The best free transcription software in 2026, limits side by side
Most free transcription plans stop short of an hour, hold back exports or count imports for the life of the account. We held ten of them to one test. Can a new user transcribe a 60-minute file and download the text without paying?
Ten free transcription options side by side
Every answer links to the vendor’s own page, which has the final word.
| Tool | What you get free | One 60-minute file? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Textspert | 3 files every day, each up to 60 minutes and 2 GB, with speaker labels and all seven export formats | Yes: transcribed, editable and downloadable | Our pricing page |
| Otter | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 file imports for the life of the account | No: the import runs, but only the first 30 minutes can be read until you upgrade | otter.ai/pricing |
| Notta | 120 minutes a month and 50 uploads, but each conversation stops at 3 minutes and Free has no export | No | notta.ai/en/pricing |
| Descript | 60 media minutes a month, 100 one-time AI credits, files up to 1 GB | Only by spending the whole month’s free hour on it | descript.com/pricing |
| Fireflies | Transcription with a 2-hour recording limit; downloading transcripts is a paid feature | You can read it in the app, but you can’t download it | fireflies.ai/pricing |
| Rev | 45 AI minutes a month, English only, 1 user | No | rev.com/pricing |
| Sonix | A 30-minute trial, once, with no card | No | sonix.ai/pricing |
| Happy Scribe | A 10-minute AI transcription trial, once | No | happyscribe.com/pricing |
| Trint | A 7-day trial for 3 files that transcribes only the first 5 minutes of each | No | Trint help center |
| Riverside web tool | A separate free page for one file at a time (MP3, WAV, MP4 or MOV); one speaker; TXT and SRT exports | Probably, but untested: no length limit is published, and every voice lands under one speaker | riverside.com/transcription |
Only Textspert gets a clear yes. Riverside also has a separate free web transcription tool without sign-up.
Which free plan suits which person
Textspert, for long single recordings
Up to an hour per file, speaker labels, every export. Free files wait behind paid ones when the queue is busy and delete after 30 days.
Otter, for short meetings
Otter’s 300 free minutes a month stretch across a lot of quick check-ins, with notes as people talk.
Rev, for a little English audio
Rev’s free AI minutes cover a voicemail or two, and its human service costs $1.99 a minute when you need one.
The trials, for judging quality
Test a paid service on your own accents: Sonix gives 30 minutes once, Happy Scribe 10 minutes once, Trint the first 5 minutes of 3 files, and Notta 3 minutes per conversation.
The do-it-yourself route: Whisper on your own machine
One free option never shows up on a pricing page. OpenAI released Whisper as an open speech model, and desktop apps and command-line tools wrap it so you can transcribe on your own computer. Nothing leaves your machine and the only cap is your patience, but a long file can tie up a laptop, and the base model can’t tell who’s talking.
We run the same family of models for you, Whisper large-v3-turbo and Parakeet, on our own GPUs, with speaker labels and an editor on top. If you’d rather keep everything on your own hardware, DIY is a fair choice.
The usual free-plan catches, and what Textspert does instead
| Tool | The catch its own page states | What Textspert Free does |
|---|---|---|
| Otter | 3 file imports for the life of the account | 3 new files every day |
| Notta | Up to 3 minutes per conversation, and nothing can be exported | Files up to 60 minutes, exported as TXT, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, CSV and JSON |
| Fireflies | Transcript downloads are for paying customers | Every file downloads, one at a time |
| Sonix | One 30-minute trial, and then it ends | A plan with no end date that never asks for a card |
| Rev | Its terms allow subscriber speech-to-text content to be used for continuous training | Your files never train any model |
Where Textspert Free stops
Free files go to the back of the line when paid work is waiting. Exports come one file at a time. Translation, Transcribe to English and chat are paid, and you get 3 AI summaries a day.
Outgrow it and there are two ways up. Hour packs never renew: 5 hours for $5, 20 hours for $15 or 60 hours for $35, good for 12 months. Unlimited is $20 a month, or $10 a month billed yearly, with fair use up to 720 hours a month. Free transcription lists every Free limit; pricing has the rest.
Free transcription software questions
What is the best free transcription software?
For long files, Textspert Free: a full hour, downloadable, 3 times a day. For short meetings with live notes, Otter.
Is there free transcription software with no time limit?
Riverside’s separate web tool advertises unlimited free transcriptions but does not state a file-length cap; it labels every voice as one speaker and exports only TXT and SRT. Whisper on your own computer has no cap.
Which free plans include speaker labels?
Otter’s free plan and Textspert Free, which labels up to 4 voices per file. Riverside’s web tool puts everyone under one speaker.
Can I export a free transcript as DOCX or SRT?
On Textspert Free, yes: DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, CSV, JSON and TXT. Otter Free exports MP3 and TXT; PDF, DOCX and SRT are paid. Notta and Fireflies keep free transcripts in the app.
Is free transcription private?
Otter’s privacy policy covers training its own AI on de-identified recordings. On Textspert, your audio and transcripts are never sent to any AI company and never used for training; see private transcription.
Do free files stay forever?
No. Free files delete after 30 days, so download what you want to keep. Plan files follow your current plan, so Free’s 30-day limit can apply if your subscription ends. Pack files stay until you delete them unless you choose a shorter time.
More comparisons and free tools
- Free transcription3 files a day, up to 60 minutes each, with speaker labels and every export format.
- Otter alternativesSeven tools for people who upload files instead of running a bot.
- CompareTextspert next to TurboScribe, Otter, Rev, Descript and more, with sources.
- PricingFree, subscriptions, and one-time hour packs.
Compare plans on the pricing page, or read our short privacy promises.
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