Best App For Transcribing Audio To Text
Ailene Goldhirsh
Manual transcription is time-consuming and requires intense focus. Thankfully, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has gotten to the point where you can now transcribe audio to text automatically in a fraction of the time, with impressive accuracy.
To help, we compiled a list of the best free audio-to-text software. We thoroughly tested many audio-to-text software options, considered online reviews, and reviewed discussions in niche forums where people regularly need online transcription apps. We excluded paid tools with only a free trial and transcription-level restrictions to find the best free converters.
Free audio-to-text converterBest forDescriptTranscribing audio or video files using a computerOtter.aiTranscribing virtual meetingsFathomSales teams and customer service repsMacWhisperMac usersGoogle Docs Voice TypingGoogle Suite usersWindows Voice TypingWindows users
Audio-to-text converters use AI and speech recognition technology to transcribe recordings or voice into text, even with nuances like accents and tone variations. They save time on manual transcription and streamline the process of transforming spoken content into written form, which helps with accessibility, boosts SEO, and makes it easy to repurpose audio and video as blog posts and other written content.
Descript offers automated transcription for both audio and video files, accessible through its desktop app for Mac and Windows or its browser-based editor. Drag and drop your audio files to convert to text in seconds. Descript supports 23 languages and boasts up to 95% accuracy. The tool transcribes audio verbatim, including pauses and filler words, but makes it easy to remove either with a click.
Otter is an audio-to-text tool that offers live and automatic transcription within seconds. Out of all the transcription tools we have listed here, it's the only one with a Chrome extension, an iOS app, and an Android app. It integrates seamlessly with platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.
We found its transcription capabilities to be pretty accurate and it used proper punctuation as per the context of the message. However, it tends to exclude filler words from the transcript, making it challenging to discern the speaker's emotions during recorded calls.
Pricing: Free plan offers 300 monthly transcription minutes; 30 minutes per conversation; allows importing and transcribing of three audio or video files in a lifetime. Annual paid plans start at $10 per month.
MacWhisper is a free audio-to-text transcription tool for Mac devices running on Ventura (13.0 and higher). It uses OpenAI's Whisper technology and offers high-quality transcription. The app ensures privacy by performing the transcription on-device, making it ideal for audio-to-text conversion of sensitive information. It's free on the developer's Gumroad page and is also available in the Mac App Store as Whisper Transcription.
Pricing: Free audio to text converter has no usage limits. MacWhisper Pro starts at around $31 per license for additional features including batch transcription, system audio recording, ChatGPT integration, and translation capabilities.
Google Docs Voice Typing is a built-in feature of Google Docs that allows users to transcribe audio input to text directly within the document. It offers a convenient and straightforward way to convert spoken words into written text.
Descript is not only useful for transcribing recordings, but it can also be a valuable tool for content creators, as it allows you to easily convert their audio and video content into written form for blog posts, YouTube descriptions, and social media captions.
To make your voice-to-text more accurate, speak loudly and clearly. Minimize background noise as much as possible to ensure the voice recognition software can focus on your voice. If you're using an external microphone, ensure it's good quality and positioned correctly for optimal voice capture.
You can use the combination of Windows Voice Typing or Google Voice Typing with a virtual audio cable to convert audio to text for free with no limit, though it's a bit complex to set up. Descript is the best option for Mac and Windows users who need simple audio-to-text software.
When deciding which speech-to-text app to use, first consider what your actual needs are, as free and budget options may only provide basic features, so if you need to use advanced tools you may find a paid-for platform is better suited to you. Additionally, higher-end software can usually cater for every need, so do ensure you have a good idea of which features you think you may require from your speech-to-text app.
Speech-to-text used to be regarded as very niche, specifically serving either people with accessibility needs or for dictation. However, speech-to-text is moving more and more into the mainstream as office work can now routinely be completed more simply and easily by using voce-recognition software, rather than having to type through members, and speaking aloud for text to be recorded is now quite common.
While the best speech to text software used to be specifically only for desktops, the development of mobile devices and the explosion of easily accessible apps means that transcription can now also be carried out on a smartphone or tablet.
This has made the best voice to text applications increasingly valuable to users in a range of different environments, from education to business. This is not least because the technology has matured to the level where mistakes in transcriptions are relatively rare, with some services rightly boasting a 99.9% success rate from clear audio.
Even still, this applies mainly to ordinary situations and circumstances, and precludes the use of technical terminology such as required in legal or medical professions. Despite this, digital transcription can still service needs such as basic note-taking which can still be easily done using a phone app, simplifying the dictation process.
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