Free Transcription Online Tools | Speechify (2024)

The world of transcription software programs is vast, but luckily, there many free transcription tools, too, that can make your lives significantly easier without wreaking havoc in your wallet.

If you’ve ever had to transcribe a, e.g., 120 min long audio file (or a Zoom meeting), then you know it takes time and effort to make manual transcriptions out of an audio recording. Automatic transcription will surely save you many resources and drastically increase your productivity.

Who can use online transcription tools?

Technically, anyone can online transcription tools. Most commonly, apart from professional transcriptionists, it is marketers who use automatic transcription to improve their SEO. If you’re a salesperson and have multiple phone calls per day, record and later transcribe them to revise your tactics.

Podcast creators can benefit from transcribing, too. When you convert your podcast to txt, you can post it as an interview or a blog on your website and further improve your ranking.

If you’re a student, journalist, teacher, or account manager who attends a lot of meetings, or maybe you would just like to have a textual version of your favorite recorded memory, say goodbye to manual transcription.

The transcribing agony is now over. Meet online transcription tools with advanced transcription software and, most importantly, completely free versions available! Read this article and learn more about your options when it comes to free transcription services.

Otter AI

Otter is a great online transcribing tool that enables you to take voice meeting notes and real-time transcriptions. This software uses artificial intelligence to transcribe sharable, searchable notes, and content.

This tool will also provide you with accurate transcripts of different audio formats (e.g., WAV). Additionally, Otter gives you a trial version of the software to try out first, so you can check the tool out in detail before making a purchase.

If you combine Otter with e.g. Scribe tool, you can easily create interactive tutorials with detailed step-by-step instructions and subtitles. But if you just need basic automatic transcription services and audio quality, especially in real-time, Otter is a good choice.

oTranscribe

oTranscribe is a free HTML5 app, designed for journalists, academics, and everybody who wishes to transcribe audio files and formats. To a certain extent, oTranscribe enables video editing, too.

With good speech recognition features, this tool will allow you to edit, pause, playback and fast-forward any audio/video file (e.g., your most recent Zoom call). oTranscribe supports uploading any audio/video file from your computer or a simple upload of YouTube videos.

Improve your workflow — instead of dictation, use automated transcription tools that will catch every note and write it down for you.

FreeTranscriptions

People just love FreeTranscriptions, and here’s why. First of all, its free threshold is amazing! FreeTranscriptions allows you to upload and transcribe up to 300 minutes/month free of charge! As far as advanced transcription goes, this tool offers timestamps and identified speakers.

This transcription program uses advanced audio to text software that will make you dispose of your transcription foot pedal for good.

Apart from generating a transcript, FreeTranscriptions gives you transcript proofing and editing options. So if you monthly have 300 minutes or less to transcribe, this tool could be the perfect fit for you.

Google’s transcription tools

Did you know that you can use Google docs to transcribe audio? Well, there’s a first time for everything, and the same goes for human transcription.

Just open a new document in Docs home, click on Tools, then select Voice Typing. Select the desired language and start transcribing your audio file. Easy and free, right?

Many people who use g-suite don’t actually know about this option, so if this trick helps with your workload, our work is kinda done! You just need a Gmail account and voila.

Transcription tools pricing

Since there are many free tools and transcribing apps available, you probably won’t need to allocate a budget for automatized transcriptions. Regardless of the device and operating system you use — Microsoft Windows or Apple iOS — there are tools you can use on your phone, computer, or tablet.

If you’re a professional transcriptionist and need to transcribe hundreds and thousands of minutes per month, be prepared to spend a bit of money.

Nonetheless, even the premium transcribing tools can cost anywhere from $10 to $100 per month, so the pricing naturally varies based on the features available.

Speechify as a text to speech alternative

If you’re reading this article, you probably need transcription services (audio to text). But what if we reverse the process? We bet you could use a free text-to-speech converter as well.

With Speechify, everything is an audiobook. You can easily use this TTS engine as your Chrome extension, on your iPhone via the iOS app, Android app, and Mac Desktop, or simply visit Speechify’s website and utilize itsonline tool.

While Speechify can’t help you with, let’s say, video editing, it can still do wonders for your text-to-audio conversion. Here are some of the useful features:

• Easily import books and let Speechify read them out loud
• Scan books (even the hard copy) and convert them to audiobooks
• Over 20 languages to choose from
• Adjust reading speed up to 5x
• Increase productivity and enrich your vocabulary and pronunciation

Try Speechify today and reading will never be a barrier again.

FAQs

How do I automatically transcribe audio to text for free?

Regardless of whether you need a real-time transcription tool or a regular one, there are many amazing free tools available for free, such as Otter AI, FreeTranscriptions, and oTranscribe. However, you can simply use Google docs’ transcribing feature.

Does Google have free transcription software?

Yes, it does, and it’s incorporated into Google docs. To use it, just open a new text document, click Tools, then select Voice typing. Select a language, import your audio file, and that’s it.

Is there a free way to convert audio to text?

Yes. There are both audio-to-text editors and text-to-speech tools you can use for free. If you wish to transcribe videos and audio files, check out oTranscribe and FreeTranscriptions. If you want your written notes to come to life, try Speechify.