40+ honest answers to the questions people actually ask.

CaringDictate is voice typing software for Windows. You press a hotkey, speak, and the words appear in whatever you were typing — email, Word, Facebook, web forms, anywhere with a text box. It is designed for elderly users and adults with medical conditions that make typing hard. $49 one-time, no subscription, lifetime updates.

About three minutes. After you install the software, a setup wizard asks three questions (which hotkey, whether to use the same key to stop, and whether you want a soft chime when dictation starts and stops). You can change any answer later. We deliberately built the simplest setup in the industry.

No. CaringDictate uses Whisper Large v3 Turbo, which was trained on a very broad range of voices and works well out of the box on most users. Unlike older Dragon NaturallySpeaking, there is no hour-long training session at the start.

About 10 minutes from purchase. You buy CaringDictate, receive the download link by email within minutes, run the installer, answer three setup questions, and start dictating. Most users send their first email by voice within 15 minutes of purchase.

The default hotkey is Ctrl+Space. You can change it during setup, or in the settings later, to any keyboard key, key combination, or mouse button. Many users with motor symptoms prefer a single key (like Caps Lock) or a mouse button instead of a key combination.

Yes. $49 once. Lifetime updates included. No subscription, no upgrade tiers, no monthly fee, no recurring anything. We deliberately rejected the subscription model because most of our users are managing chronic conditions that already cost too much.

We may raise the launch price as the product matures, but anyone who has already purchased will keep their license at the price they paid, with all future updates included.

Dragon Professional ($699) and Dragon Anywhere ($149.99/year) are priced for enterprise medical and professional users. CaringDictate is priced for consumers — and built on more modern recognition technology (Whisper Large v3 Turbo, released 2024) than Dragon's engine. The $49 price is honest, not a discount.

Yes, you can install CaringDictate on up to 3 of your own computers (e.g. desktop, laptop, second laptop). It is one license for one person's use across their devices, not a household or corporate license.

The base price is already set as low as we can sustainably make it. If $49 represents real financial hardship, email hello@caringdictate.com — we have a small fund for users in genuine need and will provide free or reduced-cost licenses.

In many cases yes — most FSA and HSA plans allow purchases of assistive technology that helps with a medical condition. The receipt we email describes the purchase as assistive software, which is usually what FSA/HSA administrators want. Check with your plan.

No. All voice processing happens on your computer. The recognition engine (Whisper Large v3 Turbo) is downloaded once during install and runs locally. Audio is processed in real-time on your CPU, then discarded. Your voice and your dictated text are never uploaded, never logged, and never stored on any server — nobody, including us, can hear or read what you dictate.

CaringDictate is consumer software, not enterprise medical software, so we do not sign Business Associate Agreements. However, the local-processing architecture means HIPAA compliance is technically guaranteed: your voice never leaves your computer, so there is no third-party data exposure to worry about. For individual users handling PHI in their writing, this is generally a stronger privacy guarantee than a HIPAA-compliant cloud service.

Only for the initial install (downloading the software and the recognition model). After installation, CaringDictate runs fully offline. You can use it on planes, in areas with poor internet, or on computers that are not connected to the internet.

Two small things, both harmless and both documented in our privacy policy. It checks for software updates periodically. And from version 2.1.0, unless you switch it off in Settings → Privacy, it sends anonymous usage statistics: plain numbers such as the app version, your Windows version and hardware class, which voice model you use and how fast it runs, and whether the app crashed. These help us keep the app working well on every kind of computer. They are keyed to a random ID that identifies nothing and no one, and they never include your audio, your text, your name, or your email.

In your user folder under AppData. The model is approximately 800MB. It is downloaded once during install and never re-downloaded unless you upgrade to a newer model.

Windows 10 (64-bit) and Windows 11. Both Home and Pro editions. Some features may not work on Windows in S Mode — switch to standard Windows mode if you encounter issues.

Currently Windows only. We are working on a Mac version (expected 2026). Linux is a community ask we are evaluating. iOS and Android dictation are well-served by built-in OS dictation; we have no plans to build mobile versions of CaringDictate.

About 1.2GB total — 400MB for the application, 800MB for the Whisper recognition model. RAM usage is approximately 1-2GB while actively dictating.

Any microphone that Windows recognizes will work — built-in laptop microphones, USB headsets, Bluetooth earbuds, conference room mics, all of them. We strongly recommend a USB headset microphone for best accuracy, especially in rooms with background noise.

96-97% on clear English speech, based on Whisper Large v3 Turbo benchmark testing. This matches or exceeds Apple Dictation, Google Voice Typing, and untrained Dragon. Specialized vocabulary (legal, medical) may produce occasional errors that can be corrected by adding terms to your personal dictionary.

Whisper Large v3 Turbo supports many languages, but CaringDictate's user interface is currently English-only. The recognition itself works well in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and several other languages. We are evaluating UI translation for major language groups.

No-questions-asked. Email hello@caringdictate.com within 30 days of purchase with your order number, and we will refund the $49 to your original payment method the same day. There is no form to fill out, no exit survey, no explanation required.

Email hello@caringdictate.com and we will help. The refund window does not start counting against you while we are troubleshooting. Many "I need a refund" emails turn out to be "I need help setting up my microphone" once we look at the specifics.

Not as a standard policy, but if you reach out and explain the situation, we will look at the specifics. For users who hit an unexpected medical issue that prevented them from using the software during the trial window, we generally accommodate.

Yes — arthritis is one of the conditions we built CaringDictate for. The software replaces keyboard typing with voice typing, which eliminates the joint impact of every keystroke. See our dedicated pages on rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis for specifics.

Yes — see our dedicated condition pages for each. CaringDictate is built for the typing gap these conditions create, while speech is still functional. For late-stage ALS or significant speech impairment, more specialized tools (eye-gaze AAC, Voiceitt) may be more appropriate.

Whisper Large v3 Turbo is meaningfully more tolerant of slowed, softer, or atypical speech than older dictation engines. A good USB headset microphone helps significantly. The 30-day refund means you can find out whether CaringDictate works for your specific voice without risk.

For stroke survivors with hand weakness but functional speech, yes — voice typing is one of the most commonly recommended assistive technologies for this case. For stroke-related speech impairment (dysarthria, aphasia), the answer depends on severity; mild cases work well with CaringDictate, severe cases may need specialized AAC.

For adults with CP and mild-to-moderate speech variation, CaringDictate often works well and is dramatically cheaper than Voiceitt ($49 once vs $50-$600/month). For severe dysarthria, Voiceitt is still the better tool.

Yes. CaringDictate types into Word, Word Online, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, WordPad, and Google Docs in your browser. It also works in every other text-input area on Windows.

Yes — both. Outlook desktop, Outlook Web App, Gmail in Chrome/Edge/Firefox, Yahoo Mail, AOL, Apple Mail via web. CaringDictate types into the focused text field regardless of which email client you use.

Yes — for the chat fields. CaringDictate types into Zoom chat, Teams chat, Slack messages, Discord, and any other messaging app. (For meeting transcription, see Otter.ai — that is a different product category.)

Yes, in every browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi). CaringDictate types into web search bars, form fields, social media post boxes, banking sites, and any other web text field. No browser extension is required.

Yes, CaringDictate is compatible with major screen readers. The text it inserts is announced by the screen reader the same as text you typed by hand.

Yes, lifetime updates included. Whenever we release a new version with improved recognition, new features, or bug fixes, you get it as a free update.

CaringDictate checks for updates periodically and notifies you when one is available. You can install the update with a click, or postpone it. We never auto-install updates without your permission.

We test against new Windows releases and ship compatibility updates as needed. If you ever hit a Windows compatibility issue, email hello@caringdictate.com and we will help.

Email help@caringdictate.com. A real human reads every email and usually replies within 24 hours (often much faster). We do not have phone support (it would compromise our ability to help everyone fairly) but the email turnaround is fast.

Not yet — we are a small operation and a forum is more work to maintain well than to do badly. If you have specific questions, email us; if you have feature requests, also email us. We track everything by hand.

Absolutely. We assume many of our users have family members involved in setup and troubleshooting. There is no special process — just email and let us know who you are helping.