killall corespeechd: Restart Mac Speech Recognition

TL;DR: killall corespeechd restarts the macOS speech recognition daemon — the background process behind Dictation and Siri. Run it in Terminal when Dictation freezes or the mic icon appears but no text shows up. It is safe: macOS relaunches the daemon automatically within seconds, so you are restarting it, not removing it.

killall corespeechd

What it does: terminates corespeechd; launchd immediately relaunches it
When to run it: Dictation is stuck, frozen, or transcribing nothing
Is it safe: yes — no reboot, no data loss, the daemon respawns on its own
Need sudo: usually no; if you get “No matching processes,” try sudo killall corespeechd
Verify it worked: run pgrep corespeechd — a new process ID means it relaunched

Question	Answer
What does it do?	Restarts the Core Speech daemon behind Dictation and Siri
Is it safe?	Yes — launchd relaunches it in seconds
Does it need sudo?	Usually no; `sudo killall corespeechd` if not
How to verify?	`pgrep corespeechd` shows a new PID
Will it fix every issue?	No — it is a reset, not a permanent fix

Disclosure: Voibe is our product — an on-device dictation app for Mac. This page explains a macOS system command objectively and mentions Voibe only once, where it is directly relevant.

This page is the dedicated reference for the command. If dictation is broken in general, our full guide to fixing Mac dictation covers permissions, the speech cache, and seven other fixes.

Running killall corespeechd terminates the speech daemon; macOS launchd relaunches it within seconds.

What Does killall corespeechd Do?

killall corespeechd terminates the corespeechd process by name, and macOS immediately relaunches it through launchd. The net effect is a clean restart of the speech recognition pipeline that powers Dictation and Siri — without rebooting your Mac.

Step by step, here is what happens when you run it:

killall looks up every running process named corespeechd and sends it the SIGTERM signal.
The daemon shuts down, which clears whatever stuck state was blocking dictation.
Because corespeechd is a launchd-managed system daemon (registered as com.apple.corespeechd), launchd notices it is gone and starts a fresh copy within seconds.
The new instance reinitializes the on-device speech models, and Dictation works again on your next attempt.

The command prints no output when it succeeds. If you see No matching processes belonging to you were found, the daemon either is not running under your user or needs elevated permissions — covered in the safety section below.

Key Takeaway

killall corespeechd sends SIGTERM to the Core Speech daemon; launchd relaunches it within seconds. It restarts speech recognition for Dictation and Siri without a reboot.

What Is corespeechd on Mac?

corespeechd is the macOS Core Speech daemon: a background process that powers on-device Dictation, Siri activation, and the “Hey Siri” voice trigger. It captures microphone audio and runs the on-device speech front-end that turns your voice into recognized speech.

Concrete details you can verify yourself in Terminal:

Binary location: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSpeech.framework/corespeechd
Framework: part of CoreSpeech.framework, a private (Apple-internal) framework
launchd label: com.apple.corespeechd
Runs as: its own dedicated _corespeechd system user, not your account
Companion process: recent macOS also runs corespeechd_system, a system-context sibling, alongside the per-user corespeechd

Two honest caveats. First, corespeechd often keeps running even when you have Siri and Dictation switched off, because it also handles the voice-trigger and microphone plumbing. Second, it is undocumented: because CoreSpeech.framework is private, Apple publishes no official reference for it. It should not be confused with the public Speech framework (SFSpeechRecognizer) that developers use to build their own speech features.

corespeechd is the Core Speech daemon behind Dictation, Siri activation, the Hey Siri trigger, and microphone capture.

When to Run killall corespeechd

Run killall corespeechd when the symptom points at a stuck speech daemon rather than a settings or permission problem. The common cases:

The Dictation mic icon appears but no text is transcribed. The recognition pipeline hung; restarting the daemon clears it.
Dictation is frozen or the mic overlay will not dismiss. A fresh daemon resets the session.
corespeechd is using high CPU, your fans spin up, or your battery drains with the daemon near the top of Activity Monitor.
Dictation broke right after a macOS update. A daemon left in a bad state after an update often recovers on a restart.

If dictation is failing because of microphone permissions, a disabled Dictation toggle, or a third-party keyboard conflict, restarting the daemon will not help — those need different fixes. Our Mac dictation troubleshooting guide walks through them in order.

Is killall corespeechd Safe to Run?

Yes, killall corespeechd is safe. macOS launchd automatically relaunches the daemon within seconds, so you are restarting it rather than deleting or disabling it. There is no reboot, no data loss, and no lasting change to your system.

A few practical notes:

It is a reset, not a cure. If a chronic bug or a corrupted speech model is the real cause, corespeechd can return to its bad behavior after relaunching. In that case, see the troubleshooting steps below.
sudo is usually unnecessary. For the per-user daemon, plain killall corespeechd works. If it reports no matching process, run it with elevated permissions:

sudo killall corespeechd

Avoid reaching for killall -9 (SIGKILL) unless a normal killall genuinely does nothing. SIGKILL force-terminates without letting the process clean up; the default SIGTERM is the safer signal and is almost always enough here.

Warning

killall matches processes by name, so killall corespeechd only affects the speech daemon. Be careful with the killall command in general — running it on the wrong process name can quit apps and lose unsaved work. Type the process name exactly.

How to Verify corespeechd Restarted

To confirm corespeechd relaunched, check that it is running again and note its new process ID. Either command works:

pgrep corespeechd

or, for the full process line:

ps aux | grep corespeechd | grep -v grep

If pgrep returns a number a few seconds after you ran killall, the daemon is back up. Because launchd assigns a fresh process when it relaunches, the PID will be different from the one you killed — that change is your confirmation the restart happened. If nothing comes back after several seconds, wait a moment and check again; trigger Dictation once to prompt launchd to start it on demand.

corespeechd vs Other macOS Speech and Siri Processes

corespeechd is the speech-to-text (voice input) daemon, which is why it is the right target when Dictation is stuck. Several similarly named macOS processes do different jobs, and restarting the wrong one will not help your dictation. Here is how they divide up:

Process	Type	What it handles
`corespeechd`	Speech-to-text (input)	On-device Dictation, Siri activation, “Hey Siri,” mic capture
`SpeechRecognitionCore`	Speech-to-text (input)	Voice Control and legacy speech recognition
`speechsynthesisd`	Text-to-speech (output)	The system “speak” voice and VoiceOver — not dictation
`assistantd`	Siri	The Siri request backend
`siriactionsd`	Shortcuts	Runs and syncs Shortcuts — not speech
`SiriNCService`	Siri UI	Notification Center Siri helper — not speech-to-text

The most common mix-up is speechsynthesisd, which is text-to-speech — it generates the voice that reads text aloud, the opposite of dictation. Its behavior is described in Apple’s SpeechSynthesisServer man page. If your goal is to fix Dictation, corespeechd is the daemon to restart.

corespeechd handles speech-to-text input for Dictation; restarting it does not affect the text-to-speech, Siri, or Shortcuts daemons.

When killall corespeechd Doesn’t Fix Dictation

If restarting the daemon does not bring dictation back, the cause is deeper than a stuck process. Work through these next:

Microphone permission. Check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone and confirm the app you are dictating into is allowed.
Dictation toggle and language. Make sure Dictation is on under System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation, with a supported language downloaded.
Speech cache and preferences. A corrupted cache can survive a daemon restart. The full Mac dictation troubleshooting guide covers clearing it and deleting stale preference files.
macOS update or restart. If a system update introduced the bug, installing the latest patch and rebooting is sometimes the only fix.

About recurring high CPU: corespeechd spiking CPU is an intermittent, long-reported issue across several macOS versions, including recent ones, as documented in Apple Community discussions. Users frequently link it to a connected Bluetooth microphone or AirPods. If it keeps returning, try disconnecting external mics, toggling Siri and Dictation off and on, and updating macOS — though there is no single guaranteed fix.

If you rely on dictation and are tired of restarting a system daemon to keep it working, a dedicated app sidesteps the problem entirely. Voibe runs its own on-device speech pipeline (OpenAI’s Whisper models on Apple Silicon) independent of corespeechd, so an Apple speech-daemon crash does not take your dictation down with it. It also adds a Developer Mode for voice-prompting editors like VS Code and Cursor. For how on-device transcription works under the hood, see our explainer on how Whisper works, or the broader guide to dictation on Mac.

Frequently Asked Questions About corespeechd

Command Basics

What does killall corespeechd do?

killall corespeechd terminates the macOS Core Speech daemon, and launchd relaunches it within seconds. The result is a restart of the speech recognition pipeline behind Dictation and Siri, which clears stuck states without rebooting your Mac.

Is killall corespeechd safe?

Yes. The command is safe because macOS automatically relaunches corespeechd as a managed system daemon. You are restarting the process, not deleting it, so there is no reboot and no data loss.

Do I need sudo to run killall corespeechd?

Usually no — plain killall corespeechd works for the per-user daemon. If it reports “No matching processes,” run sudo killall corespeechd to terminate it with elevated permissions.

About the corespeechd Process

What is corespeechd on Mac?

corespeechd is the macOS Core Speech daemon, located at /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSpeech.framework/corespeechd. It powers on-device Dictation, Siri activation, the “Hey Siri” voice trigger, and microphone capture.

Why is corespeechd using high CPU?

High CPU from corespeechd is an intermittent, long-reported macOS issue often linked to a connected Bluetooth microphone or AirPods. Restarting it with killall corespeechd clears a spike; if it recurs, disconnect external mics, toggle Siri and Dictation off and on, and update macOS.

Is corespeechd malware or a virus?

No. corespeechd is a legitimate built-in Apple system process, part of the private CoreSpeech.framework that ships with macOS. It is expected to run in the background, including when Siri and Dictation are switched off.

Can I permanently disable corespeechd?

There is no supported way to permanently disable corespeechd, and it is not recommended — launchd will relaunch it, and turning off the speech and voice-trigger plumbing can break Dictation, Siri, and microphone features. Turning off Siri and Dictation in System Settings reduces its activity without removing the daemon.

When It Doesn’t Help

killall corespeechd didn’t fix my dictation. What now?

If restarting the daemon does not help, check microphone permissions, confirm Dictation is enabled with a supported language, clear the speech cache, and rule out a third-party keyboard conflict. Our full Mac dictation troubleshooting guide covers each of these in sequence.