Free Dictation Software: The Best Free Options

The best free dictation software is the dictation that already comes with your device. Apple, Microsoft and Google each include a free speech-to-text tool, and for short messages, notes and first drafts it is enough for most people. Some free third-party apps add things the built-in tools may lack, such as dictation in every app, offline models or AI cleanup, but the free plans we read limit how much you can dictate, with one exception covered below.

This guide sets out what each free option includes and what it leaves out, using the vendors' own pages wherever we could open them. Where a limit appears only in a help article or a pricing table, we name that page. Where we could not open a current page, we say so instead of guessing.

The best free dictation software is already built into your device

Start with the tool you already have. It costs nothing extra, needs no new account and covers the main job: turning speech into text in the box where your cursor is. On a Mac, Apple says you can dictate text of any length without a timeout ¹. On an iPhone, Apple says dictation is processed on the phone in many languages and that no internet connection is required ².

Built-in does not mean identical. Each system has a catch, and the table shows the one that matters most for choosing.

Read the table as a checklist. If the built-in tool on your device fits your work and you can accept its catch, you have no reason to pay. If it does not fit, the sections below show which features the free tiers hold back. For the steps on each system, see the Mac guide, the Windows guide and the phones and tablets guide. For a broader map of the category, see what dictation software is.

Free dictation by platform: Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, Chromebook and the browser

Each platform has one free tool that does most of the work, plus a rule or two that decides whether it fits your day. The notes below cover those rules and follow the vendor pages we could open.

On a Mac, dictation has no length limit but stops after silence

Mac Dictation runs for as long as you keep speaking. It ends on quiet: when it detects no speech for 30 seconds, it stops by itself ³. On a Mac with Apple silicon you can keep typing while you dictate, because the cursor stops pulsing while you type and starts again when you stop ¹⁰. Mac Dictation also marks words it is unsure of: it underlines ambiguous text in blue, so you can click the word and choose an alternative ¹¹.

Turning on Voice Control changes the rules. In macOS 27, Voice Control is used for dictation, and standard macOS Dictation is not available ¹². Decide which one you want before you switch. Does Apple have a voice to text app? covers the Apple options in more detail.

On Windows, the free tools split into an online one and an offline one

Windows has two free voice tools, and they behave differently. Voice typing needs a working microphone, an internet connection and the cursor in a text box ⁴. Microsoft says it uses online speech recognition powered by Azure Speech services ⁵, so the audio goes to a server rather than staying on the PC.

Voice access is the other tool. Its initial setup needs an internet connection ¹³, and it is available in Windows 11 version 22H2 and later ⁷. After setup it controls the PC and writes text without an internet connection ⁶. If offline use matters to you, it is the built-in option to test first. Does Microsoft have dictation software? lists the Microsoft options.

Word has its own tool, Dictate, which works in Microsoft 365 with a microphone and a reliable internet connection ⁸.

On an iPhone, dictation works without a connection in many languages

Apple says dictation on the iPhone is processed on the phone in many languages, and that no internet connection is required ². The privacy limit is narrower than the headline. When you dictate into a search field, the text may be sent to the search engine to process the search ¹⁴, so use a note or message field, rather than a search field, when you do not want your dictated text sent to a search engine.

On Android, the free tool is Gboard, and offline support depends on the phone

Most Android phones use Google's keyboard, Gboard, for voice typing. We could not open Google's current Gboard help page while writing, so this guide does not state which phones or languages work offline. Check the voice typing settings on your own phone. Does Google have a voice to text app? covers the Google options, and phones and tablets covers the steps by device.

On a Chromebook and in the browser, the free tools are narrower

Chromebooks have a dictation feature, but this guide does not list its steps or its offline behavior, because Google's Chromebook help page could not be opened while writing.

Google Docs has voice typing, and it is a browser feature. A December 2020 archived copy of Google's help page said it was only available in Chrome browsers ⁹. Check the live help page for the current browser list. If you want dictation that runs in a browser tab, see free online dictation.

Two paid apps cap free words, and Wispr Flow's Pro plan offers unlimited dictation

Paid dictation apps keep a free plan, and the free plan is where the limits sit. In the vendor pages we read, the free and paid plans differ mostly in how much you can dictate, not in whether the core feature works at all.

Wispr Flow shows the weekly cap most clearly. Its help center says the free plan caps how many words you can dictate each week, and on iOS the app keeps going at first but slows down, then a card blocks new dictations ¹⁸. The desktop count is shared with mobile: the help center says the desktop shows a combined total of desktop and mobile dictation ²². A week of heavy phone use therefore also uses up your desktop allowance.

Aqua Voice takes a simpler route: its free plan includes 1,000 words ¹⁹. Its pricing page does not say whether that allowance resets, so plan on the total and check the live page before you rely on a reset.

Superwhisper is the example that goes the other way on offline use. Its home page says the app works offline, so you can transcribe without a connection ²¹, and its free column lists unlimited use of Whisper models ²⁰. We could not open its pricing page, so the free plan's model limits are stated only as the home page words them.

Before you pick a free plan, count a normal week of your real dictation. A weekly cap is the first limit most heavy users hit, and a free plan that suits a few messages a day can fail a full writing day. For a comparison of paid apps by need, see best dictation software, and for what a free plan is, see the free tier entry.

Open-source dictation avoids vendor word caps, but you set it up yourself

Open-source dictation apps run on your own computer, so there is no vendor plan to reach a cap on. The trade is setup, and the quality depends on the model you run.

Handy describes itself as a free, open source, and extensible speech-to-text application that works completely offline ²³. Its repository description does not mention a word or time limit. It also does not say how accurate the app is, so test it on your own voice before you rely on it.

Accuracy is a property of the speech model, not a promise from the app. Whisper, the speech model from OpenAI, approaches human accuracy and robustness according to the researchers who built it ²⁴. That is the authors' own assessment of the model, not a test of any particular app, so the open-source guide compares the projects one by one: open-source dictation software. For the cloud and AI variants of the same idea, see AI dictation apps and the AI dictation entry.

Free dictation costs you something else: accuracy, app coverage or privacy

A free tool costs nothing to start and still has three trade-offs: how accurately it hears you, which apps it works in, and where your voice goes.

Speech entry was faster on a phone, but a distant microphone raised errors

Speed is the first thing people compare. In a controlled study on an iPhone, English speech entry reached 153 words per minute, against 52 words per minute on the built-in keyboard ^{25 26}. The speech in that study used Baidu's Deep Speech 2 recognizer, not Apple's ²⁵, and the authors say results outside the laboratory still need study ²⁷. For how the speed figure compares with normal typing, see typing speed.

In one 2017 study, recognition errors were higher with a distant microphone. In a study that recorded read speech in a studio, close-talk recognition gave a word error rate of 3.7% ²⁸. With a single distant ceiling microphone in an apartment, the error rate was 12.0% on real recordings ²⁹. Apple also advises that a headset microphone may help when Dictation is used in a noisy environment or a room with excessive echo ³⁰.

The practical point is to check the microphone you dictate into before you pay for accuracy.

Free tools differ in which apps and browsers they work in

Built-in tools work in the apps you use, but some features depend on the app. Dictate in Word needs a Microsoft 365 subscription ⁸. Google Docs voice typing was Chrome-only in 2020 ⁹. Windows voice typing needs an internet connection ⁴, so it stops working when the network does. Test the app where you actually write before you commit to a tool.

Free dictation sends your voice somewhere, and the destination depends on the tool

Where the audio goes depends on the tool. Apple says iPhone dictation is processed on the phone in many languages ², but a dictation into a search field may be sent to the search engine ¹⁴. Windows voice typing uses online recognition, so its audio goes to a server ⁵. Handy describes itself as working completely offline ²³, so its audio does not need to leave your computer. For how to judge these claims, see speech to text privacy.

Pay only when a free tool fails a task you do every day

Pay when a free tool fails a task you repeat every day, not because a paid app has more features. Each paid option buys one specific fix, and the starting price is on the vendor's page.

1. Test the built-in tool for a week. Use it on the work you actually do, in the apps you write in. The table at the top tells you which limit to expect on your device.
2. If you hit a word cap, pay for volume. Wispr Flow's Pro plan is $15 per user per month ¹⁶ and includes unlimited dictations ¹⁷. Aqua Voice's free plan includes 1,000 free words, and its pricing page says to upgrade when you need more ¹⁹.
3. If you need offline dictation on a computer, check the free offline options first. Handy is free and works offline by its own description ²³. Superwhisper's home page says its app works offline ²¹, but we could not check the terms of its free plan.
4. If you write in Word, check your subscription first. Dictate needs Microsoft 365 ⁸, so you may already own it before you buy a separate app.
5. If your words are specialist terms, look for a custom vocabulary before you pay for a larger plan. A custom vocabulary teaches the tool your names and jargon, which is often the real gap.

For prices across the category, see how much dictation software costs. If you decide a paid tool is worth it, compare the options in best dictation software and the dictation software overview.

Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows, and it also runs on phones. Its plans are on pricing and its download page is at download. The honest first step is still the built-in tool you already have, because it is free and may be enough.

Start with the tool on your device. Move to a free open-source app, or a paid plan, only when a limit you can measure gets in your way.