The best dictation apps for writers on Mac

Tap Fn + ⌥ in Ulysses, Word, Google Docs or anything else and talk. Words appear while you speak and none are taken back, so you can watch the paragraph form. The ums and stammers are left out on the Mac, but nothing is reworded: what you said is what you get. Names from your manuscript that are on screen come out spelled right, and a character name you fix once is remembered. Whisper runs on your Mac, so it works on a train with no Wi-Fi.

Koi also has its own documents: headings, lists, tables and pictures, exported to Word or PDF or copied as Markdown, all kept on the Mac. Settings shows the words you dictated this week, your speed and the time saved. For a rewrite, select a paragraph, tap Fn + ⌘ and say “make it shorter”; that part uses cloud AI.

What it lacks: no AI rewrite of dictation as you go, no snippets, no free plan ($20 a month after a 3-day trial that needs a card, or Lifetime from $59), Mac only, 57 languages.

Wispr Flow removes filler words, fixes it when you change your mind mid-sentence and sets a style per app, so an email reads like an email. It runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, in the cloud. Free is 2,000 words a week on desktop, which a working writer will pass quickly; Pro is $15 a month or $12 billed yearly. See Wispr Flow pricing.

Willow's Scribe turns a rough spoken outline into a draft, and it learns how you write and matches your tone across apps. Free has 20 Scribe uses a week and 2,000 words; Pro is $15 a month or $12 billed yearly, with an offline mode. Mac, Windows and iPhone.

Typeless's pitch is messy thoughts in, clear writing out, with a tone per app, translation and voice editing of selected text. It's cloud only, on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. Pro is $12 a month billed yearly, or $30 billed monthly.

Superwhisper sits between the two kinds. Free gives verbatim local dictation; Pro adds AI modes, including a Custom mode with your own tone, formatting and prompt, so you can make one mode for first drafts and another for emails. Pro is $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 once, on every platform.

AudioPen is for thinking out loud on a walk: record, and it rewrites the note in a writing style, including ones you make. Free records up to 3 minutes; Prime allows 15 and unlimited rewrites, at $33 for 3 months, $99 a year or $159 for two years. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, the web and Chrome.

Monologue formats dictation for the app you're in and keeps voice notes with summaries, synced across Mac, iPhone, iPad and Watch. Pro is $15 a month or $144 a year. Its local model gives a raw transcript; formatting needs a connection.

Built in and free, with no time limit; it stops after 30 seconds of silence. On macOS 27, Macs with M3 or later and 12GB of memory get polished English as you speak, Apple says. It has no custom word list, which hurts with invented names.