100% local — your file never leaves your browser
Transcribe Audio to Text
Free audio to text converter that runs entirely in your browser — your file never leaves your device.
- Free
- No sign-up
- No watermark
How it works
- 01
Choose your recording
Pick an audio file — MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG or FLAC — or a video file, and the audio track is extracted for you. Nothing is uploaded at any point.
- 02
Pick the spoken language
Choose the language rather than letting it be guessed. A wrong guess does not fail loudly: it produces fluent, invented text that is hard to spot as wrong.
- 03
Copy or export
The transcript appears below, ready to copy. Export TXT for plain text, or SRT and VTT if you need the timestamps for subtitles.
Why choose TranscriptSnap
Built for recordings you cannot upload
Patient notes, depositions, source interviews, unreleased campaign audio. Processing locally does not reduce the disclosure risk — it removes the disclosure, because no third party is involved at any point.
No length cap and no file count
There is no server to impose a limit. Long recordings are split into overlapping windows and reassembled automatically; the only real ceiling is your own device memory.
It keeps working with no connection
After the first run the model is cached, so you can transcribe on a plane or in a locked-down office. It is also the simplest proof the tool is genuinely local — disconnect and try.
Every common audio format, plus video
MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG and FLAC all work, and so do MP4, MOV and WebM, where the audio track is pulled out for you. No converting anything first.
Good to know
A free audio to text converter with real privacy
Most transcription tools upload your recording to a server. This one does not: the speech model runs inside your browser using WebAssembly, so the audio stays on your machine. That makes it safe for interviews, medical notes, legal recordings and anything else you would rather not hand to a third party. Why browser-based transcription keeps recordings off other servers
Works offline once loaded
The model is cached after the first run, so you can transcribe audio to text again later with no connection at all. There is no per-minute cost and no upload limit. It is also the simplest way to prove the tool is genuinely local — disconnect from the network and try again. If it still works, nothing was ever being uploaded.
Supported formats and what to feed it
MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG and FLAC all work, as do common video containers like MP4, MOV and WebM — the audio track is extracted for you. Quality of input matters more than format: a 128 kbps recording of someone speaking clearly into a nearby microphone beats a lossless file recorded across a room. If you can choose, record mono at 16 kHz or above and keep the speaker close to the mic. If what you have is an MP3
How long files are handled
Speech models work on short windows, so long recordings are split into overlapping chunks and stitched back together. The overlap is what stops sentences from being cut in half at the boundaries — if you have ever seen a transcript where words vanish at suspiciously regular intervals, that is a tool that skipped this step. Very long files are limited by your device memory rather than by any upload cap, so an hour of audio is comfortable on a laptop and can be heavy on a phone. More on Whisper model sizes and real-world accuracy
Who this is built for
The privacy angle is not abstract. Uploading identifiable patient audio to a service without an agreement in place is a compliance problem in healthcare. Client recordings carry privilege in legal work. Source recordings are the whole job in journalism, and a third-party processor is a real attack path. Unreleased campaign material under NDA usually cannot be sent to unapproved vendors at all. In each of those cases, processing locally does not just reduce the risk — it removes the disclosure entirely, because there is no third party involved. Transcribing an interview you cannot send anywhere
Editing the output efficiently
Read the transcript against the audio once at speed rather than correcting word by word. Names, product names and technical terms are where the errors cluster, so a find-and-replace pass over the handful of proper nouns in the recording usually fixes most of what is wrong. Punctuation is inferred rather than heard, so sentence boundaries in fast speech are worth a second look. Everything else is generally close enough to leave alone.
Frequently asked questions
Is this audio to text converter really free?
Yes, and unlimited. Because transcription happens on your own device there is no server cost to pass on.
Is my audio uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read locally and processed in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
Which formats are supported?
MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG, FLAC and common video files such as MP4 and MOV.
How accurate is it?
It uses OpenAI Whisper, the same family of models used by most paid transcription services. Clean speech typically comes out very close to verbatim.
Why is the first run slower?
The model is downloaded once, then cached. Subsequent transcriptions start immediately.
Can I verify that nothing is uploaded?
Yes, and you should. Open your browser’s network panel before transcribing: you will see the model files download on the first run and nothing else. Or disconnect from the network after the model has cached and transcribe anyway — that is a claim no tool can fake.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes, though a phone is meaningfully slower than a laptop and long recordings can exhaust its memory. Short clips are fine.
What does it not do well?
Overlapping speakers, proper nouns and heavily accented speech over background noise are the weak spots. It also does not label who is speaking.
Transcribe audio to text free, without handing the file to anyone
Most tools that transcribe audio to text are server tools: you upload, their machine listens, you get text back and the minutes are metered. That model is fine for a podcast that is about to be public, and unsuitable for a great deal of what people actually record. This audio to text converter compiles the speech model into your browser with WebAssembly, so the recording is read from your disk and processed where it already sits. The result is the same Whisper output the paid services use, with no account, no per-minute charge and no upload to justify. Copy the text, or export it as TXT, SRT or VTT when you need the timings carried across.