What is the best free dictation app for iPhone?

SpeakUp is a free dictation keyboard for iPhone with 100% on-device voice-to-text. It works in any app via a custom keyboard with a dedicated mic button, supports 9 European languages, runs offline, and never sends your voice to a server. No subscription, no account.

Does iPhone have built-in dictation?

Yes. iOS Dictation is built in — tap the microphone on the system keyboard. It works for short English sentences but has limitations: weaker accuracy on non-English languages, dependence on Apple's servers for longer dictation, and you cannot use it as a custom keyboard in all contexts.

Is there a private dictation app for iPhone?

SpeakUp is built for privacy — your voice never leaves the device. It uses Parakeet (NVIDIA's open-source speech model) running on Apple's Neural Engine via Core ML. The keyboard extension has no network access and no microphone access of its own; iOS kernel-blocks that. Verifiable behaviour by design.

Can I dictate German on iPhone?

Yes. SpeakUp supports German as a first-class language alongside English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Ukrainian. Auto-detected per recording — no setting change needed when you switch between English and German mid-conversation.

Why does the SpeakUp keyboard need Full Access?

Solely to share state with the main SpeakUp app via an App Group container. The keyboard never accesses the network, never logs keystrokes, and never transmits any data. iOS requires Full Access for keyboard extensions that use shared storage.

What is the recording limit on iPhone?

60 seconds per segment. iOS caps memory available to keyboard extensions at about 48 MB; SpeakUp auto-stops at 60 seconds and immediately transcribes. Tap the mic again to record another segment. This is a platform constraint, not a SpeakUp choice.

iOS

Best Dictation App for iPhone (2026) — Free, On-Device, No Cloud

May 2026 · 7 min read

If you write long messages on your iPhone, dictate emails on the move, or just want to give your thumbs a break, the right dictation app can change your day. Voice is around three times faster than typing on a phone keyboard.

But iPhone dictation options are surprisingly thin. iOS Dictation is built in but limited. Most third-party "voice keyboards" either send your audio to the cloud, run a subscription model, or both. This page covers what is actually available in 2026 — and what is worth installing.

Quick answer

SpeakUp for iPhone is the best free dictation app for iPhone in 2026 for most users. It is a full QWERTY keyboard with a dedicated mic button that works in every app — Messages, Notes, Mail, Slack, Safari, anywhere you type. Voice is transcribed entirely on your phone (no cloud), there is no subscription, no account, no in-app purchases. Nine European languages including English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Ukrainian.

Install SpeakUp from the App Store →

The options on iPhone

1. SpeakUp — best free dictation app

Price: Free
Engine: Parakeet TDT v3 on Apple Neural Engine (Core ML)
Processing: 100% on-device
Languages: 9 (EN, DE, FR, ES, IT, PT, RU, UK + RO experimental)

SpeakUp installs as a custom keyboard. You enable it once in Settings → General → Keyboards, give it Full Access (required by iOS for App Group communication — not for any network access), and the keyboard becomes available everywhere.

Tap the mic, speak, see text appear at your cursor. No copy-paste from a separate dictation app, no system-keyboard switching, no language picker friction. Up to three languages can be configured; the keyboard picks the right one automatically per recording.

The constraint to know about: iOS caps keyboard-extension memory at about 48 MB. SpeakUp auto-stops recording at 60 seconds and transcribes immediately — tap again to keep going. This is a platform limit, not an app limit. For longer-form dictation you would use the free Mac app.

Why it wins: the only fully free, fully on-device dictation keyboard with first-class German, French, and Italian. The product philosophy is "invisible dictation" — faithful transcription, no AI rewriting.

2. iOS Dictation (built-in)

Price: Free
Processing: Hybrid (on-device for short sentences; Apple servers for longer use, certain languages)
Languages: Tied to your system keyboard

Apple's built-in iOS Dictation is on every iPhone. Tap the microphone on the system keyboard and speak. Free, no installation, works in any text field.

Where it works: short English sentences, search queries, single-paragraph notes.

Where it falls down: non-English languages (German especially is noticeably worse than dedicated solutions), accented English, technical vocabulary. To switch dictation language you have to switch your system keyboard input source. And longer dictation typically routes through Apple's servers, which makes the "on-device" claim conditional.

If you only dictate one sentence at a time in American English, iOS Dictation is fine. For anything else, a dedicated keyboard like SpeakUp pulls ahead.

3. Wispr Flow

Price: $14.99/month
Processing: Cloud
Languages: 100+

Wispr Flow has an iOS app and supports AI text editing — it can rewrite your dictation after transcription. The trade-off: everything routes through the cloud, $15/month adds up, and the AI changes what you said.

If you specifically want AI rewriting and accept cloud processing, it is the leading option in that category. If you want your words transcribed faithfully and stored nowhere outside your phone, this is the opposite of what you want.

4. Otter, Rev, Voice Memos

These are recorders or transcription services, not dictation keyboards. You record audio, then transcribe (sometimes cloud-side, sometimes on-device). Useful for meetings or interviews. Not the right tool if you want to dictate into the message you are writing right now.

How SpeakUp compares

	SpeakUp	iOS Dictation	Wispr Flow
Price	Free	Free	$15/month
Processing	On-device	Hybrid*	Cloud
Works offline	Always	Short use only	No
German quality	Optimised	Weak	Cloud
Custom keyboard	Yes	No	No (iOS)
AI rewrites words	No	No	Yes
Account required	No	No	Yes

*iOS Dictation processes some audio on-device but sends data to Apple servers for longer dictation and certain languages.

Privacy: what actually leaves your phone

This matters more on iPhone than people realise. Your iPhone keyboard sees everything you type — passwords, private messages, financial details, medical questions. Any third-party keyboard with network access is a privacy concern.

SpeakUp's keyboard extension has:

No network access. It cannot make outbound connections.
No microphone access of its own. iOS kernel-blocks that for keyboard extensions; only the main SpeakUp app records audio, and only when you tap the mic.
No keystroke logging. It does not transmit anything, anywhere.
No telemetry. No analytics SDKs, no crash reporters that ship data off device.

The Full Access permission iOS asks for exists so the keyboard can read shared state from the main app via an App Group container (which language to use, whether to play sound feedback). That is the entire purpose.

You can verify all of this with Settings → Privacy & Security → App Privacy Report (turn it on and SpeakUp will never show network activity from the keyboard or main app).

From iPhone to Mac

The iPhone keyboard is free because the same engineering team makes SpeakUp for Mac — a €29 one-time purchase that lifts every iOS platform limit:

No 60-second recording cap. Dictate paragraphs without interruption.
A global hotkey that types into any app at your cursor — no special keyboard needed because Mac apps accept system-wide text input.
30+ languages, deeper Whisper-grade accuracy via Metal GPU + Apple Neural Engine.
Domain Lexicons for medical (German), software engineering (English), legal (in progress).
The same on-device privacy — your audio never leaves your Mac.

If the iPhone keyboard saves you time today, the Mac version pays for itself in about a week. 14-day free trial, no credit card. Try SpeakUp for Mac →

How to install SpeakUp on iPhone

Download. Install from the App Store.
Add the keyboard. Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → SpeakUp.
Allow Full Access. Tap SpeakUp in the keyboards list → toggle Allow Full Access. Required for App Group communication, used for nothing else.
Use it. In any app with a text field, tap and hold the globe icon on the keyboard, select SpeakUp, then tap the SpeakUp mic and speak.

The first transcription downloads the model (~1 minute on Wi-Fi). After that, every dictation is instant and offline.