Best Transcription Software: Pick by What You Record, Not by Rank
Data checked:
“Best” depends on what you record and where the audio is allowed to go. A tool that joins Zoom calls all day is the wrong shape for a folder of 3-hour interview recordings, and the right answer for a research consent form is rarely the cheapest one. This guide groups the tools we track by job instead of ranking them. Every price and limit below comes from vendor pages checked in October 2026; we have not tested transcription accuracy on any of these tools.
If you record meetings
| Tool | Free plan | Paid from | Max length per file | Languages | Trains on your data? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otter.ai Meeting notes, File transcription, Live transcription | 300 min/month, up to 30 min per conversation, 3 file imports in total | $16.99/mo $8.33/mo billed yearly (Pro) | Free: 30 min Paid: 4 h | ENJAZH 6 languages | Yes |
| Fathom Meeting notes | Unlimited recordings and transcripts; some AI features are limited | $20/mo $16/mo billed yearly (Premium) | Free: Not verified Paid: Not verified | ENJAZH 38 languages | Yes, unless you opt out |
| Fireflies.ai Meeting notes, File transcription, Live transcription | Transcription marked unlimited, but only 400 min of storage per team and limited AI summaries; downloads need Pro | $18/mo $10/mo billed yearly (Pro) | Free: 150 min Paid: 150 min | ENJAZH 100+ languages | No |
| tl;dv Meeting notes | Unlimited recordings and transcripts, AI notes for 10 meetings, up to 5 uploads; recordings kept up to 3 months | €29/mo €18/mo billed yearly (Pro) | Free: 3 h Paid: 3 h | ENJAZH 30+ languages | No |
| MeetGeek Meeting notes, File transcription | 3 hours of transcription per month, with 3 months of transcript storage and 1 month of audio storage. | $15.99/mo $9.99/mo billed yearly (Pro) | Free: 2 h Paid: 2 h | ENJAZH 100+ languages | Unclear |
- A fixed minute allowance: Otter.ai Basic gives 300 minutes a month, stops each conversation at 30 minutes and allows 3 file imports in total. Its privacy policy says it trains its AI on de-identified audio and transcriptions, with no opt-out described.
- Unlimited free recording: Fathom and tl;dv record and transcribe an unlimited number of meetings without charge. Fathom limits some AI features and trains on de-identified data unless you opt out; tl;dv caps every recording at 3 hours and keeps free recordings for up to 3 months.
- Fireflies.ai marks transcription as unlimited on the free plan but stores only 400 minutes per team, and transcript downloads need Pro ($18 a month, or $10 per seat billed yearly).
- MeetGeek gives 180 free minutes a month, with a 120-minute cap per meeting on Basic and Pro.
For more options, including notetakers that work without a meeting bot, see Fireflies.ai alternatives.
If you transcribe uploaded files
| Tool | Paid from | Max length per file | Languages | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TurboScribe File transcription | $20/mo $10/mo billed yearly (Unlimited) | Free: 30 min Paid: 10 h | ENJAZH 98+ languages | DOCX, PDF, TXT, SRT, VTT, CSV |
| Notta Meeting notes, File transcription, Live transcription | $13.49/mo $8.17/mo billed yearly (Pro) | Free: 3 min Paid: 5 h | ENJAZH 58 languages | TXT, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, XLSX |
| Happy Scribe File transcription, Meeting notes | £17/mo £8.50/mo billed yearly (Basic) | Paid: Not verified | ENJAZH 150+ languages | TXT, SRT, PDF, DOCX, VTT, HTML |
| Sonix File transcription | $25/mo $22.92/mo billed yearly (Core) | Paid: Not verified | ENJAZH 54+ languages | DOCX, PDF, TXT, SRT, VTT |
| Good Tape File transcription | €15/mo €13.75/mo billed yearly (Pro) | Free: 30 min Paid: Not verified | ENJAZH 100 languages | Not verified |
- TurboScribe Unlimited costs $20 a month or $10 a month billed yearly and takes files up to 10 hours or 5 GB. Its free plan transcribes 3 files a day, up to 30 minutes each.
- Notta Pro ($13.49 a month, or $8.17 billed yearly) includes 1,800 minutes a month and recordings up to 5 hours.
- Sonix sells pay-as-you-go hours at $10 an hour with no subscription, and says it never trains its models on your files.
- Happy Scribe Basic costs £17 a month (£8.50 billed yearly) for 120 minutes a month; Pro and Business remove the per-recording limit.
- Good Tape Pro is €15 a month (€13.75 billed yearly) for 20 hours a month and states no file-length limit.
If language coverage decides it
Counts from vendor pages: Happy Scribe lists 150+ languages, Maestra 125, Fireflies.ai 100+ (most of them labelled beta), TurboScribe 98+, Notta 58, Otter.ai 6. A longer list is not a better transcript: these are coverage claims, not accuracy results. For specific languages, see Japanese transcription apps and Chinese transcription apps.
If privacy decides it
Services whose own pages say they never train AI on your content include Sonix, Fireflies.ai, tl;dv and Good Tape; the full list is in transcription apps that don’t train on your data. If recordings must not be uploaded at all, use an on-device app such as MacWhisper, Vibe or Buzz; the differences are in offline transcription software.
If you are building an app
Speech-to-text APIs are priced per minute or per hour, not per seat: AssemblyAI, Deepgram, Speechmatics, OpenAI Speech to Text API, Google Cloud Speech-to-Text, Amazon Transcribe and ElevenLabs Speech to Text (Scribe). What each charges and what it does with your audio by default is covered in speech-to-text API comparison.
If you want a human in the loop
Rev sells human transcription at $1.99 a minute alongside its AI plans. Scribie combines automation with human verification from $0.80 a minute, and Amberscript quotes machine transcription from €0.17 a minute, with human transcription as a separate service.
Where to go next
Filter every tool yourself in the directory, or start from free transcription software, long audio files and tools with speaker labels.