The Mac dictation shortcut is set in System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation > Shortcut. Pick a preset there, or choose Customize and press any key combination you like. If your keyboard has a Microphone key in the function row, a single press of it starts Dictation too, and you stop with Escape, the same key, or the shortcut again.
Below: how to find and change the macOS dictation shortcut on a MacBook or desktop Mac, what to check when it does nothing, and the spoken commands Apple's Dictation understands. Disclosure: I build Vext, a Mac dictation app that appears in the last section. Everything before it is built into macOS.
Where to find the Mac dictation shortcut
Apple keeps the shortcut with the rest of the Dictation settings, per its Mac User Guide:
- Open System Settings from the Apple menu and select Keyboard (you may need to scroll down the sidebar).
- Go to Dictation and turn it on if it's off. Click Enable when asked. The rest of the first-time setup is in how to dictate on Mac.
- Open the Shortcut pop-up menu to see the current shortcut and the presets.
- Set Microphone source in the same section if your Mac picks the wrong mic.
One preset to know: if you choose Press Fn (Function) Key Twice, macOS changes the separate "Press fn key to" setting to Start Dictation (Press Fn Twice) on its own. If your Globe/Fn key stopped switching input sources or opening emoji after you changed the dictation shortcut, that setting is why.
The Microphone key has its own rule. Press and release it to start Dictation; press and hold it to activate Siri, if Siri is on.
How to change the dictation shortcut on a MacBook
To change the dictation shortcut on a Mac, open the same Shortcut pop-up and pick another preset, or choose Customize and press the keys you want. Apple's example is Option-Z.
A few practical rules for a custom shortcut:
- Pick something you never press while typing. A double-press preset or a rarely used combination beats a single letter with one modifier.
- Siri's shortcut is a different setting. It sits in Siri settings under Keyboard shortcut (Customize Siri on Mac), so keep the two on clearly different keys.
- On a laptop without a Microphone key, the shortcut is your only key-based start. Edit > Start Dictation in the menu bar is the fallback.
How to start dictation on Mac (and stop it)
There are three ways to start, and three to stop. Place the cursor where the text should go, then press the Microphone key, use the dictation shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation. When the cursor pulses or you hear the tone, speak.
To stop, press Escape, the Microphone key, or the shortcut again. There's no length limit on a dictation, but Apple's Dictation ends on its own after 30 seconds with no speech. On a Mac with Apple silicon you can keep typing while Dictation listens, and it resumes when you stop typing.
When the shortcut does nothing
If pressing the shortcut does nothing at all, the cause is usually a setting rather than the microphone. Work down this list, based on Apple's Dictation troubleshooting page and its Dictation guide:
- Dictation is off. Turn it on in System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation.
- You're pressing the old shortcut. Open the Shortcut pop-up and check what's actually set, especially after a macOS update or a keyboard change.
- Voice Control is on. When Voice Control is on, standard Dictation isn't available; you dictate through Voice Control instead.
- The wrong microphone is selected. Check Microphone source under Dictation and System Settings > Sound > Input.
If Dictation starts but the words come out wrong, that's a different problem with different fixes. I covered it in why Mac dictation gets words wrong.
Mac dictation commands: punctuation, formatting and symbols
Mac dictation commands let you say punctuation, line breaks, capitalization and symbols by name. Apple's list of commands for dictating text says they're always available while you dictate. The ones worth memorizing:
| Category | Say | You get |
|---|---|---|
| Punctuation | "period" (or "point", "dot", "full stop"), "comma", "question mark", "exclamation mark", "colon", "semicolon" | . , ? ! : ; |
| Quotes and brackets | "quote" … "end quote", "open parenthesis" … "close parenthesis" | “ ” ( ) |
| Dashes | "dash", "hyphen", "ellipsis" | – - … |
| Line breaks | "new line", "new paragraph", "tab key" | Return once, Return twice, Tab |
| Spacing | "no space on" … "no space off" | The next phrase without spaces |
| Capitalization | "caps on" … "caps off", "all caps", "all caps on" … "all caps off" | Title Case, or ALL CAPS |
| Numbers | "numeral", "roman numeral" | The next phrase as a number |
| Symbols | "at sign", "hashtag", "ampersand", "percent sign", "dollar sign", "euro sign" | @ # & % $ € |
Two details save frustration. In supported languages, Dictation inserts commas, periods and question marks on its own, so you may not need to say them at all. Turn that off with Auto-punctuation in the Dictation settings if it guesses wrong. And "new line" and "new paragraph" appear when you finish dictating, not while you're still talking.
Apple dictation commands vs Voice Control commands
Apple's Dictation commands only enter text. There's no "scratch that", "select that" or "delete that" in the Dictation list, so you fix mistakes with the keyboard. Editing, selecting and clicking by voice belong to Voice Control, a separate accessibility feature that replaces Dictation while it's on. If you want hands-free control of the whole Mac, that's the tool; hands-free dictation on Mac covers where it fits.
A dictation shortcut you hold instead of double-press
For most people, macOS Dictation and its shortcut are enough, and they cost nothing. A separate app earns its place if you dictate many times an hour and want a key you hold rather than press twice, or if you want "scratch that" and a clean paste into terminals and chat apps.
That's the case Vext is built for. Hold Left Shift, speak, and let go: the text is pasted at your cursor. Press Right Command to start hands-free dictation and again to stop; hands-free takes also stop after a minute of silence by default. A shortcut that includes Shift never starts in under half a second, so typing capital letters doesn't trigger it. Both keys can be changed in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts.
Spoken punctuation and commands are off by default, because words like "period" also turn up in ordinary sentences. Turn them on in Settings > General, and Show commands lists every phrase. Vext then understands "period", "comma", "new line", "new paragraph", "open quote" and "scratch that", in English and in your dictation language. "Scratch that" removes the last phrase back to the previous punctuation mark.
Two more opt-ins: Code commands, set per app, turn "git checkout dash b main" into git checkout -b main, and Say "send" to submit presses Return when a hands-free dictation ends with "send" after a pause.
The honest limits: Vext doesn't do Apple's formatting commands like "caps on" or "numeral", and it doesn't click or navigate by voice the way Voice Control does. It's Mac only, needs macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon, and speech recognition runs on the Mac with the Parakeet model by default. If you're weighing it against what macOS already does, Apple Dictation vs Vext goes through the differences.
Download Vext: $49 one-time, with 100 dictations, 50 notes and 10 meetings free to try it. macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon.
brew install muvon/tap/vext