What is dictation on a Mac?

Dictation on a Mac turns your speech into text. You click into a message, note or document, start Dictation, and speak. The words appear where the insertion point is, and you press Escape when you finish. It comes with macOS, so there is nothing separate to install.

The word has a long history. The Cambridge Business English Dictionary defines dictation as speaking aloud for a person or a machine to record, so the words can be written down ¹. On a Mac, the machine is the computer itself. Apple says that with Dictation on a Mac you can speak to enter text anywhere you can type it ².

Dictation types into any text field, and you start it three ways

Dictation works in any app with a text field, such as an email, a note or a document editor. It types at the insertion point, so click where you want the text first. You can start it in one of three ways: press the Microphone key on keyboards that have one, press the Dictation keyboard shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation ³. The menu route needs no key, so it works on any keyboard.

Speak in natural phrases. Dictation does more than copy sounds into letters. In supported languages it also inserts commas, periods and question marks as you talk ⁴. You only need to say a mark aloud when Dictation does not add it, or when you want a different one. The step-by-step version is in how to use Dictation on a Mac.

Dictation covers many languages and keeps general text on the device

Apple's feature availability page lists 63 language and regional variants for Dictation on the Mac ⁵. A variant is a language in a particular region, so one language can appear more than once. If you dictate in more than one language, switch with the language label next to the cursor or the Globe key. The full list is in our guide to Apple Dictation languages on Mac.

Privacy depends on what you dictate. For general text, such as composing messages and notes, Apple says your voice input and transcripts are processed on your device and not sent to Siri servers. You can check this in Keyboard settings ⁶. Apple's older wording was different: on macOS Monterey 12, Apple said dictated utterances were sent to Apple to process your requests ⁷, so check the setting on your own Mac rather than relying on an older article.

Dictation only types, so Voice Control handles the rest of the computer

Dictation types text. It does not open apps, click buttons or move through the screen. Voice Control does those jobs, and it can also dictate. Apple says that when Voice Control is on, it is used for dictation and standard macOS Dictation is not available ⁸. You run one or the other at a time. The difference is set out in dictation vs Voice Control vs Siri on a Mac.

It depends: the answer changes with your microphone and your model of Mac

Dictation needs a microphone that the Mac can use. A Mac with no internal microphone needs an external one connected and selected before Dictation will type anything ⁹. If the words do not appear, check the microphone first, then the language. The guide to choosing a microphone for dictation covers the options.

Whether dictation is faster than typing depends on the text and on how much you correct afterwards. Speed figures you may see often come from studies of phones, not Macs, so check what was measured before you rely on them. For the trade-offs, see dictation vs typing.

If the built-in feature is not enough, for example for very long documents or for Windows as well, Yap, which we make, runs on-device dictation on Mac and Windows. You can download it and compare it with the Dictation that comes with your Mac.

What to do next

Turn Dictation on once in System Settings, then test it in a blank note. Click into the note, press the Microphone key or your shortcut, and say a sentence with a comma and a question. If the words appear where the cursor is, the setup works. Then read the guide for the commands and settings you will use most, starting with how to turn off Dictation on a Mac if you need to switch it off, and whether you can type while dictating if you want to fix words by keyboard. For the full subject, see the Mac dictation overview.