For journalists
Transcribe interviews for journalists
Upload an interview recording, get timestamped text with speakers labelled, and find the quote you need fast. It is a draft you review: every quote you publish should be checked against the audio, and some sources should never be uploaded at all.
Speed is the benefit; the audio is the record
Typing out an hour of interview takes much longer than the hour. A first draft in minutes lets you scan for the passages that matter and jump to them by timestamp. But the transcript can tidy false starts, drop a hedge such as 'I think', or mishear a name, and any of those can change what someone seems to have said. Your published quote must come from the recording, not from the draft.
Verifying a quote
- Find the passage in the transcript with search or by reading.
- Click or note the timestamp and play that second of audio.
- Correct the line in the editor so the text now matches what was said.
- Check names, titles, numbers and place names separately, and against another source where you can.
Sources, consent and what leaves your machine
Tell the interviewee they are recorded and what will happen to the recording; recording rules differ by place, so check yours. Uploading sends the audio to our server. If a source's safety, a legal duty or a newsroom policy means the recording must not sit on anyone else's server, do not upload it. Look at self-hosted transcription for running it on your own hardware, and at this guide to keeping recordings private. For sources who need anonymity, a cloud service is the wrong place for the audio.
Drafts you review
Treat the transcript as a working draft. We give no accuracy figure, and a transcript from this site is not a verbatim legal record. Overlapping voices, phone-line audio and strong background noise are where words go missing, and speaker labels (up to eight, with a free account) can swap two similar voices.
Getting the text out
Export plain text or Markdown for your notes and draft, timestamped text for your own reference, or SRT and VTT if the interview is video you will caption. Without an account one file can be up to 15 minutes and 25 MB. A free account lifts those per-file limits and keeps your transcripts in a library you can search, so for a full-length recording create one instead of cutting the file up.
How it works
Add a recording
Drop in a video or audio file, choose one from your device, or record from the microphone. Nothing to install.
It transcribes
Speech becomes timestamped text, with speaker labels when more than one person talks.
Read, fix, export
Click any line to correct it, then download TXT, subtitles, Markdown, JSON or CSV.
Questions
Can I use the transcript as the quote?
Is it safe for a confidential source?
Does it label who is speaking?
Can it transcribe a phone-call recording?
Is it free?
Want your transcripts saved and longer files? Create a free account · See pricing · All use cases
Try it with your file
No account needed for a first transcript.