Speech-to-text for Apple Notes on Mac
Dictate into Apple Notes and get clean, punctuated text — not the raw fragments Apple’s built-in dictation gives you. Free to start, no card needed.
Apple Notes is the fastest place to capture a thought on a Mac — but the text you get from Apple’s own dictation is raw, unpunctuated, and full of fillers. SpeechFlow fixes that: hold Control, speak, release, and clean, properly punctuated text lands at your cursor in Notes instantly. No copy-paste, no cleanup, nothing stored.
The problem: Apple’s built-in dictation returns messy text
Apple Notes is already on every Mac and opens in a keystroke, which makes it the natural home for quick captures, shopping lists, meeting scratchpads and longer journal entries. Apple does include a dictation feature, and it works inside Notes — but it drops punctuation, keeps the “ums” and “like”, and never adjusts tone. You save a little typing time and spend it on editing instead.
If you’ve already tried enabling Mac dictation and found the output too rough, that’s the gap SpeechFlow fills. It adds an LLM cleanup pass between your voice and your cursor, so what lands in the note is already done.
How SpeechFlow works in Apple Notes
SpeechFlow is a native macOS app (Apple Silicon, ∼50 MB). It doesn’t hook into Apple Notes specifically — it works at the system cursor in any app. In practice:
- Open a note and click where you want the text.
- Hold Control and speak at a natural pace.
- Release. The cleanup LLM strips fillers, adds punctuation, adapts tone and inserts the finished text exactly where your cursor is.
That’s it. No dictation window to dismiss, no pasting. The note receives normal typed text, so formatting, search and syncing all work exactly as usual.
SpeechFlow vs Apple’s built-in dictation
| Feature | Apple Dictation | SpeechFlow |
|---|---|---|
| Punctuation | Mostly absent — you say “comma” out loud | Added automatically by the LLM |
| Filler removal | None — “um”, “like” land in the text | Stripped on every dictation |
| Tone adjustment | None | Optional — casual, professional, concise |
| Works in all Mac apps | Yes | Yes |
| Privacy | Audio processed by Apple | Zero retention; BYOK sends audio straight to your own provider |
| Price | Free (built into macOS) | Free 2,500 words/week · Pro €10/mo · BYOK €69 once |
What you’ll actually use it for
Speaking runs 150–180 words per minute against typing’s 40–60, so the payoff shows up quickly for anything longer than a line:
- Quick captures — an idea, a reminder or a URL note spoken in two seconds, no keyboard hunt.
- Grocery and to-do lists — dictate each item, SpeechFlow types it; no filler words to delete.
- Meeting and lecture notes — keep your eyes on the room and speak the key points; the output is already readable.
- Journal entries — brain-dump the day in 60 seconds; you’d never type that much, but you’ll speak it easily.
- First drafts — speak a rough structure, then refine; the blank-page cost collapses. The same workflow carries to Notion or any other app without any reconfiguration.
For a deeper look at how LLM-powered dictation differs from traditional speech recognition, see the AI dictation guide.
FAQ
Does SpeechFlow replace Apple’s built-in dictation?
It sits alongside it — they use different shortcuts and you can keep both. Most users switch to SpeechFlow once they see the output quality and stop using Apple Dictation for prose.
Does it work in Apple Notes on iPhone or iPad too?
SpeechFlow is a native Mac app, so it works on macOS only. For iPhone or iPad, Apple’s built-in dictation is still your best bet.
Does it store my voice or the content of my notes?
No. SpeechFlow keeps zero data retention. In BYOK mode your audio goes straight to your chosen provider (OpenAI, Gemini or Groq) and nothing passes through or is stored on a SpeechFlow server.
Is there a free plan?
Yes — 2,500 words per week, no credit card. Pro is €10/month or €70/year; BYOK is €69 once for lifetime access.
Do I need to set up anything inside Apple Notes?
No. SpeechFlow types at the system cursor, so Apple Notes receives it as normal keyboard input. No plugin, no extension, no settings to change in Notes.
Stop cleaning up dictation by hand. Try SpeechFlow free — 2,500 words a week, no card required.