Click into the prompt box, start dictation, and speak the whole request. Say "new paragraph" for breaks and correct yourself aloud. First test that your dictation app types an instruction like "make this more professional" and does not obey it, because some cleanup steps rewrite it.
Why dictate prompts
A good prompt is often a few paragraphs of context. Typing that is slow. Speaking it takes only the time it takes to say it.
You can measure the gap for yourself with the speaking speed test, which compares your spoken and typed pace on the same text.
Test one thing before you rely on it
When you dictate to an assistant, your words are often instructions: "summarize this", "make it shorter", "hey, can you fix the error". A dictation app that uses a language model to clean up text can treat those words as instructions to itself, rewrite your sentence, or delete the command.
We saw both in our own testing. An untuned model turned "hey Claude, um, can you make this sound more professional, we're gonna miss the deadline cause the API keeps timing out" into a polished sentence with the instruction gone. The full results are in how dictation apps change what you meant.
So say "make this more professional, we are going to miss the deadline" into any dictation app and read what appears. You want exactly those words.
How to dictate a prompt
These habits work in a chat box or in the assistant panel of a code editor.
- Click into the prompt box so the cursor is where the text should go.
- Start dictation with your shortcut and say the goal first, in one sentence.
- Add the context after it. Say "new paragraph" where you want a break.
- Correct yourself aloud when you change your mind: "use the second file, no wait, the third".
- Say file names, numbers and code terms slowly, then check them on screen.
- Read the prompt once before you send it. Dictated text can contain a small slip.
What Pepys Dictate does here
Pepys Dictate types at the cursor in any Mac app, so it works in a chat window, a browser box or a code editor. If an app ignores the paste shortcut, it types the text instead, and if that fails it leaves the text on the clipboard with a notice. It handles spoken corrections such as "Friday, no wait, Monday", and "delete that" removes the last thing you said.
Recognition and formatting run on your Mac, and by default the text you dictate is not uploaded by the dictation step. An optional advanced setting can send a transcript to an AI provider you configure yourself, and it is off by default. What you then send to an assistant is up to you.
Last updated October 5, 2026.