Dragon Dictate for Mac is gone. You do not have to switch to Windows.
By Ryleigh Newman · Published · Updated
Dragon Dictate for Mac is discontinued: Nuance ended the last Mac version, Dragon Professional Individual for Mac 6, on October 22, 2018, and its current Dragon support page lists no Mac product. The free alternative I use is YapToText, which dictates into any app, edits selected text by voice and keeps your own word lists, all on your Mac with no subscription. It does not drive menus and the mouse the way Dragon did; on a Mac, Voice Control does that part.
My hands make typing difficult, and I dictate every day. The advice I kept finding for Mac users who cannot type was to buy a Windows PC, so I built a free dictation app for the Mac instead. I built it, so read this with that in mind. Every Dragon fact here comes from Nuance's own pages, and the one Microsoft fact from Microsoft, checked October 3, 2026.
Download for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.
On this page: 10 sections
Side by side
Checked October 3, 2026, on Nuance's support and product pages.
| YapToText | Dragon for Mac 6 | Dragon Professional for Windows | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no paid tier | Not sold since October 22, 2018 | No price shown; the page says Contact us |
| Runs on | macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon | Intel Macs; the newest macOS Nuance names is Mojave, not fully tested | Windows 11, back to Windows 10; not supported in Parallels for Mac |
| Updates | Current: 1.5.3, September 29, 2026 | None after October 22, 2018 | Version 16 |
| Edit text by voice | Quick Edit, plus scratch that and replace X with Y | Full Text Control in supported apps | Not stated |
| Mouse, keys and menus by voice | No; macOS Voice Control does that | Yes | Not stated |
| Custom words | Dictionaries, added by hand or by voice | Import and export of word lists | Custom words, commands and auto-texts that a team can share, per its product page |
| Where your voice goes | Stays on the Mac | Not stated | Not stated |
How Dragon Dictate for Mac ended, in dates
Dragon on the Mac went through three names, and the line ended with the third: Nuance's own upgrade notes for version 6 name the releases before it Dragon Dictate 4 and Dragon for Mac 5. The last Mac version stopped getting updates on October 22, 2018, two years before the first Apple silicon Macs.
Every date below comes from Nuance or Microsoft:
- 2016. Nuance's feature matrix presents Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, version 6, as the new release after Dragon for Mac 5.
- September 10, 2018. Nuance says version 6 has not been fully tested on macOS Mojave and recommends that customers not upgrade yet.
- October 22, 2018. Nuance discontinues Dragon Professional Individual for Mac. No updates come after that date, and anyone who bought version 6 keeps a perpetual license to go on using it.
- March 4, 2022. Microsoft completes its acquisition of Nuance.
- October 18, 2024. Nuance last updates its note on Parallels, which says Dragon Professional is not supported in Parallels for Mac.
- October 3, 2026. Nuance's product page lists Dragon Professional v16, optimized for Windows 11, with Contact us where a price would be, and its Dragon support page lists no Mac product.
Nuance's requirements page for Dragon for Mac lists Intel processors only, and none of the Nuance pages I checked mention Apple silicon. Apple began moving the Mac to Apple silicon with certain models introduced in late 2020, so there has never been a Dragon for Mac built for it.
Old installers still turn up on download sites. An unsupported copy from an unknown host, asking for the permission that lets it type into every app you own, is not something I would put on a Mac.
What replaces it, for free
YapToText is on the Mac App Store at no price. There is no paid tier, no locked feature, no license key and no account, and the tip jar buys nothing extra. Tap Right Command, talk, tap again, and the words are typed at your cursor in whatever app you were in.
Whisper Large v3 Turbo (Q5) does the listening, and a cleanup model, Phi-3.5 Mini, turns what you said into finished text. Both ship inside the App Store app, so it dictates with Wi-Fi off from the first launch. Your voice never leaves your Mac: the only network use is a model download you start yourself, and updates come through the App Store.
It needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later. If the Mac that ran Dragon is an Intel Mac, YapToText will not run on it, and I would rather say that plainly than have you find out after installing. On an Intel Mac, Apple's built-in Dictation is free and already there, and the guide to using dictation on a Mac sets it up.
The source is public under GPL-3.0. That matters for a dictation app, because your voice carries everything you write, and a privacy claim you can read the code for is different from one you have to trust. Why I made it free is on the free, open-source dictation page, and what is stored where is on the privacy page.
Dragon habits, mapped to YapToText
If you used Dragon for years, your voice has habits, and most of them have a direct match here. You keep the habits that write and edit text, and hand the mouse and menus to Voice Control.
Dragon features from Nuance's version 6 feature matrix, checked October 3, 2026.
| In Dragon | In YapToText | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Custom vocabulary | Dictionaries: when you hear this, write that. Your spellings also prime the speech model, so a name is heard right the first time. | Dictionaries page |
| Auto-texts | Snippets: say insert and a phrase, and saved text is typed. Insert today's date works from the start. | Commands page, Snippets |
| Taking back what you just said | Scratch that, within 30 seconds of a dictation, and replace X with Y to fix one word | On by default |
| Correcting a word | Quick Edit: select the text, tap Right Option, say the change, and tap again | Quick Edit page |
| Transcribing a recording | Transcribe a file, from any audio or video file, as plain text | Utility page and the menu bar |
| Profile training | Nothing to train. Fix the same word twice and the app asks: Make this correction stick? | Home page |
| Spoken punctuation | Question mark and other two-word names at the end of a clause; insert comma and insert period for one-word marks | Commands page, Punctuation |
| Mouse, keys and menus | Not in YapToText. Voice Control, built into macOS, clicks and moves around by voice | System Settings, Accessibility, Voice Control |
The Dictionaries guide, the Quick Edit guide and the spoken punctuation guide cover each one in depth.
Why a Windows virtual machine is the wrong answer
The usual forum answer to a Mac user who cannot type is Parallels, plus Windows, plus a Dragon Professional license. Nuance's own support note says Dragon Professional is not supported in Parallels for Mac, so that advice is to buy a setup the maker does not support. And the license has no price on Nuance's product page: where a price would be, the button says Contact us. I do not think a person who cannot type should have to contact anyone to find out what typing costs.
Even where it works, think about what it asks of your hands. A virtual machine is a second operating system to drive by voice: Windows updates, Parallels updates, Dragon's own updates and permission prompts, and every switch between the Mac side and the Windows side is one more thing to handle without a working keyboard.
I will be fair about the other side. Dragon's commands for driving a whole computer by voice, the mouse, the keys, the menus and the windows, go deep, and nothing I have used on the Mac matches them for that job, my own app included. If you must drive an entire desktop by voice and the Mac's Voice Control does not get you there, the virtual machine is a real option. It is just not the only one, and for writing, which is most of what most of us do all day, it is the wrong one.
What Dragon did that YapToText does not
I would rather you know this now than after you have moved. YapToText types and edits text; it does not run the computer for you.
- Mouse, keys and menus by voice. Nuance's feature matrix for version 6 lists clicking and dragging the mouse by voice, pressing keys, and command sets for Finder, Safari, Mail and other apps. YapToText does none of that. On the Mac that job belongs to Voice Control, and YapToText is built to work alongside Voice Control and VoiceOver. The accessibility page covers how the two fit together.
- Specialty editions. Nuance's current line includes Dragon Legal and Dragon Law Enforcement. YapToText ships no legal or medical word list; you build your own in Dictionaries, and each dictionary can be switched off without deleting it.
- Importing a profile or word list. Version 6 could import and export custom word lists and user profiles. YapToText cannot read a Dragon file, so your vocabulary is rebuilt by hand, by voice, or as the app offers to remember words you correct twice.
- Sync with a phone. Version 6 kept auto-texts and custom words in step with Dragon Anywhere on iOS and Android. YapToText is a Mac app with nothing to sync.
- Intel Macs. YapToText needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.
Move over in an afternoon
The setup takes minutes, and rebuilding your vocabulary is what fills the afternoon. Start with the twenty words you say most, and let the app catch the rest.
Step 1: Install YapToText and grant the two permissions
- You: Get YapToText from the Mac App Store. On the Home page, in the Get set up card, press Continue next to Microphone, then Grant next to Accessibility, and switch YapToText on in System Settings.
- macOS: Asks once for the microphone, and opens Privacy & Security, Accessibility for the second permission. An app cannot switch that one on for itself.
- Check: Both rows in the Get set up card show as granted. Without Accessibility, the app still transcribes everything but puts it on the clipboard instead of at your cursor.
Step 2: Pick the key your hands can press
- You: On the Dictation page, in the Keys card, keep Right Command or record any other key, and choose Tap to start / stop or Hold to talk.
- YapToText: Treats that one key as the trigger. Anything that presses one key can be it, though I have not tested every switch interface.
- Check: Tap the key in a note, say a sentence, and tap again. The words land at your cursor.
The one-key dictation guide covers keys for hands that tire, and the keys and shortcuts guide lists every key the app can use.
Step 3: Rebuild your top words
- You: Select a name or term spelled the way you want it, tap Right Option, and say add this to my dictionary. Or add a pair on the Dictionaries page: what it hears under Heard, and what to write under Replace with.
- YapToText: Applies the entry to every transcript from then on, and primes the speech model with your spelling.
- Check: The word comes out right the next time you say it.
Step 4: Dictate a paragraph and see what it heard
- You: Dictate one paragraph the way you would have into Dragon, then open History and click Show pipeline details on that entry.
- YapToText: Shows the raw transcript, which is what the speech model heard, next to the cleaned text and the text it delivered.
- Check: Any word it heard wrong is your next dictionary entry. The History guide explains what each entry keeps.
If your old Dragon just broke
If a macOS update took Dragon out from under you, there is nothing to repair and nothing Nuance will send. Climb this ladder for today, smallest step first:
- Dictate today. On an Apple silicon Mac, install YapToText, grant the two permissions, tap Right Command, talk, and tap again.
- Use Apple Dictation on an Intel Mac. It is built in: turn it on in System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation.
- Get the mouse back. In System Settings, Accessibility, turn on Voice Control for clicking and moving around by voice, and say Show commands to see what it understands.
A few things are there for the day something goes wrong, because I built this to be the only way I write.
- History. It keeps the raw transcript, the final text and, by default, the audio of every dictation, all on your Mac.
- A crash. If the app or the Mac dies mid-sentence, the audio survives, and on the next launch the app transcribes it, puts the text on your clipboard and files it in History as recovered after a crash.
- A cancel. By default a canceled dictation is still transcribed and saved to History, marked as canceled, and never inserted anywhere; turning off Keep canceled dictations stops the saving.
A stray Escape cannot lose what you said.
The short version
- What happened. Nuance discontinued the last Dragon for Mac on October 22, 2018, and it was never built for Apple silicon.
- What replaces it. YapToText for typing and editing by voice, free and on your Mac, with Voice Control for the mouse and menus.
- What it takes. An Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later, and an afternoon to rebuild your words.
You do not need Windows to dictate on a Mac anymore. If something here does not match what you see, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.
Download for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.
Related
Sources
- https://nuance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27843/~/dragon-professional-for-mac-6:-end-of-life,-end-of-support-dates (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://nuance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27676/~/dragon-professional-individual-for-mac-6-support-with-mojave (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://nuance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17855/~/system-requirements-for-dragon-for-mac (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://nuance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29905/~/dragon-support-on-parallels-desktop-for-mac (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.nuance.com/products/help/dragon/dragon-for-mac6/enx/Content/Introduction/Upgrading-FAQ.htm (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://dragon.nuance.com/shared/resource-library/gb/fm-dragon-professional-individual-for-mac-v6-en-uk.pdf (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://dragon.nuance.com/en-us/dragon-professional (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://dragon.nuance.com/en-us/dragon-support.html (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://news.microsoft.com/source/2022/03/04/microsoft-completes-acquisition-of-nuance-ushering-in-new-era-of-outcomes-based-ai/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://support.apple.com/en-us/116943 (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-dictation-mh40584/mac (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-voice-control-commands-mh40719/mac (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yaptotext/id6786382289 (checked 2026-10-03)
Questions
Is Dragon Dictate for Mac discontinued?
Yes. Nuance discontinued Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, the last Mac version, effective October 22, 2018, and has provided no updates since.
Does Dragon NaturallySpeaking work on a Mac?
No current version does. Dragon today is a Windows product, and Nuance says Dragon Professional is not supported in Parallels for Mac. The last Mac version was discontinued on October 22, 2018.
Is there a free alternative to Dragon for Mac?
Yes. YapToText is free with no paid tier, dictates into any app, edits text by voice and keeps your own word lists, all on your Mac. It needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later.
Will Dragon for Mac 6 run on macOS Sequoia or Tahoe?
Nuance does not support it. It has had no updates since October 22, 2018, the newest macOS its notes name is Mojave, which Nuance says it was not fully tested on, and it was never built for Apple silicon.
Can I bring my Dragon vocabulary into YapToText?
Not as a file. Add entries in Dictionaries by hand, or select a word anywhere, tap the Quick Edit key and say add this to my dictionary. When you fix the same word twice, the app offers to make the correction stick.
Does YapToText control the Mac by voice like Dragon did?
No. It types and edits text in any app. Clicking, menus and windows by voice are macOS Voice Control's job, and Voice Control can click YapToText's Start Dictation button in the menu bar panel.
Is there Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Mac?
Not under that name, and not anymore. Nuance's Mac releases were Dragon Dictate 4, Dragon for Mac 5 and Dragon Professional Individual for Mac 6, and it discontinued the last one on October 22, 2018. Dragon Professional, the version Nuance lists today, is for Windows and is not supported in Parallels for Mac.
Is there a free trial of Dragon for Mac?
No. Nuance stopped selling Dragon Professional Individual for Mac on October 22, 2018, so there is nothing to try or buy. YapToText is free with no paid tier, so there is no trial to run out.