Is it quicker to type or dictate?

Dictating is quicker than typing by a wide margin. Natural speech runs around 150 words per minute; phone typing averages roughly 40, and even fast touch typists sit near 70 to 80. On raw output, voice wins three to four times over.

Editing eats the gain, though. Raw dictation arrives with filler words, missing punctuation, and no paragraphs, and cleanup can eat the entire speed gain. That is why people try dictation, spend as long editing as they saved, and quit.

The math flips when software does the cleanup. If the text lands finished, the 3x speed advantage is yours to keep, which is the whole case for modern dictation over the built-in mic.

That kept advantage is the point of hands-free typing.