Is Dragon discontinued? Not all of it, but most of what consumers, Mac users and mobile users bought is gone: Dragon for Mac ended in 2018, Dragon Home in 2023 and Dragon Anywhere on 1 July 2026, while Dragon Professional 16 for Windows and the cloud editions for medicine and law are still sold. This page lists the status of every Dragon product with a date and an official source, explains what each status means in practice, and shows where German professionals can go next.
Last verified: October 2026.
Dragon is the speech recognition family that Nuance Communications built over three decades and that Microsoft has owned since it completed the Nuance acquisition on 4 March 2022 (about $19.7 billion). We update this page quarterly; if a date changes, the table changes with it.
Is Dragon discontinued? The short answer
Dragon as a brand is not discontinued, but the product range has shrunk to Windows desktop licences and Microsoft-hosted cloud subscriptions. Everything outside Windows has ended, and the general-purpose desktop line has not had a major release since February 2023.
- Discontinued: Dragon Professional Individual for Mac (22 October 2018), Dragon Home (last sold as version 15 until 27 February 2023) and the Dragon Anywhere mobile app (no sales or renewals since 1 July 2026).
- Still sold: Dragon Professional 16 and Dragon Legal 16 for Windows, Dragon Medical One and Dragon Copilot for healthcare, plus the cloud subscriptions Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere.
- Announced by partners, not yet by Nuance: authorised Nuance partners in Germany report an end of sale for Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere on 31 December 2026 and an end of life on 31 December 2027.
- No Dragon 17: as of October 2026 Nuance has not announced a successor to Dragon Professional 16, which was released on 28 February 2023.
- Where the money goes: Microsoft's visible investment is in clinical AI (Dragon Copilot), not in the general-purpose desktop product.
The status of every Dragon product (October 2026)
The master table below gives each Dragon product a status, a date and the source that date comes from. Where Nuance has not published a date, the table says "not published" instead of guessing.
| Product | Type | Status | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon NaturallySpeaking | Windows desktop | Name retired; line continues as Dragon Professional | Version 13 (July 2014) was the last major release under that name | Nuance advisory (successor editions) |
| Dragon Home | Windows desktop (consumer) | ❌ Discontinued, no successor | Dragon Home 15 sales ended 27 Feb 2023 | Nuance advisory 29838 |
| Dragon Professional Individual for Mac 6 | macOS desktop | ❌ Discontinued | 22 Oct 2018 | Nuance advisory 27843 |
| Dragon Anywhere | iOS / Android app | ❌ No new subscriptions, no renewals | 1 Jul 2026 (last app version 1.96.1) | App Store listing |
| Dragon Professional 14 | Windows desktop | ❌ All support ended | 1 Sep 2023 | Nuance advisory 29838 |
| Dragon Professional 15 (incl. Legal 15, Law Enforcement 15) | Windows desktop | ❌ No longer sold (EN + DE) | Sales ended 27 Feb 2023 | Nuance advisory 29838 |
| Dragon Professional 16 | Windows desktop, perpetual | ✅ Sold and supported | Released 28 Feb 2023; Dragon 17: not published | Nuance advisory 29838 |
| Dragon Legal 16 | Windows desktop, perpetual (USA + Germany) | ✅ Sold | v16 generation since 28 Feb 2023; end date not published | Nuance advisory 29838 |
| Dragon Professional Anywhere | Cloud subscription (Microsoft Azure) | ✅ Sold; end of sale announced by partners | Partners: end of sale 31 Dec 2026, end of life 31 Dec 2027; release 2024.2 EOL 31 Aug 2026 | Release notes 2026.1 |
| Dragon Legal Anywhere | Cloud subscription (Deutsche Telekom Open Telecom Cloud) | ✅ Sold; end of sale announced by partners | Partners: end of sale 31 Dec 2026, end of life 31 Dec 2027; release 2024.1 EOL 20 Feb 2026 | Release notes 2024.2 |
| Dragon Medical One | Cloud subscription (Azure, German Hosted) | ✅ Sold; being folded into Dragon Copilot | Rolling release EOL; LTSR 2021.4.5 and older: after 31 Dec 2026 (integrator report) | Microsoft newsroom |
| Dragon Copilot | Cloud clinical AI (dictation + ambient) | ✅ Sold, generally available in Germany | 7 Oct 2025 (Germany GA) | Microsoft newsroom |
Each product above gets a one-line definition the first time it matters to you:
- Dragon Professional 16: the current Windows desktop edition, bought once (perpetual licence) and running recognition fully on the PC.
- Dragon Professional Anywhere: a cloud subscription with a thin Windows client that sends audio over an encrypted connection to Microsoft Azure.
- Dragon Legal Anywhere: the legal cloud edition for Germany, hosted in the Deutsche Telekom Open Telecom Cloud rather than Azure.
- Dragon Medical One: Nuance's cloud dictation for clinicians, in Germany offered as "German Hosted" on Azure in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin.
- Dragon Copilot: Microsoft's clinical assistant that combines Dragon Medical One dictation with ambient listening from DAX Copilot.
How Nuance retires cloud versions (and why dates keep moving)
Every Dragon cloud release has a fixed 24-month life: 12 months supported, 6 months limited support, then end of life. According to the Dragon Legal Anywhere release notes, an end-of-life version "will no longer function due to advances in the Nuance cloud infrastructure", so staying on an old client is not an option.
- Dragon Professional Anywhere 2024.2: end of life on 31 August 2026 (release notes 2026.1).
- Dragon Professional Anywhere 2024.3: end of life on 30 September 2026.
- Dragon Professional Anywhere 2025.1: end of life on 13 February 2027.
- Dragon Legal Anywhere 2024.1: end of life on 20 February 2026 (release notes 2024.2).
- Dragon Medical One LTSR: an integrator's migration report states that long-term service builds 2021.4.5 and earlier stop working after 31 December 2026; Nuance has not published that notice openly, so confirm it with your reseller.
The product-level end dates are a separate question. Two authorised partners in Germany, Thax Software (notice of 3 September 2026) and Byte Heroes (15 July 2026), report that Dragon Professional Anywhere and Dragon Legal Anywhere stop selling on 31 December 2026 and reach end of life on 31 December 2027, with renewals not planned under the current information. As of October 2026 we found no matching public advisory from Nuance or Microsoft, so treat these dates as announced, not official.
Which platforms does Dragon still support?
In October 2026, every Dragon product you can still buy runs on Windows; macOS, Linux and mobile are not covered by any current Dragon dictation product. The platform matrix shows the gap, with Sprecho as the reference row.
| Product | Windows | macOS | Linux | iOS | Android | Web |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Professional 16 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Dragon Legal 16 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Dragon Professional Anywhere | ✅ (client) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Dragon Legal Anywhere | ✅ (client) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Dragon Medical One | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | Tablet browser only |
| Dragon for Mac 6 | ❌ | ❌ since 2018 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Dragon Anywhere | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ since 1 Jul 2026 | ❌ since 1 Jul 2026 | ❌ |
| Sprecho | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Via desktop + mobile apps |
- Apple Silicon: Dragon Professional does not support ARM-based Windows 11, so it cannot run under Parallels on M1 to M5 Macs.
- Intel Macs with Parallels: the virtualised microphone adds latency, and Dragon dictates only into Windows apps inside the VM, never into native Mail, Pages or Safari.
- Windows 10: Microsoft ended Windows 10 support on 14 October 2025; Nuance says that if an issue is caused by Windows 10, the user must move to Windows 11 and Dragon v16 (Nuance advisory 29940).
- Windows 11 24H2: users on the ProZ forum report that Dragon 15.6 stopped dictating outside DragonPad after the 24H2 update; this is a user report, not a Nuance statement.
- Linux: never supported by any Dragon edition.
Why is Dragon being wound down?
Since Microsoft bought Nuance in March 2022, the investment has gone into clinical AI, while consumer, Mac and mobile editions were closed. Nobody at Microsoft has called it a wind-down, but the release record speaks for itself.
- Desktop pause: Dragon Professional 16 (February 2023) is the only major desktop release since the acquisition, and no version 17 has been announced in 3.5 years.
- Healthcare focus: Microsoft merged Dragon Medical One and DAX Copilot into Dragon Copilot and has shipped 13 releases since September 2025.
- Copilot in Germany: Dragon Copilot became generally available for German clinics and practices on 7 October 2025 (Microsoft newsroom), but as of version 5.1 (September 2026) the multilingual recording feature set (Microsoft support) is documented for the US and Canada, with no published timeline for Germany or Austria.
- Mobile exit: Dragon Anywhere was the only Nuance mobile dictation product; with its end on 1 July 2026 there is no Nuance app for phones any more.
- Cloud consolidation: partner notices for the end of Professional Anywhere and Legal Anywhere point the same direction: fewer general-purpose products, more Microsoft clinical platform.
What the status means if you use Dragon today
Your urgency depends on which edition you run: Mac, mobile and v14 users are already unsupported, cloud subscribers face hard dates, and Dragon Professional 16 users can keep working but should plan.
Dragon Professional 16 on Windows
- Status: sold and supported; your perpetual licence keeps working.
- Strength: recognition runs 100 % on your PC, which is Dragon's strongest privacy point.
- Risk: no v17 roadmap, Windows-only, and no matching mobile app since Dragon Anywhere ended.
- Price context: $699.99 one-time in the US; German resellers list roughly 446 to 854 € netto depending on edition, with the Individual ESD typically around 699 € netto.
Dragon 14 or 15
- Dragon 14: all support ended on 1 September 2023; Nuance warns that unsupported versions "may increase your exposure to security risks or impact your ability to meet compliance obligations".
- Dragon 15: no longer sold since 27 February 2023; the upgrade to v16 costs about 449 € netto at German resellers.
- Profiles: v15 profiles must be upgraded to run in v16; for v13 and v14 profiles Nuance recommends exporting the vocabulary first.
Mac and Dragon Anywhere users
- Mac: Dragon for Mac has been gone since 22 October 2018, and no current Dragon product dictates into native macOS apps.
- Dragon Anywhere: the App Store notice reads "As of July 1, 2026, Dragon Anywhere Mobile is no longer available for sale. Purchasing new subscriptions and renewing existing subscriptions is no longer possible."
- Server shutdown: no date has been published for when the Dragon Anywhere service stops; running subscriptions simply cannot be renewed.
Professional Anywhere, Legal Anywhere and Medical One subscribers
- Professional and Legal Anywhere: plan for the partner-announced end of sale on 31 December 2026 and end of life on 31 December 2027, and get your own contract end date in writing from your reseller.
- Legal Anywhere pricing: roughly 579 to 643 € netto per year depending on reseller (first-year promotions from 298.80 €).
- Medical One: German reseller quotes run 60 to 70 € per user per month netto on 12- to 36-month terms; moving to Dragon Copilot also means moving administration from Nuance Command Center to Dragon Admin Center.
- Jurisdiction: Azure Frankfurt and Berlin are certified (C5, ISO 27001), but Microsoft is a US company, so the US CLOUD Act still applies regardless of where the data centre is.
If you use X, do Y: a decision table
Use this table to turn the status into a next step. The deadline column repeats the hardest date that applies to your edition.
| If you use | Status | Hardest date | Do this |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon 14 | Unsupported | Since 1 Sep 2023 | Export your vocabulary now and move off; do not run it on confidential data |
| Dragon 15 | Not sold, supported on Windows | Windows 10 issues require v16 + Windows 11 | Decide between paid v16 upgrade and a cross-platform successor |
| Dragon Professional 16 | Sold | Not published | Keep it if Windows-only works; add a mobile and Mac solution |
| Dragon for Mac | Discontinued | Since 22 Oct 2018 | Switch to a native macOS dictation app |
| Dragon Anywhere | No sales or renewals | Your subscription end date | Pick a mobile app that shares one dictionary with your desktop |
| Dragon Professional Anywhere | Sold, partner-announced end | 31 Dec 2026 end of sale (partners) | Ask your reseller for the contract end date; test a replacement in Q4 |
| Dragon Legal Anywhere | Sold, partner-announced end | 31 Dec 2026 end of sale (partners) | Check § 203 StGB and BRAO fit of the successor before renewal season |
| Dragon Medical One | Sold, merging into Copilot | LTSR 2021.4.5 and older after 31 Dec 2026 | Plan the Copilot migration or a dictation-only alternative |
Where Dragon is still the stronger product
Dragon still leads in voice-command depth, fully offline desktop recognition and integration with hospital systems. If these points are decisive for you, keep Dragon where it fits.
- Command grammar: "Select <text>", "Correct That", "Cap That", "Insert Before/After", MouseGrid and custom commands go further than any modern AI dictation tool.
- Offline: Dragon Professional 16 recognises speech entirely on the PC, with no network at all.
- Fachsprache: three decades of German legal and medical vocabulary are built in.
- Hospital integration: Dragon Medical One has deep PVS and KIS integrations; Dragon Copilot adds ambient documentation that a dictation app does not replace.
Sprecho: the modern successor for German professionals
Sprecho is a voice dictation app from Melo Designer GmbH in Lastrup, Germany, that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android and processes speech only in the EU. It covers the platforms Dragon has left and keeps the data with a German processor.
- Every platform: native desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux plus mobile apps for iOS and Android, with 3 devices per licence.
- Any app: push-to-talk hotkey (hold or lock mode) dictates into Word, Outlook, Teams, DATEV, RA-MICRO, browser forms and PVS/KIS text fields.
- EU-only processing: STRATO servers in Germany, GPU inference by Media Trooper (Germany/Netherlands), no US sub-processor in the dictation path.
- Compliance: German GmbH as processor, AVV/DPA on Enterprise, TÜV SÜD-certified data protection officer; suited to § 203 StGB professions and GDPR Art. 9 health data.
- Your vocabulary: a personal and team dictionary with misspelling rules, plus snippets for boilerplate and voice commands for punctuation, § and "scratch that".
- 100+ languages: automatic language detection plus AI formatting and per-app style.
- Pro: €10.92 per seat per month net, or €9.24 per month billed yearly (€110.82 per year net); for individuals and teams of any size.
- Enterprise: €21.84 per seat per month net, or €18.47 billed yearly (€221.64 per year net); adds SSO/SAML, MDM deployment, audit-log export, licence management and invoice billing.
- On-premise: on request for customer-hosted deployments of roughly 50 seats and more.
- Honest limit: Sprecho has no MouseGrid or select-and-correct grammar; its AI formatting removes most of the need for explicit commands.
- Honest limit: Sprecho is dictation, not ambient clinical note-taking like Dragon Copilot.
- Try it: Free Forever plan with 2,000 words per week, or a 14-day Pro trial without a card; see Sprecho pricing.
For a feature-by-feature view, read Sprecho vs Dragon; for the ranked field, see our best Dragon alternatives for 2026.
How to move from Dragon in five steps
A Dragon migration takes an afternoon if you start with the vocabulary. Your custom words are the real asset; the rest is habit.
- Export your words: in Dragon open DragonBar > Settings > Profile > Open User Profile, then Tools > Vocabulary Center > "Export custom word and phrase list" as TXT or XML (Nuance help).
- Bring them to Sprecho: add key terms in the dictionary, or send us your exported list and we convert it.
- Rebuild auto-texts as snippets: signatures, addresses and standard paragraphs become spoken trigger phrases with {date} and {time} variables.
- Share with the team: on Pro or Enterprise, shared dictionaries and snippets keep a practice or firm consistent.
- Run both for two weeks: keep Dragon installed during the trial and compare on your own documents.
Where to start by profession
- Doctors and clinics: Sprecho for healthcare covers Arztbriefe, Befunde and PVS fields.
- Lawyers: Sprecho for law firms covers Schriftsätze, RA-MICRO and beA browser forms.
- Tax advisors: Sprecho for tax consultants covers DATEV and client correspondence.
- Compliance check: our GDPR-compliant dictation software comparison explains the CLOUD Act and § 203 StGB questions in detail.
How we keep this page current
We re-check every row against Nuance advisories, release notes, the App Store and Microsoft announcements each quarter. The next scheduled review is January 2027.
- Official first: Nuance support advisories, Nuance release notes, the Apple App Store and Microsoft announcements are the primary sources.
- Partner notices labelled: dates that only resellers have published are marked as partner-announced.
- No guesses: where no date exists, the table says "not published".
Conclusion
Dragon is not dead, but it is now a Windows desktop product plus Microsoft-hosted cloud services, and the cloud subscriptions for general and legal users are heading for a partner-announced end of sale on 31 December 2026. If you dictate on a Mac, on a phone, or under § 203 StGB and want an EU-only processor, the replacement decision is already due. Sprecho is the modern, EU-hosted, cross-platform successor to Dragon: start a 14-day free trial and bring your Dragon word list along. Compare the details on Sprecho vs Dragon.
