Voice Control on Mac: Turn It On and Use It

Voice Control is a whole-computer control feature, not only a typing tool. You turn it on in System Settings, under Accessibility and then Voice Control, and after that you can open apps, click items, scroll and edit text by speaking. Apple introduced it in 2019 for people who cannot operate a keyboard or mouse ¹, and it works on the Mac itself once its files are downloaded ².

Voice Control operates the whole Mac by voice, not just typing

Voice Control runs your Mac from spoken commands, and it also types the words you dictate. Apple introduced it with macOS Catalina in 2019, as a way for people who cannot use traditional input devices to control a Mac entirely by voice, with on-device speech recognition ¹.

The scope is wider than Dictation. Apple says that once Voice Control is on, you can speak commands to navigate the desktop and apps, interact with what is on the screen, and dictate and edit text ³. Standard Dictation only turns speech into text in a text field. Voice Control also lets you say "Open Mail", "Scroll Down" or "Click Done" and have the Mac do it.

Disability is common. The CDC reports that about 1 in 7 US adults has a mobility disability, the most common disability type in its data ⁴. That measure covers difficulty walking or climbing stairs, not hand or arm use, so it does not count everyone who cannot use a keyboard or mouse. Anyone can turn Voice Control on, but it was built for people who cannot use a keyboard or mouse, and the sections below cover the steps for everyone.

Turn it on in System Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control

To turn it on, open System Settings, go to Accessibility, and switch on Voice Control. Apple's current Mac Help pages describe these steps for macOS 27.

1. Click the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
2. Click Accessibility in the sidebar.
3. Click Voice Control on the right. You may need to scroll down ⁵.
4. Switch Voice Control on. Apple says that when Voice Control is ready to use, its menu bar icon changes to show that it is listening for commands ⁶ ( Apple's guide to turning Voice Control on or off).

You can also ask Siri to turn it on, by saying something like "Turn on Voice Control" ⁷ ( Apple's guide). The same Voice Control screen is where you turn the feature off later.

The first time, macOS downloads the files Voice Control needs

Turn Voice Control on while the Mac is online. The first activation needs an internet connection so the Mac can download files from Apple. After that download finishes, Voice Control works without an internet connection ².

Two practical points follow from that. Apple describes the download as a step for the first time you turn the feature on, so you should not need to repeat it each time you use Voice Control. And if the Mac is offline on the first attempt, the set-up cannot finish until it connects. For how standard Dictation handles connections, see offline dictation on Mac.

Say "Show commands" to see what you can say, and "Stop listening" to pause it

The commands you can use depend on where you are. Say Show commands to list the commands that work in the app and task in front of you. Apple notes that the list varies with the app you are working in and what you are doing ⁸.

For the complete list, open System Settings, go to Accessibility, click Voice Control, then click Commands. That is the place to see examples of how each command is used ⁹.

Say Stop listening when you do not want your words treated as commands or dictation, and say Start listening to resume ¹⁰. Pausing keeps the feature on, which is different from turning it off. It is the right tool when you want to talk to someone in the room without the Mac reacting.

Speed matters too. When you give several commands in a row, pause about half a second between them ¹¹. The table below lists some of the commands Apple uses as examples.

Three modes decide whether your words become text, commands or single characters

Voice Control has three modes for text. Dictation mode is the default ¹² and types the words that are not commands ¹³. Command mode responds only to commands ¹⁴. Spelling mode is for passwords, web addresses and other strings that are not words ¹⁵. Say the mode's name to switch between them.

Command mode is the safer setting when you are running several commands in a row. Apple advises it so that Voice Control does not type a command as text by mistake ¹⁶.

Spelling mode has a limit. Apple notes that it is not available in every Voice Control language ¹⁷, so check your language before you rely on it for passwords.

Editing works through numbers as well. To act on a piece of text, such as a word or a line, you say a command like "Delete" or "Uppercase" followed by the item's number ¹⁸. The numbers come from the overlay described in the next section.

Pick the mode that matches the task you are doing

Being in the wrong mode is an easy mistake, so decide before you speak. For a long email or a document, stay in Dictation mode, which types your sentences. For a run of commands, such as opening a file, clicking through a menu and saving, switch to Command mode, so that the words you say are acted on and not typed. For a password, a web address or a code, switch to Spelling mode and say each character. Apple's page gives the phonetic code words for this, so that "Alfa Bravo Charlie" enters "abc" ¹⁹ ( Apple's commands guide).

Switching is quick, because each mode has a spoken name. If you see words appear in a field when you wanted an action, say "Command mode" and repeat the command. If a password comes out as ordinary words, say "Spelling mode" and enter it again.

Number and grid overlays let you click items and screen areas by number

Voice Control can label what is on the screen so that you act on items by name or number. Say Show names or Show numbers to put a label next to each item. You can then use the item's name or number to interact with it ²⁰.

When an item has no usable name, use the grid. Say Show grid to superimpose a numbered grid on the screen ²¹, then say the grid number of the area you want to act on. If you only need the active window, say Show window grid and the grid appears only over that window ²². Say Hide grid to turn the overlay off ( Apple's commands guide).

Inside a text field, the numbers work on words and lines. Apple's page lists "Show text numbers" and "Hide text numbers" for that case, and it describes a number for each word when you select a block of text ( Apple's commands guide).

While Voice Control is on, it replaces standard Dictation

While Voice Control is on, you dictate through Voice Control, and standard macOS Dictation is not available ²³. If you want Dictation alone, without controlling the Mac, turn Voice Control off first. Apple's own guidance on text-only Dictation is in its Dictate messages and documents page, and our how to use Dictation on a Mac covers the standard feature.

The two features also differ in languages. Apple lists 20 language and regional variants for Voice Control on the Mac ²⁴. Dictation covers more: 63 variants ²⁵. Apple lists 48 variants for on-device and modeless Dictation, which needs a download of speech models ²⁶. The chart compares the three counts.

If your language is not on the Voice Control list, Dictation may still work for it. The full list is in Apple Dictation languages on Mac. If you want a separate dictation app instead of the built-in one, Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. Our comparison of Mac dictation apps sets out when the built-in tools are enough.

The built-in tutorial is the place to practice the commands

Voice Control has an interactive tutorial inside its settings, and Apple suggests it for getting familiar with the feature and practicing the essential commands ²⁷.

1. Open System Settings, go to Accessibility, and click Voice Control (you may need to scroll down).
2. Click Open Tutorial and follow its steps.

Use the tutorial first, then go back to Show commands when you are working in a real app. The full command list is in Mac Voice Control commands: the complete list, which is the place to look up a command you do not remember.

Teach Voice Control the names and terms it does not know

Voice Control may not know a product name, a surname or a technical term. You can add up to 1,000 custom vocabulary terms and teach Voice Control how to say each one ²⁸. The feature is called a custom vocabulary.

One small robotic-arm study found voice control usable by nearly all participants with neurological impairment

One 2026 study tested voice control for an assistive robotic arm, with healthy adults and with people who have upper-limb impairment from neurological disease. In that study, voice control achieved a recognition accuracy of 87 percent, and its usability score was rated "Good" ²⁹. All but one participant with neurological impairment could use the voice interface, while only 11 could operate the joystick ³⁰.

These figures are not Apple's Voice Control. They come from a different system, controlling a robotic arm, and from small groups. We did not find a published study that measures Apple's Voice Control on a Mac, so the best test is your own: turn on the feature, practice with the tutorial, and check the commands you use most. The Speech to text for accessibility overview covers the wider evidence and the people it is for.

Read the two figures with their limits in mind. The 87 percent is a recognition rate for that robotic-arm system, measured on everyday tasks such as pressing an elevator button and pouring water, so it is not a rate you should expect for every phrase on a Mac. The 11 is a count of people who could operate the joystick, and the comparison is useful because both voice and joystick control were tested on the same everyday tasks. Neither figure tells you how a dictated sentence will read, which is why the tutorial and your own practice matter more than any single number.

Voice Control keeps speech recognition on your Mac

Apple's 2019 description of Voice Control says it uses on-device Siri speech recognition technology, which also ensures personal data is kept private ¹. That is the statement to rely on for how the feature was designed. Apple's wider description of how Dictation handles audio, including the difference between on-device and server processing, is in Is Apple Dictation private?.

After the first-time download, Apple says you do not need an internet connection to use Voice Control ². If you handle sensitive material, check Apple's current privacy statements for your macOS version, because they change between releases, and this guide does not restate them.

Turn it off in System Settings, or pause it with "Stop listening"

To turn Voice Control off, go back to System Settings, open Accessibility, click Voice Control, and switch it off. The route is the same one used to turn it on ⁵. This is the fix if you turned it on by accident, because pausing leaves the feature on. Pausing is different: say Stop listening to pause it, and Start listening to resume ¹⁰.

Apple's guide does not list a keyboard shortcut for turning Voice Control on or off. The routes it documents are System Settings and Siri ( Apple's guide). If you are looking for one, see the Voice Control shortcut question, and for the turn-off steps alone see how to turn off Voice Control on a Mac.

Do not confuse Voice Control with VoiceOver, Apple's screen reader, which speaks what is on the screen. Turning off VoiceOver is a separate step, covered in how to turn off VoiceOver on a Mac.

Check four things before you rely on it

Before you use Voice Control for real work, work through this list once. It takes less time than fixing a document full of misheard words.

1. Download the files by turning the feature on while the Mac is online, and wait for the first set-up to finish ².
2. Confirm your language is on the Voice Control list, which has 20 variants, and check whether Spelling mode is available for it ^{24 17}.
3. Practice the commands in the tutorial, and say Show commands in the app you use most, so you know which words it acts on ^{27 8}.
4. Add the names you use to the custom vocabulary, which holds up to 1,000 terms ²⁸.

Where to go next

If Voice Control will not start or does not respond, read why Voice Control is not working on a Mac. If you only need dictation, start with how to use Dictation on a Mac, and for the difference between the three voice features, read Dictation vs Voice Control vs Siri on a Mac. The Mac dictation hub lists every guide on dictation on the Mac, and the Mac dictation commands list covers the commands for standard Dictation.