Transcribe audio to learn a language

In an account — free or Pro, with the same features — the transcript comes with:

Read along, word by word

Click any line to hear that passage; the transcript follows the audio while it plays, so you hear each word as you read it.

Translation into your language

Translate the transcript into the language you think in, and read it beside the original.

A summary and questions

Summarise the episode in the shape that fits it, or ask what was said about a topic; the answer points to the passages and the moment in the recording they are in.

Editing

Fix what the recogniser misheard — or what you did — in the text, with the audio beside it.

Who spoke

In American English, British English and Indian English, the transcript separates the voices into Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on; you rename each label once, and the name holds for the whole transcript. In Australian English and Philippine English, it separates them too, on recordings of up to 2 hours. If the separation fails, the transcript comes without speaker labels, and says so.

Export

Word (DOCX), TXT, SRT and VTT, on every plan — TXT to paste into your notes or flashcards.

Choose the language spoken in the recording — the language you are learning — not your own. Transcription works in 82 languages, several of them in regional variants; pick the variant closest to the speaker. For a recording that mixes your language and the language you study, read the note below before you upload.

Every automatic transcript has errors, and they cluster on proper names, numbers and technical terms. Before you quote a passage, click the line and listen: with a time on every word, that check takes seconds. For a learner that cuts the other way too: a word that looks wrong may be the recogniser's error, not the speaker's — or yours. Listen before you memorise. A transcript of your own speaking shows what was understood, not a grade on how you said it.

You can also record in the browser, on a phone or a computer. Keep the page open and the screen on until you stop: a browser can end a recording when the page goes into the background.

Without an account, the trial transcribes up to the first 10 minutes of a recording. On Pro, each file can be up to 8 hours, within the month's included hours; what each plan includes, the pricing page shows. See plans and prices.

On long recordings, speaker labels can wander from one section to the next — a consequence of how long audio is processed, not a setting.

Name the main language rather than leaving it on automatic. Automatic detection has to decide what language each stretch of speech is in, and where a recording switches language, what was said in the other one may come back translated instead of transcribed — or not come back at all. Either way nothing is marked as missing: the transcript will look complete.

Philippine English is marked “preview” in the language list: offered, but without a quality commitment yet, so check its transcript more closely before you use it.