Repair manual · Switching it off
Turn off Mac dictation
One switch, in one place: System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation, off. It takes about fifteen seconds and nothing else on the Mac changes. The rest of this page is the surrounding cases, in the order people actually need them: stopping a session that has already started, stopping the accidental triggering without losing the feature, the grave accent collision people report, and what a work or school Mac does differently.
- Updated
- August 2, 2026
- Applies to
- System Settings, macOS 13 and later
- Contents
- 5 steps, one of which is the answer
The answer · do this and stop reading
System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation, off
Open System Settings from the Apple menu or the Dock. Click Keyboard in the sidebar and scroll to the Dictation section near the bottom. Switch Dictation off. macOS may ask you to confirm. That is the entire procedure, and it takes effect immediately.
Nothing else needs turning off afterwards. There is no second dictation switch hiding in another pane, no per-app version of it, and no need to restart. The setting belongs to the user account you are signed in to, so other accounts on the same Mac keep their own.
System Settings Keyboard Dictation Off
Which of these is you
Three different problems
“Turn off dictation” usually means one of three things, and they have three different answers. Most people who search for it want the third one.
Case 1
Off, permanently
You do not use it and do not want it. The switch above is the whole answer. Fix 01 covers what turning it off does and does not touch.
Case 2
Off, right now
It is listening at this moment and you want it to stop. Press Escape. Fix 02 has the other two ways out of a live session.
Case 3
Off, until I ask for it
The feature is fine, the trigger is not. Fix 03 changes the shortcut so it stops firing while you are typing.
Fix 01
Turn the feature off, and know what that leaves alone
The Dictation switch in the Keyboard pane is the only control that matters. Flip it off and the shortcut stops doing anything, in every app, for your account.
What it does not do is worth knowing, because people expect more from it than it promises. It does not turn off Siri, which has its own section in System Settings. It does not turn off Voice Control, which lives under Accessibility. It does not affect any third-party dictation app, which has its own hotkey and its own switch. And it does not touch dictation on your iPhone or iPad, which is a per-device setting.
If you turn it off and something still starts transcribing when you press a key, the culprit is another app rather than macOS. Our guide to the Mac dictation shortcut covers how to work out which app owns a key.
System Settings Keyboard Dictation
Dictation off
Siri separate pane
Voice Control accessibility
Fix 02
Stop a session that is already running
If the microphone indicator is on screen and words are arriving that you did not intend, you do not need System Settings. Any of these ends it straight away:
- Press Escape.
- Press the dictation shortcut again, whatever it currently is.
- Press the microphone key, on keyboards that have one.
Apple Dictation also ends itself after roughly 30 seconds without speech, and there is no setting for that duration. So if you have walked away mid-sentence, it has probably already stopped on its own. Waiting it out is a legitimate option, just a slow one.
Three ways out
esc fastest
The shortcut again toggles off
About 30 s of silence by itself
Fix 03
Keep the feature, change the shortcut that keeps firing
This is the fix most people actually want, and it is one menu below the switch they came to flip. In the same Dictation section, open the Shortcut pop-up menu. It shows what your Mac is currently listening for, offers a short list of presets, and has a Customize option that records any combination you press.
On most modern Macs the default is a double press of the Fn (Globe) key. That is a key sitting under your left hand, in a spot fingers brush constantly, with a trigger that only needs two taps in quick succession. Some MacBooks use the microphone key instead, and older external keyboards default to Control pressed twice. Trust the menu over any list, including this one, because Apple varies the default by keyboard.
Pick something you would never press by reflex, then test it in the app you type in most. While you are in that pane, check the "Press Globe key to" setting too: it can point a single Globe press at the emoji picker or an input-source switch, and when two settings share one key the behaviour looks random.
System Settings Keyboard Dictation Shortcut
Presets pick one
Customize your own keys
The usual default: fn pressed twice.
Fix 04
The grave accent collision people report
One specific complaint turns up often enough to name. Mac users have reported that on some keyboard layouts the double-press dictation shortcut gets in the way of typing a grave accent, so the character does not land and a dictation session opens instead. Those reports have mostly been raised against Microsoft's Mac apps, which is where the discussion tends to collect rather than where the cause necessarily sits.
Two honest qualifications, as of August 2026. Apple has not published anything describing this, so it is a user report and not a confirmed defect. And we have not reproduced it across layouts ourselves, so we are not going to tell you which ones are affected.
The remedy does not depend on any of that. Change the dictation shortcut to something that is not a double press of a key you type near, and the collision cannot happen. Fix 03 is the procedure.
Status of the claim
Apple documented no
User reported yes
Fixed by Fix 03 either way
Fix 05
When the switch is greyed out: managed Macs
If the Dictation switch will not move, or the whole section is dimmed, the Mac is probably managed. Employers and schools deploy configuration profiles that set policy centrally, and dictation is one of the things a profile can control: it can be switched off and locked so it cannot be turned back on locally.
Check System Settings, then General, then Device Management. If a profile is listed, the policy is coming from whoever administers the Mac, and the honest answer is that no local trick overrides it. Asking your IT team is not a fob-off here, it is the actual next step.
The same is true in reverse. A profile can disable dictation on a Mac where you wanted it, which is a common cause of the setting simply not being there on a work laptop.
System Settings General Device Management
Profile listed policy wins
Nothing listed not managed
Not the same switch
Three things people turn off by mistake
Each of these gets confused with keyboard Dictation, and turning the wrong one off leaves the original annoyance exactly where it was.
Different feature
Voice Control
Operating the whole Mac by voice, under Accessibility. Note the interaction: keyboard Dictation is unavailable while Voice Control is on, so switching Voice Control on is one way people accidentally “turn off” dictation.
Different feature
Siri
The assistant, with its own pane and its own activation phrase. Turning Siri off does nothing to the Dictation shortcut, and turning Dictation off does nothing to Siri.
Different key
The Globe key's other job
“Press Globe key to” can point a single press at emoji or an input switch. If a key sometimes opens emoji and sometimes starts dictation, that is two settings on one key, not a fault.
If the reason you are here is the opposite problem, that dictation has stopped working rather than started too often, the Mac dictation fix list is the page you want, and how to dictate on a Mac covers using the built-in feature properly.
Worth a thought, once it is off
The problem is usually the trigger
Almost nobody searches for this because dictation transcribed something badly. They search for it because a key they were already touching started a recording they did not ask for, in the middle of a sentence they were typing. That is a shortcut problem, and it comes from a shortcut nobody chose: a default assigned to a key that sits under your hand all day, triggered by a tap you can produce by accident.
A key you pick deliberately behaves differently, and a key you hold behaves differently again. Hold-to-record has no ambiguous state: recording starts when the key goes down and ends when it comes up, so there is no session that can begin without you noticing and none that can be left running. We wrote the whole argument for that model in push to talk dictation on a Mac, including where a toggle is genuinely the better tool. If you would rather keep Apple's version and simply move the key, the shortcut guide is the shorter read.
Dictate is our app. It holds to record by default, uses a hotkey you choose, and puts the text where the cursor already was: Accessibility API first, a paste fallback second, clipboard-only last, which is why it works in native apps, browsers, Electron apps, and terminals. It costs a flat $8 a month, monthly only.
The trades to know before spending anything: transcription runs on our servers over TLS and needs a network connection, so it is not on-device the way Apple's is. The audio is discarded after transcription, and history stores the transcript text and metadata rather than recordings. It transcribes English only. Unused subscriptions are refunded in full; once you have transcribed something, that month is not refundable.
If you want the other kind
A key that only records while you hold it
If you came here to switch something off and that is done, you are finished, and the switch stays off whether or not you read any further. If what you actually want is dictation that never starts on its own, that is a different tool rather than a different setting.
FAQ
The switch, the live session, the shortcut, and the Macs where none of it is yours to change.
How do I turn off dictation on a Mac?
Open System Settings, click Keyboard, scroll to the Dictation section, and switch Dictation off. That is the whole thing. There is no second switch elsewhere and no per-app version of it, and the change applies to the user account you are signed in to.
How do I stop dictation once it has already started?
Press Escape. Pressing the dictation shortcut again also ends the session, as does the microphone key on keyboards that have one. Apple Dictation additionally ends itself after about 30 seconds without speech.
How do I stop dictation triggering by accident without turning it off?
Open System Settings, click Keyboard, then Dictation, and use the Shortcut menu. Pick a different preset or choose Customize and record a combination of your own. On most Macs the default is a double press of the Fn (Globe) key, which is easy to hit without meaning to.
Why does dictation start when I try to type a grave accent?
Mac users have reported that on some keyboard layouts the double-press dictation shortcut gets in the way of typing a grave accent, most often when raising it against Microsoft apps on the Mac. Apple has not published anything on it, so treat it as a user report rather than a confirmed defect. Changing the dictation shortcut resolves the collision either way.
The Dictation switch is greyed out. Why can I not change it?
On a Mac managed by an employer or a school, a configuration profile can disable dictation or lock the setting so it cannot be changed locally. Look in System Settings under General, then Device Management, to see whether a profile is installed. If one is, the profile wins and only whoever administers it can change the policy.
Does turning off Dictation also turn off Siri or Voice Control?
No. They are separate settings. Siri has its own section in System Settings, and Voice Control lives under Accessibility. Worth knowing in the other direction too: keyboard Dictation is unavailable while Voice Control is switched on, so a Mac that will not dictate is sometimes a Mac with Voice Control running.
Will turning off Dictation stop a third-party dictation app?
No. Apple Dictation and third-party apps are separate programs with separate hotkeys, so switching Apple’s off leaves the other one running. If something is still transcribing after you flipped the switch, look at which app owns the key you pressed.