![](https://help.apple.com/assets/65A8106E7C69B635140E606E/65A81072C0272B1FFA02DE51/en_US/c3fdc62492cd63e79f2554926d6fbef0.png)
Use Live Captions on Mac
Turn Live Captions on or off
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Live Captions on the right. (You may need to scroll down.) Turn Live Captions (Beta) on or off. The Live Captions window appears and stays on screen. If you want to hide the window when no audio is detected, click the Live Captions icon in the menu bar , then make sure Keep Onscreen isn’t chosen. Note: The first time you turn on Live Captions, language data is downloaded to your Mac. You must be connected to the internet.
Use Live Captions
![A real-time transcription of the computer’s microphone audio is shown as scrollable text in the Live Captions window. An underlined word indicates low confidence in the accuracy of that caption.](https://help.apple.com/assets/65A8106E7C69B635140E606E/65A81072C0272B1FFA02DE51/en_US/7228fd3bc91fa7152a841eef6c98f1d2.png)
Click the Pause button in the Live Captions window. Click the Play button to restart captioning. Click the Live Captions icon in the menu bar , then choose Stop Live Captions. Choose Start Live Captions to resume captioning.
Have what you type spoken aloud
In the Live Captions window on your Mac, click the Type to Speak field, enter what you want to say, then press the Return key. To indicate your text is being read aloud, a message is shown in the top-left corner of the Live Captions window. Note: If you don’t see the Type to Speak text field, click the Live Captions icon in the menu bar , then choose Type to Speak.
Change the audio source for captioning
Do one of the following: Click the Microphone icon in the top-right corner of the Live Captions window to switch between your Mac computer’s audio output and its microphone audio. Click the Live Captions icon in the menu bar , then choose Computer Audio or Microphone.
Customize the appearance of captions
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Live Captions on the right. (You may need to scroll down.) Change any of the following: Font family: Change the font used in captions. Font size: Increase or decrease the text size used in captions. Font color: Change the text color used in captions Background color: Change the background color of the Live Captions window.