Do you transcribe any type of content? With free transcription software, you can do it easily, quickly, and without affecting your budget.
You can transcribe the way you want, downloading or not the audio, using a computer, tablet, or mobile device, with a desktop version or application. You can choose all this and more because they are versatile and flexible tools.
There are many options on the market, and in this post, we present a selection of the best free transcription software.
Top 11 best free transcription software
The best free transcription software offers fast, accurate transcriptions that you can edit for the type of transcription you want. In addition, it has an intuitive interface or application and technical support to meet any requirement and take care of the security of your information.
Ready to discover the top of the best? We tell you what they are and their main features.
1. ScriptMe Lite
ScriptMe Lite is an efficient desktop application, compatible with macOS and Windows, that allows you to transcribe forever for free and unlimited, from wherever you are (because it is free from the internet).
The transcription of files is in real time and you can add it to YouTube , blogs, social networks or larger projects. With good sound quality transcriptions will be over 90% accurate, you can edit to perfect it and choose from over 60 languages.
It works in just 3 steps: import your files, edit, and export. And with transcriptions, you can create folders, rename them, and organize your projects.
The free version allows you to transcribe 5-minute files, while the Pro version allows you to transcribe files of any length.
2. ScriptMe
On the other hand, ScriptMe is an integrated service for transcribing, subtitling, and translating your content. It is innovative and versatile, designed especially for the media production workflow, but it also adapts to universities and students, government organizations, hospitals, and all types of projects and industries.
On this website transcripts are generated as easily as in the app, but here it is even faster than in real time. While being an AI service it is not 100% accurate, you can edit the content with the editor and customize the style.
ScriptMe supports almost any file format, offers collaborative workspaces, and has more interesting features. It offers a 15-minute free trial and a variety of options: pay per hour, monthly subscriptions, or a customized plan based on your requirements.
3. OTranscribe
OTranscribe is a free application designed for manual transcription. It is distinguished by its simple interface and supports local or remote media files and YouTube videos.
It has an efficient text processor that is controlled from the keyboard. Specific actions allow you to play, fast-forward, rewind, add timestamps, and perform other functions.
The transcript file can be exported to Markdown format, a programming language for writing text with indexes, enumerations, titles, and subtitles.
With its privacy policy neither the audio file nor the text is sent to any server, the information is stored in the browser of whoever uses the web.
4. Express Scribe
Express Scribe is a popular free transcription software. Specially designed for professional transcriptionists, it is widely used for transcribing audiences, interviews, lectures, movie scripts, songs, dictations, voice memos, and more.
It consists of an audio player for PC or Mac and can be controlled with keyboard hotkeys, or with a compatible transcription foot pedal. It supports more than 45 different types of audio and video file formats and loads them automatically.
It has many useful functions, such as reducing background noise, increasing volume, and increasing file priority. It is distinguished by its ease of use, simplicity and good transcription quality.
5. Inqscribe
Inqscribe is another free transcription software designed for professional transcriptionists and can be downloaded on Windows or Mac.
With this software, you can transcribe manually, quickly, and accurately. Other features include playing videos and typing in the same window, inserting time codes anywhere, and adding frequently used text with a single key of custom snippets.
With this last feature, custom snippets, you can save time when a speaker frequently refers to people or places. You can use your free trial for 14 days and then pay for the full license.
6. The FTW Transcriber
The TTW Transcriptor is a popular transcription option widely used by industry professionals. It is a free downloadable tool with many useful features to facilitate transcription of all types of content.
It features outstanding audio quality and, among other valuable features, for faster typing, adding timestamps, hotkeys for common transcription phrases, and a balance and speed adjuster.
This tool is compatible with all word processors. It plays video files showing images and local files automatically. For a license fee (approximately $1 per month), you have access to the Premium version to work faster and with less effort.
7. MacWhisper
MacWhisper is the best choice for transcribing content on Mac and uses state-of-the-art technology. This software allows you to convert audio files to text easily and quickly and produce high-quality transcriptions.
To transcribe interviews, meetings and other content, just drag and drop the audio files and the software will automatically transcribe them. Speaker identification is done manually.
It supports more than 100 languages and has, among other useful features, the ability to remove repeated or filler words. The privacy of the information is guaranteed, because all the contents are stored on your computer. It has a free version and Whisper Pro with more functions.
8. Otter
Otter is a recognized tool in the transcription industry and offers a free basic plan. Its meeting wizard allows users to record, transcribe, capture slides, and generate summaries in real time.
This software is connected to Zoom, MS Teams, and Google to facilitate the automatic transcription of notes. You have 300 minutes of transcription per month, 30 minutes per conversation, and can import and transcribe 3 audio or video files at any time.
You can also access 5 custom vocabulary terms, word highlighting during playback, keyword search, standard email support and more.
9. Rev Max
Rev Max is a new product from the prestigious transcription company Rev that offers a 14-day free trial. During that time, you can access its Zoom integration, automatically transcribe 20 hours of content, and obtain subtitles.
The accuracy of this software is 90%. Other handy features include access to a customized glossary to ensure the correct names and technical terms spelling.
It also makes it easy to keep all files and transcripts in one place, so that library content can be easily and quickly shared or reused.
10. Trint
Trint is an automated transcription service. Its free trial is for 7 days. During that time, you can transcribe live in more than 40 languages and share the content with whomever you want.
Its transcription accuracy is up to 99% (with good audio quality). And if you work in a team, you can invite others to view, comment or edit the content, even if they don't have Trint.
It has an efficient search function to find topics, spot trends, and quickly gather key material. For these and many more functions and features, Trint is an excellent choice of free transcription software to get into the world of transcription. Then, you can subscribe to one of their plans.
11. Notta
The latest free transcription software is Notta, which is also an automatic transcription service and is 98.86% accurate. Its free plan includes 120 minutes of transcription per month.
With Notta you can record and transcribe Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet and Webex meetings. For the free plan, the maximum conversation length is up to 3 minutes and 3 files can be transcribed per month.
With this free service you can experience the quality of your transcription. If you want to use all its advanced features you can choose to subscribe to one of their plans.
Conclusions
Now that you know the best free transcription software, do you have any idea which one to use? While some software is completely free, others have limited features and transcription time. If you don't transcribe that often, they will be of great help.
If you transcribe a lot of content or work as a professional transcriptionist, you will require more advanced capabilities and features. The free trials will help you get to know the software and choose the most suitable plan for the volume and type of transcription you need.
In any case, remember that ScriptMe Lite is a very practical automatic and free transcription software.
