AINov 4, 2026, 7:10 PM UTC·2 min read

Granola Launches Free Voice Typing Dictation Feature for Mac

Granola, the AI meeting-notes service, has released Voice Typing for Mac. Hold the Fn key, speak, and polished text appears in any app, free of word limits.

A Mac laptop on a desk with a microphone icon showing voice dictation typing text into an email window. — Image: zdnet.co.kr

Granola, the AI service known for recording and summarizing meetings, released a dictation feature called Voice Typing for Mac on October 29, local time. Users hold the Fn key and speak, and Granola cleans up and formats the sentences before typing them into whichever app is in use. The company said on its official X account that the feature is free with no word limit.

How it works

According to Granola's help documentation, Voice Typing is in beta in the Mac desktop app and is included in every plan. To use it, switch it on in the Voice Typing menu in settings and grant Accessibility and microphone permissions. Dictation runs while the Fn key is held and the text is entered when the key is released. Pressing the key twice starts a hands-free mode that can dictate for up to 20 minutes at a time.

The feature works in any Mac app, including Claude, ChatGPT and Gmail, and runs separately from meeting recording. Granola pitches it for notes, AI prompts, emails and message replies.

English is the default language. If meeting transcription is set to several languages, Voice Typing detects the language automatically. It does not translate dictated text into another language.

Privacy and competition

Granola says it listens only while the user is dictating and stores dictation history only on the user's device. Audio is sent to outside providers that handle transcription and AI processing, but those providers do not use it to train models. Windows and iOS versions are coming soon.

The launch pushes Granola into a crowded dictation market. Wispr, a voice-dictation app valued at $2 billion, added meeting notes a few months ago. Granola was valued at $1.5 billion in its March funding round. Granola focuses on meeting automation and recording, while Wispr is researching AI models and new ways of controlling computers in its own lab. Startups such as Fireflies, SpeechifyI and Monologue also offer both meeting notes and dictation.

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