How to Use Dictation on a Mac

Dictation turns your speech into text in any app where you can type. On a Mac, you turn it on once, press the Microphone key or your Dictation shortcut, speak, and press Escape when you finish. It comes with macOS, so there is no separate app to install. Apple says that with Dictation on a Mac you can speak to enter text anywhere you can type it ¹.

The steps below follow Apple's Dictation guide for macOS 27. The same path appears on the macOS Tahoe 26 page, which we checked when we last updated this page. Older releases use different menu names, and the differences are set out below. If you only want a plain definition first, read what Dictation on a Mac is. For the broader subject, see the dictation overview and our overview of dictation on Mac.

Dictation is built into macOS, so no extra app is needed

Dictation is part of macOS, so basic use needs nothing installed. It works in any app with a text field. Some languages need speech models downloaded to the Mac, which is covered in the section on languages.

Speaking is much faster than typing on a phone, though that comparison comes from research on phones, not Macs. In a controlled study on an iPhone, English text entered by speech reached 153 words per minute, against 52 words per minute on the built-in keyboard ². The authors say that further study is required to measure performance in non-laboratory settings for both methods ³. Treat the gap as a sign of what is possible, not a promise for your own work.

Turn Dictation on once in System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation

On macOS 27 you turn Dictation on from the Keyboard section of System Settings. You only do this once.

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
2. Go to Dictation, then turn it on. If you see an Enable button, click it ⁴.
3. If Apple asks whether to improve Siri and Dictation, choose Share Audio Recordings to let Apple store audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions, or choose Not Now to decline. You can change this later in Privacy & Security, under Analytics & Improvements, which controls Improve Siri & Dictation ⁵.

To turn Dictation off, go to the same Dictation section and turn it off ⁶. The step by step version is in how to turn off dictation on a Mac.

Older macOS releases name the pane differently

Older guides often show the path as System Preferences, and what Apple says about processing has changed between releases. On macOS Monterey 12, Apple's guide says you turn Dictation on in the Dictation pane of Keyboard preferences, and that your dictated utterances are sent to Apple to process your requests ⁷. The table sets the versions side by side.

The processing note needs care. Apple says that on a Mac, general text Dictation is processed on your device and not sent to Siri servers, and that you can check this in Keyboard settings ⁹. Because the wording differs between releases, check the note on your own Mac instead of relying on an older article.

Which Macs can use the newest version

Not every Mac can run macOS 27. Because macOS Tahoe 26 still lists some Intel MacBook Pro models and the macOS 27 compatibility list names only Apple silicon Macs, Intel Macs cannot install macOS 27 ¹¹. If you have an Intel Mac, compare the menu names in your own System Settings with the steps above.

Start dictating with the microphone key, your shortcut or Edit > Start Dictation

Apple lists three ways to start Dictation: press the Microphone key on keyboards that have one, press the Dictation keyboard shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation ¹². The Microphone key is the quickest. The shortcut works on any keyboard, and the menu works in any app that has an Edit menu.

The flow below shows the choice you make at the start.

You can also start Dictation with the fn or Globe key. In Keyboard settings, the option Press fn key to can be set to Start Dictation, and the key then starts dictation when you press it twice ¹³.

Click into the message, note or document before you start, because Dictation types at the insertion point. Apple's guide describes the cue as a highlighted, pulsing cursor, or a tone that signals the Mac is ready for dictation. Wait for that cue before you speak, or the first word may be lost.

A quick test before a long session

Open a blank note, press the Microphone key, and say a sentence with a comma and a question, such as "Can you send the report, please?" If the words appear where the cursor is, the microphone and language are working. If nothing appears, look at the microphone setting before you change anything else. Speak at a normal volume and pause briefly between sentences, so the automatic punctuation lands where you expect it. Stop with Escape when the test is done, so you know how the stop works before you need it.

Speak in full phrases and say punctuation and new lines when you need them

Speak in natural phrases, not word by word. In supported languages, Dictation inserts commas, periods and question marks for you as you talk. Apple lists 33 language and regional variants with this automatic punctuation ¹⁴. You only need to say a mark when Dictation does not add it, or when you want a different one.

For formatting, say a command in the middle of a sentence:

Apple's Mac formatting commands include both of these, and they do different things: "new line" starts a new line, and "new paragraph" starts a new paragraph ¹⁵. For the full list of spoken symbols and formatting words, see Mac dictation commands and punctuation, or the general guide to dictation commands.

Check the text as you go. Speech produced fewer errors during entry than the phone keyboard, but it left slightly more errors in the final text. In one study on phones, speech produced 1.30 percent uncorrected errors in the final text, against 0.79 percent for the keyboard ¹⁶. Read a dictated paragraph before you send it, and see the guide to dictation mistakes for the common causes.

Dictation stops when you press Escape or after 30 seconds of silence, not after a time limit

Dictation has no time limit. You can dictate text of any length without a timeout, and you stop it with the Escape key, the Microphone key or the Dictation shortcut ¹⁷.

The one automatic stop is silence. Dictation stops when no speech is detected for 30 seconds ¹⁸. If you pause for longer than that, the microphone turns off, so anything you say next is not typed. Press the Microphone key again to resume. If Dictation does not start at all, the cause is usually the microphone, the language or a restriction, and those are covered in why Mac dictation is not working.

On Apple silicon you can keep typing while you dictate

On a Mac with Apple silicon, you do not have to stop dictating to type. Apple says you can keep using the keyboard while you speak. The cursor stops highlighting and pulsing while you type, then resumes after you stop, so you can carry on dictating ¹⁰.

This is useful when you want to fix a single word, add a symbol Dictation did not hear, or move the cursor. Type the fix, then go back to speaking. Apple's pages describe this for Apple silicon Macs, not for Intel Macs or older releases, so check it on your own machine. The question on whether you can type while dictating on a Mac covers the same point in more detail.

Three settings decide how well it works: language, microphone source and shortcut

Most problems with Dictation come from three settings: the language, the microphone and the shortcut. Check these before you change anything else. The table gives the first place to look for each symptom. Every menu name comes from Apple's Dictation guide, which we checked when we last updated this page.

Language sets which words Dictation can recognise

Dictation supports 63 language and regional variants on the Mac, according to Apple's feature availability page ¹⁹. Apple lists 48 variants for on-device Dictation, which require a download of speech models ²⁰. Voice Control, a separate feature, covers 20 variants ²¹. The chart compares these counts. They are variants, not separate languages, so one language can appear more than once.

If you have more than one dictation language set up, switch between them while you speak. Click the language label next to the cursor, or press the Globe key and choose a language ²². Choose the language you are speaking. For the full list of supported languages, see Apple Dictation languages on Mac. For the wider question of language and accuracy, see the guide to dictation mistakes.

The microphone source decides what Dictation hears

Keyboard settings include a Microphone source menu for Dictation. If you choose Automatic, your Mac listens to the device it thinks you are most likely to use. To use a particular microphone, choose it from the menu ²³. The microphone source is separate from the input device in Sound settings, so check both if your voice is not picked up.

A Mac with no internal microphone needs an external microphone connected and selected before Dictation can work ²⁴. That matters for the Mac mini, whose Audio specifications list a built-in speaker and a headphone jack, with no microphone listed ²⁵. The full answer, including headsets and USB microphones, is in can you use dictation on a Mac mini. For choosing a microphone itself, see the guide to the microphone that matters for dictation.

The shortcut is yours to change

Apple lets you customize the key combination that starts and stops Dictation ²⁶. To change it, open the Dictation section of Keyboard settings, click the Shortcut pop-up menu, and choose a shortcut, or choose Customize and press the keys you want. For shortcut problems and alternatives, see the Mac dictation shortcut guide.

Dictating on an iPhone reaches a Mac only through copy and paste

Dictation on an iPhone does not send text to a Mac on its own. You dictate on the iPhone, then move the text to the Mac by copying and pasting it. Apple's Universal Clipboard feature does this, and one of its conditions matters here: both devices must be signed in to the same Apple Account ²⁷.

Apple's example runs from a Mac to an iPhone: copy a URL on the Mac and paste it into Safari on the iPhone ²⁸. Apple describes the feature as a way to copy from one of your Apple devices and paste on another, so the iPhone to Mac direction should work the same way. Test it with your own devices before you rely on it. Syncing text through iCloud is another route, but this guide does not cover it. For the iPhone side of the setup, see the question on dictating on an iPhone and sending the text to a Mac.

Move to Voice Control or a dedicated app when you need more than typing by voice

Dictation types text. It does not control the Mac. If you need to open apps, click buttons and edit by voice, use Voice Control. Apple says that when Voice Control is on, you use it to dictate text, and standard macOS Dictation is not available ²⁹. So you use one or the other at a time. To set it up, see Voice Control on Mac, and for voice to text on the Mac in general, see voice to text on Mac.

For longer or specialized work, a dedicated app can be the next step, but check the date on any guide you read. A 2018 notice from Nuance, as quoted by a reseller, says Nuance would no longer provide updates for Dragon for Mac after 22 October 2018 ³⁰, so older Dragon guides describe software that no longer gets updates. Compare current options in the guide to the best dictation apps for Mac. Yap, which we make, runs on-device dictation on Mac and Windows, and you can download it to compare it with the built-in feature.

If Dictation does not appear at all, check the Dictation section in Keyboard settings, and check whether Screen Time restrictions are on for that user. For a full set of fixes, see why Mac dictation is not working and the Mac dictation troubleshooting page.

What to do next

Turn Dictation on once, press the Microphone key, speak in phrases, and press Escape when you finish. Then set the language and microphone source to match how you talk. If you use more than one Mac, check each one, because menu names and processing notes differ by macOS version. For the wider overview, see the Mac dictation overview, and for how Dictation compares with Voice Control and Siri, see dictation vs Voice Control vs Siri on a Mac.