Interpreter vs Ava: OPI Comparison (2026)
Quick answer
Ava (ava.me) is an accessibility tool that provides live captions for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people. It turns speech into text so users who cannot hear can follow conversations in real time. Used by organizations like Mayo Clinic, Disney, and Shell.
Interpreter is real-time transcription built for OPI interpreters. Both speakers, both languages, on screen while you work. Sub-500ms latency so you see words before you need to render them.
Some interpreters use Ava because it was the first captioning app they found. But Ava was designed for people who cannot hear, not for people who hear two languages and need to keep up. Session caps, no translation, subscription pricing -- none of it fits the interpreter workflow.
What Ava does
Ava is accessibility-first captioning. Open the app on your phone, tablet, or desktop and it transcribes speech around you into text. Color-coded speaker identification (SpeakerID), Ava Voice for text-to-speech, and integrations with Zoom and video conferences.
Free tier gives you 40-minute sessions with basic AI captions. Community plan ($14.99/month, or $9.99/month billed annually) adds 3 hours of premium captions at roughly 90% accuracy -- still capped at 40-minute sessions. Beyond 3 hours, overage is $4.99/hour.
Pro plan (contact sales) removes the hour cap and extends sessions to 2 hours. Enterprise pushes sessions to 8 hours and adds SSO, SLA, and a dedicated account manager. Human scribes are available on Pro and Enterprise for 99% accuracy, but they require 6-24 hours advance notice and only work weekdays 8am-6pm.
50+ languages for transcription, ADA compliance on Pro and above. The Community plan explicitly warns it is not ADA-compliant. Ava has raised roughly $14.5 million in funding through 2022.
What Interpreter does
Phone call transcription purpose-built for working interpreters. Both speakers, both languages, on your screen while you interpret. Whether you work consecutive or simultaneous, the transcript keeps pace.
A medical interpreter hears "Lisinopril 10mg, Metoprolol 25mg twice daily." It appears on screen in under 500 milliseconds. Case numbers, addresses, dosages -- glance instead of scribble. That is the difference between manual note-taking and having a real-time transcript.
Two-way translation across 60+ languages with auto language detection and code-switching support. Click any word to get an instant translation via Quick Lookup -- a mid-call dictionary that shows translations and example sentences. Build a custom glossary of up to 50 Term Mappings for domain-specific vocabulary you encounter repeatedly.
Select a call domain (Medical, Legal, Finance, Insurance, Government, Education, and more) to tune recognition for field-specific terminology. Choose Paired (side-by-side) or Interleaved (stacked) transcript layouts. Open Floating Notes for a draggable, resizable scratchpad without leaving the call. Works with any audio source: phone calls, VRI platforms, agency portals, browser-based systems. Chrome extension captures it all.
HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR compliant. No session limits, no hour caps. Pay-as-you-go: $0.20-$0.35 per hour of use. Assisted Mode (Polyglot Mini) offers push-to-transcribe for 100+ languages at $0.20/hr. Volume discounts on credit packages from $10-$100 with 2-7% bonus minutes.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Interpreter | Ava |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | OPI call support | Accessibility captions |
| Built for | Professional interpreters | Deaf/hard-of-hearing |
| Two-way translation | ||
| Click-to-translate | ||
| Auto language detection | ||
| Session time limits | None | 40min free / 2hr Pro / 8hr Enterprise |
| Languages | 60+ | 50+ |
| Latency | Sub-500ms | ~1–2s |
| Speaker identification | ||
| Works with phone calls | Limited | |
| Works with any audio source | ||
| Chrome extension | ||
| HIPAA compliant | Claimed | |
| SOC 2 / GDPR | GDPR only | |
| Code-switching support | ||
| Quick Lookup / dictionary | ||
| Custom glossary | 50 terms | |
| Floating notes | ||
| Domain-specific modes | 10 domains | |
| Pay-as-you-go pricing |
Pricing breakdown
For an interpreter working 40 hours/month (estimate your costs):
$8-$14/month
Polyglot Mini (Assisted Mode): $0.20/hr ($8/mo). Polyglot: $0.35/hr ($14/mo). No session limits. No hour caps. 1 hour free to start. Credit packages $10-$100 with 2-7% bonus.
$14.99/month
3 hours of premium captions included. 40-min session limit. $4.99/hr overage. 40 hours would cost $199+/month.
Custom pricing
Unlimited premium captions. 2-hour session limit. Scribe captions require 24-hour advance notice. Weekday-only scribe hours.
On Ava Community, 40 hours of interpreting would cost over $199/month in overage alone. Interpreter covers the same 40 hours for $8-$14 total. No overage fees, no sales calls.
Why session limits matter for interpreters
Ava's free tier cuts off at 40 minutes. That's fine for a coffee shop conversation. It is not fine for a legal proceeding or a complex medical appointment that runs long.
Even Ava Pro caps sessions at 2 hours. If your call runs 2 hours and 5 minutes, you lose your transcript mid-session. Enterprise extends to 8 hours, but that requires a sales process and enterprise pricing.
Interpreter has no session limits. A 20-minute call and a 4-hour deposition cost the same per-minute rate. No interruptions, no mid-call cutoffs, no worrying about how long the appointment will take.
The cognitive load problem
Interpreters already juggle listening, processing, rendering, and monitoring -- all at the same time. Cognitive overload is the top cause of interpreter burnout. Adding note-taking on top of that is the breaking point.
Ava gives you a transcript, but it is one-language-at-a-time. No translation layer. You still have to track both sides of the conversation mentally. And if a speaker code-switches mid-sentence, Ava does not handle that.
Interpreter shows both languages in your choice of Paired (side-by-side) or Interleaved layout. Speaker A in English, Speaker B in Spanish (or any of 60+ pairs). Auto language detection catches code-switching. Quick Lookup lets you tap any word mid-call for a translation with example sentences, and Floating Notes gives you a scratchpad without switching windows. The cognitive load drops because the AI handles the part machines are good at -- capturing words -- so you can focus on the part only humans can do: meaning.
Choose Ava if
- You are Deaf or hard-of-hearing and need everyday captions
- You need ADA-compliant captions for workplace accommodations
- You want human scribes for 99% accuracy (weekdays, with advance notice)
- You caption in-person group meetings or events
Choose Interpreter if
- You are a professional OPI interpreter working phone calls
- You need two-way translation between speakers in real time
- Your sessions run longer than 40 minutes (or you cannot predict length)
- You handle medical or legal calls and need domain-specific modes with custom glossaries
- You want pay-as-you-go without subscriptions or sales calls
- You use agency portals, softphones, or browser-based call platforms
The real question
Ava is excellent at what it does: making the world accessible for people who cannot hear. It serves 150,000+ users across education, healthcare, and enterprise. That is a different problem than interpreting.
Interpreters can hear fine. The problem is not hearing -- it is keeping up. Medication names, case numbers, addresses, dates. All flying past while you listen, process, and render in another language. That is the cognitive load problem, and an accessibility captioning tool was not designed to solve it.
Interpreter was built by interpreters for interpreters. Sub-500ms transcription. Two-way translation. Quick Lookup dictionary. Custom glossaries. Domain-specific modes for medical, legal, finance, and more. No session limits. $0.20-$0.35/hour. If you have been using Ava to get by, try the tool that was actually designed for the job.
Frequently asked
Can I use Ava for interpreting phone calls?
Ava has limited phone call support. It is designed to caption in-person or video conversations, not to work as an interpreter tool during OPI calls. You also lose the transcript if your session hits the time limit.
Is Ava HIPAA compliant?
Ava claims HIPAA and GDPR compliance. Interpreter is HIPAA compliant plus SOC 2 and GDPR certified, with end-to-end encryption and zero audio storage.
Does Ava translate between languages?
Ava offers some translation features, but it is one-directional and not designed for bilingual call workflows. Interpreter provides two-way translation with speaker identification, auto language detection, click-to-translate Quick Lookup on any word, and a custom glossary of up to 50 Term Mappings for specialized vocabulary.