Your Mac can already type what you say, in any app, for free. It is switched off by default and buried three levels down in System Settings, which is why most people never find it. Here is how to turn it on, how to drive it, and what to do when it is not enough.

Turn on dictation on your Mac

Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
Click Keyboard in the sidebar.
Scroll down to Dictation and turn it on. macOS explains what gets sent to Apple; accept to continue.
Click Languages and add every language you speak. Each one downloads the first time you add it.
Open the Shortcut menu and pick the key that starts dictation.

That is the whole setup. There is no separate app to launch and nothing to configure per application.

The Mac dictation shortcut

On recent versions of macOS the default is press Control twice. The Shortcut menu also offers pressing the Globe (fn) key twice, either Command key twice, or a custom combination of your own. Older releases defaulted to the Globe key, which is why guides disagree.

Click into any text field first, then press the shortcut. A microphone indicator appears and everything you say is typed at the cursor. Press the shortcut again, press Escape, or simply click elsewhere to stop.

Speaking punctuation and formatting

macOS dictation types what it hears, so punctuation has to be spoken. These all work:

“period”, “comma”, “question mark”, “exclamation point”
“colon”, “semicolon”, “dash”, “ellipsis”
“new line” and “new paragraph”
“open quote” and “close quote”
“cap” to capitalise the next word, “all caps” for the whole word
“smiley face”, “frowny face” and “winky face” for emoticons

Recent macOS versions add some punctuation on their own, but the behaviour varies by language, so speaking it is still the reliable route.

Does Mac dictation work offline?

On Apple silicon Macs, most languages run entirely on device once the language pack has downloaded, so dictation keeps working on a plane and nothing leaves your machine. Some languages, and Intel Macs generally, still send audio to Apple for processing and need a connection. The Languages list marks which are available offline.

Where built-in dictation runs out

Apple's dictation is genuinely good at one job: turning clear speech into literal text. The friction shows up once you use it for real work.

It stops when you pause.

Think mid-sentence for a couple of seconds and the session ends. Dictating a paragraph means restarting three or four times.

It transcribes, it does not write.

Every “um”, false start and repeated word lands in the document. You still have to edit what you said into something you would send.

Accents and names are hit and miss.

There is no way to teach it a colleague's name, a product name or the jargon your team uses. It guesses the same wrong spelling every time.

One language at a time.

Switching languages means going back into System Settings, and there is no way to speak one language and have another typed.

A faster way to dictate on Mac

Ahsk replaces the built-in shortcut with one key and a larger speech model. Hold fn and talk; let go and the text is already in the field. Tap fn instead and it keeps listening hands-free until you tap again, so a pause to think does not end the sentence.

Because a language model formats the result, what lands is punctuated and cleaned up rather than a literal transcript. You can add names and jargon to a personal dictionary, pick the language you speak rather than the one your Mac is set to, and hold fn + shift to speak one language and have another typed. It works in the same places built-in dictation does, which is to say everywhere: Mail, Slack, Safari, Word, Xcode, the Terminal.

Try it on your own Mac

Your first 10,000 dictated words are free, no card required. Works on macOS, Windows and iPhone.

Download for Mac

Frequently asked questions

What is the keyboard shortcut for dictation on Mac?

Pressing Control twice on recent macOS versions. Change it in System Settings › Keyboard › Dictation › Shortcut, where you can also choose the Globe (fn) key, either Command key, or a custom combination.

Why is dictation greyed out on my Mac?

Usually a managed device. If your Mac is enrolled with a school or employer, dictation can be disabled by policy and the toggle will not respond. It can also be greyed out while a language pack is still downloading.

Is there a time limit on Mac dictation?

Not any more. Older macOS releases capped a server-based session at about 30 seconds. Current versions keep going until you stop, though they still end the session on a long silence.

Can I dictate in two languages?

Built-in dictation handles one language at a time and you switch it in System Settings. If you move between languages often, an app that lets you pick the spoken language per dictation, or translate as you speak, saves the round trip.

Dictation is on but nothing happens. What now?

Almost always the microphone rather than dictation itself. We wrote a separate walkthrough: Mac dictation not working.

How to Use Dictation on Mac