What is the best free voice to text app for Android?

For most Android phones, the best free voice to text app is Gboard, Google's keyboard. It is free, it is often already on the phone, and it has a microphone key you can use in most text fields. Start with it. Choose a free third-party keyboard only if you want no Google keyboard at all, or you want a Whisper model that runs on the phone.

Gboard has a microphone at the top of the keyboard

On Android with Gboard, tap a text field, then tap the microphone at the top of the keyboard and speak when the phone shows "Speak now" ¹. The first time you use it, the phone asks for permission to record ². If you dictate often, allow the microphone for the app while you use it, so you are not asked each time. Test your punctuation words in a real message before you rely on them, because the exact spoken phrases vary by language.

Gboard's voice typing can work offline on your phone

Gboard's voice typing does not need a connection once the speech recognizer is on the phone. Google moved Gboard voice typing onto the phone in 2019, with an 80 MB speech recognizer that works even when the phone is offline, first on Pixel phones in American English ³. In February 2025, 9to5Google reported that Gboard for Android features offline voice typing on all devices ⁴.

This is the main reason Gboard is the default choice here. The answer to "does it need the internet?" still depends on your phone and language, so run the test in airplane mode on your own phone before you depend on it.

Live Transcribe is for conversations, not for typing

Google's Live Transcribe is a different tool. It shows what people say on screen, so it suits lectures and conversations rather than email. Its offline mode is limited, according to Wikipedia's entry, to devices with 6 GB of RAM and certain Pixel phones ⁵, so check whether your phone qualifies before you plan around it.

A free open source keyboard runs Whisper on the phone

If you want a keyboard that is not Google's, WhisperType is the free option to test. It is a full Android keyboard with a QWERTY layout and a microphone key for on-device speech-to-text. Its F-Droid listing describes the microphone key as offline and on-device, with a 25-second warning and a 30-second automatic stop ⁶. The 30-second stop limits one dictation to about half a minute ⁶, so it suits short messages.

The listing also says that the app uses no API keys, and that audio, clipboard contents and learned words stay on the device ⁷. Its listing is on F-Droid, a catalog of open source Android apps, so check that catalog's page for the current version and its permissions before you install it.

Some Whisper keyboards are free to install, but not free to run

Not every Whisper keyboard works offline. Whisper To Input is a keyboard that does its recognition on a backend. Its readme says you either use the official OpenAI API with your own API key or self-host a Whisper ASR Webservice ⁸. The OpenAI route sends your recorded speech to OpenAI, so the keyboard is free to install but you pay for the API you use. Read the backend choice before you install a keyboard that asks for an API key.

Choose by what the phone must do

Gboard covers the common case. WhisperType is worth the install if privacy and no Google keyboard matter more to you than a 30-second limit.

What to do

1. Open Settings and check which keyboard is active. If it is not Gboard and you want Gboard, select it in the keyboard list.
2. Tap a text field, tap the microphone at the top of the keyboard, and dictate a 200-word passage of your own writing.
3. Turn on airplane mode and repeat the test. If it still works, the offline recognizer is in use.
4. If you want WhisperType, install it from F-Droid, grant the microphone permission, and follow its setup steps to choose a speech model.
5. Compare the errors in both results before you choose. Count the words each app gets wrong, and divide by the number of words in your correct text. That is the word error rate.

For the setup steps on the built-in tool, see voice typing on Android, and for the offline details, offline voice typing on iPhone and Android. If you use a Samsung phone, talk to text on Samsung Galaxy covers the built-in tool there. Our wider comparison is the guide to the best dictation apps for iPhone and Android, which sits under dictation on phones and tablets. For the iPhone side, read the best free dictation app for iPhone. To see how Whisper keyboards behave on each phone, read whether you can use Whisper AI as a keyboard. If Gboard's microphone is missing from your keyboard, see why the microphone disappeared from the Android keyboard, and for the general question of Google's voice tools, does Google have a voice to text app.

The terms used here are defined in the entries for Gboard, Google voice typing and Live Transcribe.