MicJot and macOS Dictation
macOS Dictation is free, built in, and processes general text on your device in many languages. If that is what you need, use it. This page says where MicJot differs, with sources, as of 2026-10-28.
Side by side
Apple's facts come from the Mac User Guide page Use Dictation on your Mac (macOS 27 edition, read 2026-10-28). MicJot's come from its own documentation for version 0.3.1.
| macOS Dictation | MicJot 0.3.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, built into macOS. | Free: MicJot 0.3.1 is a private beta. From the public release, Free covers the first 3,000 words with every feature and Pro removes the limit. |
| Where speech is processed | For general text (messages, notes), Keyboard settings show whether your voice input and transcripts are processed on your device and not sent to Siri servers. Dictation elsewhere, such as search boxes, can go to Apple's servers. | Always on your Mac (Whisper Large v3 Turbo through Core ML). Audio never leaves the Mac; there is no cloud engine to choose. |
| Languages | Many languages; availability varies by region. Auto-punctuation in supported languages. | Recognition in the languages Whisper covers. Smart formatting, filler removal and cleanup are built for English and are skipped for other languages, so words are left exactly as recognised. |
| Starting and stopping | Tap the Microphone key, use a configurable shortcut (for example press Fn twice), or Edit → Start Dictation. Text of any length; stops after 30 seconds of silence. | Hold a key (Fn by default) and release; or double-tap for hands-free and press the key again to finish. Up to 6 minutes per dictation by default (maxRecordingSeconds in MicJot's settings.json). |
| Typing while you speak | On a Mac with Apple silicon you can keep typing while you dictate. | Text is inserted when you release the key; you type between dictations. |
| Punctuation and formatting | Automatic commas, periods and question marks in supported languages; spoken punctuation names; “new line” and “new paragraph”; emoji by name. | Spoken punctuation, line breaks and bullet lists, plus numbers, money, times, percentages, equations, email addresses and phone numbers written as you would type them. When unsure, the words stay as spoken. |
| Corrections | Uncertain words get a blue underline with alternatives to pick from. | Edit the inserted text as usual; History keeps the original transcript. With the AI step, Polish and Command mode rewrite a selection on request. |
| Your words and names | Not described on Apple's page. | A dictionary for names and jargon (fed to recognition and to AI), replacements (“chat gpt” → “ChatGPT”), and snippets that expand a phrase into a full text. |
| Tone per app | Not described on Apple's page. | A style per app category (personal messages, work messages, email, everything else); any app can be reassigned. |
| AI rewriting | On Mac models with M3 or later and at least 12 GB of memory, in English, an on-device Apple Intelligence model improves spelling, punctuation and capitalisation. | Optional: cleanup of false starts and self-corrections, Command mode and Polish. In the private beta the AI step runs with the tester's own Anthropic key (QA builds, Settings → Writing → QA build only); from the public release, MicJot AI is included on every plan. The text goes to Anthropic; the privacy page says exactly what. Without it, rule-based cleanup runs on your Mac. |
| Setup and permissions | Enable in System Settings → Keyboard. Nothing to install. | A about 630 MB model download in the background during setup, and two permissions: Microphone and Accessibility (Input Monitoring only if the Fn key cannot otherwise be seen). |
| Macs | Every Mac running a current macOS; some features depend on the model. | Apple Silicon (M1 or newer), macOS 14 or later. No Intel Macs. |
| History | Not described on Apple's page. | Searchable local history with the original transcript, statistics, ⌃⌘V to paste the last dictation; can be turned off, limited to 7 to 365 days, or bypassed per app and per session. |
| What leaves the Mac besides speech | Optional “Improve Siri & Dictation” audio sharing, off unless you agree; Apple may review a sample of stored audio. | Nothing: no telemetry, no analytics, no accounts in 0.3.1. |
When to use which
Use macOS Dictation if you dictate plain text, want nothing to install, or dictate in a language other than English and want Apple's automatic punctuation there. Use MicJot if you want hold-to-talk in every app, numbers and times and lists written as you would type them, your own dictionary and snippets, a tone per app, a history you control, and the option of AI cleanup. Both run recognition on the Mac.
What this page does not claim
No speed comparison, no accuracy comparison: MicJot's only measured accuracy figure is 0.54% word error rate on a synthetic-voice benchmark, which says nothing about Apple's recogniser or about real voices. No ratings, no quotes.