Free tool
Podcast Transcription
Upload a podcast episode and get a transcript with timestamps and the host and guests named. A speaker is named when they say their name aloud, and gets a letter when no name is said. The audio is deleted as soon as the transcript is ready.
Podcast to transcript: an example
Input: the first minutes of a 48-minute episode with a host and two guests (episode-31.mp3).
Output:
| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:06 | Maya Chen | Welcome back. Today I'm joined by Tom Becker and Priya Nair. |
| 00:13 | Tom Becker | Thanks for having me, Maya. |
| 00:16 | Priya Nair | Happy to be here. |
| 00:21 | Maya Chen | Tom, you started the studio in 2019. What was the first thing you built? |
| 00:29 | Tom Becker | A small tool for editing audio, honestly. It grew from there. |
All three are named from the introduction. A guest who is never named would show as a letter.
What you get
A transcript split into short lines, each with the time it was spoken and the speaker who said it. After the speech is turned into text, the voices are told apart, and a speaker is named where their name is said aloud; a speaker whose name never comes up gets a letter: A, B and so on. Click a speaker to rename it, and every export uses the new name.
Above the transcript you can search for a word, show only one speaker, or jump to a timestamp. The Copy button puts the whole text on your clipboard with speaker names. Download gives you the same text as plain text, text with timestamps, SRT or VTT subtitles you can load into a video player, a Word document, Markdown for Notion or Obsidian, or a PDF.
Which formats work
Most recordings can be uploaded exactly as they come off the device — there is no need to convert them to MP3 first. The engine decodes the file on the server, video included, and only the sound is transcribed.
| Where the recording comes from | Usual file type |
|---|---|
| iPhone Voice Memos | .m4a |
| WhatsApp voice message | .opus |
| Telegram voice message | .ogg |
| Zoom local recording | .m4a (audio only) or .mp4 (with video) |
| Dictaphone or field recorder | .wav or .mp3 |
| Screen recording or phone video | .mp4 or .mov |
The upload limit is 350 MB. Speech-only audio is usually well within it; video is not — a few minutes of high-resolution phone video can already be too large. For a long video, open it in MeetWave instead: the app pulls the audio out of the video in your browser before uploading.
What happens to your file
You do not need an account, so we keep as little as possible and for as short a time as possible. The transcript is not used to train any model, and nothing about its content goes into our logs or analytics.
| What | Where it is kept | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your audio or video file | Encrypted storage used only for this job | Until the transcript is ready, then deleted — every stored version of it |
| The working copy on the transcription server | The server that runs the speech-to-text engine | Deleted together with the file |
| The transcript | Encrypted storage, under a random job id | Deleted within 48 hours, or at once when you click "Delete now" |
| The file name | Only in your browser, so a reload can show it | Never sent to us |
Getting a clean transcript
Most of the accuracy is decided when the audio is recorded, not when it is transcribed. Three things matter most. The distance to the speaker: a phone or microphone within arm's length gives clear words, one across the room gives gaps. Background noise: music, traffic and a humming air conditioner compete with speech. Crosstalk: when two people talk at once, both lines suffer and the speaker labels can merge.
If you record the file yourself, a few seconds of test recording played back before the real thing catches most problems. For a fuller walkthrough — from recording to editing the text — read the step-by-step guide to transcribing audio, and if you need to choose a paid service for regular work, compare transcription software before you buy.
Transcript vs meeting summary
A transcript is every word in order: right for quotes, interviews, subtitles and records. A summary is what the conversation decided — the points, decisions and action items — and for a one-hour meeting it is the difference between reading ten pages and reading one. This page gives you the transcript of a file you already have: the first 60 minutes free, then one credit per started 30 minutes. MeetWave meeting summaries start earlier: the app records your Zoom, Google Meet or Teams call without a bot joining it, and turns it into a summary with action items when the call ends.
How to transcribe a podcast
- Export the episodeUse the MP3 or WAV you published or edited — up to 350 MB. Click Transcribe.
- Check the namesThe host and guests are named from the introduction. Rename any label that came out as a letter.
- Make show notesSearch the text for quotes and topics, then copy it or download TXT, Word, SRT or VTT for captions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Each voice gets its own label, and a guest is named as soon as someone says the name aloud. Voices that sound alike, or people talking over each other, can end up under one label, so check the names against the introduction.
Download the text, then pull out the topics, the best quotes and the timestamp of each. The timestamp on every line lets you link a listener straight to a moment.
Yes. Download SRT or VTT and upload it to your video host, or use the TXT or Word file for a page on your site. Read the text once before publishing: unusual names and brand words are the likeliest errors.
No, the page takes a file. Download the episode as MP3 from your hosting dashboard, or from the audio link in your feed, and drop it here.
Without an account you get the first 60 minutes, marked as partial. Sign in and the whole file is transcribed: new accounts get 30 days of Pro, which includes the tools; on the free plan it costs one credit per started 30 minutes.
Music without words leaves no lines. Sung lyrics and ad reads are speech, so they are transcribed like the rest; delete those lines from the text if you do not want them in the show notes.
Yes. The MeetWave speech-to-text API returns the same transcript as JSON: text, timestamps and speaker names. It costs $0.20 an hour of audio with names, and the first hour is free.
