medical One has won Best in KLAS for clinical speech recognition six consecutive years (2021-2026). It has a wider clinical ecosystem than any other dictation platform, and its enterprise integrations with Epic, Cerner, and major PACS vendors are a genuine capability. The ongoing subscription cost and the absence of a native Mac client are the two main trade-offs for individual radiologists.

Dolbey Fusion Narrate

Dolbey publishes a list price of $850 per user per year. That figure comes from Dolbey’s own published materials and is the most transparent number in this comparison. Three years at that rate: $2,550. Five years: $4,250. Dolbey’s speech engine runs through nVoq’s cloud infrastructure.

Dolbey also builds a separate radiology variant - Fusion Narrate Dx - as an on-premises product aimed at radiology departments. The cloud version carries the per-year subscription; on-premises pricing follows a different quote-based process.

Augnito

Augnito does not publish pricing. It sells cloud medical dictation primarily to enterprises and will quote on request. For practical comparison, assume enterprise SaaS pricing in the same range as other cloud platforms. Augnito has meaningful market presence in India and the UK, with a cloud-based architecture that requires a reliable connection for all dictation.

RadMyk

RadMyk is a one-time purchase. The current price is $199 for the first 100 users (Rs 14,999 in India for that same cohort), rising to the list price after the launch offer closes. That is the entire cost: no monthly fee, no annual renewal, no per-report meter. One license installs on two devices, with one active at a time. Future updates are included.

At the first-100-users launch price of $199, that is the entire lifetime cost. Year three: $199. Year five: $199. Year twenty-five: $199, paid once at the start.

What does the math look like over a career?

At Dolbey’s published rate, a radiologist who stays on a subscription for 20 years pays $17,000 for dictation software. At Dragon’s low-end reseller rate of $79 per month, with no price increases (an optimistic assumption), the same 20-year career costs approximately $18,975. These are not numbers that appear in product landing pages.

A one-time purchase at the RadMyk launch price of $199 for the first 100 users, paid in year one, covers the same 20-year career entirely. No charge follows. The gap compounds because subscription pricing typically rises over time as vendors pass infrastructure and support cost increases to customers.

The counterargument is real: subscriptions include ongoing support, software updates, and sometimes portable cloud profiles that follow a user across devices and institutions. That is true. Enterprise dictation platforms with deep EHR and PACS integration, structured reporting modules, peer review features, and central administration do have ongoing service work behind them. If your institution is paying for a full clinical platform that also includes dictation, the per-seat cost reflects a broader feature set.

The calculation looks different for the individual radiologist. Solo readers, teleradiologists, moonlighters, and early-career radiologists who have just qualified are typically paying the full retail subscription rate with no volume discount. That is where the career math becomes hard to ignore.

Where do the cost models diverge?

Enterprise versus individual. Large hospital groups negotiate volume discounts and spread subscription costs across many users. An individual radiologist buying their own license pays the full retail rate with no negotiating room. For departments with ten or more seats and IT infrastructure to manage them, enterprise software pricing makes structural sense. For one person buying one license, it does not.

Mac compatibility. Dragon Medical One has no native Mac client. PowerScribe One has no Mac client. Radiologists on Apple Silicon Macs who need a cloud dictation product are often directed toward Citrix or virtual desktop workarounds, which add both cost and friction. RadMyk runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs and on Windows reading room workstations without any virtualization layer.

Portability. Cloud subscriptions typically tie a user profile to vendor infrastructure. Custom vocabularies, trained voice models, and macros live on the vendor’s servers. If the subscription lapses, access to those profiles is cut. Owned, on-device software stores everything locally. Profile data does not leave the machine and does not disappear if a vendor changes pricing, gets acquired, or cancels your account.

Network dependency. Cloud dictation requires a reliable outbound internet connection for every report. Dragon Medical One, Augnito, and Dolbey Fusion Narrate all process audio on remote servers. In reading rooms on restricted hospital networks, VPN-only environments, or during network outages, cloud dictation stops. On-device software keeps going. RadMyk works offline after the initial setup download.

Who should pay enterprise rates?

Enterprise dictation platforms are the right tool when the use case requires features they specifically provide: deep EHR integration where text routes to structured report fields automatically, central license administration across a large department, peer review and quality assurance modules, or structured AI-assisted reporting with findings management.

A radiologist working in a hospital that uses PowerScribe One integrated tightly into its Epic workflow benefits from that integration. It has real value for the institution, and the subscription cost reflects it. The medical dictation software buyer’s guide covers the full feature landscape for anyone doing that evaluation.

Who is probably overpaying?

A radiologist who needs accurate voice-to-text, works across multiple PACS and EHR systems (standard in teleradiology and locum practice), does not need central department administration, and does not use AI-generated structured reports is paying subscription rates for infrastructure they do not touch.

That is the clearest candidate for owned, on-device dictation. The requirement is simple: speak, and words appear in the report field. Any app that accepts keyboard input qualifies. No PACS contract, no EHR integration project, no enterprise procurement process.

RadMyk runs that way: on-device, radiology-tuned, 96.1% word accuracy measured out of the box, approximately 220 words per minute, works in any app on Mac and Windows. One payment covers it.

The 28-day free trial requires no credit card. Radiology trainees (residents and fellows) get the full product free for the length of their training. See pricing and trial options at radmyk.com/pricing.

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Competitor pricing is subject to change. Figures cited for Dragon Medical One ($79-$99/month plus $525 setup) come from publicly listed reseller pricing as of mid-2026. Dolbey’s $850/user/year is sourced from Dolbey’s published materials. PowerScribe One and Augnito pricing is not publicly listed and should be confirmed with each vendor directly.