ActOnCue vs Linus: Pay-As-You-Go Credits or a Monthly Plan?

The short answer: ActOnCue and Linus both read the other parts and wait for you to finish your line, but they charge in opposite ways. ActOnCue sells credit and bills you by the minute of generated voice audio and by the hour of Perform mode. Linus sells a 3-day pass or a flat monthly plan. Our pick for most actors is Offbook, where realistic voices read every other role and paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts.

Maybe you had one audition last month and four the month before. That’s exactly when the way an app charges starts to matter more than its feature list. A meter feels cheap in a quiet month and adds up in a busy one; a flat plan does the opposite. We judged ActOnCue and Linus, plus ScenePartner (which counts auditions) and Offbook, on the same seven questions, with prices checked in November 2026, and then worked out what one audition week looks like on each.

How We Compared Them

A rehearsal app earns its place if you still open it the night before the tape, every time. These seven questions decide that.

• Who reads the other parts? AI voices, your own recordings, or a friend’s.
• How does it know it’s your turn? Listening for you to finish, a tap, or a setting you choose.
• How does your script get in? Which files it takes and how long a script can be.
• What memorization tools does it have? Hidden lines, first letters, looping, a teleprompter.
• Can it help with the tape? Recording inside the app, or reading for you while you film.
• Where does it run? Phone, tablet, laptop browser, or all of them.
• What does it meter? Credit, a pass, auditions, or nothing on the script count.

Offbook, ActOnCue, Linus, and ScenePartner at a Glance

Each App on the Same Seven Questions

Offbook

Offbook starts from the script you already have. Upload a PDF, a photo of the pages (PNG or JPEG), or a text file, and it sorts the pages into roles and lines and writes a title and summary for the scene. One scene holds up to 50 pages or about 10,000 words, and the page picker splits up to 150 source pages into 10 scenes, so a full-length play fits. Pick your role, and realistic voices read every other character. Free and Starter cast from 12 voices; Pro and Premium cast from a larger catalog.

When you rehearse, Offbook plays the other lines, listens through your microphone while you say yours, and plays the next cue when it hears you finish. You can also press Enter or say “next line” to move on. Strict matching holds you close to the script, Lenient has a 0-100 slider, and Manual never moves on by itself. For memorizing, hide your own lines, hide the whole script for a final test, or swap your lines for the first 1-8 letters of each word. The teleprompter highlights each word as you say it, and scene looping starts the scene again when it ends.

When you film, Offbook is the reader off camera while you record on your phone or camera. You rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere.

How you pay: Starter is $9.99 a month, Pro $14.99, and Premium $29.99, with annual billing from $7.99 a month. Paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts; generated audio has a monthly allowance of 50,000 characters on Starter, 100,000 on Pro, and 200,000 on Premium. New customers start with a 7-day free trial, and students and educators get 50% off with a valid .edu email. Suits: actors who want one monthly price with no script count, whether the month brings two pages of sides or a full-length play.

ActOnCue

ActOnCue runs as a web app plus iPhone and iPad apps that sync, with an Android app listed as coming soon; the full web version works in a mobile browser. In Perform mode, the reader listens for when you finish your line and answers with the next one. Listen mode reads the scene with no speech recognition. The reader can use AI voices or your own or a friend’s recordings, in English with US, UK, Canadian, and Australian accents, and in other languages including French, Spanish, and Russian.

Scripts go in as a PDF, a photo of your sides, pasted or typed text, or a scene transcribed from an audio recording, and you can practise only the lines you choose. For learning, it has first-letter hints, hidden lines, and a reader that pauses for you to say your line. There’s a voice-following teleprompter, self-tape recording on the phone or in the browser, and a script-aware acting coach chat. It needs an internet connection and an account.

How you pay: ActOnCue charges by use, from credit. On its pricing page, Free includes $1 of credit for testing (its FAQ adds unlimited Listen, your own recordings, and 3 hours of Perform), Monthly is $10 with $15 of usage, Annual is $99 with $180 of usage, and a one-time top-up is $20. AI voices cost $0.19 per minute of generated audio, Perform mode $0.35 an hour, and Listen mode is free. Generated lines replay free, and leftover credit rolls over, capped at $30. Suits: actors who like to pay by use from prepaid credit.

Linus

Linus reads the other parts with AI voices and waits for your cue. Its App Store listing lists more than 32 languages. You can loop the sections that need work, and it has a teleprompter and records your takes in the app.

It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android, and as a web app. We could not verify which script files it takes, so check that against your sides before you pay.

How you pay: free for a 1-page scene with up to 10 lines. On its pricing page, a 3-day pass is $1.99, Pro is $9.99 a month, and Premium is $19.99 a month. Pro lists Linus Cloud and shareable links; the page does not describe what a link lets a castmate do. Suits: actors who want a short pass for a single audition week.

ScenePartner

ScenePartner reads the other parts with AI voices and listens for your cue. Friends can record their lines too. It takes a PDF of your sides, and you can hide your lines, fade them, or show only first letters. It records self-tapes with a teleprompter, and runs on the web, on a laptop, tablet, or phone, and as an iOS app.

How you pay: ScenePartner counts auditions. On its pricing page, Free covers 3 auditions with scripts up to 10 pages, Plus is $12.99 a month for 10 auditions, and Pro is $29.99 a month for 100 auditions with scripts up to 150 pages. In the App Store, Plus is $19.99 a month and Pro $44.99. Suits: actors who plan by the number of auditions a month.

Credits or a Plan: What an Audition Week Costs

The headline price tells you little until you put a real week next to it. Here’s one, with the assumptions spelled out. They’re ours, for illustration, not figures from any app: two auditions, about 10 minutes of newly generated AI voice audio across both scenes, and about 3 hours of runs where the reader listens and answers.

ActOnCue: 10 minutes of AI voice audio at $0.19 a minute is $1.90. Three hours of Perform mode at $0.35 an hour is $1.05. That’s $2.95 of credit for the week. The free tier comes with $1 of test credit, and its FAQ says Free includes unlimited Listen, your own recordings, and 3 hours of Perform. On the $10 Monthly plan, the week comes out of the $15 of usage. Generated lines replay free, so a fourth run of a scene you’ve already voiced adds only Perform time. A week with new sides every day costs more, because each new scene needs new audio.

Linus: its prices are a free tier, a pass, and monthly plans. The free tier covers one 1-page scene with up to 10 lines. Beyond that, a 3-day pass is $1.99, and Pro is $9.99 for the month. The cost of the week depends on whether your auditions fall inside three days.

ScenePartner: two auditions use two of the 3 on Free, or two of the 10 a month on Plus.

Offbook: Starter is $9.99 a month, or from $7.99 a month billed annually, with no monthly cap on the number of scripts. Generated voice audio has a monthly allowance of 50,000 characters on Starter (100,000 on Pro, 200,000 on Premium).

Taking Your Turn: Who Decides When the Reader Speaks

Timing decides whether an app feels like a partner or a tape. Answer too soon and you rush your line; wait too long and you stop acting and start waiting.

ActOnCue’s Perform mode listens for when you finish and answers with the next line; Listen mode reads straight through with no speech recognition, and costs nothing beyond the voice audio. Linus waits for your cue. ScenePartner listens for your cue.

Offbook listens while you say your line and plays the next cue when it detects you’ve finished. You choose how strict it is: Strict for word-perfect work, Lenient (with a slider) while you’re still finding the words, or Manual when you want a long pause and then Enter. It can also move on after 1 to 6 seconds of silence, so a held beat doesn’t need a key press.

Memorization Tools That Make You Recall

The useful tools make you pull the line out of memory instead of reading it again. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke showed why in a study summarized by the APS. Students who tested themselves read the passages about 3.4 times and recalled 61% a week later. Students who kept rereading read them about 14.2 times and recalled 40%, and they felt more confident about it.

So a tool that hides the words beats one that only scrolls them. ActOnCue has first-letter hints and hidden lines, and its reader pauses for you to say your line. Linus lets you loop the sections that need work. ScenePartner hides lines, fades them, or shows first letters. Offbook hides your lines or the whole script, and its first-letter cues show the first 1-8 letters of each word or only the first word of each line. You can try first-letter cues on any text with our free first-letter memorizer.

And say the lines, don’t mouth them. A University of Waterloo study of 95 people compared reading silently, hearing someone else read, hearing a recording of yourself, and reading aloud in real time. Reading aloud yourself was remembered best. The voices give you the cues; the learning happens when your own voice answers them.

Web Versions, Phones, and the Tape

All four run in a browser in some form. ActOnCue is a web app plus iPhone and iPad apps, and its web version works in a mobile browser while the Android app is on the way. Linus runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, and the web. ScenePartner runs in a browser on a laptop, tablet, or phone, and as an iOS app. With Offbook, rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere, with playback that keeps going when the screen locks.

For the tape itself, ActOnCue records on the phone or in the browser with a teleprompter that follows your voice. Linus records takes with a teleprompter. ScenePartner records with a teleprompter too. Offbook reads off camera while you film on your phone or camera. For the whole setup, see how to self-tape alone.

What Your Situation Calls For

• You get new sides most weeks: Offbook, whose paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts.
• You’re learning a full-length play: Offbook, where the page picker splits up to 150 pages into 10 scenes.
• You want to set how closely the reader holds you to the script: Offbook, with Strict, Lenient (with a 0-100 slider), or Manual matching.
• You want to change how a line is read: Offbook sets playback speed for the voices globally or per line, and lets you add custom pauses in the scene editor.
• Your castmates should run the same scene: Offbook shares a scene by email invitation on every paid plan, or by public link on Pro and Premium.
• You want to try before you pay: Offbook’s free run lines online tool and first-letter memorizer need no account, and new customers start with a 7-day free trial.

Want a scene first? Run the classic scenes in our free run lines online tool, which reads the other part and waits for your line, or browse our library of public-domain plays and the monologue collection. If you’re weighing a switch, our ActOnCue comparison and Linus comparison go into more detail. For how an AI scene partner works in Offbook, start there; for more plans side by side, read how much line learning apps cost.

Get More Out of Any Plan

Whatever you pay, the schedule of your runs decides how much sticks.

• Spread your runs out. A 2013 review of ten learning techniques by John Dunlosky and colleagues rated practice testing and spacing practice over time the most useful, and rereading and highlighting among the least.
• Hide your lines from the first day you know roughly what happens in the scene. Testing yourself, not rereading, is what makes it stick.
• Say every line out loud, at the volume and energy you’ll use on tape.
• Write the character’s intention next to each speech before you drill it, so you’re learning what the line does, not just how it sounds.
• Do your last run standing, moving through the space as you will when you film.

Questions Actors Ask

Is ActOnCue or Linus better for running lines?

For most actors, Offbook: realistic voices read every other role, it listens and cues the next line when you finish yours, and its paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts. Between the two, ActOnCue charges by use from prepaid credit and runs on the web, iPhone, and iPad. Linus sells a 3-day pass or a monthly plan and runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, and the web.

How much does ActOnCue cost per hour?

Perform mode, where the reader listens and advances, costs $0.35 an hour. New AI voice audio is charged separately at $0.19 per minute of generated audio, and generated lines replay free. Listen mode and your own recordings cost nothing. You pay from credit. The free tier has $1 of test credit, and its FAQ says Free includes unlimited Listen, your own recordings, and 3 hours of Perform. The $10 Monthly plan has $15 of usage, and the $99 Annual plan $180. Its pricing FAQ says there’s no student discount at the moment.

Does Linus work on Android?

Yes. Linus runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android, and as a web app. ActOnCue’s Android app is listed as coming soon, and its full web version works in a mobile browser in the meantime.

Which AI scene partner app has a web version?

All four here. Offbook runs in your browser: rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere. ActOnCue, Linus, and ScenePartner each have a web app alongside their mobile apps.

Can I rehearse with Offbook on my phone?

You rehearse out loud with cues in a laptop or desktop browser, on Mac or Windows. On your phone you can upload a script and listen to your scenes, with your own lines spoken, skipped, or left as silent gaps, and you can save a scene as an MP3. The iPhone app is coming soon.

The Verdict

Our pick for most actors is Offbook. Its paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts, so a week of new sides doesn’t run into a pass window or an audition count. Realistic voices read every role but yours, and you set how closely it holds you to the script, with Strict, Lenient, or Manual matching. And it takes the whole script, from two pages of sides to a full-length play split into scenes.

Between the other apps compared here, the split is how you pay. ActOnCue charges from prepaid credit, per minute of new AI audio and per hour of Perform. Linus sells a $1.99 3-day pass or a monthly plan and runs on Android as well as iPhone, iPad, and the web. ScenePartner counts auditions. For the wider field, see our best AI scene partner apps guide, or the head-to-heads ActOnCue vs ScenePartner and Linus vs ScenePartner.

Offbook is made by the team behind this blog. Prices as of November 2026.