Voice to text in Firefox on Mac

Yes, you can type with your voice in Firefox on a Mac, but not with anything inside Firefox. The browser doesn't offer speech recognition to web pages, so the voice typing sites and buttons that work in Chrome usually do nothing here. Sayburst sidesteps the browser entirely: click into any field in Firefox, hold fn, talk, and let go. The text lands at your cursor, punctuated and without the "ums".

#Why voice typing breaks in Firefox

Most "speech to text in your browser" tools lean on the Web Speech API's SpeechRecognition. MDN's compatibility data lists Firefox support as preview-only, so the version you run every day doesn't have it. Google Docs Voice typing is the same story from the other side: Google's help page lists Chrome, Edge and Safari as supported browsers, and Firefox isn't on the list. Sources: MDN SpeechRecognition and Google Docs Help, checked October 31, 2026.

There's a quieter catch with the API in Chrome too. MDN notes that in Chrome, speech recognition on a web page sends your audio to a web service, which is why it doesn't work offline. If you picked Firefox for privacy, that isn't the trade you want anyway.

A dictation app works at the Mac level, below the browser. Firefox just sees text arriving, the way it would from your keyboard.

#How to set it up

1. Install Sayburst and grant Microphone and Accessibility. Microphone is for Sayburst, not for Firefox; no website ever sees your mic. Accessibility lets Sayburst put text into Firefox.
2. Let the speech model download once. After that, recognition runs on your Mac, so it works on a train with no signal or on a locked-down network.
3. Click into a Firefox field and hold fn. A comment box, a search field, a web app, the address bar. Speak, let go, and the text appears. Tap fn once instead of holding it if you want both hands free for a longer stretch.

If Firefox is where you do most of your writing, set a writing mode for it in Sayburst's settings. Clean works for most pages; Message is better if you mostly chat in web apps, because it keeps short replies casual.

#What it sounds like in Firefox

Filing a bug on GitHub. What you say:

"Steps to reproduce. Bullet point open the settings page. Bullet point toggle dark mode, uh, twice. Bullet point reload. New paragraph. Expected the toggle to stay on, but it, it resets to light after reload."

What Sayburst types into the issue box:

Steps to reproduce:

• Open the settings page.
• Toggle dark mode twice.
• Reload.

Expected the toggle to stay on, but it resets to light after reload.

A support form. "Hi, I was charged twice for the March invoice, um, order number four four seven one two, could you refund the duplicate?" becomes "Hi, I was charged twice for the March invoice, order number 44712. Could you refund the duplicate?" Numbers you say stay the numbers you said.

A search you'd never bother typing. Click the address bar, hold fn, and say "best way to repot a fiddle leaf fig without killing it". Press Return. Long, specific searches stop feeling like work.

#Firefox's options vs Sayburst

Apple Dictation is free and types into Firefox like any other app (Apple's guide). For a quick search or a sentence in a form, it's enough. Sayburst earns its place when you write a lot in the browser and want text that doesn't need fixing.

#Where your words go

• Recognition happens on your Mac. Sayburst doesn't upload your audio, and Firefox and the website never receive it.
• Cleanup (punctuation, fillers, lists) runs on your Mac too, and so does Sayburst Writer, the optional on-device model. A cloud writer is only used if you connect one with your own API key, and then only text is sent.
• The website gets the finished text, just like typing. What it does with your comment, form or document is up to that site and your Firefox settings.

For the bigger picture on keeping dictation off the network, see offline dictation on Mac.

#Tips for Firefox

• Turn on auto-send for chat sites you live in. Sayburst can press Return after inserting, so a message in a web chat sends itself. Leave it off for Firefox in general, or you'll submit half-written forms.
• Use it in Google Docs and Gmail in Firefox. Google's own voice typing won't run here, but Sayburst does. See Google Docs and Gmail.
• Rewrite a paragraph you already wrote. Select text in a text area, hold the rewrite shortcut and say "make this more polite". The selection is replaced in place.
• Recover a dictation that missed. If a page reloaded or you clicked away, press ⌃⌥⌘V to paste the last dictation.

Comparing browsers? The same setup works in Chrome, and our guide to dictating on a Mac covers the basics for every app.

#Limits

Sayburst pastes text into the focused field and restores your clipboard afterwards, so a site that blocks pasting won't accept it. Text arrives when you finish speaking rather than streaming in word by word. Sayburst writes text; it doesn't click links or scroll pages. It needs an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later, and there's no version for Windows, Linux or Android; there, use the dictation built into the system.

Questions people ask

Does Firefox have voice to text?

Not for web pages. Release versions of Firefox don't support the Web Speech API's speech recognition, which MDN lists as preview-only, so voice typing sites built on it don't work. A Mac dictation app like Sayburst or Apple Dictation types into Firefox anyway.

Why doesn't Google Docs voice typing work in Firefox?

Google lists Chrome, Edge and Safari as the supported browsers for Docs Voice typing. In Firefox, use a Mac-level dictation tool instead; Sayburst works in Google Docs in any browser.

Do I need to give Firefox microphone access for Sayburst?

No. Sayburst records with its own Microphone permission and types the result into Firefox. Websites never get access to your microphone.

Is there a speech to text extension for Firefox?

You don't need one on a Mac. Sayburst is an app, not an extension, so it works on every site and in Firefox's address bar, with nothing added to your browser.