By the job
Dictation, by what you do all day
Seven pages, each one about a kind of work rather than a feature list. They exist because the same tool is a clear win in one job and a distraction in another, and the difference is not the profession itself. It is how much of the day is sentences.
- Updated
- August 2, 2026
- Guides
- 7, in two groups
- Start with
- Dictation for writers
The test
Prose, not structure
Dictation is good at sentences and poor at structure. That one line predicts almost everything here, and it is why a developer and a solicitor can both be a good fit for the same tool while using it for completely different things.
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Speech wins where the output is sentences.
Client emails, file notes, first drafts, feedback, bug reports, prompts. You already know what you want to say, and saying it is faster than typing it.
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The keyboard wins where the output is structure.
Code syntax, spreadsheet formulas, citations, tables, anything with more punctuation than words. Speaking those out loud is slower than typing them and always will be.
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Names and jargon decide the rest.
Every job here has words no general model has heard. Apple Dictation has no custom dictionary. Dictate has a glossary of your own terms plus the ways you say them, which is the difference between fixing a name once and fixing it every day.
Dictate is our app. It transcribes English only, handles live speech rather than recordings you already have, and needs a network connection, so those three are worth checking against your work before anything else.
Group one
Where the words are the work
Drafting, building, and getting a first version out of your head. The thing being measured here is how quickly a rough draft exists, not how polished it is on the first pass.
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Writing
Writers
Getting a rough draft down at speaking speed. How novelists, journalists, and bloggers actually use dictation, and the point where it stops helping.
Read it
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Engineering
Developers
Most of a coding day is English: prompts, commit messages, PR notes, bug reports. Speech handles those. The keyboard keeps the syntax.
Read it
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Accessibility
Dyslexia
For many people with dyslexia, saying a sentence beats spelling it. An honest guide, including the free built-in option and reading text back aloud.
Read it
Group two
Where the words are the record
Professional practice, where the note is the deliverable and where the question of what happens to the audio matters as much as the speed. Each of these pages answers that question in plain terms.
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Legal
Lawyers, after Dragon
Dragon left the Mac in October 2018. How lawyers dictate letters, memos, and file notes on a Mac now, and exactly where the audio goes.
Read it
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Legal
Legal practice workflow
The day-to-day version: dictating into Word, Outlook, and case-management tools without sending anything to a transcriptionist first.
Read it
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Finance
Accountants
Client replies and workpaper notes at busy-season speed, spoken into Excel, Outlook, and the practice tools around them.
Read it
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People
HR
Casework notes, feedback, and policy drafts, with a plain account of what happens to the audio and what the history actually keeps.
Read it
Before you pick a page
Four things that rule it out
These apply whatever your job is, and it is cheaper to read them now than to find them out later.
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You work in more than one language.
Dictate transcribes English only.
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The audio must never leave your Mac.
Ours goes over TLS to our servers, is transcribed, and is then discarded. That is not the same as on-device, and if the distinction matters to you, a local-model app is the honest answer. The full privacy picture sets out each tool separately.
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You need recordings transcribed.
Live speech only. An interview or hearing you already recorded needs a file transcriber instead.
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You work somewhere without a connection.
Transcription needs the network. Only the subscription check works offline.
Elsewhere on the site
If your job is not on the list
The mechanics do not change by profession, so the general guides cover the rest.
- Dictate in a specific app the tools your day actually happens in
- The Mac dictation guides setup, fixes, privacy, offline behaviour
- Mac dictation alternatives managed, local, one-time, and file transcription
- Dictation vs typing speed the numbers behind the time saved
- How Dictate handles your data the same answer, in full
The app
If your day is mostly sentences
Dictate is our app. Hold a key, speak, release, and the text lands in whatever field the cursor was already in. Flat $8 a month, monthly only, with a glossary for the names your work is full of. Transcription runs on our servers over TLS and needs a network connection, and the audio is discarded once the text comes back. Unused subscriptions are refunded in full; once anything has been transcribed, that month is not refundable.
FAQ
The questions that come up whatever the job is.
How do I know whether dictation suits my job?
Count how much of your day is sentences rather than structure. Emails, notes, drafts, prompts, and file memos are sentences, and speech is faster than typing at them. Spreadsheets, code syntax, and anything with heavy punctuation are structure, and the keyboard stays better at those.
Can it learn client names, case references, and jargon?
Dictate has a glossary: you add a canonical term and the ways you actually say it out loud, and you can review or remove entries in Settings. Apple Dictation has no custom dictionary at all; custom vocabulary on a Mac is a Voice Control feature, which is a separate system feature.
Is this safe for confidential work?
Here is exactly what happens, so you can decide. Audio travels over TLS to our servers, is transcribed there, and is then discarded. Account history stores the transcript text and its metadata, never recordings. It is not local or on-device. If your requirement is that audio never leaves the machine, a local-model app is the honest answer.
Does it work in languages other than English?
No. Dictate transcribes English only. If you work across languages, this is the point to stop reading rather than the point to try it.
Can it transcribe a recorded interview, hearing, or meeting?
No. Dictate transcribes live speech only, never an audio file you already have. For a recording, a file transcriber such as MacWhisper is the right tool, and the alternatives index sets out which tools do which job.
Is there a free option worth trying first?
Yes. The dictation built into macOS is free, works in any app with a text field, and is enough for a lot of people. Its limits are specific: it stops after about 30 seconds without speech with no setting for the timeout, and it cannot learn a word it has never heard.