Everyday AI

Which app turns audio or video into text, and which are free?

Start with what your phone already does. On an iPhone 12 or later, Voice Memos and Notes transcribe recordings free, in English and a few European and East Asian languages but not yet Hindi; on Android, Google's free Live Transcribe app turns speech into text in real time in over 80 languages and dialects. For a file you already have, Gemini's free plan accepts up to 10 minutes of audio per prompt (3 hours on Google AI Pro), while ChatGPT takes audio uploads only on paid plans. Otter's free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month but only 3 lifetime file imports, so it suits live meetings rather than a backlog of recordings. With a work Microsoft 365 account, Word's Transcribe handles uploaded audio, up to 300 minutes a month. For confidential recordings, OpenAI's open-source Whisper runs on your own computer, at the cost of some setup. Rule: the phone for new recordings, Gemini for a short file, Whisper for anything private.

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