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How to use dictation on a Mac: turn it on, talk, and stop

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To use dictation on a Mac, turn it on once in System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation, then click where you want the words, press the Microphone key or your Dictation shortcut, and talk. Press Esc when you are done. Dictation is Apple's own speech to text, free and built into macOS, and it types anywhere you can type.

The detailed steps below each say what to check, and after them come punctuation, the settings worth changing, where your voice goes, and what Dictation cannot do. I built YapToText, a free dictation app, so weigh the section near the end that mentions it, and the figures that show it, with that in mind. Everything else here is Apple's feature, from Apple's Mac User Guide as I read it on October 3, 2026.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreDownload for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

On this page: 12 sections
  1. Steps
  2. Turn on dictation
    1. Step 1: Open Keyboard settings
    2. Step 2: Switch Dictation on
  3. Start dictating
    1. Step 3: Start Dictation
    2. Step 4: Talk
    3. Step 5: Stop
  4. Say punctuation, emoji and new lines
  5. Change the shortcut, language or microphone
  6. Use Dictation or Voice Control, not both
  7. Know where your words go
  8. If dictation does not start
  9. What Apple's dictation cannot do
  10. When Apple's dictation is not enough
  11. The short version
  12. Questions

Steps

  1. Choose Apple menu, System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar.
  2. Go to Dictation, turn it on, and click Enable.
  3. Click where you want the words to go.
  4. Press the Microphone key, your Dictation shortcut, or choose Edit, Start Dictation.
  5. Speak, and say punctuation such as comma or question mark where you want it.
  6. Press Esc when you are done.

Turn on dictation

If you have never used Dictation, switch it on first. The switch lives in Keyboard settings, not in Accessibility. One switch turns it on everywhere you can type.

Step 1: Open Keyboard settings

  • You: Choose Apple menu, System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down to find it.
  • macOS: Opens Keyboard settings, with a Dictation section below the keyboard and text input options.
  • Check: You can see Dictation and its switch.

Step 2: Switch Dictation on

  • You: Go to Dictation, turn it on, and click Enable if macOS asks.
  • macOS: May ask whether you want to help improve Siri and Dictation. Share Audio Recordings lets Apple store audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions, and Apple may review a sample of it. Not Now declines.
  • Check: The switch is on. The text below Dictation says whether your voice is processed on your Mac.

You can change the audio choice later: choose Apple menu, System Settings, Privacy & Security, Analytics & Improvements, and turn Improve Siri & Dictation on or off.

Start dictating

Step 3: Start Dictation

  • You: Click where you want the words. Then press the Microphone key if F5 on your keyboard has one, press your Dictation shortcut, or choose Edit, Start Dictation.
  • macOS: Highlights the cursor and makes it pulse. On macOS 14 and 15, a microphone icon appears above or below the highlighted cursor instead. You may also hear a tone.
  • Check: You see the pulse or the icon. If Siri appears instead, you held the Microphone key: a press and release starts Dictation, and a press and hold calls Siri.

Step 4: Talk

  • You: Speak normally. On an Apple silicon Mac you can keep typing as you go, and Dictation picks up again when you stop typing.
  • macOS: Enters your words at the cursor. Words it was unsure of are underlined in blue.
  • Check: The words land where the cursor was. Click a blue word to choose an alternative, or type or dictate the right word over it.

Step 5: Stop

  • You: Press Esc, the Microphone key or your Dictation shortcut.
  • macOS: Stops listening. It also stops by itself when it hears no speech for 30 seconds.
  • Check: The cursor stops pulsing, and your last words are in the text.

There is no time limit while you keep talking. Apple's example of a word Dictation can get wrong is flour for flower, so the blue underline is worth a glance before you send anything. The pulse means it is listening.

YapToText's Dictation settings page on a Mac: the Keys, Recording, Microphone and Delivery cards.
Figure 1. For contrast, the Dictation page of YapToText, the app I built: Auto-stop after silence is Off by default, so a pause does not end a dictation the way Apple's 30-second stop does.

Say punctuation, emoji and new lines

In supported languages Dictation adds commas, periods and question marks by itself, which Apple calls Auto-punctuation. For anything else, say the name of the mark where it goes.

  • Punctuation. Say the name: comma, period, question mark, exclamation mark, colon.
  • New lines. Say new line for one Return or new paragraph for two. They appear when you finish dictating, not the moment you say them.
  • Emoji. In some languages, say the name and the word emoji, such as heart emoji or car emoji.
  • Capitals and symbols. caps on, all caps, dollar sign and the rest are in the Mac dictation commands list, with a box you can copy.

To place every mark yourself, turn off Auto-punctuation under Dictation in Keyboard settings. Saying new paragraph out loud to an empty room feels strange for about a day.

Every way to get an emoji by voice is in the guide to dictating emoji on a Mac, and if Dictation puts in periods you did not ask for, the auto-punctuation guide shows how to turn that off.

Change the shortcut, language or microphone

Three settings under Dictation decide how it starts and what it hears.

  • Shortcut. Choose the keys that start Dictation from the Shortcut pop-up menu, or choose Customize and press your own, such as Option-Z. The Mac dictation shortcut guide has every way to start it.
  • Languages. Click Edit next to Languages and select a language and region. With more than one, switch as you dictate by clicking the language shown next to the cursor, or press the Globe key if your keyboard has one. Mac dictation in other languages goes further.
  • Microphone source. Choose the microphone Dictation listens to. Automatic picks the device your Mac thinks you are most likely to use.

To turn dictation off, go back to Keyboard settings and turn off the Dictation switch.

Use Dictation or Voice Control, not both

Voice Control is a separate Apple feature, under Accessibility, for running the whole Mac by voice: opening apps, clicking, scrolling, and editing text with commands such as Replace cat with dog. When Voice Control is on, standard Dictation is not available, and you dictate through Voice Control instead. Voice Control on means Dictation off.

If you only want to type by voice, Dictation is the shorter path. If your hands cannot manage the mouse either, the guide to typing on a Mac without hands pairs Voice Control with a dictation app.

Know where your words go

Where your voice is processed depends on your Mac, your macOS version and your language. On current macOS, Apple points you to the text below Dictation in Keyboard settings, which says whether your voice is processed on your Mac and not sent to Siri servers. For macOS 14, Apple's guide spells it out: on an Apple silicon Mac, supported languages are processed on the device with no internet connection needed; text you dictate into a search box may be sent to the search provider; and on an Intel-based Mac, or in a language without on-device support, your dictation is sent to Apple.

The audio-sharing choice from Step 2 is separate, and you can change it under Improve Siri & Dictation at any time. Read the line under the switch instead of guessing. If keeping everything on the Mac matters to you, offline dictation on a Mac goes into it.

App Store poster headed Nothing leaves your Mac, over YapToText's AI Models page with both models marked Included.
Figure 2. YapToText answers the same question on its AI Models page: both models are marked Included, so speech recognition and cleanup run on the Mac.

If dictation does not start

Climb this ladder, smallest step first:

  1. Check the switch. Dictation is on in Keyboard settings.
  2. Try the Edit menu. If Edit, Start Dictation works, only your shortcut is wrong.
  3. Tap, do not hold. Holding the Microphone key calls Siri.
  4. Check Voice Control. If it is on, Dictation is not available.

The full ladder, from the microphone to Screen Time, is on Mac dictation not working.

What Apple's dictation cannot do

  • Wait through a long pause. It stops after 30 seconds without speech. The 30-second limit page explains why.
  • Delete by voice. Its command list has no delete. Voice Control can, but while Voice Control is on, standard Dictation is off.
  • Tidy what you said. Apple's Dictation guide covers typing your words and adding punctuation, not rewriting them.
  • Work in every language. Dictation is not available in all languages or regions, and its features vary by language.

When Apple's dictation is not enough

I built YapToText for the gaps in that list, because my hands make typing difficult and I dictate everything. It is free, it runs on your Mac, and it types into any app at your cursor.

  • One key, no silence timeout. Tap Right Command to start, talk, and tap it again to stop. There is no silence stop and no word cap, and a safety stop ends a single dictation at 30 minutes and still saves the transcript.
  • Cleanup that keeps your words. Auto mode, on by default, fixes what was misheard, turns a letter with a greeting and a sign-off into an email, and leaves casual chat exactly as spoken.
  • Edits by voice. Select text, tap Right Option, say the change, such as make this shorter, and tap again.
  • Always on your Mac. Speech recognition and cleanup both run on the Mac, in every language it offers. No account and no analytics.
App Store poster headed Edit anything by voice: the Quick Edit card listening, applying the edit, and done.
Figure 3. Edits by voice, one of the gaps in Apple's list: select text, tap the Quick Edit key, say the change, and the card goes from listening to applying to done.

It needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later, and the App Store download is about 2.9 GB because both models come inside it. If you use YapToText, your first dictation is one key tapped twice, and its keys and shortcuts have their own page. The speech to text for Mac page sets it beside Apple's Dictation in a table.

Two guides go further: Apple Dictation vs Whisper compares the two speech engines, and the ten fixes for dictation accuracy work for both, biggest first.

The short version

  • Turn it on. System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation.
  • Start and stop. The Microphone key, your shortcut, or Edit, Start Dictation, then Esc to stop.
  • Say the marks. comma, question mark, new line, new paragraph.
  • Mind the pause. 30 seconds of silence ends it.

On a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, talk to text on a MacBook covers the Microphone key and the one difference a laptop brings, its microphone.

Switch it on once, then press, talk and press Esc. If a step here does not match your Mac, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreDownload for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Sources

Questions

How do I turn on dictation on my Mac?

Choose Apple menu, System Settings, then click Keyboard. Go to Dictation, turn it on, and click Enable if macOS asks.

How do I start dictation on a Mac?

Click where you want the words, then press the Microphone key if your keyboard has one, press your Dictation shortcut, or choose Edit, Start Dictation. Speak when the cursor pulses or you hear the tone.

Does dictation on a Mac work offline?

It depends on the Mac and the language. The text below Dictation in Keyboard settings says whether your voice is processed on your Mac. Apple's macOS 14 guide says supported languages are processed on device on Apple silicon, while Intel Macs and other languages send dictation to Apple.

How do I turn off dictation on a Mac?

Choose Apple menu, System Settings, Keyboard, and turn off the Dictation switch.

Why does dictation stop when I pause?

Apple's Dictation stops on its own when it hears no speech for 30 seconds. There is no time limit while you keep talking.

What is the difference between Dictation and Voice Control on a Mac?

Dictation types what you say. Voice Control runs the whole Mac by voice and has its own dictation and editing commands, and while it is on, standard Dictation is not available.

Is there an app that takes dictation on a Mac?

Yes. Apple's Dictation is built into macOS and takes dictation anywhere you can type. Third-party apps do it too, and YapToText, the one I built, is free: it types what you say into any app, with speech recognition running on your Mac.

Is Mac dictation good enough, or do I need an app?

Apple's Dictation is fine for short bursts. It stops after 30 seconds without speech, and Apple's guide covers typing your words and adding punctuation, not rewriting them. If you dictate all day, an app with no silence stop and with cleanup is worth trying, and YapToText is a free one.