How do you turn off AI rewriting in a dictation app?

Turn off the features that change the text, and check the output for the rest. Built-in dictation has two kinds of post-recognition change. Automatic punctuation adds marks, and you can switch it off on a Mac, an iPhone and in Word. An AI pass, such as the iOS 27 Advanced Dictation, changes spelling and capitalization, and it has its own switch. Apple's and Microsoft's documentation do not describe a single "verbatim" setting, so some of what you say may not be shown back to you exactly as spoken, and you should read the text before you send it.

Switch off automatic punctuation on a Mac

Automatic punctuation adds commas, periods and question marks in supported languages without a spoken command ¹. To turn it off on a Mac:

1. Open System Settings, then click Keyboard.
2. In the Dictation section, find Auto-punctuation and switch it off.

If the menu has moved in your macOS version, look for the same switch under Dictation in Keyboard settings.

Switch off the marks on an iPhone and check the AI pass

On an iPhone, the marks setting is in a different place.

1. Open Settings, tap General, then tap Keyboard.
2. Turn off Auto-Punctuation ².

On an iPhone running the iOS 27 beta, the AI pass is a separate switch. Apple says that with Apple Intelligence, dictation uses an on-device model to improve spelling, punctuation and capitalization, and that this is available in English on named iPhone models ³. Birchtree reports that the feature is off by default in the beta ⁴. Its steps put the Advanced Dictation Preview switch under Settings, General, Keyboard, scrolled to the bottom ⁵. Leave that switch off if you do not want the spelling and capitalization changes. These are secondary reports of a beta, so confirm the switch on your own device after the public release.

Turn off the marks and sensitive-phrase filter in Word

Word's dictation settings contain two options that change the text. Automatic punctuation can be switched on or off, but only where it is available for the language you chose ⁶. Filter sensitive phrases masks potentially sensitive phrases with asterisks ⁷.

1. Start dictation in Word, then click the gear icon on the Dictation toolbar.
2. Clear the checkmark next to Auto Punctuation.
3. Clear Filter sensitive phrases if you do not want words masked.

Microsoft's page describes these settings for Word as it was read on the check date. Menu names can change between versions, so look for the same options if yours differ.

Verbatim output is not the same as an exact transcript

Turning off the marks does not give you a verbatim transcript. The recognizer itself can drop words. In a 2025 study of dementia speech, Whisper tended to omit filler words such as uh and um ⁸. So a raw transcript from a Whisper-based tool may already be cleaner than your speech, and no switch in the settings puts the fillers back.

Recognition can also add words. In a 2024 study, roughly 1 percent of Whisper transcriptions contained hallucinated phrases or sentences that did not exist in the audio ⁹. That study tested Whisper as it stood in 2023 ¹⁰, so the figure describes that version. Read the transcript before you send it, whatever the setting.

What to check in a third-party dictation app

Third-party apps do not share a standard menu, so look for three things, not one named switch.

• A verbatim, raw or no-formatting mode. If it exists, it is usually in the app's settings, under text output or formatting.
• A switch for AI formatting or cleanup. This may be labeled as a rewrite, polish or smart formatting option.
• A statement of where audio is processed. Find out whether audio leaves your device, and whether recordings are kept.

I did not verify how any specific third-party app removes fillers, so these are things to look for, not claims about a product. Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows, and you can check its settings on the download page against the same three points. For a fuller list of what to ask, see how to check whether a dictation app changes your words.

Windows voice typing needs a separate check

Windows voice typing, which Microsoft calls Dictation in other products, uses online speech recognition ¹¹. I did not verify a punctuation setting for Windows voice typing, so check its settings on your own PC rather than relying on the Word steps above.

A short routine

1. Turn off automatic punctuation on the device or in the app, if you want the marks to come from you.
2. Leave any AI pass switched off unless you want its changes.
3. Read the transcript, and look for dropped fillers and for text you did not say.
4. Keep the raw transcript if a policy might ask how the text was produced.

For whether an AI detector can flag dictated text, see whether AI detectors can flag dictated text. For how much an AI pass changes your meaning, see whether AI dictation changes what you said, and for the authorship question, see whether AI-cleaned dictation is your own writing. The overall guide is speech to text without AI, and the subject is covered in voice and AI. For the marks themselves, see the automatic punctuation entry and the filler words entry.