Talk DAT! (often written TalkDAT) is in public beta for Windows and Mac. Install the Windows build from the Microsoft Store; a separate Mac beta covers Apple silicon on macOS 14 or later.
Windows 11 already has talk to text, and Word has its own. Both work. Both stop at a fairly literal transcription, and one of them needs the internet. Here is what each option actually does, and when a dedicated dictation app is worth installing.
See your words while you are still holding the key. On a local model, with the switch on, the Talk DAT! bar shows the text so far about 1.2 s behind your voice, measured on a GPU and on six CPU cores alike. Nothing leaves the machine, and the text you get when you let go is the same either way.
Windows voice typing is built into Windows 11 and costs nothing. Click into any text field, press Win+H, and talk. It is the fastest thing to try, for the simple reason that it is already installed, and for occasional dictation it is often enough.
Two things to know before you plan around it. As of September 2026, per Microsoft's own support documentation, Windows voice typing needs an internet connection, so it is not an offline answer on a laptop with no signal or a machine with restricted network access. And it delivers a fairly literal transcription: you get the words, the false starts, and the filler, and the tidying up is yours to do.
Word in Microsoft 365 ships its own Dictate control. It is convenient when the document you are writing is already open in Word, and Microsoft's support pages are the authority on which Microsoft 365 plans, languages, and network conditions it needs, so check there rather than trusting anyone's summary, including this one.
The main point is simple: Word's dictation only works inside Word. It does not help you in a browser, a chat window, a form, an email client outside the same suite, or a terminal. If you dictate outside Word, it cannot help you there.
Talk DAT! is a small bar that stays on top of your other windows, with the microphone off until you press the key. Hold Ctrl+Win, speak, release; it transcribes, cleans the result, and delivers finished text into the Windows app focused when delivery completes, using a verified clipboard write and paste, Shift+Insert for terminal-style targets, or simulated typing. Triggers are not limited to the keyboard: middle mouse, Mouse 4, Mouse 5, Xbox controller buttons, and notes on a connected MIDI input can all be bound, as the push-to-talk page explains.
Two writing styles sit one click apart in the Talk DAT! menu. Chill, the default, keeps your phrasing and tidies it; Executive is a fuller professional rewrite that can restructure prose and add headings. Spoken punctuation is honoured, spoken enumerations become real numbered lists, and you can teach it names and jargon with sounds-like aliases or install one of four industry packs totalling nearly 1,400 terms. Every dictation stays in local History, and a protected recording is armed before the microphone opens, so you can recover it if a paste fails.
Working offline. On the Local route a downloaded on-device model runs recognition on your own PC, with NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 as the default selection. Offline dictation begins after that one-time download, not straight out of the installer, and local speech recognition does not make the whole application offline: update checks, optional sign-in, and any bring-your-own-key provider you choose still use the network. The offline dictation page is the detailed version.
Use Win+H when you dictate occasionally, you have a connection, and you do not mind editing what comes out. It is free, it is already there, and it costs nothing to find out. Use Word's Dictate when the writing genuinely happens in Word and nowhere else.
Install Talk DAT! when you dictate all day, when the target keeps changing between a browser, a chat window, an editor, and a terminal, when it has to work without a network, or when the text needs to arrive finished rather than raw. It is free, and no account is needed to dictate. The comparison page is the full side by side.
Straight answers, matching what the product actually does today.
Click into any text field and press Win+H to start Windows voice typing, which is built in and free. For a dedicated app, install Talk DAT! from the Microsoft Store, run the guided first run, then hold Ctrl+Win, speak, and release. That default trigger, and every other supported action, can be rebound in Settings.
No. As of September 2026, per Microsoft's own support documentation, Windows voice typing needs an internet connection. Talk DAT! has a Local route where a downloaded on-device model runs recognition on your own PC, so that part works without a network, after a one-time model download rather than straight out of the installer.
Windows voice typing is free, built in, needs a connection, and hands you a fairly literal transcription to tidy up. Talk DAT! adds a choice of local or your own provider key, two writing styles, custom vocabulary with sounds-like aliases, keyboard, mouse, controller and MIDI triggers, local History, and a protected recording you can recover when a paste fails.
Talk DAT! delivers into the Windows app focused when delivery completes, by clipboard paste, Shift+Insert, or simulated typing, and recognised remote desktop clients are routed to direct typing. Rather than promising every application, it records the method it attempted, keeps the finished text on your clipboard, and stores every dictation in local History.
Yes, two ways. Word in Microsoft 365 has its own Dictate control, and Microsoft's support pages are the authority on its requirements. Talk DAT! also delivers into Word like any other focused application, which means one trigger and one vocabulary serve Word, a browser, and a terminal alike.
Talk DAT! is free to download and use, and no account is needed to dictate; sign-in is optional. Windows voice typing is free too and built into Windows.
Windows voice typing costs nothing and is already installed. When it stops being enough, Talk DAT! is free too, with no account needed to dictate.
