Can you really turn audio into text for free, start to finish?
Have you ever uploaded a recording to a “free” transcription site, only to get the first few minutes back and a prompt to upgrade for the rest? Hi, I'm Jeongyeon Lee, an editor at Alt. I've hit that wall more than once while working through hour-long lectures and meeting recordings. So today I'll walk you through the free ways to turn audio into text, and show you one that really is free all the way to the end.
First, a promise: this really is free, with no time limit
So many “free” tools turn out to be a paywall in disguise that you're probably skeptical of this post too. So let me give you the answer up front. Alt, the app I'm recommending, lets you turn audio files into text completely free and unlimited on its Free plan. There's no monthly minute cap, no limit on how long a single file can be, and no limit on how many files you convert. A three-hour recording gets transcribed from the first word to the last.
To be upfront, Alt does have a paid plan. But that plan is for extra features. Turning speech into text isn't something you pay for, and you won't get cut off after a few minutes.
Here's how that's possible: the speech recognition model runs on your own computer, not on a company server. Most transcription services upload your file and process it in the cloud, and the longer the recording, the more that server time costs them. That's why their free plans come with limits. Because Alt does the work on your device, there's no server cost that grows with every minute of audio, so there's no reason to cap your time. As a bonus, your recordings never get uploaded to an outside server.
Four free ways to turn audio into text
Let's set Alt aside for a moment and compare the free options most people try first. Each has clear strengths and trade-offs, so the right one depends on what you're transcribing. The limits below are from each service's official page as of November 8, 2026.
- Your phone's built-in recorder: Apple's Voice Memos and Google's Recorder app on Pixel phones can show a transcript of a recording. Nothing to install, so it's the easiest place to start. Whether it works depends on your phone, software version, language, and region, so check that it's available on yours first.
- Free web upload tools: Sites like TurboScribe let you upload a file and get text back without installing anything. The catch is the free tier. TurboScribe Free transcribes 3 files a day, each up to 30 minutes, one upload at a time. Your recording is also uploaded to the service's servers.
- AI note-taker apps and office suites: Otter.ai is easy to use and popular for meetings, but its free Basic plan gives you 300 minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, and only 3 file imports in total. If you already pay for Microsoft 365, Word's Transcribe feature can handle up to 300 minutes of uploaded audio a month.
- Programs that transcribe on your device: Instead of uploading your file, your own computer does the work. Without server costs driving the limits, these are the best fit for long recordings.
Four things to check before you trust a “free” transcription tool
For a few short voice memos, your phone or a web tool is plenty. But if you need to transcribe hour-long lectures or meetings, or recordings that pile up every week, check these four things. Plenty of tools say “free” in big letters and then limit one of them.
- Monthly minutes: How many free minutes you get each month, and what happens when you run out
- Maximum length per file: Whether a 90-minute lecture or a two-hour meeting gets transcribed all the way through, or cut off partway
- Getting your text out: Whether you can view and copy the full transcript without paying extra
- Where your recording is stored: Whether it stays on your device or gets uploaded to the service's servers. This matters most for interviews and meetings, where other people's voices are on the recording.
That's why I recommend Alt
Alt is an app that records lectures and meetings, turns the audio into text, and organizes it as notes. Besides recording live, you can import files you've already recorded on your phone or a voice recorder and transcribe them.
Measured against those four checks: the Free plan has no monthly time limit and no limit on file length, and the transcript stays right in your note. Your recordings and transcripts are processed on your device and aren't uploaded to Alt's servers, and you can transcribe even without an internet connection.
Alt supports 100 languages, and it handles video files as well as audio, so you can convert files like mp3, m4a, and wav, or pull the audio from an mp4 or mov. Once the transcript is ready, you can create an AI summary or ask questions about it in the same note.
How to convert an audio file to text in Alt
On Alt's home screen, click “Upload Recording” to open the “Audio/Video Transcription” window. Here's what to do next.
- Choose the transcription language. For an English recording, pick “English.”
- Drag your recording into the “Select Audio File” box, or click “Select File” to choose it.
- Leave “Target Note” set to “Create New Note” and click “Start.”
- As the progress bar fills, you'll see a preview of the transcribed text. You can close the window, and transcription keeps running in the background.
Audio/Video Transcription
Select Audio File
Marketing101_Week5_Lecture.m4a
Target Note
Audio/Video Transcription
Marketing101_Week5_Lecture.m4a
So last week we went through the four Ps, and today we're zooming in on price. Think about a cup of coffee. It's two bucks at a gas station and six dollars at the café down the street. Why are people happy to pay the difference? That's our question for today.
Okay, looks like everyone's here. Picking up from last week, we're looking at the marketing mix, the four Ps, and today it's all about pricing strategy.
The key point is that price isn't set by cost alone. It's about the value customers perceive. Same beans, but a different space and experience, and people will accept a different price.
For next week, pick a brand you like and write up its pricing strategy in one page. That's it for today. See you Thursday.
The lecture recording and its content shown here are fictional examples.
Once it's done, check these things
When transcription finishes, as in the example above, your note holds the full transcript with a timestamp on each line. Even this 1-hour-24-minute lecture recording is transcribed right through to the professor's closing words.
Speech recognition still isn't perfect. Names, technical terms, and numbers are the easiest things to get wrong, so for anything important, use the timestamps to jump back and compare with the original audio. Better recordings also give better results: put your phone close to whoever is speaking and record somewhere with as little background noise as possible.
Start today with one recording sitting on your phone
Last semester's lectures, a meeting you never got around to, an interview you still haven't written up. Chances are you have more recordings piling up than you'd think, simply because there's never time to listen to them again. Pick just one today and turn it into text. Ten minutes or three hours, it really is free.
Thanks for reading. This has been Jeongyeon Lee, editor at Alt.