How to dictate in Portuguese on your Mac

Apple Dictation takes Portuguese on every Mac, for free. You add Portuguese as a Dictation language once, then talk. These steps follow Apple's Dictation guide for macOS 27, and the language lists come from Apple's macOS feature availability page, both checked October 21, 2026.

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
2. Go to Dictation and turn it on. If a message appears, click Enable.
3. Click Edit next to Languages, select Portuguese (Brazil) or Portuguese (Portugal), then click Done.
4. Click where the text should go, then press the Microphone key, your Dictation shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation.
5. Speak Portuguese. Press Escape, the Microphone key or the shortcut to stop. Dictation also stops by itself after 30 seconds without speech.

Under Dictation, Keyboard settings say whether your speech is processed on the Mac or sent to Apple. For shortcuts and commands, see how to dictate on a Mac.

Apple lists two versions of Portuguese for Dictation, and they differ:

• Portuguese (Brazil) is on Apple's On-Device and Modeless Dictation list, so it can run on the Mac without a connection.
• Portuguese (Portugal) isn't on that list, so expect it to need a connection. Keyboard settings say which applies on your Mac.
• Neither is on Apple's Auto-punctuation list, so you say commas and full stops yourself in both.

Apple can change these lists with any macOS update, so its feature availability page is the one to check. Speakers from Angola, Mozambique or Cape Verde should pick whichever of the two gets their words right, as Apple doesn't list a version for them.

Add both under Languages. While Dictation is on, click the language shown next to the cursor and pick the other, or press the Globe key if your keyboard has one. Apple Dictation doesn't switch by itself, so it's a click each time you move from a Portuguese message to an English one.

We make Koi, so read this part with that in mind. Koi is a Mac app whose dictation types in any app, written on your Mac. Its built-in speech model, NVIDIA's Parakeet v3, covers 25 European languages including Portuguese, and works out which one you're speaking by itself. It writes punctuation as it goes, and it never needs a connection.

1. Install Koi and go through its short welcome. Parakeet v3 is in use from the start.
2. In Koi's Settings, under Dictation, leave Language on Auto-detect, or pick Portuguese if it's all you speak.
3. Also in Settings, under Dictation, switch Tidy what I say off while you dictate Portuguese. The next section says why.
4. Click where the words should go, in any app, and tap Fn + ⌥ once.
5. Speak Portuguese. Go quiet and Koi stops by itself, or tap Fn + ⌥ again.

The model runs on your Mac, so dictation never goes online, Brazil and Portugal alike. Koi runs on macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. More on the dictation page.

• Watch for “um”: Tidy what I say (on to begin with) drops fillers, and up to Koi 1.13 it counts “um” as one in every language. In Portuguese “um” is a word (“um carro”). The next update keeps it; until then, switch Tidy what I say off in Settings, under Dictation, when you dictate Portuguese.
• Brazilian or European: NVIDIA's Parakeet v3 model card notes that its Portuguese training data is European Portuguese, while most tests use Brazilian. It reports 4.76% of words wrong on the FLEURS Portuguese test, for the original model. Koi runs a converted copy and we haven't measured Portuguese ourselves, so try it with your own accent.
• Your words: names and terms in Your words, in Settings, under Dictation, are spelled your way. See our guide to adding words.
• Snippets: save a phrase like “meu endereço” and your address, and saying it types the address. Snippets work with tidying off.
• English only: spoken corrections (“at 3, no, 4”) and the commands “new line”, “new paragraph” and “clear all”. Koi doesn't take those in Portuguese.

If Parakeet doesn't get your Brazilian Portuguese right, switch in Settings, under Dictation. Each is a free download, and all of these list Portuguese: Whisper Base, Small and Large v3 Turbo (OpenAI), Qwen3-ASR (Alibaba), Cohere Transcribe and Granite Speech (IBM). Whisper and Qwen3-ASR find the language by themselves; Cohere and Granite need Portuguese picked. In Koi, Granite writes without punctuation or capitals.

A good test: dictate the same paragraph with Parakeet and with Whisper Large v3 Turbo, and keep the one with fewer fixes. Need your Portuguese typed in English? Whisper Base, Whisper Small and Granite Speech can do that with Type in English. See speaking any language and typing in English and Koi's speech models.

• English words where you said Portuguese: check the language next to the cursor in Apple Dictation, and switch it, or press the Globe key.
• Apple Dictation stops working on a train or a plane: you probably picked Portuguese (Portugal), which Apple doesn't list for on-device dictation. Portuguese (Brazil) is.
• No commas or full stops with Apple Dictation: neither Portuguese version has Auto-punctuation, so say them out loud.
• Short phrases come out in Spanish or English in Koi: set Language to Portuguese in Settings, under Dictation, rather than Auto-detect, so the model is told.
• Little words missing in Koi, like um: switch Tidy what I say off until the next update, which keeps um in Portuguese.
• Portuguese typed as English in Koi: Type in English is on. Switch it off in the same place.
• A name spelled wrong every time: add it to Your words. Koi also reads the names on your screen as you start, on the Mac, so a name in the message you're answering comes out right.

Work in English, think in Portuguese? On a recorded call, Koi can show what the others say at the bottom of your screen in Portuguese, with their own words under it. Turn on “Live captions in my language” in Settings, under Koi, and pick Portuguese. It needs macOS 26 or later.

Apple's Translation does the translating on your Mac, and the captions never show in a screen you share. If Portuguese isn't downloaded yet, Settings offers it. The live captions page has the rest.

• You speak Brazilian Portuguese, now and then, one language at a time: Apple Dictation is free and runs on the Mac.
• You speak European Portuguese and want it offline: Koi, since Apple's Portugal version isn't listed for on-device dictation.
• You'd rather not say every comma: Koi, since Apple lists no Auto-punctuation for Portuguese.
• You switch between Portuguese and English all day: Koi finds the language by itself.

Koi needs a paid plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. Dictation is unlimited on every plan. See pricing, and if the shortcut does nothing at all, our guide to fixing Mac dictation. The same model writes down your recorded calls and the files you drop in.