Free Web Tool

Free Audio to Text

Transcribe any audio using Whisper AI — runs entirely in your browser. Private, free, no sign-up, no upload to servers.

🎵
Drop audio here or browse
MP3 · WAV · M4A · OGG · FLAC · WebM · max 25 MB
Language

How to use

1
Upload an audio file (MP3, WAV, M4A…) or record directly from your mic.
2
Select a language or leave on Auto-detect. Then click Transcribe.
3
The first run downloads the Whisper AI model (~40 MB). After that it's instant — even offline.
4
Copy or download the transcript. Nothing is sent to any server.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this free?
Yes — completely free, no sign-up, no limits.
Is my audio private?
Yes. Your audio never leaves your device. The Whisper AI model runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly — no server, no tracking.
What audio formats are supported?
Any format your browser can decode: MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, FLAC, WebM. If it plays in your browser, it can be transcribed.
What languages does it support?
Whisper supports 99 languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Indonesian, Arabic, Russian and more. Use Auto-detect or pick a language for better accuracy.
Why does it take time on first use?
The Whisper AI model (~40 MB) is downloaded once from a CDN and cached by your browser. After the first use, transcription starts immediately — even offline.
Is there a file size limit?
25 MB per file. For longer recordings, consider splitting the audio first. Processing time depends on your device — modern laptops handle 5 minutes of audio in about 30 seconds.
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🎬
YouTube Caption Downloader
Download subtitles as SRT or TXT from any YouTube video. Free, no sign-up.

When browser-based speech-to-text is the right choice

Whisper is the standard for high-quality open-source transcription. Historically that meant Python, a GPU, and a command-line workflow — completely inaccessible to most people. Running Whisper in the browser flips that: drop an audio file, transcribe it, download SRT or TXT. No installs, no accounts, no code.

The privacy story is decisive for sensitive audio. Client-side Whisper means the audio never leaves your device. Interview recordings, medical dictation, legal depositions, confidential meetings — anything you can't ethically or legally upload to a third-party API — is now transcribable without risk.

Common workflows: journalists cleaning up interview audio, podcasters generating episode transcripts for SEO, YouTubers creating SRT files for their videos, students transcribing lectures, researchers processing recorded conversations.

Choosing the right Whisper model

Whisper comes in several sizes. Smaller = faster but less accurate. Larger = slower but more accurate. In the browser, the trade-off matters more because you're limited by device compute.

tiny / base: fastest, adequate for clean audio in major languages. Good for a first pass or when speed matters more than perfect transcription.

small / medium: the practical sweet spot for most users. Handles accents, background noise, technical vocabulary reasonably well. Reasonable speed on modern devices.

large: highest accuracy but heavy — expect 30 seconds of compute per minute of audio on typical hardware. Use for critical transcripts you'll publish.

Set language explicitly if you know it — auto-detect adds latency and can misfire on short clips.

Practical tips for better transcription

Clean audio matters more than model size. A tiny model on a clean recording beats a large model on muddy audio. If you have control over the recording, use a decent microphone, minimize background noise, and record close-mic.

For SRT subtitles, the segmentation Whisper produces is usable but rarely perfect for reading. Consider running a light post-edit — split long lines, adjust punctuation — before shipping to YouTube.

Very long files (2+ hours) may hit browser memory limits. Split into 30-minute chunks with any audio editor, transcribe each, then concatenate.

Frequently asked questions

Is browser Whisper really as accurate as the desktop version?

Yes — the model weights are identical. The only difference is compute speed, which depends on your device rather than the model quality.

What audio formats are supported?

MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, WebM, OGG, FLAC — anything the browser can decode via the Web Audio API. Video files are supported too; the audio track is extracted.

Does it work offline?

Yes — after the model downloads once (cached in the browser), transcription runs fully offline. Great for airplane workflows or air-gapped devices.

Which languages are supported?

Whisper supports 99 languages. Leave language on Auto-detect for best results on unknown audio, or set explicitly if you know the language for slightly faster/more accurate results.

Are my audio files uploaded?

No. Audio is decoded and transcribed entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or logged.

Why is transcription so slow on my device?

Whisper is compute-heavy. On older laptops or phones, the large model can be very slow. Switch to a smaller model, or use our Groq Whisper tool (uses cloud compute with a free API key) for near-instant results on large files.

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