SaypadDragon for Mac is gone. What to use instead
Nuance stopped selling and updating Dragon Professional Individual for Mac in October 2018, and no new Mac version has followed. If you're looking for Dragon on a Mac today, you'll need something else. Which one depends on whether you used Dragon to write or to control your computer.
What happened to Dragon for Mac
Nuance announced that Dragon Professional Individual for Mac was discontinued effective 22 October 2018, with no more sales or updates. People who owned version 6 could keep using it under their license. The Register covered it at the time. Dragon carried on for Windows only.
If you used Dragon to write
This is the easier case, because speech recognition on a Mac has improved a lot since 2018.
| Option | Price | Where speech is processed | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Dictation | Included with macOS | On your Mac where supported; Keyboard settings show it | Trying dictation with nothing to install |
| Saypad (ours) | Free | On your Mac | Offline dictation with a saved history and your own word list |
| Superwhisper | Free plan; Pro from $8.49/month | On your device; cloud models on Pro | Choosing models and modes |
| Wispr Flow | Free with a weekly limit; Pro from $12/month | In the cloud | AI cleanup of what you say |
From each company's own pages, checked 5 November 2026.
Several of these let you add names and jargon to a word list, which fixes the errors you'd otherwise correct every time.
If you used Dragon to control your Mac
Dictation apps won't replace this. They type text and don't click buttons or open menus. Look at Voice Control, built into macOS under Accessibility settings, which handles commands as well as text. Developers who want to control everything by voice can look at Talon. Voice to text on a Mac explains how Voice Control differs from Dictation.
Saypad doesn't do voice commands, so if you relied on them, it isn't your replacement.
Questions
Is Dragon available for Mac?
No new copies are sold. Nuance discontinued Dragon Professional Individual for Mac on 22 October 2018. It still sells Dragon for Windows.
Will my old copy of Dragon for Mac still work?
Owners kept their license, but the software hasn't been updated since 2018, before Apple silicon Macs existed. Don't count on it running on a current Mac.
What's the closest thing to Dragon on a Mac?
For controlling the Mac by voice, Apple's Voice Control, which is built in. For writing, a dictation app or Apple Dictation.
Can I run Windows Dragon on a Mac?
Some people run it in a virtual machine. As far as we can tell Nuance doesn't support that, and we haven't tested it.
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