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Mac Dictation

How to use speech to text on Mac, and when to move beyond it

Start with Apple's built-in Dictation for the basics. If you dictate all day, use this page to understand when a dedicated workflow starts to make sense.

Updated 2026-04-23Apple Dictation + Voice Type context

Start with Apple's built-in Dictation first. Turn it on in Keyboard settings, start it with the microphone key or your configured shortcut, and use that as the baseline before you buy anything.

Voice typing hubPricing

TL;DR

Turn Dictation on, start it correctly, speak formatting naturally.

  • Enable Dictation: System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation → On.
  • Start dictation with the microphone key or your configured Dictation shortcut.
  • Speak punctuation and formatting naturally: “comma”, “new paragraph”, and so on.
  • If Voice Control is on, standard macOS Dictation is not available.
  • If Dictation won’t start, check microphone permissions and your Dictation shortcut.

When built-in Dictation stops being enough

Apple Dictation is the baseline, not the finish line.

If you dictate a few short notes or messages, the built-in tool is usually enough. If you dictate all day, workflow starts to matter: shortcut behavior, latency, punctuation, and handling of names or technical terms.

Apple's current setup path is simple: go to Keyboard settings, turn Dictation on, then use the microphone key or your configured Dictation shortcut. If Voice Control is turned on, standard macOS Dictation is not available in the normal way.

Voice Type is a privacy-first, on-device dictation app for macOS with a hold-to-dictate hotkey. It uses Whisper-based models running on Core ML for fast, accurate recognition without cloud uploads.

See when Voice Type makes sense

Setup

Three things you need to do first.

1. Enable Dictation

Open System Settings, go to Keyboard → Dictation, and switch Dictation to On.

Turn on voice typing on a Mac

2. Start in any app

Click into a text field, start Dictation with the microphone key or your configured shortcut, speak naturally, then stop Dictation to insert the text.

How to use speech to text on Mac

3. Speak formatting

Use commands like “comma”, “period”, “new line”, and “new paragraph” while you talk.

Mac Dictation commands

Troubleshooting

If Dictation won’t cooperate, start here.

Dictation not working on Mac

Permissions, input levels, Voice Control conflicts, restarts.

Change the Dictation shortcut

Fn twice, microphone key, Customize.

Where is the microphone key?

If the keyboard hardware is confusing the setup.

Sources

Official docs and technical references.