Is Apple Dictation private? What your Mac sends, and when
On an Apple silicon Mac, general text dictation is processed on the device in 48 language and region combinations, and Apple says no internet connection is required. Dictating into a search box still goes to a server. On an Intel Mac, or in an unsupported language, everything you dictate is sent to Apple.
- On-device dictation, macOS Tahoe
- 48 of the 63 dictation language and region options
- Still server side
- Search boxes, unsupported languages, Intel Macs
- Audio storage
- Only if you opt in to Improve Siri and Dictation
- Siri class action
- $95 million, final approval 2025, cheques posted January 2026
Does Apple Dictation send your voice to Apple?
Sometimes. That is the honest one word answer, and the whole question is which times.
Apple's Mac User Guide for macOS Tahoe 26 puts the test on your own machine rather than in a document. Its note reads: "You can check Keyboard settings to see whether you need an internet connection or whether your voice inputs and transcripts for general text Dictation (for example, composing messages and notes, but not dictating in a search box) are processed on your device and not sent to Siri servers."
Three things are packed into that sentence. First, the answer depends on your Mac and your language, so Apple points you at a settings pane instead of stating a rule. Second, when it is on-device, both the audio and the transcript stay on the machine. Third, the parenthesis is not decoration: dictating into a search field is carved out, and it is handled differently.
What does Apple's own documentation say, version by version?
The wording has changed six times in seven years, and reading the versions in order is the clearest way to see what actually happened. Every quotation below is from the same page of Apple's Mac User Guide, which Apple keeps published for each macOS release.
| macOS | What Apple's guide says |
|---|---|
| Mojave 10.14 | "Turning on Enhanced Dictation makes it possible to dictate text even when you're offline." Without it, "your words are sent to Apple servers to be analysed". |
| Catalina 10.15 | Enhanced Dictation is gone. Dictation is described as sending "your words to Apple servers to be analysed using the latest language data and converted into text in real time". |
| Monterey 12 | "On a Mac with Apple silicon, general text dictation requests (for example, composing messages and notes, but not dictating in a search box) are processed on the device in many languages and no internet connection is required." And: "Dictation in search uses server-based dictation." |
| Ventura 13 | Same on-device statement. "When dictating in a search box, dictated text may be sent to the search provider in order to process the search." |
| Sonoma 14 | The most explicit version: "When you dictate on an Intel-based Mac or in a language that doesn't support on-device dictation, your dictated utterances are sent to Apple to process your requests." |
| Sequoia 15 and Tahoe 26 | The blanket statements are replaced by the instruction to check Keyboard settings on your own Mac. |
If you would rather this ran on your own Mac, that is what Vocemo does. Free for 7 days, then $15 a month for 3 Macs.
Download free for MacSo the shape of the answer is stable from Monterey onwards. Apple silicon plus a supported language means on-device. Intel, or an unsupported language, means the server. Search boxes are their own case in every version since Monterey.
One detail is worth noticing rather than reading anything into it. The current guides no longer carry the plain Intel sentence that Sonoma's did. The behaviour they describe has not been contradicted anywhere, but the newest documentation is less specific than the older documentation, which is why the settings pane is now the authority.
What was Enhanced Dictation, and why was it removed?
Enhanced Dictation arrived with OS X Mavericks in 2013 and was a tick box in the Dictation preference pane. Turning it on downloaded a speech model to the Mac. Apple's own guide for macOS Mojave, still on its site, says it "makes it possible to dictate text even when you're offline, and to use a dictation keyword phrase to start dictating". It also removed the pause: without it, the converted text arrived only after you stopped speaking.
Apple removed it in macOS Catalina in 2019. The Catalina guide describes only server based dictation. Apple pointed people towards Voice Control, an accessibility feature that recognises speech on the Mac, but Voice Control replaces keyboard dictation rather than sitting alongside it: the current guide states that when Voice Control is on, standard macOS Dictation is not available.
The result was a gap of roughly two years, from Catalina in 2019 to Monterey in 2021, during which a Mac had no supported way to dictate without sending the audio to Apple. On-device dictation returned with Apple silicon, and it is better than Enhanced Dictation was, but the removal is the reason many people still believe Mac dictation is always a cloud feature.
Which languages support on-device dictation on a Mac?
Apple publishes the list on its macOS feature availability page, and the two lists there do not match. Checked in September 2026 for macOS Tahoe 26, Apple lists 63 language and region combinations for Dictation and 48 for On-Device and Modeless Dictation. The on-device list carries the footnote "Requires download of speech models".
The 15 that appear only on the full list are the ones to check for. They include Polish, Czech, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Croatian, Romanian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Catalan, Indonesian, Portuguese as spoken in Portugal, Mandarin as spoken in Taiwan, and Shanghainese. If you dictate in one of those, Apple's documentation says your speech goes to a server, on any Mac.
Portuguese is the sharpest example of why a list matters more than a language name. Portuguese (Brazil) is on the on-device list. Portuguese (Portugal) is not.
What does Apple store, and for how long?
This is set out on Apple's legal page "Siri, Dictation and Privacy", last dated 11 February 2026. The parts that bear on Dictation:
- Audio. "Unless you opt in to Improve Siri and Dictation, your audio data is not stored by Apple." The opt in is a prompt when you first switch Dictation on, and the setting lives in Privacy and Security, then Analytics and Improvements.
- Server side dictation. "The things you dictate are sent to and processed on the server, but will not be stored unless you opt in to Improve Siri and Dictation."
- Related request data. Apple says it stores the category of request, whether it completed, device specifications and configuration, performance statistics, and, if Location Services is on for Siri, the approximate location.
- Identifier. Request history is "associated with a random, device-generated identifier that rotates multiple times per hour and is not tied to your Apple Account or email address".
- Retention. "Apple may retain and use this data for up to two years." A reviewed subset "may be kept beyond two years".
- Human review. If you opt in, "a subset of this data may be reviewed by graders, with audio review being conducted only by Apple employees."
Apple's January 2025 statement adds the commercial line: "Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose."
The opt in exists because of what happened in 2019. Contractors were listening to Siri audio as part of a quality process Apple called grading. Apple suspended it and published a statement on 28 August 2019 that said: "we realize we haven't been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize." It then made three changes: audio is not retained by default, participation is opt in, and only Apple employees may listen.
What was the January 2025 Siri settlement, and did anyone get paid?
The case is Lopez v. Apple Inc., number 4:19-cv-04577-JSW in the Northern District of California. The allegation was that unintended Siri activations captured private conversations, and that material from them reached third parties. It is a Siri case, not a Dictation case, though both use the same speech pipeline.
The facts, as recorded by the court and the settlement administrator:
- Apple agreed in January 2025 to pay $95 million. The settlement website states that "Apple denies all of the allegations made in the lawsuit and denies that Apple did anything improper or unlawful". Nothing was decided at trial.
- The class covered people in the United States who owned a Siri enabled device and experienced an unintended activation during a confidential communication between 17 September 2014 and 31 December 2024.
- Claims closed on 2 July 2025. Payments were capped at $20 per device for up to five devices, so $100 was the ceiling for one claimant, with the actual figure depending on how many valid claims arrived.
- Class counsel could seek up to $28.6 million in fees and costs.
- Senior US District Judge Jeffrey S. White granted final approval in 2025, reported by Courthouse News on 4 September 2025.
- Payments began going out on 23 January 2026, by cheque, e-cheque and direct deposit.
What the settlement does not establish is that Apple did what was alleged. Settlements end cases, they do not decide them. What it does establish is that the question was serious enough to be worth $95 million to close, and that a lot of people learned about the grading programme through a postcard rather than a settings screen.
What the documentation does not settle
Three points where the honest answer is that the published wording is not precise enough to decide, and where we are not going to guess.
- Transcripts of on-device dictation. Apple's legal page says dictated content is not stored unless you opt in, and separately describes a "request history, which includes transcripts and any related request data" retained for up to two years. The page does not spell out how those two statements fit together for Dictation specifically, as opposed to for Siri. If you want that number to be zero, the opt in is the control you have.
- Intel Macs in 2026. The Sonoma 14 guide states plainly that dictation on an Intel Mac goes to Apple. The Sequoia and Tahoe guides no longer say it either way. We have no evidence the behaviour changed, and no current Apple sentence asserting it.
- What "search box" covers. Apple's example distinguishes composing a message from dictating in a search box, and says search text may go to the search provider. Which fields in third party apps count as a search box is not documented.
Separately, Apple Intelligence is a different system from Dictation. Some of its features run on the device and some use Private Cloud Compute, about which Apple says "a user's data is not stored or made accessible to Apple". That is a distinct set of promises about a distinct set of features, and it does not change what Dictation does.
How do you check what your own Mac is doing?
Two minutes, no tools.
- Open System Settings, click Keyboard, and read the text under Dictation. Apple puts the answer for your Mac and your language there. The link below it, About Ask Siri, Dictation and Privacy, opens the full policy.
- Turn off Wi-Fi, unplug Ethernet, disconnect any tethered iPhone, then dictate a sentence into a note. If the words appear, that language is running on your Mac. If nothing appears, it was not.
- Repeat the offline test in a search field. On a Mac where composing a note works offline, the search field is the case Apple carved out.
- Check the opt in. System Settings, Privacy and Security, Analytics and Improvements, then Improve Siri and Dictation. Off means Apple does not store the audio.
- Clear what is there. System Settings, Siri, then Siri and Dictation History, then Delete.
If your language is on the wrong list, or your Mac is an Intel model, the built in feature cannot give you an offline answer and no setting will change that. A dictation app that carries its own speech model can, because the model is a file on your disk. That is what Vocemo does, and it is also what several free tools do. The test is the same for all of them: turn the network off and see whether the words still appear.
Questions
Does Apple Dictation work offline on a Mac?
Yes, on an Apple silicon Mac in a supported language. Apple's Mac User Guide for macOS Monterey onwards says general text dictation is processed on the device and no internet connection is required. Apple lists 48 language and region combinations with on-device support for macOS Tahoe 26, out of 63 for Dictation overall.
Does Apple record what I dictate?
Only if you opt in to Improve Siri and Dictation. Apple's legal page states that unless you opt in, your audio data is not stored by Apple. If you do opt in, Apple may store the audio, retain related request data for up to two years, and have employees review a sample.
Why does Mac dictation need the internet sometimes?
Three reasons, all documented by Apple. The language you are dictating in may not be on the on-device list. The Mac may be an Intel model. Or you may be dictating into a search box, which Apple's guides describe as server based in every version since macOS Monterey.
What happened to Enhanced Dictation on the Mac?
Apple removed it in macOS Catalina in 2019. It had let a Mac dictate offline since OS X Mavericks in 2013 by downloading a speech model. Between Catalina in 2019 and Monterey in 2021 there was no supported way to dictate on a Mac without sending the audio to Apple.
Did Apple pay out the Siri lawsuit settlement?
Yes. Apple agreed in January 2025 to pay $95 million to settle Lopez v. Apple, a federal judge granted final approval in 2025, and payments to claimants began on 23 January 2026. Claims closed on 2 July 2025 and were capped at $20 per device for up to five devices. Apple denied the allegations and admitted no wrongdoing.
Is Apple Dictation private enough for confidential work?
If Keyboard settings on your Mac says your dictation is processed on the device, and you are not dictating into a search box, then the audio does not leave the machine and there is nothing to retain. If it says otherwise, your speech is going to a server, and for legal, clinical or client material that is a decision to make deliberately rather than by default.
Sources
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