Data
Free transcription plans compared (checked 2026-10-27)
Free transcription plans limit three different things: a monthly allowance, a length per file, and a one-time trial. Where the vendor's page states a monthly allowance it ranges from 12 minutes (ElevenLabs) to 300 minutes (Otter); per-file limits on free plans run from 3 minutes (Notta) to 45 minutes (Happy Scribe); and Riverside's free tool states no usage cap and no sign-up. Several pages state none of these, and two pages could not be read at all.
Updated
Checked 2026-10-27. Every cell about another product was read on that product's own pricing or free-tool page that day (the two notes that mention a reading from 2026-10-25 say so) (the page is linked in the last column). "not stated" means the page did not say; "check their site" means we could not read the page. We make TryScriptorium, so the first two rows are ours and are computed from the code that enforces them. Download the table as CSV (UTF-8, one row per tool, source URLs included).
| Tool | Free allowance | Per-file limits | Account to start | Also stated, and where we read it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TryScriptorium, no account free preview | 3 files a day per network address (one file at a time); guest transcripts are deleted after 24 hours | up to 15 minutes and 25 MB per file; small model | no | Exports: TXT, timestamped TXT, SRT, VTT, Markdown, JSON, CSV Languages: 33 languages plus automatic detection Arabic: yes tryscriptorium.com/research/free-transcription-limits Our own row, computed from the server's limits on the day this page is served. We make this tool. |
| TryScriptorium, free account free plan | no monthly minute limit | files up to 4,096 MB; no fixed length limit by default (the operator can change these) | yes (email and password) | Exports: TXT, timestamped TXT, SRT, VTT, Markdown, JSON, CSV Languages: 33 languages plus automatic detection Arabic: yes tryscriptorium.com/pricing Our own row. A free account keeps transcripts in a library and unlocks editing and search. |
| TurboScribe free plan (not readable) | check their site | check their site | check their site | Exports: check their site Languages: check their site Arabic: check their site turboscribe.ai/pricing Its pricing page, home page and free-tools page returned an access error (HTTP 403) to our automated reader on 2026-10-27, so we entered nothing. Open the page in a browser. |
| Otter.ai free plan | 300 minutes per user per month for meetings and recordings, no rollover; imported files draw on 300 minutes a month; 3 lifetime pre-recorded file imports (its table) | 30 minutes of transcription per conversation; maximum file size not stated | not stated (a "Get started" button; no statement that an account is required) | Exports: mp3 and txt Languages: AI transcription listed in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese Arabic: no (not in that list) otter.ai/pricing Basic (free) column of its pricing table. |
| Notta free plan | 120 transcription minutes per month (no carryover); 50 file uploads per month | up to 3 minutes per conversation ("Max transcription per recording: 3 minutes") | not stated ("No credit card required") | Exports: not stated ("Export transcripts" is listed under Pro's additional features) Languages: not stated on the pricing page Arabic: not stated www.notta.ai/en/pricing Our 2026-10-25 reading of its separate free Arabic tool page said 5 minutes per file; the pricing page says 3. They differ and we do not reconcile them. |
| Maestra free trial (no allowance given) | not stated (title "Pricing - Free Trial" and a "Get Started Free" button; cheapest listed option is pay as you go) | not stated | not stated | Exports: not stated Languages: "Transcription in 125+ languages" (no list) Arabic: not stated maestra.ai/pricing The pricing page does not describe a free plan. Its Arabic audio-to-text page (read 2026-10-25) showed a 1-minute file trial and sign-up before export. |
| SubEasy free plan | 3 x 30 minutes of free transcription a day (its words: "3 x 30 mins Free Transcrbe Daily!") | not stated | not stated | Exports: not stated (only "Video Export" is listed, no formats) Languages: not stated (the FAQ answer did not load) Arabic: not stated subeasy.ai/pricing Parts of the page text were garbled when we read it. |
| BibiGPT free allowance after login | "there is a free allowance; log in to try the core summary feature" (page in Chinese); no amount given | not stated (the page says local MP3, MP4, SRT and VTT files can be uploaded) | yes (login for the free trial) | Exports: transcripts as SRT, VTT or plain text on its home page (not tied to a plan) Languages: Chinese (simplified and traditional), English, Japanese, Korean Arabic: not stated bibigpt.co Its /pricing page returned only a title; we read the home page. It is mainly a video summary tool. |
| Podcastle (now async.com) free plan, lifetime totals | 2 hours (lifetime) of video transcription and 2 hours (lifetime) of audio transcription; automatic subtitles 1 hour (lifetime); one-time totals, not monthly | not stated | not stated ("No credit card is required to sign up for an Async account with the Free plan") | Exports: not stated for transcripts Languages: not stated for the Free plan Arabic: not stated podcastle.ai/pricing async.com/pricing podcastle.ai/pricing redirects to async.com/pricing. Its comparison table lost its layout when read, so values were matched to the Free column by position. |
| VEED free to start | not stated on its pricing page ("Start for free"); its auto-subtitle page says "free to start" with no quota | not stated (free is for shorter videos; the length is not given) | not stated ("No credit card required"; "Sign up now to start creating") | Exports: the tool page lists SRT, VTT and TXT but also says "Upgrade to a paid plan to subtitle longer videos and download subtitle files", so downloads may be paid Languages: "125+ languages" (meta description) Arabic: not stated www.veed.io/pricing www.veed.io/tools/auto-subtitle-generator-online |
| Kapwing free plan | 10 credits; auto-subtitling "up to 10 mins" on the Free plan | 2 GB upload limit; finished video exports up to 4 minutes, with a watermark | not stated ("Choose free" button) | Exports: not stated for Free ("Download SRT/VTT files" is listed without a Free value) Languages: translate subtitles to over 60 languages; transcription languages not stated Arabic: not stated www.kapwing.com/pricing |
| Happy Scribe free plan with a trial | 10-minute free trial of AI transcription, subtitling and translation | 45 minutes per recording | not stated (a "Sign up" button; "no credit card needed") | Exports: its pricing bullets say DOCX, TXT, SRT and MP4 (watermarked); its comparison table lists only TXT and SRT Languages: "150+ languages and dialects" Arabic: not stated www.happyscribe.com/pricing The two export lists on its pricing page disagree; we show both. |
| Rev free plan | 45 AI transcription and caption minutes per month, 1 user | not stated | not stated ("Limited Free Access") | Exports: not stated Languages: "English only transcription" on Free Arabic: no on the Free plan (English only) www.rev.com/pricing |
| Speechnotes free dictation; file transcription is paid | live dictation is "completely free - with ads"; transcribing an uploaded file is billed at "$0.1/minute" with no free tier stated | not stated | dictation: "no registration needed"; uploaded files: not stated | Exports: "Generate captions .srt files"; no list Languages: "all file types & languages" (no list) Arabic: not stated www.speechnotes.co Its free part is microphone dictation, not file transcription. |
| Descript free plan | 60 media minutes per month per editor (no separate transcription allowance listed) | uploads up to 1 GB; length not stated | not stated ("Get started for free") | Exports: not stated Languages: "25 transcription languages"; the full list was not on the page we read Arabic: not stated www.descript.com/pricing |
| Riverside (free transcription tool) free tool | "Unlimited transcriptions for free" | not stated (supports MP3, WAV, MP4 and MOV only) | no ("No sign up required") | Exports: SRT and TXT Languages: "100+ languages" Arabic: not stated riverside.com/transcription On the free tool "all the transcribed text is assigned to just one speaker". |
| Sonix free trial | 30 minutes of transcription for free in a trial account | not stated | yes (a trial account; "No credit card required") | Exports: not stated for the trial Languages: "54+ languages" Arabic: not stated sonix.ai/pricing A trial, not a free plan. |
| Trint trial (not readable) | check their site | check their site | check their site | Exports: check their site Languages: check their site Arabic: not stated trint.com/pricing Its pricing page returned 404 and its support article on the free trial redirected to an empty index on 2026-10-27, so we entered nothing. |
| Fireflies free plan (values not readable) | not stated | not stated | not stated | Exports: not stated Languages: not stated for Free (its page names English first, with Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and "100+ other languages in beta") Arabic: not stated fireflies.ai/pricing Its pricing page lists a Free column, but the values did not load in the text we could read. |
| Gemini app (audio upload) free with a Google account | not stated as a transcription allowance (the help page describes "Standard limits" that refresh every 5 hours; the amount is not given) | total audio length up to 10 minutes; video up to 2 GB; "all other supported file types can be up to 100 MB" | yes ("you must be signed in to Gemini Apps") | Exports: not stated (the answer appears as chat text) Languages: not stated Arabic: not stated support.google.com/gemini/answer/14903178?hl=en Read from Google's help page, not from the app. Paid plans extend audio length to 3 hours. |
| ElevenLabs (speech to text) free plan, credits | 12 minutes of Scribe v2 transcription per month on Free (its speech-to-text page); its pricing page states 10k credits per month | 3 GB maximum file size | not stated | Exports: TXT, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, JSON and HTML on its audio-to-text page (not tied to a plan) Languages: "99 languages" in its speech-to-text table; another page says "90+" Arabic: yes (named "Arabic (ara)" in its "Good" accuracy tier) elevenlabs.io/speech-to-text elevenlabs.io/pricing Its own pages differ on language count (99 vs 90+) and on an older Arabic page's file limit (300 MB). |
| Transkriptor free trial (terms not described) | "Free - 90 Minutes" appears only in its cancellation instructions; the terms are not described | not stated | not stated | Exports: "TXT, SRT, Word or Plain Text" (not tied to a plan) Languages: "100+ languages" (not tied to a plan) Arabic: not stated transkriptor.com/pricing |
What the numbers mean
- Monthly allowance. Minutes you can transcribe each month, usually with no rollover. A few are lifetime or one-time totals (Podcastle/Async, Happy Scribe, Sonix), which is a trial rather than a plan.
- Per-file limit. The longest single recording the free plan accepts. A tool with a large monthly allowance and a 3-minute file limit (Notta) cannot transcribe a lecture.
- Account to start. Only marked "no" where the page itself says so. "Not stated" is not a yes: a button reading "Get started" does not say whether an account is required.
- Free exports. Several vendors list export formats without saying which are on the free plan. Where a page contradicts itself, the table shows both versions.
- Arabic. "yes" only where the page names Arabic as a transcription language; "no" only where the page's own list excludes it. Everything else is "not stated".
Which free plan fits which job
- One long single-voice recording, no account: Riverside's free tool states no usage cap and no sign-up (MP3, WAV, MP4 and MOV only, one speaker label). TryScriptorium's preview takes one file up to 15 minutes and 25 MB with no account.
- Many short files: a monthly allowance with a small per-file limit works if each recording is short; read the per-file column first.
- Arabic: only ElevenLabs names Arabic among the free-plan pages we could read; Otter's and Rev's own free-plan pages list languages without it. TryScriptorium supports Arabic on every tier; the speed and error-rate measurements are on our measurements page.
- A transcript you must check against the audio: every tool here produces an automatic draft. Names, numbers and quotes need a human read.
What we could not verify
- TurboScribe and Trint: their pages could not be read by our automated reader on the day (an access error and a missing page), so no cell is filled. Open them in a browser.
- Fireflies and Maestra: the pages did not show free-plan values in the text we could read, so the free cells say "not stated".
- Tables that lost their layout when read (Otter, Notta, Async/Podcastle) were matched to the Free column by position; check the vendor page before relying on one number.
- Prices and limits change. This is one day's reading; the date is in the title, the JSON-LD and every CSV row.
Method and licence
Each page was fetched on the checked date and read for the free plan or free tool only. Quotes in the cells are the vendor's own words, typos included. Nothing was taken from third-party comparison sites. The table and the CSV are released under CC BY 4.0: reuse them with a link to this page. Spotted something out of date? Tell us on the contact page and we will re-read the vendor's page.
Questions
Which free transcription tool has no limit?
Of the pages we read, only Riverside's free transcription tool states unlimited transcriptions with no sign-up, for MP3, WAV, MP4 and MOV files, and it labels all text as one speaker.
How many free minutes does Otter give?
Its pricing table lists 300 minutes per user per month on the free plan, no rollover, with a 30-minute limit per conversation.
Does any free plan include Arabic?
ElevenLabs's speech-to-text page names Arabic. Otter's and Rev's free-plan pages list languages that do not include it. For most other tools the page we read did not say.
Can I download this table?
Yes: free-transcription-limits.csv, with source URLs and the checked date on every row.
Is the transcript always right?
No. All of these tools, including ours, produce an automatic draft. Noise, overlapping voices, accents and technical terms cause mistakes, so read it against the audio.
Keep going
Try it with your own file
Upload a recording and read the transcript.