How to turn on Dictation on a Mac

Apple's pages for macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, 15 Sequoia, 26 Tahoe and 27 Golden Gate all use the same route. It is System Settings, not System Preferences, on all of them. For what to do once it is on, see how to dictate on a Mac.

After you turn Dictation on, Apple says you may be asked whether to improve Siri and Dictation. You have two choices. Share Audio Recordings lets Apple store audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions from the Mac, and Apple may review a sample. Not Now declines.

The choice is not permanent. You can change it later in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements, using the Improve Siri & Dictation switch. Apple's pages for macOS 13 through 26 also mention deleting stored audio interactions. The macOS 27 page leaves that note out.

In the same Keyboard > Dictation pane, click the Shortcut pop-up menu and choose a shortcut to start Dictation. To use your own keys, choose Customize and press the combination. Apple's example is Option-Z.

If your Mac has a Microphone key in the function-key row, once Dictation is on, you can press it to start Dictation. Apple's pages do not list the presets in the pop-up menu, so look at it on your own Mac. More detail is in the Mac dictation shortcut guide.

In macOS 27, Apple says Keyboard settings shows whether voice input and transcripts for general text Dictation are processed on the device and not sent to Siri servers. Go to System Settings > Keyboard and read the text below Dictation. Dictation must be on for it to appear. Dictating in a search box is excluded from that statement.

Apple's privacy page adds the other side. If Keyboard Settings does not indicate on-device processing, what you dictate is sent to Apple's server. Apple says it is not stored unless you opt in to Improve Siri and Dictation.

Older pages are more specific about hardware. Apple's Ventura 13 and Sonoma 14 pages say that on Apple silicon Macs, requests for supported languages are processed on the device and no internet connection is required. The Sonoma 14 page says that on Intel Macs and for languages without on-device support, what you say is sent to Apple. The macOS 15, 26 and 27 pages do not say no internet is required. Apple's Feature Availability page lists 48 language and region entries for on-device Dictation, with a note that speech models must be downloaded.

Apple's pages do not give the exact wording shown under Dictation, the size of the speech models, or when they download. Apple also lists "More advanced Dictation" under Apple Intelligence for nine English variants, but the macOS 27 Dictation page does not say how to turn it on. See offline dictation on Mac for more.

To turn Dictation off, return to System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation and switch it off. If you cannot turn it on, three things on Apple's pages can block it.

Pepys Dictate is a Mac app that works in any app and by default runs speech recognition and formatting on your Mac, with no account. Its free plan gives 2,000 words a week. See how it compares with Apple Dictation.