The short version
- Click into the prompt box: Cursor's chat, the Claude Code prompt in your terminal, or the ChatGPT message box in a browser.
- Press Ctrl+1 and speak the prompt the way you would explain the task to a colleague.
- Press Ctrl+1 again to stop. Read the text, fix a word if needed, and press Enter yourself.
That works on the free plan with no setup beyond choosing an engine. The rest of this page is about the parts that make long prompts comfortable: line breaks, sending by voice, and words you repeat in every prompt.
Where the words go
VoiceKeyboard types into the window that is in front, as if the words came from your keyboard. It does not need a plugin for Cursor, a browser extension or anything inside the terminal. Short pieces are typed as keystrokes; longer ones are pasted through the clipboard with Ctrl+V, and whatever you had copied is put back right after.
Two details matter in a code editor:
- Leave the field alone while words arrive. Engines that type while you speak sometimes rewrite the end of the current phrase with Backspace when a later word changes how they heard it. Typing or moving the cursor in the same field at that moment mixes the two.
- A terminal run as administrator may not accept the text. That is a Windows rule for windows with higher rights. Run Claude Code in a normal terminal, or copy the text from VoiceKeyboard's history. See where the text goes.
Line breaks that do not send the prompt
In a chat box Enter usually sends. A spoken prompt with three parts needs line breaks, and pressing Enter in the middle would send the first part alone. VoiceKeyboard's voice commands solve this:
- Say “new line” at the end of a phrase: the app presses Shift+Enter.
- Say “new paragraph”: Shift+Enter twice, an empty line between parts.
- Only the Send command presses Enter. It is off until you switch it on; then “send message” or “press enter” at the end of a phrase sends the prompt.
Whether Shift+Enter makes a line break is up to the program you type into. Claude Code's documentation lists it as working out of the box in Windows Terminal; in other terminals it may need setup, and \ followed by Enter or Ctrl+J works in any terminal. Cursor's keyboard shortcuts page lists Enter as the key that sends (queues) a chat message, and every Cursor shortcut can be remapped. Before you rely on the voice command in a new tool, press Shift+Enter there once by hand: if it breaks the line, “new line” will too. (Checked on the Claude Code and Cursor documentation on 20 October 2026.)
Voice commands are part of Pro and are off on a new install: SETUP → Commands → tick On. On Free you dictate the text and press Shift+Enter between parts yourself.
Keys work only at the end of a phrase
Punctuation commands work anywhere in a phrase. Key commands, new line and Send among them, work only at the end of a phrase, which is what the engine finishes after you pause. “check the tests new line” types “Check the tests” and breaks the line. “the new line character is missing” is typed as words, because the command is not at the end.
Prompts about code use words like “new line” more often than letters do. Two settings on the Commands page help:
- Keys only when said alone. With it on, a key command works only as a phrase of its own: pause, say “new line”, pause. A sentence that happens to end with “next line” stays text.
- “Literally”. Say “literally new line” and the words “new line” are typed instead of the key.
The full list of words, in English, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Hindi, is on the voice commands page. The commands follow your dictation language: while you dictate in English, the English words work.
Your own commands for the parts you repeat
Many prompts end the same way: run the tests, do not touch the public API, explain the change before editing. Add it once as your own command, kind Text, and say a short phrase instead:
- “test rule” → Text →
Run the full test suite and show me the output before you say it works. - “scope rule” → Text →
Change only the files I named. Ask before touching anything else.
A text command works anywhere in a phrase and in every dictation language. The row under the list on SETUP → Commands adds it: what to say, the kind, what to insert, Add.
Which engine for prompts
Prompts mix plain speech with names of files, functions and libraries. No engine spells every identifier right, so read the prompt before sending it. The choice is about what else matters to you:
| Engine | Plan | Text appears | Good for prompts when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | while you speak | you want live text at no cost; it needs Google Chrome installed and hears one language at a time | |
| Whisper | Free | after each phrase | the code is private and the audio should stay on your PC; larger sizes are slower |
| Parakeet v3 | Free | after each phrase | you want offline dictation with punctuation in English or another of its European languages |
| Soniox | Pro | while you speak | you mix languages: it detects the language and can switch in the middle of a sentence, for example English terms inside a Spanish or Russian prompt |
Offline models download once inside the app; see downloading offline models. If you dictate into the microphone of Bluetooth headphones, the sound in your ears drops to phone-call quality while it is open; Bluetooth headphones and the microphone explains the setup that avoids it.
Free or Pro for prompts
Free gives 2,000 words of dictation a day with any engine, Google and the offline models together, and the app shows how many are left today. Whether that lasts the day depends on how long your prompts are and how many you send. Pro removes the daily limit, adds Soniox with 1,500 minutes a month and turns on voice commands. Pro is $14.99 a month or $9.99 a month billed yearly.
If the hotkey clashes with your editor
In VS Code's default keymap Ctrl+1 focuses the first editor group, and Cursor is built on VS Code. VoiceKeyboard registers its hotkey for the whole system, so while it runs, that press goes to VoiceKeyboard. If you need Ctrl+1 in the editor, give VoiceKeyboard another combination, for example Ctrl+Shift+D: click the HOTKEY plate on the POWER panel and press the new keys. Details on the hotkey page.
