The best dictation software in 2026

Dictation software can increase your writing speed by up to 3x: the average person might drop 40 words per minute on a doc, where dictating it could accelerate it up to 125. If writing is a big part of your day—emails, reports, long notes—dictation apps amplify your capacity to be thorough without cramping your fingers.

With error rates consistently going down, thanks to both existing dictation apps getting better and the power of the latest AI models, this is the best time to pick your favorite speech-to-text software and leave the keyboard just for the tweaks.

After weeks of testing this year, these are your best options.

The best dictation software

• Apple Dictation for free dictation software on Apple devices

• Windows Voice Access for free dictation software on Windows

• Dragon by Nuance for a customizable dictation app

• Wispr Flow for cross-platform and team-friendly AI dictation

• Gboard for a free mobile dictation app

• Google Docs voice typing for dictating in Google Docs

• Letterly for structuring your transcript

• Monologue for context-aware AI dictation

• Voicenotes for chatting with your transcripts

What is dictation software?

Dictation software is a speech-to-text (or voice-to-text) program that listens to spoken language through a microphone and automatically converts it into written text on a computer or device. Instead of typing, you speak and see the words appear on your screen. Many dictation software online supports voice commands for navigation and formatting, such as "new line" or "bold that," so they can be used both as a productivity aid and as assistive technology for people who have difficulty or can't type.

The apps on this list focus on the dictation user experience: pressing a shortcut, talking into a mic, and seeing the results on the screen. But this is just one slice of the entire speech-to-text cake. If this isn't what you're looking for, here's what else is out there:

• AI assistants, such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana, can help you interact with each of these ecosystems to send texts, buy products, or schedule events on your calendar.

• AI meeting assistants will join your meetings and transcribe everything, generating meeting notes to share with your team.

• AI transcription platforms can process your video and audio files into neat text. Transcription services like Rev or Scribie use a combination of dictation software, AI, and human proofreaders to achieve 99% accuracy or higher.

• Advanced platforms for enterprise, like Amazon Transcribe and Microsoft Azure's speech-to-text services, can deliver these kinds of features in your products, apps, and internal tools.

How is AI changing dictation software?

AI is transforming dictation from simple speech-to-text into intelligent, accurate, and context-aware writing tools. OpenAI released Whisper in September 2022, marking a major milestone in this direction: trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask audio from the web, it was capable of handling challenging accents, background noise, and technical jargon much better than previous technologies. It boasts a word error rate of 3.96% for English.

Later, OpenAI released GPT-4o Transcribe, a speech-to-text model based on the multimodal GPT-4o architecture, pushing word error rates even lower to 2.46% and slotting directly into the same model family that can then summarize, format, and act on the resulting text.

This is moving dictation beyond passive transcription to actively supporting your writing tasks and refining your thoughts as you speak. More than that, it can power voice-controlled AI agents to interact with online services and productivity tools, with a much more intuitive and effortless experience.

But this is where it's going to get exciting: some companies—like Wispr Flow, which we'll cover below—are even building for a voice-driven future, where voice becomes the primary interface for getting work done.

What makes the best dictation app?

Dictation software comes in different shapes and sizes. Some are integrated in products you already use. Others are separate apps that offer a range of extra features. While each can vary in look and feel, here's what I looked for to find the best:

• High accuracy. Staying true to what you're saying is the most important feature here. The lowest score on this list is at 92% accuracy.

• Ease of use. This isn't a high hurdle, as most options are basic enough that anyone can figure them out in seconds.

• Availability of voice commands. These let you add "instructions" while you're dictating, such as adding punctuation, starting a new paragraph, or more complex commands like capitalizing all the words in a sentence. I made exceptions for AI-driven apps that offer high accuracy at the cost of voice commands.

• Availability of the languages supported. Most of the picks here support a decent (or impressive) number of languages.

• Versatility. I paid attention to how well the software could adapt to different circumstances, apps, and systems.

I tested these apps by reading a 200-word script containing numbers, compound words, and a few tricky terms. I read the script three times for each app: the accuracy scores are an average of all attempts. Finally, I used the voice commands to delete and format text and to control the app's features where available.

I used my laptop's or smartphone's microphone to test these apps in a quiet room without background noise. For occasional dictation, an equivalent microphone on your own computer or smartphone should do the job well. If you're doing a lot of dictation every day, it's probably worth investing in an external microphone, like the Jabra Evolve.

Tips for using voice recognition software

Though dictation software is pretty good at recognizing different voices, it's not perfect. Here are some tips to make it work as best as possible.

1. Speak naturally (with caveats). Dictation apps learn your voice and speech patterns over time. And if you're going to spend any time with them, you want to be comfortable. Speak naturally. If you're not getting 90% accuracy initially, try enunciating more.  

2. Punctuate (if necessary). When you dictate, sometimes you have to say each period, comma, question mark, and so forth. The software isn't always smart enough to figure it out on its own—except if the app runs on a model like GPT-4o Transcribe, in which case it will listen to your intonation to understand what to write.

3. Learn a few commands. Take the time to learn a few simple commands, such as "new line" to enter a line break. There are different commands for composing, editing, and operating your device. Commands may differ from app to app, so learn the ones that apply to the tool you choose.

4. Know your limits. Especially on mobile devices, some tools have a time limit for how long they can listen—sometimes for as little as 10 seconds. Glance at the screen from time to time to make sure you haven't blown past the mark. 

5. Practice. It takes time to adjust to voice recognition software, but it gets easier the more you practice. Some of the more sophisticated apps invite you to train by reading passages or doing other short drills. Don't shy away from tutorials, help menus, and on-screen cheat sheets.

The best dictation software at a glance

Best free dictation software for Apple devices

Apple Dictation (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Apple Watch)

Apple Dictation pros:

• Very fast

• Ties into Apple's accessibility and Apple Intelligence feature sets

 Apple Dictation cons:

• Limited for professional dictation workflows

Look no further than your Mac, iPhone, or iPad for one of the best dictation tools. Apple's built-in dictation feature, powered by Siri (I wouldn't be surprised if the two merged one day), ships as part of Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems. On iOS devices, you use it by pressing the microphone icon on the stock keyboard. On your desktop, you turn it on by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation, and then use a keyboard shortcut to activate it in your app.

If you want the ability to navigate your Mac with your voice and use dictation, try Voice Control. By default, Voice Control requires the internet to work and has a time limit of about 30 seconds for each smattering of speech. To remove those limits for a Mac, enable Enhanced Dictation, and follow the directions here for your OS (you can also enable it for iPhones and iPads). Enhanced Dictation adds a local file to your device so that you can dictate offline.

You can format and edit your text using simple commands, such as "new paragraph" or "select previous word." Tip: you can view available commands in a small window, like a little cheat sheet, while learning the ropes. Apple also offers a number of advanced commands for things like math, currency, and formatting. 

Apple Dictation price: Included with macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Apple Watch.

Recommendation: For the occasional dictation, I'd recommend the standard Dictation feature available with all Apple systems. But if you need more custom voice features (e.g., medical terms), opt for Voice Control with Enhanced Dictation. You can create and import both custom vocabulary and custom commands and work while offline.

Best free dictation software for Windows

Windows Voice Access (Windows)

Windows Voice Access pros:

• Deep OS integration offers true hands-free control

• Much better than the old Windows Speech Recognition; give it another try if it's been a while

Windows Voice Access cons:

• Very sensitive to microphone quality and background noise

Previously known as Windows 11 Speech Recognition, Voice Access is a strong dictation tool, both for writing documents and controlling your Windows PC. Since it's part of your system, you can use it in any app you have installed.

To start, check that online speech recognition is on by going to Settings > Time and Language > Speech. To begin dictating, open an app, and on your keyboard, press the Windows logo key + H. A microphone icon and gray box will appear at the top of your screen. Make sure your cursor is in the space where you want to dictate.

When it's ready for your dictation, it will say Listening. You have about 10 seconds to start talking before the microphone turns off. If that happens, just click it again and wait for Listening to pop up. To stop the dictation, click the microphone icon again or say "stop talking."  

As I dictated into a Word document, the gray box reminded me to hang on, we need a moment to catch up. If you're speaking too fast, you'll also notice your transcribed words aren't keeping up. This never posed an issue with accuracy, but it's a nice reminder to keep it slow and steady. 

To activate the computer control features, you'll have to go to Settings > Accessibility > Speech instead. While there, tick on Windows Speech Recognition. This unlocks a range of new voice commands that can fully replace a mouse and keyboard. Your voice becomes the main way of interacting with your system.

While you can use this tool anywhere inside your computer, if you're a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you'll be able to use the dictation features there too. The best app to use it on is, of course, Microsoft Word: it even offers file transcription, so you can upload a WAV or MP3 file and turn it into text. The engine is the same, provided by Microsoft Speech Services.

Windows 11 Voice Access price: Included with Windows 11. Also available as part of the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Best customizable dictation software

Dragon by Nuance (Android, iOS, macOS, Windows)

Dragon by Nuance pros:

• Top-tier accuracy, consistently between 96% to 99%

• Good match for sensitive workflows

Dragon by Nuance cons:

• Learning curve and initial setup time for macros, optimizing mic settings, and mastering commands

In 1990, Dragon Dictate emerged as the first dictation software. Over three decades later, we have Dragon by Nuance, a leader in the industry and a distant cousin of that first iteration. With a variety of software packages and mobile apps for different use cases (e.g., legal, medical, law enforcement), Dragon can handle specialized industry vocabulary, and it comes with excellent features, such as the ability to transcribe text from an audio file you upload. 

For this test, I used Dragon Anywhere, Nuance's mobile app, as it's the only version—among otherwise expensive packages—available with a free trial. It includes lots of features not found in the others, like Words, which lets you add words that would be difficult to recognize and spell out. For example, in the script, the word "Litmus'" (with the possessive) gave every app trouble. To avoid this, I added it to Words, trained it a few times with my voice, and was then able to transcribe it accurately.

It also provides shortcuts. If you want to shorten your entire address to one word, go to Auto-Text, give it a name ("address"), type your address and hit Save. The next time you dictate and say "address," you'll get exactly what you saved. Press the comment bubble icon to see text commands while you're dictating, or say "What can I say?" and the command menu pops up.

Once you complete a dictation, you can email, share (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox), open in Word, or save to Evernote. You can perform these actions manually or by voice command (e.g., "save to Evernote"). Once you name it, it automatically saves in Documents for later review or sharing. 

Accuracy is best-in-class and improves with use, showing that you can definitely train your dragon. It's a great choice if you're serious about dictation and plan to use it every day, but may be a bit too much if you're just using it occasionally.

Dragon by Nuance price: $14.99/month for Dragon Anywhere (iOS and Android); Professional packages start at $700 for a perpetual license.

Best dictation app for cross-platform and team-friendly AI dictation

Wispr Flow (Windows, Mac, iOS)

Wispr Flow pros:

• Context-aware automatic editing and formatting

• HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II compliance available

Wispr Flow cons:

• Inaccuracy issues in long stretches of continuous dictation

If you have a Mac at home, use a Windows desktop at work, and tie everything together in your iPhone, should you use a different dictation app for each device? Choose Wispr Flow instead: it's the glue to keep the experience and vocabulary consistent across devices, extending these benefits to your team.

One of the first elements you'll set up when starting Wispr Flow is the styles. Where classic dictation apps only take your speech and turn it into words, Flow can detect which app you're using and adapt the writing to one of three styles: formal with proper punctuation, casual for more relaxed formatting, or very casual for lowercase galore. You can choose which style to use for each app group, so you look professional or approachable depending on the context.

When you finish dictating and release the keyboard shortcut, you'll sometimes notice that it trips on internal company terms. Simply delete the wrong word, write the correct one, and Flow automatically saves that as custom vocabulary. On a team plan, this is shared with everyone, along with snippets: pre-determined text blocks that you can call into existence with a single word, great for dropping a paragraph with your booking link by just saying "Calendly," for example.

Flow is an AI-era dictation app, combining its own proprietary speech recognition model with LLMs to offer nice quality-of-life features. Got anything wrong? Correct yourself as you speak, and Flow can paste what you meant cleanly. Transcription landed as a paragraph instead of a list? Activate the command mode shortcut and speak a prompt to rewrite or reformat. And if you're into vibe coding, you can now try speaking your app into existence by turning that setting on.

Wispr Flow price: Free plan available; Flow Pro is $15/user/month

Best free mobile dictation software

Gboard (Android, iOS)

Gboard pros:

• Handles fast speech and casual talking surprisingly well

• Supports lots of languages

Gboard cons:

• Inconsistent experience based on smartphone hardware

Gboard, also known as Google Keyboard, is a free keyboard native to Android phones. It's also available for iOS: go to the App Store, download the Gboard app, and then activate the keyboard in the settings. In addition to typing, it lets you search the web, translate text, or run a quick Google Maps search.

Back to the topic: it has an excellent dictation feature. To start, press the microphone icon on the top-right of the keyboard. An overlay appears on the screen, filling itself with the words you're saying. It's very quick and accurate, which will feel great for fast-talkers but probably intimidating for the more thoughtful among us. If you stop talking for a few seconds, the overlay disappears, and Gboard pastes what it heard into the app you're using. When this happens, tap the microphone icon again to continue talking.

Wherever you can open a keyboard while using your phone, you can have Gboard supporting you there. You can write emails or notes or use any other app with an input field. And if you were hoping to ever generate your own emoji with AI, now you can: Emogen turns a text prompt into an emoji sticker. Go ahead and dazzle your friends.

The writer who handled the previous update of this list had been using Gboard for seven years, so it had plenty of training data to adapt to his particular enunciation, landing the accuracy at an amazing 98%. I haven't used it much before, so the best I had was 92% overall. It's still a great score. More than that, it's proof of how dictation apps improve the more you use them.

Gboard price: Free

Best dictation software for typing in Google Docs

Google Docs voice typing (Web on Chrome)

Google Docs voice typing pros:

• Also available in Google Slides

• Works anywhere you can run Chrome with a mic

Google Docs voice typing cons:

• No offline support

Just like Microsoft offers dictation in its Office products, Google does the same for its Workspace suite. The best place to use the voice typing feature is in Google Docs, but you can also dictate speaker notes in Google Slides as a way to prepare for your presentation.

To get started, make sure you're using Chrome and have a Google Docs file open. Go to Tools > Voice typing, and press the microphone icon to start. As you talk, the text will jitter into existence in the document.

You can change the language in the dropdown on top of the microphone icon. If you need help, hover over that icon, and click the ? on the bottom-right. That will show everything from turning on the mic, the voice commands for dictation, and moving around the document.

It's unclear whether Google's voice typing here is connected to the same engine in Gboard. I wasn't able to confirm whether the training data for the mobile keyboard and this tool are connected in any way. Still, the engines feel very similar and turned out the same accuracy at 92%. If you start using it more often, it may adapt to your particular enunciation and be more accurate in the long run.

Google Docs voice typing price: Free

Best dictation app for structuring your transcript

Letterly (Web, iOS, Android, Mac)

Letterly pros:

• High accuracy

• Lets you toggle between original transcript and AI rewrite

Letterly cons:

• Limited transcript organization

Using transcription software feels great—look, Mom, no hands! But did you save time? Some dictation sessions can get rambly and confusing, creating a lot of editing work later. Letterly takes care of transcription with a twist: it rewrites and adapts what it hears to make it immediately usable.

The user interface is super simple to use, both on web and mobile. Hit the record button at the center, and start talking. Don't worry about repeating yourself, yapping, or going off-topic—the AI doesn't judge, it's just transcribing and smoothing out the edges.

When you stop recording, a range of options appears on the right side. You can let AI choose the best way to reformat the text or pick it yourself:

• Rewrite in sections and bullet points, shorten, or turn into a list

• Turn into a social media post, video script, or article outline

• Change the writing style to formal, business, or friendly, among others

The transcript is editable. You can go in with your caret and keyboard and chip away, expand, or rewrite yourself. Or if you suddenly need it in Spanish or Japanese, hit the translate button, and it'll be ready in seconds.

Letterly hits a good balance here between being a transcription tool and an AI writing app. And when you connect Letterly with Zapier, you can fold those transcripts into AI-orchestrated workflows that save even more time. For example, you can use AI to generate a polished summary based on your Letterly transcript, store it in a knowledge base for team access, and then send highlights to a project management tool so the right people can act on it.

Letterly price: Free plan available for up to 10 notes; paid plans from $12.90/month

Best dictation app for context-aware AI dictation

Monologue (Mac)

Monologue pros:

• Multilanguage supports switching languages mid-sentence, useful for bilingual settings

• Great user experience

Monologue cons:

• Launched recently (September 2025)

Some dictation apps force you to narrate every formatting detail: "new line, bullet point, capitalize." Monologue takes a different approach by capturing what's on your screen as you speak, using visual context to guess the formatting you want. But it goes beyond that: it also understands what you're trying to do by letting you reference elements and data visible on your screen.

The screen context feature works through Mac's screen recording permissions. Once activated, when you're in Gmail and say "write a follow-up email," it understands the thread context. If you're in a coding environment and reference "this function," it knows which code block you mean. This increases accuracy with domain-specific terminology and lets you speak more naturally without explaining what you want all the time.

Like modern AI dictation tools, Monologue lets you set custom instructions for each mode. Open the settings, and you'll find options to control how it handles emails, notes, or coding. As you dictate, the app learns your vocabulary and adds it to the dictionary, so you don't have to enter your unique terms manually. Multilanguage is strong here too: you can switch between languages mid-sentence without changing settings or breaking flow, useful for bilingual settings.

Worried about data privacy? Monologue states that it does not save your audio or transcripts, deletes deep context screenshots immediately, and has zero LLM data retention. You can even run the transcription locally on your device instead of relying on the cloud models, if you'd like. This transparency matters, considering the app combines voice recording with screen capture.

I really like the interface, with its retro-inspired animation on launch and a monophone that slides out when you hit the keyboard shortcut. Polished user experience is a staple of Every products—which you can unlock as a bundle or individually—each of them an articulation of the team's vision for how AI can empower human work.

Monologue price: $144/year

Best dictation app for chatting with your transcripts

Voicenotes (Web, iOS, Android)

Voicenotes pros:

• Versatile

Voicenotes cons:

• Some AI rewriting features aren't very polished

When you want to take notes with your voice, not so much dictate an entire report, traditional dictation software only goes halfway. You'd still need a note-taking app. Voicenotes acts as a 2-for-1 here.

There are two recording modes. The first one is more traditional, where the app will take what you're saying and render it in text. The other one is the Meetings setting, which will create a bullet-point breakdown. (You can still access the original—look for the small page icon at the bottom right of the card.)

The user interface looks so simple that it's easy to miss all the features. It has solid note organization features, letting you search, star, and create tags. The swirly-pen icon in the card turns the transcript into a blog post, bullet-point list, and other formats. You can attach images or links and even share notes with others.

As you weave Voicenotes into your routine and pour more and more information inside, you can start chatting with the entire content of your account. It has two modes:

• Ask will draw on your notes' content to give accurate replies with sources.

• Create will help you write a blog post or email, letting you select which notes to use as a base.

You can also connect Voicenotes with Zapier, transforming it into more than a personal archive—orchestrating workflows that put those notes to work. For example, you can use AI to generate key insights from your notes, add them to a central database to share with your team, and then send action items to a project management tool so nothing gets lost.

Voicenotes pricing: Free plan available; paid plans from $14.99/month.

Is voice dictation for you?

Dictation software isn't for everyone. It will likely take practice learning to "write" out loud because it will feel unnatural. But once you get comfortable with it, you'll be able to write from anywhere on any device without the need for a keyboard. 

And by using any of the apps I listed here, you can feel confident that most of what you dictate will be accurately captured on the screen. 

Related reading:

• The best transcription services

• Catch typos by making your computer read to you

• Why everyone should try the accessibility features on their computer

• What is Otter.ai?

• The best voice recording apps for iPhone

This article was originally published in April 2016 and has also had contributions from Emily Esposito, Jill Duffy, and Chris Hawkins. The most recent update was in December 2025.