UtterKey user guide
Everything you need to set up UtterKey and get the most out of it — in plain language.
1. Quick start
UtterKey types what you say into whatever app you're already using.
- Hold the hotkey — Fn (the 🌐 key, bottom-left) on a Mac, or Ctrl+Shift+Space on Windows — from anywhere on your computer.
- Speak naturally. A small pill appears at the bottom of your screen while it listens.
- Let go. Your cleaned-up text is typed straight into the box where your cursor is.
Two one-time things: give UtterKey permission to hear you and to type (§2), and add your API key (§3). Ten minutes once, then never again.
Why the hotkey differs on Windows
Windows can't see the Fn key at all — it's handled inside the keyboard itself and never reaches Windows, so no app can use it. Windows therefore uses Ctrl+Shift+Space: hold all three, speak, and release.
Click into the box you want the text to appear in first, then hold the hotkey. UtterKey types wherever your cursor already is.
Changing the shortcut
On Windows you can pick your own: open Settings, find Dictation shortcut, click Change, then simply press the combination you want (for example Ctrl+Alt+Space). Press Esc to cancel. If another app already owns that combination, UtterKey tells you — just try a different one.
On a Mac the Fn hold is fixed — it's deliberately the one key no other shortcut ever fights over, and it's what makes press-and-talk feel instant. (It's the 🌐/Fn key at the bottom-left of Apple keyboards.)
How long can one dictation be?
Up to 5 minutes in a single hold — far more than normal dictation, which is usually a sentence or two. The pill turns amber for the last 30 seconds, and if you reach the 5 minutes UtterKey stops and types what you've said so far. You never lose your words.
For anything longer, just release Fn and start again — there's no limit on how many dictations you can do.
2. Permissions (one time)
Your computer won't let any app listen to your microphone or type for you until you say so. This is a one-time setup — but until it's done, UtterKey will appear to do nothing at all, which is the single most common reason people think it's broken.
On a Mac
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and switch UtterKey on in each of these:
| Permission | Why UtterKey needs it |
|---|---|
| Microphone | To hear you speak. |
| Accessibility | To type the finished text into other apps. |
| Input Monitoring | To notice the Fn key while you're working in another app. |
Free up the Fn key
By default macOS uses Fn to open the emoji picker. Go to System Settings → Keyboard and set "Press 🌐 key to" → Do Nothing, so UtterKey can use it.
Note: the Fn hold-to-talk shortcut works with the Apple built-in keyboard.
macOS may ask for these permissions again after UtterKey updates, and it may show a keychain prompt asking to use your saved information — choose Always Allow, or UtterKey can't read the API key you saved and dictation will silently do nothing.
On Windows
Windows hides microphone access behind three switches, one inside the other. Open Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone and turn them on from the top down — if the first is off, the ones below it are hidden entirely:
- Microphone access — the master switch at the top.
- Let apps access your microphone.
- Let desktop apps access your microphone — this one appears below the app list once the first two are on. This is the switch UtterKey needs.
It won't be, and that's normal. Windows only lists Store apps individually. Desktop programs like UtterKey are all covered by the single "Let desktop apps access your microphone" switch, and they only appear in that list after they've successfully used the microphone once. Don't go hunting for UtterKey there — just turn the switch on.
Then quit UtterKey and open it again. Permissions are only checked when the app starts, so a running app won't notice the change.
"Windows protected your PC"
You'll see this blue warning the first time you install. It is not a virus warning — Windows shows it for any installer it has not yet seen downloaded many times, and it fades as more people install. Click More info, then Run anyway.
3. Your API key
UtterKey is bring-your-own-key: you plug in your own AI key and pay that provider directly — for most people on Groq's free tier, that's £0. There's no monthly UtterKey fee.
Getting a free Groq key (recommended — 2 minutes)
- Go to console.groq.com and sign up — free, no card needed.
- In the left menu choose API Keys → Create API Key, give it any name (e.g. "UtterKey").
- Copy the key immediately (it starts with
gsk_) — Groq shows it only once. If you lose it, just create another.
Prefer OpenAI?
If you already use OpenAI: platform.openai.com → API keys → Create new secret key (starts with sk-). Note OpenAI's API needs billing set up on their side; everyday dictation costs pennies.
Which one should you choose?
For everyday writing — email, notes, messages — Groq is the easy answer. It is fast and its free tier covers normal use, so most people never pay anything.
If you dictate specialist terms for a living — drug names, case references, technical vocabulary — choose OpenAI. Two differences matter at that level. Groq's engine can be told about roughly 70 of your custom words at a time, where OpenAI's takes hundreds. And when you pause with the key held down, Groq's engine can occasionally fill the silence with a stray phrase; OpenAI's stays silent. UtterKey guards against both, but the better engine costs you a few pounds a month and removes the problem at the source.
You can switch at any time in AI & API, and nothing else about your setup changes.
Putting the key into UtterKey — same steps on Mac and Windows
- Open the AI & API section in UtterKey.
- Choose your Provider (Groq or OpenAI).
- Paste the key and press Save — watch for stray spaces if you copied it by hand.
In your computer's own secure store — the Keychain on a Mac, Credential Manager on Windows — plus an encrypted on-device backup (locked to your computer's hardware, unreadable anywhere else) so updates and system hiccups can never lose it. Never on our servers, and UtterKey never displays it back to you. Your audio goes only to the provider you choose. Each computer keeps its own copy, so on your second device you paste the key once there too.
Each provider has its own saved key, so you can set up both and switch freely. If dictation ever answers "401 Unauthorized", the saved key has stopped being valid — create a fresh one and save it again.
If your provider starts rate-limiting your key, runs out of credit, or rejects it, UtterKey tells you in plain words — a quiet status line under your key in AI & API, and a banner only when something genuinely needs your attention (like credit running out). Dictation keeps working through your other key in the meantime whenever possible. No cryptic error codes, no silent surprises on your provider bill.
4. OpenAI vs Groq — which to pick
Both do the same job. The difference is speed versus accuracy.
| Provider | Best for |
|---|---|
| Groq (default) | Fast and free for most people. Near-instant — text appears almost as soon as you release the key — and Groq's free tier covers hours of dictation a day without a card. Inside Settings you can also pick its engine: Fastest or Most accurate. |
| OpenAI | The familiar one. If you already have an OpenAI key, it works here with no new signup. A couple of seconds slower than Groq. |
Get a free Groq key at console.groq.com, or an OpenAI key at platform.openai.com.
What does it cost to run?
You pay the provider only for audio you actually dictate — and only pennies. As a guide (prices were roughly accurate when this page was written; check your provider's own pricing page for today's rates — those pages are always the final word, not this one):
| Option | Rough cost per hour of speech | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Groq — free tier | $0 | Allows hours of dictation per day at no charge, no card needed. Most people never leave it. |
| Groq — Fastest engine | ~$0.04 | Even a heavy dictator spends well under $1/month. |
| Groq — Most accurate engine | ~$0.11 | A heavy dictator spends about $1–2/month. |
| OpenAI | ~$0.36 | A heavy dictator spends about $4–5/month. |
The AI cleanup step adds a fraction of a cent on any provider. These figures are illustrative estimates, not quotes — your own usage and your provider's current prices decide what you actually pay.
Which one does UtterKey actually use?
Whichever is selected in the Provider dropdown in Settings — that choice is remembered between launches. UtterKey does not pick for you based on which keys you've added.
The one exception is a safety net: if the selected provider has no key but the other one does, UtterKey uses the other rather than refusing to type. So if you're set to Groq and delete your Groq key, your dictation still works on OpenAI. Add a key for both if you'd like that cover.
If you have no key for either, UtterKey will ask you to add one in Settings.
5. Cleanup: Exact, Polished or Professional
After transcribing, UtterKey tidies your words. You choose how much liberty it takes.
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Exact (default) | Keeps your exact words. Only fixes obvious spelling, capitalisation and punctuation, and removes filler words like "um". It will never swap a word for a different one. |
| Polished | Also lightly corrects grammar — which can mean changing a word (for example "neither" → "nor") to make a sentence read correctly. |
| Professional | True dictation. You speak the punctuation and structure — "full stop", "comma", "new paragraph", "bullet point" — and UtterKey types it, the way professional dictation has always worked. Everything you don't say as a command is kept word-for-word, like Exact. |
Stay on Exact for everyday speaking. Switch to Professional when you're dictating documents — letters, reports, notes — and want full control of the punctuation.
Professional mode — the commands
Say these naturally as you speak. The essentials:
| Say… | You get |
|---|---|
| full stop | . — always say "full stop", not "period". "Period" stays an ordinary word, so "the trial period" and "period of treatment" are always safe to say. |
| comma · question mark · exclamation mark | , ? ! |
| colon · semicolon | : ; — "colon" is understood in context, so medical phrases like colonoscopy or descending colon are never touched. |
| open quote … close quote | " … " |
| open parenthesis … close parenthesis | ( … ) |
| hyphen · dash | - · — |
| new line | a line break |
| new paragraph | a blank line and a fresh paragraph |
| bullet point | • a new bullet |
The full command set
| Say… | You get |
|---|---|
| open parenthesis … close parenthesis | ( … ) — "open paren" and "left/right parenthesis" work too. A bare "open bracket" is ambiguous (UK round vs US square), so prefer the full names. |
| open square bracket … close square bracket | [ … ] |
| open curly brace … close curly brace | { … } |
| forward slash · backslash | / · \ — UK speakers: "stroke" becomes / only between numbers ("2 stroke 24"), so "stroke risk" always stays a word. |
| apostrophe · apostrophe-s | ' · 's ("the patient apostrophe-s notes" → the patient's notes) |
| en dash · em dash · underscore | – · — · _ |
| at sign · percent sign · ampersand | @ · % · & |
| dollar sign · euro sign · pound sterling sign | $ · € · £ |
| plus sign · minus sign · equals sign · plus or minus sign | + · − · = · ± |
| asterisk · degree symbol · section sign · hash sign · pipe | * · ° · § · # · | |
| heading Patient Info | Patient Info: on its own line — the word "heading" is consumed, never typed, and the colon is added for you (saying "colon" after the phrase is harmless but unnecessary). "header" and "headline" work too. |
| title Discharge Summary | DISCHARGE SUMMARY on its own line, then a blank line. "subtitle X" gives Title Case without capitals-lock. |
| number one … number two … | 1. … 2. … — numbered list items, after a new line or in a clear list. |
| tab | a tab indent, when clearly meant as one |
| ellipsis · dot dot dot | … |
Some command words are also everyday (and clinical) words, so UtterKey converts them only when they're clearly meant as commands: "colon" (safe in colonoscopy and sigmoid colon), "stroke" (safe in stroke risk), "over" (converts in 120 over 80, safe in "over the counter"), "point" (converts in four point two, safe in "point of care"), "degrees" (converts in 98 degrees Fahrenheit, safe in "medical degree"), "times" (stays a word in "times three days"). If you ever need a command word typed literally, say "the word …" — "the words new paragraph" types the words instead of breaking the line.
Numbers behave like dictation too: "one thirty over eighty" becomes 130/80, "four point two" becomes 4.2, "one hundred two degrees Fahrenheit" becomes 102°F.
Need to type a command word literally? Say "the word …" — "the word comma" types comma instead of a mark.
Say: "History colon new paragraph the patient reports a productive cough comma worse at night full stop"
Get: History: then a new paragraph reading The patient reports a productive cough, worse at night.
6. The Template Library — ready-made document skeletons (Professional)
UtterKey Professional includes a growing library of document templates — 35 at launch across three packs: the 🩺 Doctor Pack (clinic letters, discharge summaries, operation notes and more), the ⚖️ Legal Pack (attendance notes, letters, witness statements), and the 💼 Professionals Pack (minutes, reports, proposals, lesson plans, pull requests). Where the law genuinely differs between countries, templates come in clearly labelled variants — for example a Witness Statement (UK) with the required English court wording, and a Declaration (US) with the American equivalent.
Getting templates — one click, inside the app
Open Templates → Template library. The three packs appear right there — click Install all on a pack and every template lands in your list, ready to use. No downloads, no files, nothing to unzip. (Your Professional licence is checked automatically — you're already activated.)
Prefer files? The same library lives at utterkey.com/templates (unlock with your licence key) — templates download individually as text files you can read, edit, or import via Templates → ➕ New template → Import from file.
Two ways to use a template — pick per moment
Way 1 — say it all in one go (the fast way). Three steps to set up: pick the template in the Active Template dropdown, switch the mode to Professional, and click into an empty document. Then just talk — say a heading's name, then what goes under it, then the next heading's name, and so on. When you let go, UtterKey types the whole document: every heading from the template, in the template's order, with your words placed under the right ones. You don't have to speak the headings in order — UtterKey still files everything where it belongs. Headings you didn't mention are kept and left blank, ready to fill in later, so the document always keeps its proper shape. This is the end-of-clinic letter in ninety seconds.
Say: "subjective feeling much better this morning full stop objective chest clear comma afebrile full stop plan home tomorrow full stop"
Get:
Subjective: Feeling much better this morning.
Objective: Chest clear, afebrile.
Assessment: (kept, left blank — you didn't mention it)
Plan: Home tomorrow.
Notice you never typed a heading, never clicked anywhere twice, and the words "subjective", "objective" and "plan" were understood as places to file things — not typed out as sentences.
Way 2 — paste and fill (the control play). Click Copy next to the template, paste it (⌘V / Ctrl+V) into your document — the headings now sit there like an empty form. Leave Active Template on "None", then click under a heading, dictate just that section's content, click under the next, and so on. You never speak the section names — they're already on the page. Ideal for filling systems where the structure must be visible first, working out of order, or completing a half-done note.
Use one way at a time. Dictating with an Active Template into a document where you already pasted the skeleton gives you the headings twice — set the dropdown to "None" when you're pasting-and-filling.
A downloaded template is a starting point: open it in the Templates section, edit the headings to match your own letterhead habits, delete sections you never use, add ones you do. And any document you already have can become a template the same way — the library is a head start, not a limit.
New packs and templates are added over time — announcements go to Professional buyers by email, and everything current is always at utterkey.com/templates.
7. Snippets — say a word, paste a paragraph
A snippet turns a short trigger word into a long block of saved text. Say the trigger on its own, and UtterKey pastes the full text exactly as you saved it.
- Open the Snippets section.
- Trigger: a short word, e.g.
review. - Expansion: the full text, e.g. "Please review this code for bugs, security issues and style, with line-by-line feedback."
- Press Add snippet.
Now hold Fn, say just "review", and the whole paragraph is typed out.
Snippets fire only when the trigger is the whole thing you said — saying it inside a longer sentence won't expand it. Expansions paste exactly as written (no AI cleanup), so they're identical every time. There's no limit on how many you can add.
8. Vocabulary — teaching UtterKey your words
This is how UtterKey learns names, jargon and brand names it keeps getting wrong. There are two tools, and they work best together.
Custom words — prevention
A hint given to the AI before it writes anything: "these words may come up." Like handing someone a guest list before they take attendance — they're far more likely to spell the names right. Great for names, jargon and product names. It makes mistakes much rarer, but it's a nudge, not a guarantee.
Auto-corrections — guarantee
A find-and-replace applied after transcribing: "whenever you see OTA key, make it UtterKey." It's 100% reliable — but only fixes the exact mistake you told it about.
Add the word under Custom words so it's usually heard correctly, and add an Auto-correction for the specific mistake it makes. The hint stops most errors; the correction catches whatever slips through. There's no limit on either list.
Example
- Custom word:
UtterKey - Auto-correction:
OTA key→UtterKey - Auto-correction:
Utterkey→UtterKey(fixes capitalisation)
9. Backup — take your setup with you (Professional)
Your templates, snippets, custom vocabulary and auto-corrections are an investment. Backup puts them all in one file, so a new computer — Mac or Windows — feels like home in a minute.
Export
Open Backup → Export settings. UtterKey saves a single file, UtterKey-Settings.json, to your Downloads folder. Keep it wherever you keep important files, or send it to your other computer.
Import
On the other machine, open the Backup section → Import settings and pick the file. Importing merges: new items are added, same-name items are updated, and nothing you already have is deleted. The same file works on Mac and Windows.
Your API key and your licence key never travel in a backup — a settings file may get emailed or shared, and secrets don't belong in it. On a new machine, paste your licence key and API key once in Settings; both take seconds.
10. Best practices — getting the most out of UtterKey
Habits that make dictation noticeably more accurate and pleasant, learned from real use.
Dictate in full sentences, not two-word bursts
The speech engine uses your surrounding words as context. Say "send it" alone and it has almost nothing to work with — very short clips are where mishears happen. A full sentence ("Let's go with option A and build it now") is heard almost perfectly. If you only need one or two words, speaking a touch slower and clearer helps.
Longer passages beat rapid-fire bursts
You can hold the key and speak for a good while — a whole paragraph or several. One continuous dictation gives both the ear and the cleanup better context than five tiny ones, and produces better punctuation and flow. Dictate thoughts, not fragments.
End a dictation with "new paragraph" to set up the next one
In Professional mode, finishing with "…full stop new paragraph" leaves your cursor on a fresh line — so your next dictation starts a clean paragraph. It's the natural rhythm for letters and notes: one paragraph per press.
Don't worry about spacing between dictations
If you dictate a sentence, pause, then dictate another, UtterKey looks at where your cursor sits and adds the joining space itself (Mac). You never need to say "space" between sentences.
Teach it your words early
Names, drugs, case names, product names — add them to Vocabulary → Custom words the first time you use them. If something is misheard the same way twice, make it an Auto-correction and it's guaranteed fixed forever. Two minutes of teaching saves endless small edits.
Pick the right mode for the job
Exact for everyday messages and emails. Professional when you're dictating a document and want to speak the punctuation and structure yourself. Repeating the same document shape? Save it as a Template once and dictate into it. Typing the same paragraph weekly? Make it a Snippet and say one word.
Saying a command word as a normal word
Need to literally write "full stop" or "comma"? Say "the words full stop" — the escape phrase tells UtterKey to type the words instead of the punctuation.
Pick snippet triggers the ear can't confuse
Snippets fire when what you said matches the trigger — exactly, or close enough in sound that UtterKey is confident (so a trigger heard as "cloud install" still fires "claude install"). UtterKey also whispers your triggers to the transcription engine as hints, so it is primed to hear them correctly in the first place. Matching stays deliberately tight — deliberately, so a half-match in an email can never paste a command into your text. That means the best triggers are word pairs with no everyday twin. "cloud deploy" is a risky trigger — say it and the ear may hear the ordinary words "crowd deploy" or "cloud theploy" and just type them. "deploy sequence" or "magic deploy" has no common sound-alike, so it fires every time. If a trigger keeps being typed out instead of expanding, check what actually got typed: that's what the ear heard, and an Auto-correction from the misheard version to your trigger fixes it permanently — corrections run before snippet matching.
Sharing a computer? Turn off "Show latest result" (Professional)
The Home screen normally shows your last dictation, which is handy — but on a machine used by more than one person (a ward computer, a shared office desk), that means the next user could read what you dictated. Untick Show latest result on the Home screen and UtterKey keeps nothing to show: the text goes into your document as normal and nowhere else. This isn't hiding — with the setting off, there is nothing stored on screen for anyone to reveal, even by switching the setting back on.
Back up once your setup is worth keeping
After you've built templates, vocabulary and snippets, export a Backup file and keep it somewhere safe — your whole setup restores in one click on any machine.
11. Launch at login
Turn on Home → Launch at login and UtterKey starts automatically when you sign in to your Mac, ready in the background whenever you press Fn.
12. Your licence and devices
Buying UtterKey gives you a licence key — a short code emailed to you after purchase. Paste it into the Licence section once on each device, and that device is activated for good. No account, no monthly renewal.
How many devices?
One licence activates on up to 3 devices. It counts devices, not installations — reinstalling UtterKey on a device you've already activated doesn't use up another slot.
It's also one licence across platforms. The same key works on Mac and Windows at no extra cost — so a Mac and a Windows PC can share the same licence, using two of your three slots.
Moving to a new machine
Before you sell, wipe, or retire a device, open Licence → Deactivate. That frees the slot immediately, and you can activate your new machine straight away.
On a Professional licence, pair this with Backup — export your settings on the old machine, import on the new one, and your templates and vocabulary arrive with you.
It happens — a dead hard drive doesn't give you the chance. Email support with your licence key and we'll free the slot for you. You won't be stuck, and you won't need to buy again.
Do I need to be online?
Only to activate. After that UtterKey checks in occasionally, but keeps working offline in between — so a flight or a dead Wi-Fi router won't stop you dictating.
13. Updates
UtterKey updates itself. It looks for new versions when it starts, every few hours while it runs, and whenever you come back to its window — so you never need to restart the app just to find out. When a new version exists, a banner appears at the top of the app: "Version X is ready — takes under a minute." Click Update now — it downloads, verifies the update's signature, installs, and restarts. Click Later and it politely stays out of your way until the next check.
An update never touches your licence, your API key, your templates, snippets, vocabulary, or any setting. Everything is exactly as you left it — the app even keeps an encrypted on-device backup of your setup that restores itself automatically if your computer's credential store misbehaves.
Your current version is shown at the bottom of the sidebar. If you ever prefer a manual update, utterkey.com/download always serves the newest version — install it over the top and everything carries over.
14. Troubleshooting
Open Backup → Support and click Copy diagnostic report, then paste it into an email to hello@utterkey.com — it tells us your version, settings and recent app events so we can usually answer in one reply. It never contains anything you dictated, your API keys or your licence key. Professional users can click Send report to support instead — one click, no email needed.
Nothing happens when I hold the hotkey
Almost always a permission (§2), and the app must be restarted after you grant one.
On a Mac: check Input Monitoring and Accessibility are on for UtterKey, and that "Press 🌐 key to" is set to Do Nothing.
On Windows: check all three microphone switches, top down, especially "Let desktop apps access your microphone". Also make sure no other app has claimed Ctrl+Shift+Space — only one app can own a shortcut at a time.
It worked once, then stopped responding
UtterKey handles one dictation at a time. If an attempt is still finishing — a slow connection, for instance — presses are ignored until it's done. Wait a few seconds and try again; if it stays unresponsive, quit UtterKey and reopen it.
It types text when I didn't say anything
UtterKey ignores silent recordings, so this should be rare. If it happens, make sure you're actually speaking while holding the key — very short taps may capture nothing.
It says "Didn't catch any speech"
The recording was too quiet. Speak a little louder or closer to the mic, and hold Fn for the whole sentence.
It keeps misspelling a name
Add it under Vocabulary → Custom words, and add an Auto-correction for the exact wrong spelling (§7).
It answered my question instead of typing it
Shouldn't happen — UtterKey is built to transcribe, never to reply. If you ever see it, switch Cleanup to Exact and let us know.
It says I've used all my activations
All 3 slots are in use — usually an old machine that was never deactivated. If you still have it, use Licence → Deactivate there. If you don't, email support with your licence key and we'll free a slot (§9).
The text goes to the wrong place
UtterKey types wherever your cursor is. Click into the box you want before holding Fn.