Windows Voice Typing: How to Dictate with Win+H

On Windows 11 and Windows 10, click into a text box, press Windows key + H ( what the shortcut does), wait for the "Listening..." alert and speak. Your words appear where the cursor is. Voice typing needs three things to work: a working microphone, an internet connection and the cursor in a text box ¹. Microsoft does not publish an accuracy figure for it, so test it on your own voice before you rely on it for a long document.

This guide covers the steps, every setting Microsoft documents, the differences on Windows 10 and on Copilot+ PCs, how voice typing compares with Voice Access, and where the built-in tool falls short. If you are asking whether Windows has dictation at all, the question on Windows dictation covers it, and the question on the shortcut gives the key combination in one line. For dictation on other platforms, start with how to turn on voice typing on every device.

Voice typing is built into every Windows 11 PC and starts with the Windows key + H

The shortcut turns voice typing on. Microsoft's help page for Windows 11 gives two ways to start it: press Windows key + H on a hardware keyboard, or press the Microphone button on the touch keyboard ². It is built into Windows, so there is nothing separate to install.

To dictate a paragraph:

1. Click into the document, email or search box so the cursor is blinking in it.
2. Press Windows key + H. Voice typing turns on and starts listening.
3. Wait for the Listening... alert, as Microsoft advises ³, and then speak in full sentences.
4. To stop, say "Stop listening" or press the microphone button on the voice typing menu ⁴.

Windows 10 uses the same shortcut, but the feature has a different name and a shorter language list, covered in the Windows 10 section below. Microsoft's Windows 10 help says to select a text field and press the Windows logo key + H to open the dictation toolbar ⁵.

Voice typing needs a microphone, an internet connection and a cursor in a text field

When voice typing does nothing, check the three requirements in order. Microsoft's troubleshooting page lists the same checks: the microphone you want must be selected under Settings > System > Sound > Input, microphone access must be on, the current language must be supported, and the input level must be high enough that the words register.

Voice typing needs an internet connection because the recognizer runs online

Voice typing converts speech to text using online speech recognition ⁶. Microsoft says voice data is sent to it only to provide the service and create transcriptions, and that it does not store, sample or listen to voice recordings without your permission ⁷. Because the recognizer runs online, voice typing needs the connection to work.

The setting that controls this is Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Speech, where you turn Online speech recognition on or off ⁸. Microsoft says that when online speech recognition is turned off, only device-based speech features, such as Narrator, are available ⁹. Voice typing cannot run in that state. If you want to stop dictation entirely, that setting is the one to use. Our question on turning dictation off in Windows 11 covers the steps.

The microphone must have access and the right input

Voice typing needs microphone access ¹⁰. Microsoft's troubleshooting page says to go to Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone and make sure Microphone access is turned on. If you dictate and nothing appears, Microsoft suggests adjusting the microphone input level, and trying a headset or external microphone if you use a built-in one. Microsoft's voice typing troubleshooting page gives the full list.

You can also choose the microphone in the voice typing settings, under Default microphone (see the settings section below).

Voice typing works in 46 languages and variants, but only in supported languages

Microsoft lists 46 languages and regional variants that support voice typing in Windows 11, from Bulgarian to Vietnamese, including six variants of English ¹¹. If your current input language is not on the list, Microsoft's page says voice typing is not available. To switch, change the input language: select the language switcher on the taskbar, or press Windows key + Spacebar on a hardware keyboard ¹². Our guide to dictation languages on Windows lists the languages that matter most.

The voice typing settings control the launcher, automatic punctuation, profanity filtering and the microphone

Open the gear icon in the voice typing panel to change settings. Microsoft lists the options below, and each one controls one part of how your speech becomes text.

Automatic punctuation is the setting most people need to check. It decides whether commas and full stops appear without you saying them. Microsoft's list says the setting inserts punctuation based on what you say, but its page does not say whether it is on by default, so open the gear menu and look at the switch before you dictate prose. If you want full control of punctuation, leave it off and say the marks yourself. Our guide to dictation punctuation lists the spoken forms.

Voice typing also filters sound coming out of the PC. Microsoft says echo cancellation "automatically suppresses audio coming from your speakers, such as Narrator or app playback" so that your dictated text stays clean ¹⁶. In practice, a screen reader or a video playing on the same PC should not end up in what you dictate. Microsoft does not say how much it removes in a noisy room, so test it in the room where you will work.

On Windows 10 the same shortcut opens an older dictation tool with fewer languages

Windows 10 has its own dictation feature, which Microsoft calls dictation. It starts with Windows logo key + H, which opens a dictation toolbar, and it needs an internet connection ¹⁷. The two versions differ in ways that matter when you pick one:

The language gap is the biggest difference. A Windows 10 user who dictates in French or Spanish can still dictate basic text ¹⁸, but editing commands work only in US English ¹⁹. Our question on dictation in Windows 10 walks through the steps for that version.

Windows 10 also has a date that changes the advice. Microsoft says Windows 10 reached the end of support on October 14, 2025, after which it no longer provides technical assistance, feature updates or security updates ²⁰. Windows 10 no longer receives security updates from Microsoft, so an upgrade to Windows 11 is the safer long-term choice.

Fluid dictation on Copilot+ PCs cleans up grammar and filler words on the device

On a Copilot+ PC, voice typing can use fluid dictation ( glossary entry). Microsoft says it automatically corrects grammar, punctuation and filler words as you speak, which reduces the need for manual editing ²¹. It is a Copilot+ PC feature available in all English locales ²², and Microsoft says it runs on small language models on the device for fast and private processing ²³. The speech recognition step itself still uses the online service ⁶.

The hardware is the limit. Copilot+ PCs need a neural processing unit (NPU) ²⁴. Microsoft's developer guide says many of the new Windows AI features require an NPU that can run at 40 or more trillion operations per second (TOPS) ²⁵. Because fluid dictation is a Copilot+ PC feature, a Windows 11 PC without one should not expect it. Check the PC's specification before you buy for dictation.

The first time you open voice typing on a Copilot+ PC, the speech models download in the background. Until the download finishes, the Fluid dictation option appears dimmed in the settings. Microsoft says the feature is enabled by default and that you can turn it off in the voice typing settings at any time ²⁶. It is also disabled in some places automatically: Microsoft says it turns off in secure fields such as passwords or PINs ²⁷.

Fluid dictation changes what you dictate, not only how it is typed. It corrects filler words as you speak, so a sentence may come out differently from the words you said. For a contract, a medical note or anything you quote later, read the output against your speech before you send it. Our guide to AI cleanup for dictation explains what that kind of rewriting changes.

Voice typing is for writing, Voice Access is for controlling the whole PC

Voice typing writes text, and Voice Access controls the PC. Microsoft's FAQ puts it this way: voice typing "offers dictation that allows you to author text with voice" ²⁸. Voice access "offers both commanding and dictation," so it can work with apps and not only write text ²⁹.

If you already run Voice Access and press Windows key + H, voice typing does not start. Microsoft says you get a message that you can use Voice access for typing too, and to select a text box and start dictating ³¹. Pick one tool at a time. Our guide to Voice Access in Windows 11 covers setup, and the Voice Access command list lists what you can say.

Built-in voice typing has real limits: it needs the cloud, and fixing dictated text is slow

For short notes, voice typing is adequate. It has three limits you should know before you depend on it for long work: it sends speech to a cloud service ⁷, Microsoft publishes no accuracy figure for it, and correcting dictated text takes a large share of the time.

Correcting dictated text can take most of the task time

Research on dictation has found that correction can take a large share of the time. Vertanen, in a 2006 study, reported that when people dictated with a large-vocabulary recognizer, correcting errors dominated task time ³². A longitudinal study by Feng, Karat and Sears found that navigation and error correction took a big share of the dictation task during the early stages of use ³³. Both studies predate current recognizers, so read them as a pattern, not a measurement of Windows 11 today.

The practical effect is that a dictated draft needs editing before it is finished. Plan time for moving the cursor, fixing words and rereading. Voice typing has editing commands, which our guide to voice typing commands lists.

Microsoft does not publish an accuracy figure, and lab results may not carry over

Microsoft's voice typing page gives no error rate or accuracy number. The phone study behind the speed figures above is laboratory work. Ruan and colleagues compared speech and keyboard entry on an iPhone with short messages, and the authors say that performance in non-laboratory settings still needs to be studied for both methods ³⁴. Measure your own error rate on a real document rather than relying on a lab figure. The word error rate entry explains how to count it.

Voice typing can stop listening during pauses

Some users report that voice typing stops listening after they pause, and that they have to restart it with Windows key + H. Microsoft's pages do not document a silence timeout, so treat it as something to test during your own sessions rather than a fixed rule. If you see it, the fixes for dictation that stops cover the checks to run first.

A dedicated dictation app pays off when you dictate for hours or need to stay offline

Speech can be much faster than typing. In a controlled study on an iPhone, English entered by speech reached 153 words per minute, against 52 words per minute on the built-in keyboard, 2.93 times faster ^{35 36}. The study used short messages under laboratory conditions, so treat the gap as an indication of what is possible, not a forecast for a long report.

Built-in voice typing is the right first tool for short dictation with a connection. A dedicated app is worth comparing in three cases: you dictate for long periods and need consistent accuracy, you must work without an internet connection, or you need editing that goes beyond the voice typing commands. Voice typing needs a connection ¹, and Voice Access works without one ³⁰, but Voice Access does commands as well as dictation, so it is a different tool rather than an offline copy of voice typing. Our offline speech-to-text guide for Windows lists the options that work without a connection, and our comparison of dictation software for Windows puts the paid and free apps side by side.

Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. If the built-in tool covers your notes, use it. If you need the cases above, you can download Yap and compare it on your own documents.

For the rest of the Windows dictation topics, our Windows dictation overview links every guide, including the privacy settings for Windows dictation and dictation in Windows apps such as Word and Outlook.