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Audio & Video Transcriber

A free, unlimited audio and video transcriber that runs entirely in your browser using OpenAI's Whisper models. Drop in a meeting recording, lecture, interview, podcast or video and get back an editable transcript with timestamps — plus SRT and VTT subtitle files. Nothing is uploaded: speech recognition happens on your device. No signup, no daily caps, no file-length limits.

How it works

Three steps, no account required

  1. Step 1

    Drop in a file

    Drag in an audio or video file, or choose one from your device. No account, no upload — the file stays on your device the whole time.

  2. Step 2

    Wait while it transcribes on your device

    A Whisper speech-recognition model downloads once (cached for next time) and runs in your browser to turn the audio into text with timestamps, with a live preview as it goes.

  3. Step 3

    Edit and export

    Fix any mishearings directly in the transcript, then copy the text or export it as TXT, SRT or VTT subtitles.

Why it's different

What sets this apart from typical free transcribers

Truly unlimited

No daily file caps and no monthly minutes allowance — transcribe as much as you want.

Private by design

Audio is processed on your device using an in-browser AI model — never uploaded anywhere.

No signup

Nothing to create, nothing to remember. Open the page and drop in a file.

Subtitles included

Export SRT and VTT subtitle files alongside the plain-text transcript, ready for YouTube.

A library that remembers

Past transcripts are saved on your device, so you can come back to them without re-transcribing.

What you can transcribe

Built for real, everyday recordings

Meetings and client calls

Turn a recorded meeting into searchable notes and action items. Export as TXT to paste into your meeting notes, with timestamps so you can jump back to the exact moment something was decided.

Lectures and classes

Transcribe a recorded lecture to study from, search for a specific topic, or build flashcards from. A plain TXT export with timestamps makes it easy to find the part you need to review.

Interviews and research

Get a clean, editable transcript of a research or journalism interview, with timestamps for citing exact moments. Fix misheard names once in the editor and the correction sticks.

Podcasts and YouTube videos

Transcribe an episode for show notes and SEO, or export SRT/VTT subtitles to upload directly to YouTube Studio or burn into your video.

Voice notes

Turn a quick voice memo into text you can copy into an email, task list, or document — no typing required.

Tips for better accuracy

Small changes that noticeably help

  • Start from clear audio when you can — background noise and crosstalk are the biggest accuracy killers for any speech-recognition model, not just this one.
  • Choose Best quality for noisy recordings or strong accents; it handles both noticeably better than Fast mode.
  • Pick your language explicitly from the dropdown instead of Auto-detect for short clips — there's less audio for automatic detection to work with.
  • Fix a misheard name or technical term once with the search box, then use it to jump to every other occurrence and fix those too.

Free transcription tools compared

How ForgePlug's free tier stacks up against other free plans

ToolFree limitMax file lengthSignup neededWhere audio is processed
ForgePlugUnlimitedNo limitNoYour device (never uploaded)
TurboScribe (free)~3 transcriptions/day~30 min/fileYesTheir servers
Otter (free)~300 min/month~30 min/conversationYesTheir servers
Rev (free)Very limited trial, not an ongoing free tierVariesYesTheir servers

Checked: October 2026. Competitor figures via third-party pricing trackers — confirm current limits on each vendor's own pricing page before relying on them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about transcribing audio and video for free

Is it really free and unlimited?
Yes. There's no daily file cap, no monthly minutes allowance, and no signup. The only real limit is what your own device can handle — a very long file on an old laptop will simply run slower.
Is my audio uploaded anywhere?
No. Speech recognition runs entirely in your browser using a Whisper AI model. Your audio and video files are never sent to ForgePlug's servers or anyone else's — open your browser's Network tab during a transcription and you'll see no audio data leaving your device, only the one-time model download.
Why is the first transcription slower?
The first time you use a given quality setting, your browser downloads that Whisper model (from Hugging Face's servers) and caches it. After that, the model loads instantly from your browser's cache — the speech model downloads once, then works offline.
Which browsers work best?
Chrome or Edge on a laptop or desktop, which support WebGPU for fast, hardware-accelerated transcription. Safari and Firefox currently fall back to a slower CPU-based mode (WASM) — transcription still works, just at a more modest pace.
How accurate is it?
Accuracy depends on audio quality, accent, and background noise. The Best quality mode handles noisy recordings and strong accents noticeably better than Fast mode. We don't publish accuracy percentages because they vary a lot by use case — try Best mode on a tricky recording if Balanced isn't cutting it.
Can it transcribe video files?
Yes — drop in an MP4, MOV or WEBM file and the tool extracts and transcribes the audio track. The video itself isn't stored or processed beyond that.
How do I make subtitles for YouTube or Instagram?
Transcribe your video, fix any mistakes in the editor, then export as SRT or VTT from the export panel. Both formats import directly into YouTube Studio's subtitle uploader; most other platforms (including Instagram, via third-party caption tools) accept SRT.
Which languages are supported?
Whisper supports dozens of languages. Auto-detect works well for clear audio; for short clips or less common languages, picking your language explicitly from the dropdown gives more reliable results. Quality for non-English languages varies, especially on Fast mode — try Balanced or Best if results look off.
Where are my transcripts saved, and can I lose them?
Transcripts are saved in your browser's local storage on this device (IndexedDB) — not on any server. That means they're private, but also that clearing your browser data, using a different device, or using private/incognito mode can lose them. Export anything you can't afford to lose.
Is there a length limit?
No hard limit — we don't cap file length or duration. Very long files (several hours) may run slowly or use a lot of memory depending on your device, and we'll show a gentle warning above 3 hours, but there's no artificial cutoff.

More specific to what you need?

Converting a video file specifically

MP4, MOV, WEBM and more — see format-specific notes and video use cases.

Video to Text →

Just need subtitle files

SRT/VTT formatting rules explained, and where to use the exported file.

SRT Subtitle Generator →

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Runs in your browser100% privateNo data uploaded