Offline dictation on a Mac works when the Mac has Apple silicon and you dictate in a language Apple lists for on-device dictation. On an Intel Mac, or in another language, Apple says “your dictated utterances are sent to Apple to process your requests.”
Check your own Mac
- Open System Settings, then Keyboard, and read the text under Dictation. Apple says it states whether dictation is processed on the Mac or sent to Siri servers.
- Turn off Wi-Fi and dictate a sentence in Notes. If text appears, recognition ran on the Mac.
Dictating into a search box is the exception: Apple says the text may go to the search provider.
Third-party apps
For which third-party dictation apps keep audio local (MacWhisper, VoiceInk, Superwhisper, Voice Type) and which send it to the cloud (Wispr Flow, Typeless), with each vendor’s own wording and a network test you can run, see the full comparison.