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The average person types 52 words a minute on a computer keyboard, according to a 2018 University of Cambridge study of 168,000 volunteers. When Stanford-led researchers had people speak into a phone instead, they managed 153. That gap is the whole appeal of dictation software. The name most people reach for is Dragon, and in the UK it's now a Windows-only package sold through resellers, with its cheaper Home edition withdrawn in 2023.
What is dictation software?
Dictation software types what you say into whatever app you're using. Every Mac, iPhone, Windows 11 PC and Android phone has a free version built in (Apple, Microsoft, Google). Newer AI apps also strip out the "ums" and false starts and reshape your words for an email or a message. Older packages such as Dragon focus on word-for-word accuracy and voice commands.
Why is everyone talking about it?
Partly because the speed gap is well measured. In that Stanford-led study, first published in 2016, 48 people on an iPhone were 2.93 times faster speaking than typing, though slightly more errors were left in the finished text.
The other reason is AI apps such as 
Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store →, searched about 12,100 times a month in the UK. "Dictation software" gets about 480 searches, "voice to text software" 390, "dragon dictation" 590 and "google docs voice typing" 1,000 (Google Keyword Planner, October 2026). Built-in tools have improved too: Apple now lets you dictate "text of any length without a timeout", and Microsoft replaced Windows Speech Recognition with Voice Access in September 2024.
What does it cost, and what's the catch?
The built-in options cost nothing. The AI apps cluster around $85 to $145 a year in October 2026, from 
SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store → at $84.99 to Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → at $144 billed annually. Dragon Professional v16 is about £599 including VAT once, or £353 a year on subscription, from UK resellers.
The catch most people miss is where your voice goes. The cleanest text mostly comes from cloud apps, often US-based: Wispr Flow says "Transcription always happens in the cloud". Free plans also differ more than they look, and British spelling isn't automatic.
The short answer: Most people should start with what they already own: Apple Dictation in UK English runs on the device for free, and Windows 11 has voice typing and Voice Access. For polished text on every device with British spelling, Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → is the strongest all-rounder at £143.99 a year on the UK App Store. SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store → keeps dictation on the laptop, with a free offline plan and a $249.99 one-off licence. 
VoiceOSVoiceOSVoiceOS is a voice app for Mac and Windows with two modes: Dictation Mode cleans up speech into polished text in any app, and Agent Mode carries out spoken tasks such as sending anBuying guide · View store → is for people who want their voice to send the email as well as write it. Dragon still suits Windows users who want offline work and a one-off price. Every app we cover is on our dictation apps page.
Dictation software compared
The main options side by side, with prices from each company's own pages in October 2026 (UK App Store prices are in the sections below).
| Tool | Works on | Free plan | Paid | Where your voice goes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Dictation and Voice Control | Mac, iPhone, iPad | Yes | None | On the device (UK English) |
| Windows voice typing and Voice Access | Windows 11 | Yes | None | Microsoft's cloud (Win+H), device (Voice Access) |
| Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android | 2,000 words a week on desktop | $144 a year, or $15 a month | Cloud, processed in the US |
| SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store → | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android | Unlimited, local models | $84.99 a year, or $249.99 once | Device, or cloud models if chosen |
| VoiceOSVoiceOSVoiceOS is a voice app for Mac and Windows with two modes: Dictation Mode cleans up speech into polished text in any app, and Agent Mode carries out spoken tasks such as sending anBuying guide · View store → | Mac (Windows listed) | Ad7-day trial, card needed | $11.99 a month yearly, or $29.99 monthly | Cloud, nearest region |
| Dragon Professional v16 | Windows | None | About £599 once, or £353 a year | On the PC |
First, a question about how you'd use it. I'll share what readers say once enough people have answered.
Is the free dictation on your computer good enough?
For many people, yes: they handle UK English, punctuation and long passages. What they mostly don't do is tidy up, so the "ums" stay in.
Apple Dictation and Voice Control
Apple Dictation adds punctuation automatically and stops only after 30 seconds of silence. On iPhone, "no internet connection is required", and iOS 27 adds an on-device model that improves spelling and punctuation on the iPhone 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, Air or later. 9to5Mac counted 17 errors on a passage where Aqua Voice made one (August 2025).
Who it suits: anyone on Apple kit who wants to try dictation today, privately, for nothing.
Less suited to: UK users who want to edit by voice. Commands such as "select" and "delete" work only in U.S. English, so British users need Voice Control, which works offline after a one-time download and switches ordinary Dictation off while it's on.
Windows voice typing and Voice Access
Windows key + H starts voice typing in any Windows 11 text box, with UK English and commands such as "Delete that". It needs internet; on Copilot+ PCs, Fluid dictation also removes filler words on the device. Voice Access runs on the device and gives full voice control of the PC. Zapier found it "Much better than the old Windows Speech Recognition" but "Very sensitive to microphone quality and background noise" (December 2025).
Who it suits: Windows 11 users, and anyone needing hands-free control for RSI or limited mobility.
Less suited to: Windows 10, where dictation commands are US English only.
Google Docs and Microsoft 365
Google Docs voice typing now works in Chrome, Edge and Safari and costs nothing, but only inside Docs. Dictate in Word and Outlook comes with a Microsoft 365 subscription and, Microsoft says, "does not store your audio data or transcribed text". Kevin Stratvert's walkthrough (2023) shows all four in action.
Wispr Flow: the most polished text on every device
Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → is here because it does the tidying the free tools don't, on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android under one subscription. It adds punctuation and drops filler words, and Context Awareness reads the text around your cursor so on-screen names come out right. Its British English option adds "UK spelling, such as 'colour' and 'centre'"; Aqua Voice offers that only through a paid custom instruction, and the other AI apps here don't document it.
It rates 4.8 from about 2,500 ratings on the UK App Store (October 2026), though Zapier found "Inaccuracy issues in long stretches of continuous dictation". The free plan is the weak spot: 2,000 words a week on desktop is about 13 minutes of talking at the Stanford study's 153 words a minute (our arithmetic). Being cloud-only, it stops when the service does: a former critic on r/macapps describes an outage, and a UAE block on its servers, when nobody could log in.
Who it suits: people writing lots of emails, messages and AI prompts across laptop and phone who want British spelling with no setup.
Less suited to: anyone whose dictation must stay on the device or out of the US.
Price: Pro is $15 a month billed monthly, or $12 a month billed annually ($144 a year), in October 2026; the UK App Store charges £15 a month or £143.99 a year. Students get 50% off, and Wispr says it doesn't add VAT. Plans include a meeting Notetaker; our guide to AI note-takers covers that job in depth.
Superwhisper: private, offline and a one-off price
SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store → earns its place because it can run with "no audio or text leaving your device", using local models. The free plan gives unlimited dictation with local Whisper models, and Pro adds AI "modes" that reshape your words for a message or an email, plus optional cloud models.
After nine months on Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store →, Alec Wilcock compared the two in May 2026: Wispr's free cap ran out "in about two or three days" and the app failed offline on a flight, while Superwhisper's local models had no lag (he links to both as an affiliate).
An r/macapps user who ran both found Wispr faster (roughly 0.3 seconds against one) and easier to set up, and Superwhisper more precise and cheaper over two years thanks to its lifetime licence.
Who it suits: lawyers, clinicians, journalists and anyone handling material that shouldn't leave the laptop; people who'd rather pay once.
Less suited to: anyone wanting polished results with no settings. Offline models run well only on Apple silicon Macs, and free offline output is plain transcription.
Price: Pro is $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 once in October 2026, with 40% off for students, educators and non-profits on its website; the UK App Store charges £7.99, £79.99 and £249.99. Every individual plan has a 30-day refund window.
VoiceOS: when you want your voice to do things
VoiceOSVoiceOSVoiceOS is a voice app for Mac and Windows with two modes: Dictation Mode cleans up speech into polished text in any app, and Agent Mode carries out spoken tasks such as sending anBuying guide · View store → is on the list because it goes past typing. Its Dictation Mode Ad"automatically removes filler words", and its AdAgent Mode carries out spoken tasks such as sending an email or replying in Slack. It lists an AdEU processing region in Frankfurt and says audio isn't kept beyond the session unless you save it. It's young: it is still Ad"working toward a SOC 2 Type I examination", and phone apps are coming soon.
Who it suits: heavy Mac users who want their voice to act as well as write.
Less suited to: anyone who only wants dictation, wants a free plan or dictates on a phone.
Price: Pro is Ad$29.99 billed monthly or $11.99 a month billed annually (about $143.88 a year) in October 2026. The 7-day trial needs a card and rolls into a paid plan. Students get 50% off.
Dragon: still sold, but not the Dragon you remember
Dragon belongs here as the main route to offline dictation with deep voice commands on Windows, paid for once. Nuance claims "up to 99% recognition accuracy, right from first use", and TechRadar's test found 299 of 300 words right, though that roundup (November 2025) still ranks editions withdrawn in 2023.
Nuance's UK site shows no prices, so v16 is bought through resellers, and the same licence costs £598.80 at Speak-IT and £638.40 at Officepad, both including VAT. Dragon Home and v15 get no security patches, so an old boxed copy is a risk. There's been no Mac version since October 2018, and Nuance lists the Dragon Anywhere phone app for the US and Canada only.
Who it suits: Windows users who want offline dictation with full voice control, and people funded through Access to Work, where resellers bundle training.
Less suited to: Mac users, anyone on a budget and anyone wanting a phone app in the UK.
Price: about £599 including VAT once, or £353.38 a year paid in advance, at Speak-IT in October 2026.
What are the best Wispr Flow alternatives?
Beyond SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store → and VoiceOSVoiceOSVoiceOS is a voice app for Mac and Windows with two modes: Dictation Mode cleans up speech into polished text in any app, and Agent Mode carries out spoken tasks such as sending anBuying guide · View store →, three smaller apps come up often. The YouTube channel A Fading Thought sorts the field into no-fuss apps such as Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store →, Willow and Aqua, and control apps such as Superwhisper where you pick models and write prompts (it has affiliate links to Superwhisper and VoiceInk).
Willow gives unlimited free use of a lighter model and keeps Privacy Mode on by default; TechCrunch noted its iPhone keyboard keeps a full QWERTY layout for corrections (November 2025). Pro is $15 a month, or $12 billed annually, in October 2026; there's no Android app yet.
Aqua Voice is the cheapest paid cloud option at $8 a month billed annually ($96 a year) or $10 monthly in October 2026. Its free allowance is 1,000 words once, not each month.
MacWhisper mainly transcribes recordings and meetings on a Mac, locally, with dictation as a bonus, for a €64 one-off Pro licence. The Mac App Store edition, Whisper Transcription, is a different subscription product that can't dictate into other apps.
Does it spell the British way?
English (United Kingdom) can be picked in Apple Dictation, Windows, Google Docs and Microsoft 365, and Google Docs then takes "Full stop" and "New paragraph". Among the AI apps, Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store →'s British option is the one that's documented. The trap is editing: Apple's voice-editing commands are listed for US English only, so a UK user who wants to say "delete that" needs Voice Control.
Where does your voice go?
This splits the field. Apple processes UK English dictation on the device, and anything sent to its servers is tied to a random identifier that rotates several times an hour, not your Apple Account. Windows Voice Access, SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store →'s local models, MacWhisper and Dragon v16 also stay on the machine.
Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → is the opposite. Its privacy policy says that for users outside the US, "we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to the United States and process it there". Context Awareness is on by default and sends on-screen text; Wispr itself recommends turning it off for legal, healthcare or regulated data. Its "Improve the model for everyone" setting can use your audio, and is locked off only on business plans.
One r/productivity poster splits the difference, running free Superwhisper and pasting the result into an AI chatbot, and calls Wispr's cloud upload "questionable".
Can Access to Work pay for dictation software?
It can, if a condition or disability makes typing hard. Access to Work, the DWP grant, can pay for "specialist equipment and assistive software" and isn't paid back. ADHD and dyslexia count, and "You do not need to be diagnosed with a condition to apply" (England, Scotland and Wales). The maximum award has been £69,260 a year since April 2024.
For equipment, employers with 50 to 249 staff pay the first £500 and those with 250 or more the first £1,000, plus 20% up to £10,000; smaller employers pay nothing. It's slow: the National Audit Office found an average of 109 days in November 2025 against a 25-day target.
The British Dyslexia Association's employer guide recommends speech-to-text software, naming Dragon, and the NHS lists typing among the causes of RSI. Students in England can get up to £27,783 a year in Disabled Students' Allowance (GOV.UK, October 2026); it warns against buying before the needs assessment.
Questions people ask
What is the best free dictation software?
The one already on your device: Apple Dictation or Windows 11's voice typing and Voice Access. SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store →'s free plan adds unlimited offline dictation.
Is Wispr Flow free?
There's a free plan with 2,000 words a week on desktop and 1,000 on mobile, no card needed. Unlimited use is $12 a month billed annually or $15 monthly in October 2026.
Is Wispr Flow safe?
It claims SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, but Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → transcribes in the cloud, UK users' data is processed in the US and Context Awareness is on by default. Wispr's own advice is to switch Context Awareness off for legal, healthcare or regulated work.
Is there Dragon dictation for Mac?
No. Nuance discontinued Dragon for Mac in October 2018, and v16 is Windows only.
Which dictation software works offline?
Apple Dictation in UK English, Voice Control, Windows Voice Access, SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store →'s local models, MacWhisper and Dragon v16. Windows voice typing, Google Docs, Microsoft 365 Dictate, Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → and Aqua Voice need a connection.
Where I'd land
The dictation already on your Mac, iPhone or Windows 11 PC costs nothing and will show whether talking suits you. After that it's about where your words may go: Wispr FlowWispr FlowWispr Flow is a voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It suits people who write a lot of emails, meBuying guide · View store → if the cloud is fine, SuperwhisperSuperwhisperSuperwhisper is a voice dictation app for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android that turns speech into formatted text in any app, with local models that work offline. It suits writers, Buying guide · View store → if it isn't, VoiceOSVoiceOSVoiceOS is a voice app for Mac and Windows with two modes: Dictation Mode cleans up speech into polished text in any app, and Agent Mode carries out spoken tasks such as sending anBuying guide · View store → for spoken tasks, and Dragon for funded, offline Windows work.
Every dictation app we cover is on our dictation apps page, within the wider software section. For meetings rather than your own words, our guide to the best AI note-takers picks up from here, and the best to-do list apps give everything you dictate somewhere to land.
