Best Instant Caption Glasses (2026), tested by WIRE

Unlike other glasses I’ve tried, it doesn’t even sell a subscription plan; everything is included out of the box.

The only drawback I could find with the G2 is that it largely lacks offline features, so the glasses have to be connected to the internet to do anything. Given the G2’s potential, it’s a trade I’m more than happy to make.

Other Caption Glasses I’ve Tried

There are many branded sunglasses on the market, but they are surprisingly similar in looks and features. While many are quite capable, none had the combination of power and affordability that I found with Even’s G2. Here is a summary of everything else I tried.

Leion’s Hey 2 is the price leader in this market, and even its prescription lenses ($90 to $299) are affordable. The equipment, however, is heavy: 50 grams without lenses, 60 grams with them. A full charge gives you six to eight hours of operation; the case adds juice for up to 12 recharges.

I like Leion’s interface, which has captions, translations, “free talk” (two-way translation), and a teleprompter feature in its clean app. You get access to nine languages; using Pro minutes increases that limit to 143. Leion sells its paid plan by the minute, not the month, so you need to remember to turn this off when you don’t need it. Prices are $10 for 120 minutes, $50 for 1,200 minutes, and $200 for 6,000 minutes. No offline use is supported, and I often struggled to get the AI ​​overviews to appear in English instead of Chinese (regardless of the recorded language).

You don’t see twice: XRAI and Leion use the same manufacturer for their hardware, and the glasses have the same weight. Battery specs are also similar, with up to eight hours on the frame and another 96 hours on a recharge in the case. XRAI claims its display is brighter than the competition’s, but I didn’t notice much of a difference in day-to-day use.

The features and user experience are roughly the same, although Leion’s teleprompter feature is not implemented in the XRAI app, and it does not provide AI conversation summaries. I also didn’t find the XRAI software as user-friendly as the Leion version, especially when I tried to switch between the full 300 supported language options. Only 20 of these are included without signing up for a Pro subscription, which is sold by the month and minutes: $20/month gets you a max of 600 minutes of transcription and 300 minutes of translation; $40 per month gets you 1,800 and 1,200 minutes, respectively. On the plus side, XRAI doesn’t have the usual offline mode that works better than most. For prescription lenses, add $140 to $170.

AirCaps does not manufacture its own prescription lenses. Instead, you have to buy a $39 pair of “lens holders” and take them to an eye doctor if you want prescription inserts. I couldn’t test them with prescription lenses and eventually had to try them through my regular glasses, which worked well enough for short-term testing. The frames weigh 53 grams without extension lenses; the company couldn’t tell me how much extra weight prescription lenses would add to that, but it’s safe to say that these are the most expensive and heaviest glasses on the market. Despite the weight, it only packs two to four hours of battery life, with 10 or more charges packed into a ridiculously large case. Another option is to stick one of AirCaps’ 13-gram rechargeable Power Pods ($79 for two) on one hand, which can provide an additional 12 to 18 hours of juice.

The AirCaps’ list of features and interface make it the easiest device of all, with just one button to start and stop recording. Transcription and translation are available for free in nine languages. For $20/month, you can add the Pro package, which offers better accuracy, access to more than 60 languages, and the option to generate AI summarization on demand (though only if the recordings are long enough). As a bonus: Five hours of Pro features are free every month. Offline mode works well too. The only bad news is that these large frames are not comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time.

The most expensive option on the market (up to $ 1,399 with ordered lenses!) It weighs 40 grams (52 grams with lenses) and offers about four hours of battery life. There is no charge case; the glasses must be charged directly using the included USB dongle.

The glasses are very simple, offering subtitles and translation features—with support for about 80 languages, which is impressive. Unfortunately I found the prescription lenses Captify sent to be the foggiest of the bunch, making the subtitles difficult to read. And although the device supports offline transcription, performance was severely degraded when disconnected from the internet. I couldn’t get the translations to work at all while offline. For $15/month, you get better speaker accuracy and contrast, and access to AI conversation summaries. Prescription lenses cost between $99 and $600.