Dictate messages and documents on Mac
With keyboard dictation, you can dictate text anywhere you can type it. Turn it on in the Dictation pane of Keyboard preferences — your dictated utterances are sent to Apple to process your requests. A feedback window gauges your speaking volume and provides basic dictation controls.
If you need to dictate text and control your Mac using your voice instead of a keyboard and trackpad, use Voice Control. See Control your Mac and apps using Voice Control. When Voice Control is on, you can’t use keyboard dictation.
On a Mac with Apple silicon, general text dictation requests (for example, composing messages and notes, but not dictating in a search box) are processed on the device in many languages and no internet connection is required. Additionally, you can dictate text of any length without a timeout. You can turn off dictation manually, or it stops automatically when no speech is detected for 30 seconds. Dictation in search uses server-based dictation.
Note: Dictation may not be available in all languages or in all countries or regions, and features may vary.
Turn on keyboard dictation
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
, then click Dictation.Click On. If a prompt appears, click Enable Dictation.
If you’re asked if you want to improve Siri and Dictation, do one of the following:
Share audio recordings: Click Share Audio Recordings to allow Apple to store audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions from your Mac. Apple may review a sample of stored audio.
Don’t share audio recordings: Click Not Now.
If you change your mind later and want to share or stop sharing audio recordings, select or deselect the Improve Siri & Dictation tickbox in the Analytics & Improvements section of Privacy preferences. See Change Privacy preferences.
Note: You can delete the audio interactions (which are associated with a random identifier and less than six months old) whenever you like—see Delete Siri and Dictation history.
To dictate using another language, click the Language pop-up menu, then choose a language and dialect.
Add an unlisted language: Choose Customise or Add Language, then select or add the languages you want to use.
Remove a language: Click the Language pop-up menu, choose Customise, then deselect the language you don’t want to use.
Click About Dictation & Privacy at the bottom of the window to learn more about how Apple protects your information and lets you choose what you share.
Dictate text
In an app on your Mac, place the insertion point where you want the dictated text to appear.
Press
if available in the row of function keys, use the Dictation keyboard shortcut or choose Edit > Start Dictation.Note: Press and release
to start Dictation; press and hold to activate Siri (Siri must be enabled).When the feedback window shows a microphone icon
with a fluctuating loudness indicator, or you hear the tone that signals your Mac is ready for keyboard dictation, dictate your text.To insert a punctuation mark or perform simple formatting tasks, do any of the following:
Say the name of the punctuation mark, such as “exclamation mark”.
Say “new line” (equivalent to pressing the Return key once) or “new paragraph” (equivalent to pressing the Return key twice). After you say “new line”, the dictated text appears when you’ve finished dictating.
For a list of the commands you can use while dictating, see Commands for dictating text.
If you set up keyboard dictation for multiple languages and want to switch languages as you dictate, click the language in the feedback window, then choose the language you want.
For information about setting up keyboard dictation for multiple languages, see Turn on keyboard dictation.
When you’ve finished, press the dictation keyboard shortcut or the Return key, or click Done in the feedback window.
Ambiguous text is underlined in blue. If the text is wrong, click it and select an alternative. You can also type or dictate the correct text.
Set the dictation keyboard shortcut
You can choose a specific Dictation keyboard shortcut or create one of your own.
Tip: If is available in the row of function keys, you can press it to start Dictation or use the keyboard shortcut.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
Click the Shortcut pop-up menu, then choose a shortcut to start Dictation.
To create a shortcut that’s not in the list, choose Customise, then press the keys you want to use. For example, you could press Option-Z.
Note: When you choose a dictation keyboard shortcut, depending on your Mac model, the “Press fn key to” or “Press 
to” option in the Keyboard pane of Keyboard System Preferences may change automatically. For example, if you choose Press Fn (Function) Key Twice in the Dictation Shortcut option, the Keyboard option changes to Start Dictation (Press Fn Twice) automatically.
To open Keyboard preferences, choose Apple menu 
For more help with Keyboard options, click the Help button 
in Keyboard preferences.
Change the microphone used for keyboard dictation
The pop-up menu below the microphone icon in the Dictation pane of Keyboard preferences shows which device your Mac is currently using to listen.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
Click the pop-up menu below the microphone icon, then choose the microphone you want to use for keyboard dictation.
If you choose Automatic, your Mac listens to the device you’re most likely to use for keyboard dictation.
Turn off keyboard dictation
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
Click Off.