Free transcription tools

One engine behind every page

All of these tools share one transcription engine — the audio is pulled from your file or from a public link, transcribed with word-level timestamps by a Whisper-class speech model, then summarised by an AI layer — but each page exists because the job is different. The WhatsApp page takes .opus voice notes as they come and explains where the file lives on Android and iPhone; the MP3 page covers bitrate, recorder exports and splitting a two-hour podcast; the meeting page is about speaker labels and minutes exported to DOCX; the YouTube page deals with captions, private videos and Shorts; the subtitle page is about SRT/VTT timing. Several carry a real, unedited output of that exact job so you can see what you'll get before you upload.

What they have in common is the shape of the result: searchable text with timestamps you can click, export in seven formats and translate into 111 languages. Pick the page that matches what you have; if none fits, the audio-to-text page takes any audio or video file.

The first transcript is free with no account (up to 40 minutes); after that, a free account raises the limit to 150 minutes and 500 MB per file — unlimited transcripts during the beta, no card needed.

Which tool should I use?

• A link to a public video →

  YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Google Drive — paste it; the YouTube page is the general one, TikTok and Instagram have their own.

• An audio file or a voice note →

  MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG/OPUS, FLAC; WhatsApp voice notes have a dedicated page that takes .opus directly.

• A meeting, class or interview recording →

  Long files up to 150 minutes, speaker labels on demand, minutes exported to DOCX.

• Subtitles or a summary →

  SRT/VTT from any file or link, or an AI summary of a YouTube video with the full transcript to check it against.

How it compares

Choosing between tools? The dated, honest tables: vs TurboScribe · vs Transkriptor · vs Happy Scribe · all