Granola adds free, unlimited voice typing on Mac

Granola introduced free voice typing for Mac on October 29, extending its meeting-notes app into writing emails, messages and documents by speaking. Its product page offers unlimited words to every Granola user, including those on the free Basic plan.

The feature is a beta in the Mac desktop app. It inserts polished text into the field where the user is already working. Windows, iOS and Android are listed as coming later. Setup requires microphone access and macOS Accessibility permission, used to detect the shortcut, read surrounding context and paste into other apps.

The default shortcut is fn: holding it starts dictation, and releasing it inserts the result. A double tap enables hands-free input. Each dictation can run for up to 20 minutes, when Granola stops listening and inserts the text captured so far. Esc cancels both recording and processing.

Dictation requires an internet connection. If pasting fails, Granola copies the text and displays a notification. The target field needs to stay selected until insertion finishes. A microphone disconnection inserts what was heard up to that point. Quitting Granola stops dictation. While fn is assigned as the shortcut, Granola disables its usual macOS action, such as opening emoji, and restores it when the shortcut changes or dictation is switched off. If both copying and pasting fail, text can be recovered from History. Interrupted dictations can be retried if their audio was retained.

Personalization includes a dedicated dictation dictionary, with up to 50 characters and six words per entry. It is managed separately from meeting-transcription jargon. Corrections to a name or term immediately after dictation can be learned for future use. An on-screen notification offers an undo action, and learned entries can be removed from the dictionary.

Formatting settings are grouped into email, work messages, personal messages and other apps. Formal uses capitalization and full punctuation; Casual lightens punctuation, while Very casual uses lowercase. Excited adds exclamation marks to upbeat sentences. These styles adjust capitalization, punctuation and spacing while preserving the user’s words. Browser apps are recognized by address. Each category starts on Automatic, which selects punctuation from the spoken input. Question marks are retained in every style. Very casual is offered for personal messages; Excited is available for email, work messages and other apps.

Screen context is enabled by default

Granola reads text from the active app to help spell names and adapt formatting. A one-line search field gets no line break, while technical terms retain their case in editors and terminals. Turning screen context off also disables app-specific styles.

History stays on the Mac. By default, it remains until deleted; only failed dictation audio is encrypted and retained for 24 hours. Users can choose 24-hour deletion or disable local storage. Successful audio is discarded.

Processing sends audio, the dictionary and the selected language to transcription and AI providers. With screen context on, nearby conversation and cursor text can be included. Granola skips password fields and excludes context from history.

Granola says provider agreements prohibit training third-party models on users’ data. Its own service improvement has separate controls: anonymized data may be used by default, with an account-wide opt-out in Preferences. Enterprise workspaces are opted out by default, and administrators can enforce the setting. The toggle is not yet available on Android; changes made on desktop or iOS apply across the account.