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Need to turn a recording into text but don't want to pay $20/month for a subscription? You have options. From built-in smartphone features to generous free tiers on AI apps, here are the best ways to transcribe audio for free.
Method 1: Use a free AI transcription app (Best overall)
The easiest way to get accurate, speaker-labelled transcripts is to use the free tier of a premium AI transcription app. This gives you professional-grade accuracy without the cost.
Talk2Memo offers one of the most generous free plans available:
200 minutes free every month (resets automatically)
Record directly in the app or upload existing files (MP3, WAV, MP4)
Automatic speaker identification included
AI summaries and action items included
This is the best option if you have less than 3.5 hours of audio to transcribe per month, as you get all the premium features for free.
Method 2: Built-in smartphone dictation (Best for short notes)
If you just need to transcribe your own voice as you speak, you don't need an app at all. Both iOS and Android have excellent built-in dictation.
On iPhone: Open the Notes app, tap the microphone icon on the keyboard, and start speaking. Apple's on-device dictation is highly accurate for single speakers.
On Android: Open Google Keep or Google Docs, tap the microphone icon on Gboard, and speak. Google's speech-to-text is arguably the best in the world for real-time dictation.
The downside? This only works for live speech. You can't upload a pre-recorded file, and it won't separate different speakers if you're recording a conversation.
Method 3: Microsoft Word Dictate (Best for long live sessions)
If you have a free Microsoft account, you can use the web version of Microsoft Word to transcribe audio for free.
Go to Office.com and open a blank Word document.
Click the Dictate button (microphone icon) in the Home ribbon.
You can also click the dropdown next to Dictate and select Transcribe to upload an audio file (limit of 300 minutes per month).
Method 4: YouTube auto-captions (The workaround)
If you have a massive video file and no budget, you can use YouTube as a free transcription engine.
Upload your video to YouTube and set the visibility to Private.
Wait a few hours for YouTube to generate automatic closed captions.
Go to the video details, click Subtitles, and download the .sbv or .srt file.
This method is completely free and has no limits, but it's slow, doesn't identify speakers, and produces a transcript without proper punctuation or paragraphs.
The easiest free transcription
Skip the workarounds. Get 200 minutes of professional AI transcription with speaker labels and summaries every month, completely free.