Whether you are a student, blogger, journalist, or just simply tired of typing, speech to text online free is the solution for you. Our dictation software Free can be used with any website or application.
As you search online for dictation software, keep in mind that it can include all different types of apps and services. The terms dictation software, speech-to-text, voice recognition, voice-to-text, and speech recognition can all mean a program that converts your voice to text on a screen in real-time. But sometimes lumped into a search for these terms are products that provide something else entirely.
For example, some products will transcribe audio files to text, but they do not transcribe your voice to text in real-time. Others market themselves as personal AI assistants (performing all computer tasks using speech) and may include a dictation component. And you may run across companies that provide transcription services—using humans to transcribe your voice files to text.
Then there are those AI assistants built into many of the devices we use each day: Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana. These are fine for scheduling meetings, playing music, and finding a place to eat, but they aren’t designed to transcribe your articles, meetings, and other documents.
For this review, we’ve focused on software, whether standalone or embedded in a device, meant for transcribing speech to text.
Why would you want to do that? For starters, dictation software provides accessibility to those with disabilities—both physical and language-based—to access technologies and be more productive. For example, if you’re unable to use your hands, you can still operate a computer, create documents, and access the web with dictation technology. And those with chronic conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome can prevent the repetitive stresses that come with typing, simply by using their voice.
Students can write papers and transcribe lectures into notes depending on the software’s capabilities. And the casual user can dictate notes, a shopping list, a text, or a reminder while performing other tasks, making multi-tasking a reality. Think: taking a walk while “writing” your next novel.
Google Docs voice typing
Google Docs includes a dictation feature that’s both highly accurate and easy to use, called Google Docs voice typing—but you have to be using Chrome to access this feature. Just go to Tools > Voice typing, and a microphone icon will appear on the left. Click on it, and start talking. If you’re idle for about 30 seconds, the microphone automatically stops. Click on it again to resume.
If you need help or you want a list of commands, click on the question mark within the microphone icon. Help will pop up on the right where you can scroll or search to find voice commands such as punctuation, text formatting, editing, and even moving around your document.
Google Docs voice typing price: Free
Google Docs voice typing accuracy: Out of 200 words dictated, six words were incorrect. It incorrectly captured a few words that others also missed, but did correctly capitalize the name of a business.
Recommendation: If you’re a Google Docs power user and want dictation capability, voice typing is an excellent choice for its accuracy and many voice commands.
Google Docs voice typing supported languages: Voice typing works in these languages and includes many dialects: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bahasa Indonesia, Basque, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Farsi, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Malaysian, Marathi, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Sinhala, Spanish, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Zulu.
Google Docs integrates with Zapier, which means you can automatically do things like save form entries to Google Docs, create new documents whenever something happens in your other apps, or create project management tasks for each new document.
Dragon Professional Individual
As the most popular dictation software in its space, Dragon Professional Individual allows you to do the majority of your job without even touching a keyboard.
By leveraging its Deep Learning technology that adapts to your specific voice, jargon, and work environment, you can create and edit documents with 99% accuracy, quickly and accurately transcribe recordings into text, and use voice commands to control your computer’s actions on programs and web browsers, like sending an email or creating a report.
Dragon also integrates with Microsoft Office, iWork, and other popular business applications, so you can do hands-free work without leaving your favorite programs.
Available On: Mac and Windows
Price: $300
Braina Pro
Braina Pro is more than speech recognition software — it’s a personal virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence. Other than its ability to dictate over 100 languages, Braina Pro can automate various computer tasks, set alarms and reminders, give you updates on current events, serve as dictionary and thesaurus, play songs and videos, read eBooks out loud, search files on folders on your computer, and more.
Braina Pro also supports most laptops’ built in microphones and has a mobile app, so you can work headset free and away from your computer.
Available On: Windows
Price: $239
Speechnotes
Built on Google’s speech-recognition engines, Speechnotes is a simple, clean, online dictation tool that helps users transcribe their speech into text with over 90% accuracy. And since you don’t have to download, install, or register for Speechnotes, it’s one of the most accessible dictation tools out there.
Speechnotes is incredibly user-friendly too — it automatically capitalizes the beginning of your sentences, autosave your documents, and allows you to dictate and type at the same time. When you’re finished dictating on Speechnotes, you can email or print your documents, export them to Google Drive, or download them onto your computer.
Available On: Google Chrome
Price: Free
e-Speaking
Using Microsoft’s Speech Application Program Interface and .Net Framework, e-Speaking lets you use your voice to control your computer’s actions, dictate documents and emails, and make your computer read text out loud. The software has over 100 built-in commands, like “open internet” or “open excel”. You can also train words and add more commands on e-Speaking to take even more control of your computer.
Available On: Windows
Price: $14
Voice Finger
Engineered for people with disabilities or injuries and competitive video game players, Voice Finger is one of the fastest ways to control your mouse and keyboard without your hands. Using just your voice, you can click the left, middle, or right buttons on your mouse, drag and drop items on your computer, and repeatedly click items. You can also use commands to type, hold, and hit keys on your keyboard.
Available On: Windows
Price: $9.99
Apple Dictation
Look no further than your Mac, iPhone, or iPad for one of the best dictation tools. Apple’s built-in Dictation feature, powered by Siri (we’d be unsurprised if the two merged one day), ships as part of Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems. On iOS devices, you use it by pressing the microphone icon on the stock keyboard. On desktop, you turn it on by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation, and then use a keyboard shortcut to activate it in your app.
By default, Apple Dictation requires the internet to work and has a time limit of about 30 seconds for each smattering of speech. To remove those limits, enable Enhanced Dictation, which requires OS X v10.9 or later or iPhone 6s or newer. Enhanced Dictation adds a local file to your device so that you can dictate offline.
You can format and edit your text using simple commands, such as “new paragraph” or “select previous word.” Tip: you can view available commands in a small window, like a little cheat sheet, while learning the ropes. Apple also offers advanced commands for creating custom ones.
Apple Dictation price: Included with macOS and iOS devices
Apple Dictation accuracy: On the 200-word test, 11 words were inaccurate.
Recommendation: I recommend Apple Dictation when using Enhanced Dictation. The standard version is a bit annoying and inconvenient for anything longer than 40 seconds. For short messages on mobile devices, it works fine. Enhanced Dictation is the way to go for continuous dictating.
Apple Dictation supported languages: Enhanced Dictation supports 20 languages. Apple’s default Dictation supports 31 languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
Windows Speech Recognition
Just like Apple, Windows also has a built-in dictation software. But the main advantage Windows Speech Recognition has over Apple Dictation is that it lets you dictate and control text on any browser, program, or web application.
You can also activate Microsoft’s personal assistant, Cortana, if you have a Windows 10, to streamline your day by setting reminders, managing your calendar and email, playing music, and finding quick answers to any pressing or random questions you might have.
To set up Speech Recognition on your Windows computer, click on Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access > Windows Speech Recognition. Then, click on the Speech Recognition option.
Available On: Windows
Price: Free
SpeechTexter
SpeechTexter is supported only using the Chrome browser or with the Android mobile app. Many free dictation sites have an annoying number of ads, but this one keeps it to a manageable one or two. And they do have a privacy policy that states that, while they don’t store any of your text, it is processed by Google’s servers. Just keep that in mind.
To start, select your language in the top left corner, click Start, and begin talking. Your speech is captured in a window above the edit ribbon that includes a spinning Result Confidence wheel, showing a perceived percentage of correctly transcribed words. Then, a few seconds later, the text appears in the main edit window with a word count at the bottom right.
Voice commands are placed handily to the right of the main window. You can edit your speech like you would in any basic word processing program, then save it as a .txt or Word file. Enabling the Auto-save feature prevents you from losing work if your browser or window is closed inadvertently. If that happens, just bring the site back up, and your previous dictation will appear on the screen.
SpeechTexter price: Free
SpeechTexter accuracy: In a 200-word passage, SpeechTexter had seven inaccuracies, which makes it one of the most accurate of those we tested.
Recommendation: If you use Chrome and occasionally need dictation, SpeechTexter is a good choice for its accuracy and ease of use.
SpeechTexter supported languages: SpeechTexter supports speech to text in 63 languages, plus dozens of dialects: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Norwegian Bokmål, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Zulu.
Gboard
Google’s excellent Gboard app works with both Android and iOS—and includes dictation. To use it, go anywhere you can type (email, browser, text, document), and the keyboard will pop up. Tap the microphone icon at the top right of the keyboard, and start speaking when prompted. It will very quickly capture your voice into text as fast as you’re able to talk. It’s scary how fast it transcribes. Not only that, it’s highly accurate. If you stop speaking for about 10 seconds, the microphone turns off, so you’ll have to tap it again.
You have the option to personalize the app, which allows Gboard to recognize your voice usage patterns and improve on them, increasing accuracy over time. I’ve dictated texts in the car with the radio on, and it’s still nearly perfect. It’s also good at detecting and not including stammers, likely as a result of learning my speech patterns.
Note: I’ve been using Gboard for about five years, so it has learned my voice and speech patterns. It’s not surprising that it was the most accurate in my test.
Gboard price: Free
Gboard accuracy: In transcribing a 200-word passage, Gboard made just two errors.
Recommendation: Gboard spits out your words on screen as fast as you can say them. For faster talkers, that will feel just right, but for others, it may take getting used to. If you want to dictate texts, emails, or any other short note, use Gboard.
Gboard supported languages: Not counting different dialects separately, Gboard supports 47 languages: Afrikaans, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Zulu.
Conclusion
But as the technology has improved over the last 20 years and costs have come down, dictation software is now accessible to everyone as a tool to increase productivity almost instantly. Look no further than the changed working environment in the wake of COVID-19: more working from home means more opportunity to do things like dictate emails.