To turn off autocorrect on iPhone, open Settings > General > Keyboard and switch off Auto-Correction. The change takes effect immediately across every app that uses the built-in keyboard. Below are the exact steps, plus how to silence the related features people often confuse with autocorrect.
Turn off Auto-Correction
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap General.
- Tap Keyboard.
- Find Auto-Correction and tap the switch so it turns gray (off).
That is it. From now on, iPhone will stop automatically replacing what you type. There is no need to restart the phone — the next time you open Messages, Notes, or any other app, autocorrect is gone.
Autocorrect vs. predictive text — know the difference
Here is the point that trips people up: turning off Auto-Correction does not stop the word suggestions above the keyboard. Those come from a separate feature called Predictive Text. Auto-Correction silently changes a word after you type it; Predictive Text merely suggests words you can tap. If your goal is a completely quiet keyboard, you need to switch off both.
It is worth deciding which one actually bothers you. Many people are frustrated by autocorrect swapping a deliberate word for the “wrong” right one, yet they find the suggestion bar helpful for typing faster. If that is you, turn off only Auto-Correction and leave Predictive Text on. Others find the suggestions distracting but do not mind the occasional automatic fix. There is no single correct setup — the switches are independent so you can tune the keyboard to exactly how you type.
Turn off predictive text and inline predictions
On the same Settings > General > Keyboard screen, look for these switches:
- Predictive Text (sometimes shown as Predictive) — turns off the bar of suggested words.
- Show Predictions Inline — turns off the faint suggestion that appears right in the text as you type.
Switch both off and your typing is entirely your own — no changes, no suggestions.
A smarter fix: Text Replacement
Before you disable autocorrect completely, consider that it is genuinely helpful for catching typos. Often the real problem is a handful of words — a name, a nickname, a brand, or a term in another language — that iPhone keeps “correcting” wrongly. Instead of losing autocorrect for everything, teach your iPhone the exception:
- Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement.
- Tap the + in the top-right corner.
- In the Phrase field, type the word exactly as you want it.
- Leave the Shortcut field blank (or add a shortcut if you like) and tap Save.
Adding a word here tells iPhone it is a real word, so autocorrect stops rewriting it — while still helping you everywhere else.
Other keyboard “corrections” you can control
Autocorrect is not the only automatic behavior. On the same Keyboard screen you will find separate switches worth knowing about:
- Auto-Capitalization — capitalizes the first letter of sentences and names.
- “.” Shortcut — inserts a period when you tap the space bar twice.
- Smart Punctuation — converts straight quotes and dashes into “curly” typographic versions.
If one of these is annoying you, toggle just that one off rather than disabling everything.
Third-party keyboards work differently
These settings control Apple’s built-in keyboard. If you use a third-party keyboard such as Gboard or SwiftKey, autocorrect is governed inside that app’s own settings, not in iOS. Open the keyboard’s app or its section under Settings to adjust it there.
Retrain the keyboard instead of turning it off
Sometimes autocorrect has simply “learned” a wrong habit — it keeps changing a word because you once accepted a bad suggestion. Rather than disabling the whole feature, you can wipe the slate clean. Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset, then tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary. This clears the custom words your iPhone has picked up and returns autocorrect to its default behavior, so it stops repeating a specific mistake. You will need to re-teach it your names and slang, but it is a clean fix for a keyboard that has gone stubborn.
Another quick trick works in the moment: when autocorrect suggests a change while you type, tap the little x on the suggestion to reject it. Do that a couple of times for the same word and iPhone starts to trust your spelling, often solving the problem without changing any settings at all.
Undo and fine-tune anytime
Nothing here is permanent. If you decide autocorrect was doing more good than harm, return to Settings > General > Keyboard and switch it back on. Many people land on a middle ground: autocorrect on, predictions off, and a few personal words added to Text Replacement. While you are tidying up your device settings, it is also a good moment to review where your logins live — see how to see saved passwords on iPhone — and to check how to free up space on iPhone if storage is running low.
