How to turn off autocorrect without losing predictive text on iPhone
Auto-Correction and Predictive are two separate switches in iOS Settings, not one. What each actually controls, how to disable silent word-swapping while keeping the suggestion bar, and the one-tap trick that undoes a correction after it lands.
Settings → General → Keyboard shows Auto-Correction and Predictive right next to each other, and it is easy to assume they are one setting with two names. They are not. They do different jobs, and turning one off does not require giving up the other — which is exactly what most people asking this question actually want: stop the phone from silently rewriting words, without losing the row of suggestions above the keys.
What each switch actually controls
Auto-Correction acts on its own. As you keep typing — usually the moment you hit space or punctuation — iOS compares the word you just finished against its dictionary, decides you meant something else, and replaces it. You do not have to accept anything. If you are not watching closely, the swap already happened by the time you notice.
Predictive controls the QuickType bar above the keyboard: three slots offering word completions and, once you have finished a word, a guess at what comes next. Nothing in that bar changes your text on its own. It sits there until you tap one, and if you never tap, you keep exactly what you typed.
That is the whole distinction. Auto-Correction changes things without asking. Predictive only offers, and waits for you.
Turning off just the silent part
- Open Settings → General → Keyboard.
- Find the switch labelled Auto-Correction and turn it off.
- Leave Predictive on.
That is the entire change. The suggestion bar keeps working exactly as before — it still completes words and still guesses what comes next — but nothing gets substituted into your sentence unless you tap a suggestion yourself. Type “teh” with this combination and the phone will not fix it for you, though “the” will very likely be sitting in the bar if you want it.
What you give up by doing this
Be honest with yourself about the trade before turning Auto-Correction off for good: a typo you do not notice stays a typo. Auto-Correction is, among other things, a safety net for words you type fast and never look back at. Predictive alone will not catch those, because it never acts without a tap. This setup suits people who type carefully and would rather review their own words than have the keyboard occasionally guess wrong on their behalf — it is not strictly an upgrade, just a different set of trade-offs.
Undoing a correction that already landed
This is worth knowing even if you leave Auto-Correction on: right after it silently swaps a word, pressing the delete key once undoes only the correction and puts back what you actually typed, rather than deleting a letter. A second press of delete then removes a letter as normal. It is the fastest way to keep Auto-Correction switched on in general while overriding it on the one word it got wrong.
Check Spelling is a third, separate switch
Same Settings screen, a different toggle again: Check Spelling underlines a word it thinks is misspelled with a red squiggle, and stops there — it never replaces anything on its own, with or without Auto-Correction. If a red underline shows up after you turned Auto-Correction off, that is Check Spelling doing its own, independent job, not a sign that Auto-Correction came back on.
Why a third-party keyboard does not follow the same switch
Auto-Correction and Predictive, as described above, govern Apple’s own keyboard. A third-party keyboard draws its own suggestion bar and typically runs its own correction logic instead of reading those two switches, so its equivalent settings live inside the keyboard’s own settings panel rather than in Settings → General → Keyboard.
Kibo works this way: its word suggestions and Damerau-Levenshtein autocorrect — the kind of algorithm that catches “teh” meaning “the” by counting how many small edits separate the two — run from its own settings panel on the keyboard itself, with common words weighted forward and up to 12 candidates you can scroll sideways through, plus next-word prediction so the bar still has something to offer right after you press space. None of it needs Full Access, and Kibo is free to download.
Frequently asked questions
Does turning off Auto-Correction also turn off the suggestion bar?
No. They are separate switches in Settings → General → Keyboard. Turn off Auto-Correction and leave Predictive on, and the suggestion bar keeps offering completions and next-word guesses — it just stops applying anything without a tap.
How do I undo an autocorrect change right after it happens?
Press the delete key once, immediately after the swap. That undoes only the correction and restores the word you actually typed. A second press then deletes a letter as normal.
What does Check Spelling do if it is not the same as Auto-Correction?
It underlines a word it thinks is misspelled with a red squiggle and stops there — it never replaces the word for you. It is a third, independent switch on the same Settings screen.
Do third-party keyboards use the same Auto-Correction switch?
Generally no. A third-party keyboard draws its own suggestion bar and usually runs its own correction engine, controlled from settings inside the keyboard itself rather than the iOS system switch.
Try it on your own keyboard
Kibo is a free custom keyboard for iPhone with real mechanical key sounds, a wardrobe of themes and RGB backlight effects. No account, no ads, and it works with Full Access left off.