> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.openwhispr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dictation cleanup

> OpenWhispr tidies your dictation before pasting it — removing filler words, fixing grammar and punctuation. Here's what it changes and how to switch it off.

What gets pasted usually isn't the raw transcript. By default OpenWhispr runs
your dictation through a language model that, in the app's words, will *"remove
filler words, fix grammar, and polish punctuation."*

This is **on by default**. It's why dictation reads like writing rather than
like speech — and it's also why, occasionally, the text isn't quite what you
said.

## What it changes

Cleanup is meant to be conservative. It takes out the *ums* and *you knows*,
adds punctuation you didn't speak, fixes obvious grammatical slips, and leaves
your wording alone otherwise.

It does **not** rewrite your text into a different tone, answer questions, or
follow instructions you dictate. If that's happening, you're hitting the voice
agent rather than cleanup — see [the four things your voice can
start](/help/agent/voice-modes).

## Turning it off

Open **Settings**, choose **Language Models** under **AI Models**, then the
**Dictation Cleanup** tab. The switch is **Enable text cleanup**.

With it off you get the transcript as the speech-to-text model produced it —
filler words, no punctuation beyond what the model inferred, and none of the
tidying. Some people prefer this for note-taking, where fidelity matters more
than polish.

## Choosing the model

Cleanup has its own model, separate from the one used for transcription and
separate again from the voice agent's. On the same tab you can run it on:

* **OpenWhispr Cloud** — no setup, no API key
* **Cloud Providers** — your own key with OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or Groq
* **Local** — an on-device model, fully private and offline
* **Self-Hosted** — your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint
* **Enterprise** — your organisation's AWS, Azure, or GCP account

A local model keeps the text on your machine, which matters if you dictate
anything sensitive. It's slower than cloud on most hardware.

## When cleanup fails

If the cleanup step can't run, your dictation is **pasted anyway**, uncleaned,
with a note saying *"Your dictation was pasted without AI cleanup."* You don't
lose the text — that's deliberate.

Recurring failures usually mean the model can't be reached: an expired API key,
no network, or a local model that hasn't finished downloading.

<Snippet file="still-need-help.mdx" />

## Related

* [The four things your voice can start](/help/agent/voice-modes)
* [The words come out wrong](/help/fix/wrong-words-or-language)
* [Cloud vs local processing](/guides/cloud-vs-local)
