Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)
Don’t want to sign up for Microsoft Dictate? Drop the file here.
The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free: a recording up to 20 minutes transcribes in full, a longer one is previewed, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, and credits never expire.
Voice dictation inside Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
Best for microsoft 365 users wanting native dictation in Word and Outlook. Pricing: Microsoft 365 subscription.
What it is
Microsoft 365 includes Dictate in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote — speak-to-text directly into documents and emails.
Watch out for: Requires Microsoft 365 license; quality varies.
Install / use
support.microsoft.com — built into Microsoft 365
What people actually do with Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)-style transcription
The tool is the means. These are the jobs — each one priced at published rates, each one wired up on its own page.
Features
| Speaker diarization | No |
| Word-level timestamps | No |
| Streaming / real-time | No |
| Languages supported | 20 |
| HIPAA eligible | Yes |
Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) vs Whipscribe
| Feature | Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) | Whipscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Products | Transcription APIs |
| Pricing | Not verified | $6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free |
| Speaker identification | Not verified | Named in the summary, key quotes and chapters |
| Word timestamps | Not verified | Yes |
| Streaming | Not verified | No |
| Languages | 20 | 99 |
| Platforms | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Web, API, MCP |
Alternatives to Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)
Frequently asked about Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)
How much does Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) cost?
Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) is a paid product — published pricing: Microsoft 365 subscription. Pricing changes; verify on the vendor's own page before budgeting.
Does Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) work on Mac, Windows and Linux?
Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) runs on Web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
How do I get started with Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)?
There is nothing to install — Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) is used in the browser. Create an account on the vendor's site and upload or connect your audio.
How many languages does Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) support?
Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) lists 20 languages.
What are the limitations of Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)?
Requires Microsoft 365 license; quality varies.
Who is Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) best for?
Microsoft 365 users wanting native dictation in Word and Outlook.
Is Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) open source?
No. Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) is a proprietary product. If you need source you can read and run yourself, the open-source tools in this directory are the place to look.
What kind of tool is Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)?
In this directory Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) is filed under product as a product.
What are the alternatives to Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)?
There is a side-by-side page at /tools/microsoft-dictate-office-alternatives comparing Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.
Can I automate Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)-style transcription without running it myself?
Yes. If what you want is transcripts rather than the tool itself, Whipscribe does the same job as a hosted API: submit a file or URL, poll a job id, pull the result as txt, json, srt, vtt or docx. $0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. The automation recipes on this site show it wired to Drive folders, Zoom recordings, S3 buckets and no-code platforms.
How is Whipscribe different from Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)?
Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) is another vendor's product; Whipscribe is a per-minute transcription service. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and never used for training, and every job returns five formats plus an AI summary, quotes and topics. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export.
What does transcription cost if I use Whipscribe instead of Microsoft Dictate (Office 365)?
$0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: a 3-hour recording is about $2.16, a thousand-hour archive is about $720 once. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, so you can see what your recording holds before paying anything.
Where is the Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) category heading?
Three things are moving across the whole speech-to-text market right now: summaries, action items and speaker insights generated on top of the transcript rather than sold separately; private, secured deployment where the audio never leaves a boundary you control; and agent access — transcription exposed as a tool that Claude, Cursor or a workflow runner can call directly. Whipscribe ships all three today: per-job insights, our own servers, and an MCP server.
Whipscribe is a hosted transcription service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.
Transcribe your recordings
Using Microsoft Dictate (Office 365) today? Send your next recording here and compare the transcript. Transcribe any language, any recording · Transcription services from $0.29 an hour · Transcribe from any meeting or recording platform · How to transcribe, step by step
Explore
All transcription tools · By language · By platform · By file format · How-to guides · Transcription services · Transcription API · Pricing
Have the recording already?
Skip the setup and send the file or the link: see how to transcribe an MP3 of any length, transcribing a podcast episode and an SRT subtitle file from any recording.
Looking at paid options?
Before you choose a transcription tool or service: see how the best transcription services compare, the cheapest way to transcribe an hour of audio and how our transcription services work.