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Yes, you can dictate email on a Mac, and the free way is already built in. Turn on Dictation in System Settings > Keyboard, click in the body of the email, then press the Microphone key or your Dictation shortcut. That works in Apple Mail, in Outlook and in Gmail in your browser. Outlook for Mac also has its own Dictate button for Microsoft 365 subscribers. Speaky Box, which we make, types a finished email instead of a transcript.
To dictate an email on a Mac, turn on macOS Dictation once in System Settings > Keyboard, then click in the email and start talking. It's free and works in Apple Mail, Outlook, Gmail in a browser and any other mail app with a text box. Here are the steps, checked on Apple's guide on 20 October 2026:
Apple says Dictation stops by itself after 30 seconds without speech, and otherwise has no time limit. On a Mac with Apple silicon you can keep typing while it listens. In Dictation settings you can also check whether your dictation is processed on your Mac rather than sent to Apple's servers. Source: Apple's Dictate messages and documents on Mac. Our guide to speech to text on a Mac covers the wider options.
Yes. Apple Mail has no dictation button of its own, but macOS Dictation works in every Mail field: To, Subject and the message body. In Mail, click in the body, then press your Dictation shortcut or choose Edit > Start Dictation from Mail's menu bar. Say "new paragraph" to start a new paragraph, the same as pressing Return twice.
In supported languages Dictation adds commas, full stops and question marks as you talk. You can turn that off with the Auto-punctuation switch under Dictation in Keyboard settings, and you can still say a mark out loud, such as "exclamation mark". Say "new line" for a single line break, which suits an address or a list of times. There's more on what to say and what macOS adds for you in our guide to Mac dictation punctuation.
If Dictation isn't sure of a word, Apple says it underlines the word in blue. Click it to pick an alternative, or type the right word. In an email that mostly happens with names, so read the greeting before you press Send.
Outlook for Mac has its own Dictate button. Microsoft's steps: start a new email or reply, then go to Message > Dictate while signed in to Microsoft 365. You can also start it with Option + F1. Wait for the Dictate button to switch on, then start speaking. Microsoft says the feature is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers and needs a microphone and a reliable internet connection.
The gear icon next to Dictate opens its settings: the spoken language, the microphone, an Auto Punctuation checkbox where your language supports it, and a profanity filter. English (United Kingdom) is on Microsoft's list of supported languages, but the default is English (United States), so British users should change it. You can say punctuation such as "comma", "full stop" and "question mark", and "new line" for a line break. Microsoft says the service doesn't store your audio or the transcribed text. Word uses the same Dictate tool; our page on dictating in Word compares it there.
If dictation in Outlook isn't working, start with what Microsoft lists. If there is no Dictate button, check your subscription first: Microsoft says the feature is for Microsoft 365 subscribers only. "Another app is using your mic" means you should close the other app or browser tab using the microphone. If nothing appears, check the microphone isn't muted, then try a headset. You can also skip the Dictate button: macOS Dictation works in Outlook's compose window too, on any Outlook version. Source: Microsoft's Dictate your emails in Outlook, read 20 October 2026.
Yes, with macOS Dictation. Open Gmail in Safari or Chrome, click in the compose box, then press your Dictation shortcut. Google's Gmail help lists no dictation button for Gmail on a computer that we could find. Google's voice typing (Tools > Voice typing) is a Google Docs feature, and Google's help for it covers Docs and Slides, not Gmail.
That makes Gmail on a Mac a choice between macOS Dictation, which is free and fine for a few lines, and a separate dictation app such as Speaky Box. Browser extensions also exist; we haven't checked them, so we don't list any here. Source for the Docs feature: Google's Type and edit with your voice, read 20 October 2026, which lists the latest Chrome, Edge and Safari as supported browsers.
Yes. Verbally dictating an email on a Mac means talking into the compose window instead of typing, and macOS Dictation, Outlook's Dictate and Speaky Box all do it. The difference is what you have to do afterwards. With macOS Dictation and Outlook's Dictate you get a transcript: you say the greeting, the punctuation you need and "new paragraph" between points, then tidy up what's left.
With Speaky Box you talk the way you'd leave a voicemail and let go of the key. Hold the Smart key in Mail and it writes an email from what you said: a greeting, the body and a sign-off. Hold the Dictate key instead and you get your own words tidied, with the ums and false starts gone and the grammar fixed, but no greeting added. That suits a one-line reply or a Subject line.
The demo above shows a meeting being moved. Here's a longer one, a note to a landlord about a broken boiler, as you might say it with the Smart key held and Mail in front:
email to priya, so the boiler's stopped again, it's the third time since september, um, the engineer came on the 2nd, no, the 3rd, and said the part needs replacing, can you let me know when someone can come, I'm in every day after four
This is what lands in the message body:
Hi Priya,
The boiler has stopped working again, the third time since September. The engineer came on the 3rd and said a part needs replacing.
Could you let me know when someone can come out? I'm in every day after 4pm.
Thanks
The um is gone, the date you corrected yourself on is the one that stays, and the request has its own paragraph. A plain transcript would give you the words as you said them, both dates included, for you to fix by hand. Your signature still comes from Mail, under the sign-off.
We make Speaky Box, so weigh this table with that in mind. It's for writing email on a Mac. The Outlook and macOS rows are from Microsoft's and Apple's pages, read 20 October 2026.
| Outlook's Dictate | macOS Dictation | Speaky Box | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Microsoft 365 subscribers only | Free, built into macOS | Free for 2,000 words a week, then £8.99 a month |
| Where it works | Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 apps such as Word | Apple Mail, Outlook, Gmail in a browser and other apps | Wherever your cursor is, in any mail app or any other Mac app |
| How you start it | Message > Dictate, or Option + F1 | Microphone key, your Dictation shortcut, or Edit > Start Dictation | Hold a key, talk, let go |
| What lands in the email | A transcript of what you said | A transcript of what you said | With the Smart key, an email with a greeting, body and sign-off; with the Dictate key, your words tidied |
| Punctuation | An Auto Punctuation setting where your language supports it, or say it | Commas, full stops and question marks added in supported languages; say the rest | Added for you |
| Internet | Needed | Apple's guide shows how to check whether it's processed on your Mac | Needed |
| Catch | Needs a subscription, and only works in Microsoft's apps | You add the greeting, the paragraph breaks and the tidying | Another app to install, and a subscription past the free words |
If you dictate the odd short reply, macOS Dictation is enough and costs nothing. If you live in Outlook and already pay for Microsoft 365, its Dictate button is the one to try first. Speaky Box is for people who write several emails a day by voice and want each one ready to send without tidying it by hand. The full comparison of Speaky Box and Mac dictation goes into more detail.
Speaky Box and macOS Dictation both type where the cursor is. In a new Mail message the cursor often starts in the To field, so click in the body first. Fill in the Subject with the Dictate key or by typing; the Smart key is for the body, where a greeting and sign-off belong.
When you reply in Mail, the earlier message sits underneath. Put the cursor at the top, above the quote, and the email Speaky Box writes lands there with the thread left alone below it.
Speaky Box writes a sign-off such as "Thanks" but never a signature. The signature you've set in Mail's settings still goes in as normal, so you won't get two.
Names are where any speech engine slips, and a misspelt name in a greeting is the first thing the reader sees. Add the names you email often to Speaky Box's Words list once, and they're spelt right in Mail and every other app.
Those are the words a speech engine is most likely to get wrong and the ones a reader notices first.
The Smart key shapes its output to the app in front. In Slack it writes a message instead of an email, and in Apple Notes the Dictate key suits quick notes to yourself.