How to dictate emails in Gmail on a Mac

Gmail's compose window is a text field in your browser, so the Mac's own Dictation types into it, in Safari, Chrome or any other browser. The steps follow Apple's Dictation guide for macOS 27, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Turn on Dictation once: Apple menu > System Settings > Keyboard, then turn on Dictation and click Enable.
2. In Gmail, click Compose, or Reply on an email.
3. Type the address in To. Addresses are quicker typed than said.
4. Click into the subject or the body, then press the Microphone key, your Dictation shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation.
5. Talk, then press Escape or your shortcut to stop.
6. Read it over and send with the Send button or Command-Return.

In supported languages Dictation adds commas and full stops by itself. Say “new paragraph” between thoughts so the email isn't one block. The full list of spoken commands is in our guide on how to dictate on a Mac.

We couldn't find one. Gmail on the web has no microphone button in the compose window, and Google's Gmail keyboard shortcuts list none for voice, checked October 21, 2026. Google's voice typing lives in Google Docs, under Tools, Voice typing, so one way round it is to dictate in a Doc and paste the text into Gmail. Our guide to dictating in Google Docs has those steps. Mac dictation, typing straight into Gmail, is quicker.

From the same shortcuts page, the ones that matter when you dictate an email on a Mac:

• Command-Return sends. Plain Return in the body is a new line, so a dictated line break never sends your email.
• Command-Shift-7 starts a numbered list, Command-Shift-8 a bulleted one.
• Command-B, Command-I and Command-U for bold, italics and underline, after you select the words.
• Command-K adds a link to the selected text.

The fastest way to a tidy email by voice: say it all, then select and format. Bold and links are a few keys each, and you're not saying “bold” out loud in an open-plan office.

We make Koi, so weigh this part with that in mind. Koi's dictation types into Gmail like any other app:

1. Click into the subject or body of a Gmail draft.
2. Tap Fn + ⌥ once and talk. Words appear while you speak.
3. Tap the keys again to stop, or go quiet and it stops by itself.
4. Read it over and send it yourself. Koi types; it never sends an email for you.

• Proper punctuation. A browser isn't a chat app, so Koi keeps the full stop at the end, the way an email should read. Settings, under Dictation, sets a style per app: Casual drops the full stop, Formal keeps it. It's per app, so a style you give your browser covers Gmail and every other site in it.
• No ums. They go, a stammered word is written once, and in English “send it Friday, no, Monday” comes out as “send it Monday”.
• Say a list. “First, … Second, … Third, …” comes out as a numbered list, a line an item, and “Bullet point, …” with dashes. Good enough for most emails, and Command-Shift-8 makes them Gmail bullets.
• Names spelled right. As you start, the names on screen, like the sender of the email you're answering, are read on your Mac and told to the speech model. Never sent, never kept.
• Snippets. Save “my address”, “my phone” or “my calendar link” once, then say the phrase while dictating and the text is typed instead.

The speech model runs on your Mac, so what you dictate into an email isn't sent anywhere to be turned into text. Teach it client and product names in adding words to Mac dictation.

• Say the ask first. Spoken emails ramble; put what you need from them in the first sentence, then the detail.
• Reply from the thread. With the email you're answering on screen, the sender's name and the terms in it are easier to get right.
• Write the subject last. Once the body is done, you know what it's about.
• Read it once out loud in your head before Command-Return. Dictation mishears names and numbers more than anything else.

Dictation types what you say. Sometimes you'd rather say what you mean. Select text in your Gmail draft, tap Fn + ⌘ and say “make this friendlier” or “fix the grammar”, and Koi changes it in place, with the changed words highlighted; Command-Z takes it back. That's Koi the assistant, not dictation, and it isn't local: your voice and the selected text go to Koi's AI.

After a call you recorded with Koi, it also writes the follow-up email, the way you talk, one click from a draft in Apple Mail. Using Gmail instead? Copy the text into a Gmail draft. More on recording calls.

• It doesn't fill in To or Cc, attach files or send. Type addresses, and press Command-Return yourself.
• It doesn't format: no bold, links or Gmail's own bullets. Select and use the shortcuts above.
• The follow-up email after a call opens in Apple Mail, not Gmail.
• It's Mac only, so it won't help in the Gmail app on your phone.
• It needs a paid plan, and Apple Dictation is free. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once: $59 for the first 25 buyers, rising to $199. Koi runs on macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel.

If nothing happens when you dictate in the browser, our guide to fixing Mac dictation goes through the causes. For chat, see dictating in Slack.