Dicta vs Windows voice typing

The short version

Windows 11 dictation is split in two, and which half you get depends on how new your PC is. Dicta is coming to Windows 11 to erase that split.

Microsoft’s “Fluid Dictation,” the part that cleans up grammar, punctuation and filler on-device, ships only on Copilot+ PCs with a 40+ TOPS NPU. Every other Windows 11 machine, which is most of them, keeps the older, plainer voice typing with no AI cleanup at all. Buy the wrong laptop and you are stuck with raw text.

Dicta’s Windows client is in development (the Mac app ships first). It is built to run the same on-device pipeline, speech recognition, corrections and the AI rewrite, on any ordinary Windows 11 x64 PC. No NPU, no Copilot+ badge, nothing sent to Microsoft. The PC you already own is enough.

Fact table

	Dicta for Windows (in development)	Windows dictation
AI cleanup / rewrite	Planned for every supported PC, on-device	Fluid Dictation: Copilot+ PCs only (NPU required)
Non-Copilot+ PCs	Same pipeline, no NPU needed	Older voice typing, no AI cleanup
Custom vocabulary / corrections	Planned (My Words, shared with the Mac app)	Not part of built-in voice typing
Per-app writing styles	Planned, shared with the Mac app	No
Sends anything to the vendor	No, fully on-device	Cleanup runs locally, but it is a Microsoft OS feature
Availability	In development; Mac app ships first	Fluid Dictation on qualifying Copilot+ hardware today

Why the NPU gate matters

Microsoft’s AI dictation is a hardware upsell: to get the clean-up step you buy a Copilot+ PC. Dicta refuses that trade. The whole point is full on-device dictation on the machine you already have, so the AI rewrite is not a reason to replace your laptop. When Dicta reaches Windows, a five-year-old ThinkPad and a brand-new Copilot+ PC get the same finished text.

Dicta comes to Windows 11

The Mac app is first, and Windows is next on the roadmap, built native and local from the start, not a browser wrapped in an app. Want it the day it lands? Put your name down and we will tell you.

Sources

Fluid Dictation’s Copilot+/NPU requirement is drawn from Microsoft’s own Copilot+ PC announcements, as covered at the time this page was written, and is re-checked when we update this comparison. If something above is out of date, tell us at [email protected] and we’ll fix it.

Dicta’s Windows client is on the roadmap; the Mac app ships first. Join the waitlist to hear when it’s ready.