Dictation on the Mac

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Dictating on the Mac works with built-in tools already — but there are limits. This page covers how Apple’s built-in dictation works, why local processing makes a difference, and how Twirly turns speech directly into clean text.

Built-in Mac dictation: what it does and where it stops

Apple Dictation is free, built into macOS, and perfectly fine for short, occasional messages. Longer dictations run into limits: timeouts after a while, no automatic cleanup of filler words or self-corrections, and no dedicated read-aloud workflow. Processing is mostly done in the cloud.

Why local processing matters for dictation

With local processing, your spoken text never leaves the Mac — relevant if you dictate contracts, patient notes, or confidential emails. It also means no network round-trip, so it keeps working on a train or on bad Wi-Fi, with no waiting on a server. The full breakdown of local vs. cloud is in our “Local or cloud?” guide.

How dictation works in Twirly

Press one key (§), speak, done — in any text field on your Mac, whether it’s Mail, Notes, or a chat app. Twirly understands 25 European languages, from German and English to French, Italian and Spanish. Importantly, Twirly doesn’t type what you say word for word: it automatically removes filler words, adds punctuation, and phrases things cleanly — “clean instead of literal”. Speech recognition and text processing run entirely on your Mac’s Apple Silicon GPU.

The paragraph key (§) on the Mac keyboard — Twirly’s trigger for dictation — Left: the § key you press to dictate — right: Twirly’s recording cloud that appears while you speak.

Twirly’s colourful recording cloud that appears while you dictate on the Mac — Left: the § key you press to dictate — right: Twirly’s recording cloud that appears while you speak.

More than dictation: editing and read-aloud

Dictation is just one of three abilities behind the same key in Twirly: select text and click the § key to correct, shorten or rephrase it — or just say what you want done. You can have any selected text read back to you, too; more on our Text to speech on the Mac page.

System requirements

A Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer)
macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
About 6 GB of free disk space
On first launch: grant microphone (dictation) and Accessibility (the § key)
On-device models: Parakeet v3 (speech recognition) · Qwen3-8B (text processing) · Supertonic 3 (voice) — run fully locally on the Apple Silicon GPU, hence no Intel Macs
Network is used only for license activation and the update check
Not available for Intel Macs, Windows, iPhone or iPad

Frequently asked questions

How do I dictate on the Mac without using the cloud?

With a local dictation app like Twirly: speech recognition, text processing and read-aloud all run directly on the Mac, without audio or text ever leaving the device.

Isn’t the built-in macOS dictation enough?

For short, occasional messages, yes. For longer text, Apple Dictation runs into limits: timeouts, no automatic filler-word cleanup, no dedicated read-aloud workflow.

Which languages does Twirly understand for dictation?

25 European languages, from German and English to French, Italian and Spanish.

Does dictation in Twirly work offline?

Yes. Since everything runs locally, dictation also works in airplane mode — Twirly only needs the internet for license activation and the update check.

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As of July 2026. Prices and features may change — the manufacturers’ own information is authoritative. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.