Speech to text on Mac: every way to do it

What speech to text on a Mac is

Speech to text, also called speech recognition or dictation, turns spoken words into written text. On a Mac, it usually works like this: you put your cursor in a text field, start listening with a shortcut, speak into a microphone, and the words appear where you were about to type.

It isn’t the same as Siri. Siri answers questions and carries out requests; speech to text only types. It also isn’t the same as Voice Control, which lets you run your entire Mac by voice. The three can look similar, so it helps to know which one you need before you change any settings.

Option 1: Apple Dictation, built into macOS

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
2. Go to Dictation and turn it on. Click Enable if your Mac asks you to confirm.
3. Use the Shortcut pop-up menu to choose how you start Dictation, or choose Customize to set your own keys.
4. Click in any text field, press the shortcut (or the Microphone key, if your keyboard has one), and speak.
5. Press Escape, the Microphone key, or the shortcut again to stop.

Apple’s guide notes a few details worth knowing. You can dictate text of any length without a timeout, and Dictation stops automatically when no speech is detected for 30 seconds. On a Mac with Apple silicon, you can keep typing while you dictate. Words your Mac wasn’t sure about are underlined in blue; click one to choose an alternative.

Dictation isn’t available in every language or region, and features vary by language. Apple’s macOS Feature Availability page lists which languages you can dictate in. For a full walkthrough, including punctuation and microphone tips, read how to dictate on Mac.

Option 2: Voice Control, for running your Mac by voice

Voice Control is an accessibility feature in System Settings > Accessibility. Once it’s on, Apple says you can speak commands to navigate the desktop and apps, interact with what’s on screen, and dictate and edit text. Say “Show commands” to see what’s available in the app you’re using.

One catch: Apple says that when Voice Control is on, you use Voice Control to dictate text and standard Dictation isn’t available. If you only want speech to text, leave Voice Control off. If Dictation suddenly stops responding, Voice Control is one of the first things to check, along with the other fixes in dictation not working on Mac.

Option 3: third-party dictation apps

Dictation apps add their own shortcuts, speech models, and extras. A common design is push-to-talk: hold a key while you speak, then let go to insert the text. Some apps send your audio to cloud servers for transcription; Wispr Flow’s help center, for example, says an internet connection is required for transcription. Others run an open model such as Whisper on your Mac. Our explainer what is Whisper AI covers how that model works. To compare specific apps on price and offline use, see our roundup of the best dictation apps for Mac.

Apps that hear you and type into other apps need permission to do so. You manage microphone access in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone, and apps that paste text into other apps may also ask for Accessibility permission.

Morning vs Apple Dictation at a glance

Sources: Apple’s Dictation guide and macOS Feature Availability page. Morning details are from this site, and its download is coming soon.

Where does your voice go?

With Apple Dictation, the answer depends on your language and your Mac. Apple says you can check Keyboard settings to see whether voice input for general text Dictation is processed on your device and not sent to Siri servers; the text appears below the Dictation switch. When you turn Dictation on, Apple may also ask whether to share audio recordings to help improve Siri and Dictation. You can change that later in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.

With a third-party app, read its privacy policy to see whether audio is processed on your Mac or on a server, and whether recordings or transcripts are stored. Our guide to on-device vs cloud dictation explains the trade-offs in more depth.

Tips for more accurate speech to text

• Use a microphone close to your mouth; a headset or external mic usually beats a laptop mic across the room.
• In Dictation settings, set Microphone source to the mic you’re actually using.
• Cut background noise where you can: fans, music, and other voices compete with you.
• Speak in whole phrases at a steady pace instead of word by word.
• Make sure the dictation language matches the language you’re speaking.
• Proofread names, jargon, and numbers before you send anything important.

Is speech to text faster than typing?

It depends on you, your keyboard, and what you’re writing. Prose like emails, messages, and notes tends to suit speech best; precise edits often stay quicker on the keyboard. To find out for yourself, take the free typing vs speaking speed test, then read our voice typing on Mac guide for commands and habits that make dictating feel natural.

Where Morning fits

Morning is private dictation for Mac that lives in the notch. Hold Control + Space, speak, release, and the text pastes where you’re typing. Transcription runs on-device with local Whisper models, and optional cloud AI is off by default. It works on macOS 14 or later, with or without a notch. If you’re comparing it with a cloud dictation service, see our Wispr Flow alternative comparison.