Vocco vs macOS Dictation
Every Mac already has dictation. For most people speaking one language it is good enough and free. This page covers where it stops being enough, using Apple's own documentation for macOS 27.
Stay with macOS Dictation if you dictate in one language at a time, are happy to press a key to start and stop, and don't need to transcribe recordings. It is free and already installed.
Add Vocco if your sentences mix Chinese and English, if you want hold-to-talk that pastes the moment you let go, or if you need transcripts of meetings and recordings split by speaker.
I make Vocco. Apple details are taken from Apple's support pages and feature-availability page for macOS 27 Golden Gate, read on October 22, 2026.
Side by side
| Vocco | macOS Dictation | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free version (30 minutes of dictation a week); Pro $29 once at launch (until November 30, 2026), then $39 | Free, built in |
| Where it runs | On your Mac, with every engine (Apple Speech is set to on-device only) | On-device for supported languages; "Otherwise, the things you dictate are sent to and processed on the server" (source) |
| Chinese and English in one sentence | Yes, default engine handles the switch | Apple documents switching languages with the Globe key or the language next to the cursor (source) |
| How you start | Hold right ⌘, release to paste | Microphone key, a dictation shortcut such as pressing Fn twice, or Edit > Start Dictation |
| Stops when | You release the key | After 30 seconds without speech, or when you stop it |
| History of what you dictated | Local, searchable, kept 7, 30 or 90 days | No |
| Transcribe audio or video files | Yes, with SRT; speaker labels in Pro | No |
| Languages | Chinese, English; Japanese, Korean and French tested; plus Apple Speech languages | Many more languages |
| Macs | Apple silicon, macOS 14+ | All Macs; the newer "More advanced Dictation" is English only and needs M3 or later with 12 GB of memory (source) |
The mixed-language gap
Apple's approach to more than one language is switching: you pick the language, or press the Globe key to change it while you dictate. That works for someone who writes one email in English and the next in Chinese. It does not help with a sentence like "明天的 standup 改到 10 点，记得 sync 一下 roadmap", where the language changes three times in nine words.
That kind of sentence is what Vocco is built for. Its default engine detects the switch inside the sentence without a language setting.
We can't run the Dictation feature itself on a fixed test set, but we did run Apple's newest on-device speech API (SpeechTranscriber, set to Chinese) on the same 300 utterances of Mandarin–English conversation as our other engines. It had the best Chinese of anything we tested, 9.3% character errors, and got 52.6% of English words wrong. Vocco's default engine got 28.7% of English words wrong. Details are on the benchmark page. Vocco also ships Apple Speech as one of its engines, so you can compare them on your own voice.
Where macOS Dictation is better
- Free and already there. Nothing to install, nothing to download for many languages.
- More languages and every Mac, including Intel.
- Newer English model on recent Macs. On Apple Intelligence Macs (M3 or later, 12 GB memory), English dictation uses a newer on-device model.
Where Vocco is better
- Sentences that switch between Chinese and English. See the benchmark.
- Hold to talk, release to paste. No toggling, no 30-second silence cut-off to think about.
- A local history of your dictations, searchable and copyable, kept for 7, 30 or 90 days as you choose.
- Recordings. Meeting audio and video files come back with timestamps and SRT export, split by speaker in Pro.
Questions
Is macOS Dictation on-device?
For supported languages on Apple-silicon Macs, yes. Mandarin Chinese (China mainland) is on Apple's list of on-device languages and needs a speech model download. Otherwise, Apple says, "the things you dictate are sent to and processed on the server".
Can macOS Dictation mix Chinese and English in one sentence?
Apple documents switching languages while you dictate, by clicking the language next to the cursor or pressing the Globe key. We found nothing in Apple's documentation about recognizing two languages inside one sentence.
Does macOS Dictation have a time limit?
No. Apple says you can dictate text of any length without a timeout, and that dictation stops automatically after 30 seconds without speech.
How this page was made: macOS details are quoted from support.apple.com, apple.com/macos/feature-availability and apple.com/legal/privacy on October 22, 2026; Vocco details checked against Vocco 1.0.8 on October 28, 2026. Drafted with AI assistance and checked against those sources.
Try Vocco on your Mac
Free to use, with no account and no card; the first 14 days are full Pro. Pro is one payment for all your Macs: $29 at launch until November 30, then $39.
macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon