Glas vs Apple Dictation on Mac
Every Mac comes with Dictation: press the key, speak, and macOS types what you said. It is free, and for many languages it runs on the Mac without a connection. Glas does something different: it writes the text you meant, not every word you said. Here is when each one is the right tool.
| Glas | Apple Dictation | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for 2,000 English words a week; Pro $12 a month | Free, built into macOS |
| Bulgarian | Yes, on Pro and in the trial | No: not in Apple's list of Dictation languages |
| What it types | What you meant: fillers and false starts removed, your corrections applied | What you said, with punctuation in supported languages |
| Fits the app you are in | Yes: a short line in Slack, full sentences in Mail, a command in Terminal | No |
| Rewrites selected text when you say how | Yes: "make this shorter", "more polite" | No; Apple's Writing Tools rewrite from a menu |
| Without internet | Free recognizes English on the Mac; clean-up and Pro need a connection | Yes, on Apple Silicon, for languages with on-device support |
| Where your voice goes | On Pro, to Glas and OpenAI to become text; neither keeps it or trains on it | Stays on the Mac for on-device languages; otherwise sent to Apple |
Stay with Apple Dictation if
- you dictate in a language it supports and are happy to tidy the text yourself;
- you need to dictate without an internet connection;
- you want nothing you say to leave your Mac.
Choose Glas if
- you speak Bulgarian, which Apple Dictation does not support;
- you talk the way people talk, with "um", restarts and corrections, and want clean text anyway;
- you want to change text by saying what should change, in any app.
Using both
They can live side by side: Glas listens to the right Option and right Command keys, and Apple Dictation to the shortcut set in Keyboard settings. If that shortcut is "Press Right Command Key Twice", pick another one. Glas's Free plan costs nothing, so you can keep both and see which one you reach for. The pricing page has the details.
Sources
- Apple: macOS feature availability (Dictation and on-device Dictation languages)
- Apple: Dictate messages and documents on Mac