Learn: dictation guides for Mac
Plain-language guides to dictating on a Mac: how to set it up, how to type by voice, how to fix it when it stops working, where your voice goes, how the speech recognition models behind it work, and which dictation app to pick.
- How to dictate on Mac
Turn on Apple Dictation, choose a shortcut, speak punctuation, and get cleaner results on macOS 14 and 15.
- Dictation not working on Mac
A step-by-step checklist for when Mac dictation won’t start, doesn’t hear you, or types nothing.
- Parakeet vs Whisper
How OpenAI’s Whisper and NVIDIA’s Parakeet speech recognition models differ in languages, licenses, and design.
- Speech to text on Mac
Every way to turn speech into text on a Mac, from built-in Dictation and Voice Control to dictation apps, and what to check about privacy.
- What is Whisper AI?
What OpenAI’s Whisper speech recognition model is, how it was trained, its model sizes and known limits, and how it runs on a Mac.
- On-device vs cloud dictation
Where your voice goes when you dictate, and the trade-offs between on-device and cloud speech recognition for privacy and offline use.
- Voice typing on Mac
How to type with your voice on a Mac: setup, spoken punctuation and formatting commands, fixing mistakes, and habits that help.
- Best dictation app for Mac
Seven Mac dictation apps compared on price, offline use and devices, with prices checked Nov 1 and Nov 2, 2026.
Free tools
- Typing vs Speaking Speed Test
Type a passage, then read it aloud, and compare your words per minute for each.
- Typing Time Calculator
Turn words per day and your WPM into hours spent typing each year, and see what speaking could save.
- Speech Time Calculator
Paste a script or enter a word count to see how long it takes to say, or turn a target length into a word budget.