Short answer: To dictate Todoist tasks, place your cursor in Todoist's "Add task" field, then speak. On iPhone, switch to the Voice Keyboard Pro keyboard and tap its microphone button. On Mac, hold your Voice Keyboard Pro hotkey and talk; accurate text drops into the task field in about a second, so you can capture a to-do faster than you can type it.
Todoist lives or dies on capture speed. The whole point of a task manager is that an idea hits you and you get it out of your head before it evaporates. But typing "Email Priya the Q3 numbers before Friday" with your thumbs, or stopping a meeting to peck out a follow-up, is exactly the kind of friction that makes you skip the entry entirely. When you learn to dictate Todoist tasks, capture drops to a couple of seconds and your inbox actually reflects what is in your head.
Todoist does not have its own dictation engine. It relies on whatever keyboard or system input you give it. That means the quality of your voice capture is really the quality of your dictation tool. Below is how to do it on iPhone and Mac, including Todoist's natural-language date parsing, and how Voice Keyboard Pro makes the whole thing fast and accurate in any app, not just Todoist.
Dictate Todoist tasks on iPhone
The iPhone is where most quick captures happen, so this is the one to set up first. Voice Keyboard Pro installs as a full custom keyboard with a microphone button, which means you can dictate directly into Todoist's task field without leaving the app or fighting Apple's built-in dictation timeout.
One-time setup
- Install Voice Keyboard Pro from the App Store and open it once to grant microphone permission.
- Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard and add Voice Keyboard Pro.
- Tap it again and enable Allow Full Access (required so the keyboard can send audio for transcription).
Capturing a task
- Open Todoist and tap the + to start a new task.
- With the keyboard up, tap the globe key until you reach Voice Keyboard Pro.
- Tap the microphone button and say your task naturally: "Call the dentist to reschedule."
- The transcribed text lands in the Todoist task field. Tap Add task and you are done.
Because the keyboard works system-wide, the same flow captures tasks anywhere you might think of one: from a WhatsApp thread, in Mail, while reading in Safari. You are never more than a tap from a Todoist entry.
Use Todoist's natural-language dates when you dictate
This is the trick that turns voice capture into something genuinely powerful. Todoist parses dates, times, priorities, and projects directly from the text in the task field. Since dictation just types plain text, everything Todoist understands from typing, it also understands from your voice.
Speak the whole instruction in one breath and let Todoist do the structuring:
- "Submit expense report tomorrow at 9am" sets the due date and time automatically.
- "Review pull request every Monday p1" creates a recurring task at priority one.
- "Buy groceries Saturday #Errands" drops the task into your Errands project.
- "Prep board deck next Friday @work" applies a label.
The catch is that this only works if the dictation is accurate. If "p1" comes out as "pee one" or "#Errands" gets mangled, Todoist cannot parse it. Accurate transcription is what makes hands-free natural-language entry reliable, and it is where a Whisper-class engine pulls ahead of older on-device dictation that guesses at unusual tokens.
Helping it get project and label names right
Project names, client names, and team acronyms are exactly the words generic dictation stumbles on. Voice Keyboard Pro includes Smart Vocabulary, a personal dictionary with replacement rules. Add your real project names ("Helios", "Q3-Launch"), recurring people, and jargon once, and they come out correctly every time you dictate them into Todoist. That keeps Todoist's parser happy and your tasks filed where they belong.
Dictate Todoist tasks on Mac
On the desktop, Todoist runs as an app or in the browser, and Voice Keyboard Pro works in both because it types at the system cursor. There is no Todoist-specific integration to configure; if you can click into the task field, you can dictate into it.
- Download the Mac app and grant microphone access on first launch.
- Open Todoist and click Add task, or press Q for Todoist's quick-add window.
- Hold your Voice Keyboard Pro hotkey, speak the task, and release.
- The text appears in the field, parsed by Todoist's date and project logic, in roughly a second.
The hold-to-talk model fits task capture well. You hold the key, say one task, let go, and the entry is complete. No mode to enter and exit, no dictation window that times out mid-sentence. If you take meeting notes on the Mac, the app's Meeting Mode can transcribe the discussion, and you can dictate the action items straight into Todoist as they come up.
Why a dedicated voice keyboard beats built-in dictation here
Apple's dictation is genuinely useful and it is free, so it is worth knowing where it falls short for task capture specifically. The built-in mic auto-stops after a short pause, which is awkward when you are thinking through a multi-part task. Accuracy on names, project tags, and priority shorthand is inconsistent, which breaks Todoist's parser. And on older iPhones, on-device dictation can lag.
Voice Keyboard Pro sidesteps all three. Transcription runs on fast cloud infrastructure, so accuracy and speed are identical on every device regardless of how old your phone or Mac is. It does not time out the way the system mic does. And Smart Vocabulary fixes the exact words that matter for filing tasks correctly. If you are weighing options, our comparison of Voice Keyboard Pro vs Apple Dictation covers the differences in detail, and our roundup of the best dictation software for Mac puts it in context.
A note on privacy
Task lists are personal. Voice Keyboard Pro's servers store only operational pings, such as the fact that a transcription happened, for billing and reliability. No audio and no transcript content is ever stored, and your dictation history stays on your device. Your Todoist tasks are yours.
Edit and fix tasks by voice
Sometimes you capture a task and need to tweak it. On iPhone, Voice Keyboard Pro's Voice Edit lets you speak a change and have it applied in place, so you can adjust wording without retyping. And if you manage tasks in another language, two-way live translation can dictate across 24 languages, useful for shared lists with international teammates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I dictate due dates and priorities into Todoist?
Yes. Todoist parses dates, times, recurrence, projects (#), labels (@), and priorities (p1 through p4) from the task text. Because dictation types plain text, just say the full instruction, for example "Pay rent on the 1st p2," and Todoist structures it automatically as long as the transcription is accurate.
Does this work inside the Todoist app or only the website?
Both. On iPhone the keyboard works in the Todoist app and any other app. On Mac, Voice Keyboard Pro types at the cursor, so it works in the Todoist desktop app and in Todoist on the web, including the quick-add window.
Why does my built-in dictation keep stopping mid-task?
Apple's dictation auto-stops after a brief pause, which is frustrating when composing a longer task. Voice Keyboard Pro uses a hold-to-talk or tap model that does not cut you off, so you can speak a full multi-part task in one go.
Will it get my project and client names right?
Add them to Smart Vocabulary, the built-in personal dictionary with replacement rules. Once a project name, acronym, or person is in your vocabulary, it transcribes correctly every time, which keeps Todoist's # and @ parsing working.
Do I need a separate subscription for Mac and iPhone?
No. One Pro subscription covers both. There is a free tier with daily limits and no time limit, and Pro is $4.99/month or $34.99/year.
The Bottom Line
Capturing tasks by voice removes the single biggest reason people abandon a to-do system: the friction of entry. When you dictate Todoist tasks with an accurate, no-timeout voice keyboard and lean on Todoist's natural-language parsing, a complete task with a due date, project, and priority takes a few seconds and never interrupts your flow. Set up Voice Keyboard Pro once on your iPhone and Mac, add your project names to Smart Vocabulary, and start talking your to-do list into existence.