Whisper, which powers AiType's transcription, was trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual speech from the internet — making it one of the most capable multilingual speech models available. In 2026, you can dictate in 98 languages with accuracy that rivals or beats Google's and Amazon's ASR services. Here's what works and what doesn't.
AiType language support
AiType uses Whisper large-v3 for transcription, which supports all 98 Whisper languages. Language detection is automatic — speak in French, and it transcribes in French without any settings change. The AI cleanup pass (grammar, filler words, punctuation) currently works best in English, with improving support for Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Japanese.
Accuracy by language
English
Excellent. ~2.7–4% WER. AI cleanup fully supported.
Spanish
Excellent. ~3.8% WER. AI cleanup improving.
French
Very good. ~4.2% WER. AI cleanup partial.
German
Very good. ~4.5% WER. Compound nouns handled well.
Portuguese
Very good. ~4.3% WER (PT/BR both supported).
Italian
Very good. ~4.4% WER.
Japanese
Good. ~5.1% CER. Kanji transcription solid.
Chinese (Mandarin)
Good. ~5.3% CER. Simplified and Traditional.
Korean
Good. ~5.7% CER.
Dutch
Good. ~5.2% WER.
Arabic
Fair. ~7.1% WER. MSA better than dialects.
Russian
Good. ~5.5% WER. Cyrillic transcription accurate.
How language detection works
AiType detects language automatically from the first few seconds of audio. You don't need to set a language preference — if you switch from English to Spanish mid-session, it adapts. For code-switching (mixing languages in one sentence), accuracy drops slightly but remains usable for most European language pairs.
Tips for non-English dictation
- Speak clearly and at normal pace. Models trained on internet audio handle natural speech well. Don't slow down.
- For languages with accented characters (é, ü, ñ), Whisper handles these correctly — don't spell them out.
- For Japanese and Chinese, the model uses context to disambiguate homophones (e.g., 政治 vs 整地). Speak in complete sentences for better context.
- AI cleanup for non-English is improving. If you're dictating in French or Spanish and the cleanup over-corrects, file feedback at contact@aitype.work.
- For technical content in another language (e.g., coding in English comments in a French sentence), the model usually handles the code-switch correctly.
Languages where Whisper is less accurate
- Regional dialects with heavy deviation from standard speech (Scots, Swiss German, Cantonese vs Mandarin)
- Languages with less training data: many African languages, some Southeast Asian languages
- Highly formal/archaic register (classical Latin, literary Arabic)
Multilingual dictation in 2026
AiType works well in all major European languages and reasonable in East Asian languages. Language detection is automatic. The AI cleanup pass is English-first but improving. If your primary language is Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, or Japanese — AiType is usable today, with AI cleanup improving monthly.
Also read: Whisper accuracy benchmark 2026 · On-device vs cloud dictation
Try AiType in your language
98 languages, automatic detection. 14-day free trial.