Speech to text in Chrome on Mac

Yes, you can type by voice anywhere in Chrome on your Mac, and you don't need an extension to do it. With Sayburst running, click into any field on any page, hold fn, talk, and let go. The text appears at your cursor, punctuated and without the "ums", whether that field is a Gmail reply, a Jira ticket, a support form or ChatGPT.

Because Sayburst is a Mac app rather than an extension, it doesn't need permission to read your pages, and the same key keeps working when you switch from Chrome to Slack or Notes.

#Your options for voice typing in Chrome

There are four common routes, and each has a place:

• macOS Dictation. Built into your Mac, free, works in Chrome text fields. Good for short bursts. It stops after 30 seconds without speech, according to Apple's guide.
• Google Docs voice typing. Under Tools in Docs. Google lists Chrome, Edge and Safari as supported, and it only works in Docs and in Slides speaker notes (Google's help page).
• An extension such as Voice In. Types into web pages. Its pricing page says it works in Chrome and Edge, not other Chromium browsers.
• Sayburst. Hold a key, talk, and clean text lands in any field on your Mac, Chrome included.

Facts about other tools come from each vendor's own pages, checked at the end of October 2026.

#How to set it up

1. Install Sayburst and allow Microphone and Accessibility. Accessibility is what lets it type into Chrome. The speech model downloads once and runs on your Mac.
2. Choose a mode for Chrome. Modes are set per app, and to your Mac, Chrome is one app. Pick the mode that fits most of your browser writing (Clean is a good default), then switch for a single dictation from the menu bar when you're writing something else, like an email in Gmail.
3. Click a field, hold fn, talk, let go. The overlay shows your words as you speak, without stealing focus from the page. Release and the text goes in. For longer text, tap fn to go hands-free and tap again to finish.

#What it sounds like in a browser tab

A bug report typed into a web support form:

"The export button on the billing page does nothing, um, it just spins. I've tried logging out and back in and and clearing the cache. It started after, uh, after Tuesday's update."

What lands in the form:

The export button on the billing page does nothing. It just spins. I've tried logging out and back in and clearing the cache. It started after Tuesday's update.

A quick LinkedIn reply with Message mode picked for the dictation:

"hey Priya thanks for reaching out, I'm not looking right now but I'd be happy to grab a coffee next month"

Hey Priya, thanks for reaching out. I'm not looking right now but I'd be happy to grab a coffee next month

Message mode skips the forced final period, so short replies read like chat rather than letters. Writing a longer document? Sayburst also works in Google Docs in Chrome, and the Gmail page covers email.

#Built-in options vs Sayburst in Chrome

If you dictate a paragraph into Docs now and then, Google's tool is free. If Chrome is where you spend your working day, and you also write in apps outside it, Sayburst replaces the extension and the built-in tool with one key.

#Where your words go

• Recognition happens on your Mac. Sayburst never uploads your audio, and it keeps working on a patchy connection. More on that on our offline dictation page.
• Cleanup, including the optional Sayburst Writer model, runs on your Mac too.
• Chrome and the website get only the finished text, the same as if you'd typed it. Whatever the site does with a typed message, it does with this one.
• No page access. Sayburst isn't installed in Chrome, so it doesn't see the pages you visit. If you choose to give its writer the text of the current window, that's a setting you turn on, and it's off by default.

#Tips for Chrome

• Keep auto-send off for Chrome. Auto-send presses Return after inserting, which is handy in a chat app but would also submit forms and search boxes. Leave it for dedicated apps like Slack, or turn it on only if you use Chrome mostly for chat.
• Password fields stay yours. Sayburst won't type into a password field. If you dictate into one by mistake, the text is kept and offered back, so you can paste it where it belongs with ⌃⌥⌘V.
• Teach it what you type in tickets. Add product names, customer names and internal jargon to the vocabulary so they come out right in Jira, Zendesk or whatever tool runs in your tabs.
• Rewrite in place. Select a paragraph in a web form, hold the rewrite shortcut and say "make this friendlier". The selection is replaced.
• Want text read aloud instead? That's Chrome's Reading mode: right-click a page, choose Open in reading mode, and press play, per Google's help. Sayburst writes; it doesn't read pages to you.

#Limits worth knowing

A few web apps block pasting into their fields, and Sayburst inserts text by pasting (then restores your clipboard), so those fields won't accept it. Text arrives when you finish speaking, not word by word. Sayburst is for Apple silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later; on a Chromebook or Windows PC, use the voice typing built into that system. If you're new to all of this, how to dictate on a Mac walks through the basics.

Questions people ask

How do I use voice to text in Chrome on a Mac?

Click into any text field in Chrome, hold fn with Sayburst running, speak, and let go. The text is typed where your cursor is. macOS Dictation, Google Docs voice typing and extensions like Voice In are other options.

Do I need a Chrome extension for speech to text?

No. Sayburst is a Mac app, not a browser extension, so it types into Chrome the way your keyboard does, and into every other app as well. Extensions only work inside the browser.

Is Voice In free?

Voice In has a free version limited to 60 minutes of dictation a day that stops after 20 seconds of silence. Voice In Plus costs $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, according to its own pricing page.

Can Chrome read text aloud instead?

Yes. Chrome's Reading mode can read a page aloud on a computer. Open it from the right-click menu with Open in reading mode, then press the play button. That's text to speech, the opposite of dictation.