Transcribe interview audio to text free, accurate
Turn an interview recording into an accurate, quotable transcript: for journalism, research, hiring or content. Upload the audio or video and get the text back in minutes. No account, 10 recordings a day.
No account. 10 recordings a day. Others give you three files a day and call it unlimited. Files up to 60 minutes here, and it resets at midnight.
Plain transcript and subtitles right here. Bleeping, translation, burned-in subtitles and files over 90 MB live in the full tool.
Transcribe audio now →For journalists, researchers and recruiters
Transcribing an interview by hand takes hours. ScribeGrab does it in minutes so you can pull exact quotes, code qualitative research, or review a candidate's answers as text. The transcript is yours to download as TXT.
Think of it as an interview transcript generator without the software: nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, just a transcript. Upload the recording and you get a transcript of an interview back as plain text, ready to quote from. It's interview transcription software in the sense that it does the job — just running in a browser tab instead of on your hard drive, so there's no transcribe interview app to download either.
- Exact, quotable text for articles and reports
- Qualitative research coding from clean transcripts
- Review candidate answers without re-listening
- A written record for your archive
Most interview transcribing software wants a subscription before you've even tried it. This one doesn't ask — open it, upload the file, download the text.
How to transcribe an interview
- Record the interview (phone recorder, Zoom, a dedicated recorder, anything).
- Save it as MP3, M4A, WAV or a video file.
- Open ScribeGrab and upload it (up to 60 minutes / 1.5 GB).
- Download the transcript as TXT and proofread the quotes you'll use.
Accuracy and privacy
Clear one-on-one interviews transcribe very accurately; talking over each other is harder, so check those parts. A close-mic'd voice with harsh S and T sounds can also trip up recognition — CleanGrab's sibilance remover softens that before you transcribe. Did the interview happen outside — a street vox pop, a doorstep or an on-location shoot? Wind roaring across the mic is one of the fastest ways to wreck a transcript, and CleanGrab's wind noise remover takes the edge off before you run it through here. Interviews are sensitive, so your file is deleted right after processing and wiped within 45 minutes (24 hours if you bought a month pass — that longer window is part of what the pass is for), nothing kept or shared. See privacy and accuracy.
Quotes you can stand behind
The reason journalists and researchers transcribe interviews isn't convenience, it's defensibility. A quote you can point to in the recording is a quote you can publish. A quote you half-remember is a liability, and no amount of AI accuracy changes that: the transcript is a working document, not evidence.
So verify before you quote. The click-to-play transcript on the results page makes this cheap: click any line and it plays that exact moment of the audio. Do it for every sentence that will appear between quotation marks, and do it especially for numbers, dates, names and anything negated. "We did not approve the budget" and "we did approve the budget" differ by one short word, and one short word is the kind of thing speech recognition drops when someone speaks quickly. Keep the SRT file too, because it carries a timestamp on every line: a quote with a timestamp beside it in your notes is one you can re-check months later without listening to the whole recording again.
The speaker labels are what make an interview transcript usable at all. ScribeGrab separates the voices automatically and marks them Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on, so an interviewer's question and the answer to it don't dissolve into one paragraph. Replace the labels with real names once, at the top, and the whole document becomes quotable. Two cautions worth taking seriously: labels are estimated from voice characteristics rather than from any participant list, so speakers with similar voices can be merged, and where two people talk over each other the line usually goes to whoever was louder. Both failures cluster at handoffs, which is exactly where an attributed quote goes wrong, so check the label at the start and end of anything you plan to use.
Consent, and what happens to the file
Recording law varies more than people expect and it isn't a technical question, so treat this as the practical shape of it rather than legal advice. In much of Europe, including the Netherlands, a participant in a conversation may generally record it, but publishing or sharing that recording is a separate matter and personal data rules still apply. Several US states require the consent of everyone on the call, not just one party. Professional codes often go further than the law: journalism and academic ethics boards typically require explicit, recorded consent regardless of jurisdiction.
The workable habit is simple and costs ten seconds: ask on the recording. Start by stating that you're recording, why, and what you'll do with it, and let the answer be part of the file. It settles the question permanently and it's the first thing any editor or ethics reviewer will look for. If the interview is remote, say it before the substance begins rather than at the end.
On our side, the handling is deliberately boring. Your upload is deleted the moment processing finishes, and the transcript and subtitle files are wiped from the server within 45 minutes (24 hours if you bought a month pass — that longer window is part of what the pass is for) — long enough to download them, short enough that there's nothing sitting around afterwards. There's no account, so there's no profile to attach an interview to and nothing to delete later, and nothing you upload is used to train anything. Transcription runs on our own GPU hardware, not through a third-party transcription API. For a sensitive interview that's the relevant detail, and the privacy policy spells out the retention in full.
Got the interview questions as a PDF instead of text? ScanReviver's PDF to Word converts it to an editable .docx first, so you can drop the answers straight in alongside the transcript.
By Sam Ridder — I build and run ScribeGrab on my own hardware, on my own. Who I am.
Frequently asked
How accurate is it for quotes?
Very accurate on clear speech, but always proofread a quote before you publish it, especially names and technical terms.
Does it label who said what?
Yes. When it hears more than one voice, it automatically splits the transcript into speaker turns — up to eight speakers — so you get Speaker 1 / Speaker 2 style labels without switching anything on.
How long can the interview be?
Up to 60 minutes and 1.5 GB per file, 10 recordings a day.
Is my recording kept private?
No, it's not kept. The file is deleted right after processing; results wiped within 45 minutes (24 hours if you bought a month pass — that longer window is part of what the pass is for).
What's the fastest way to get from an interview recording to interview text I can quote?
Upload the recording as MP3, M4A, WAV or a video file — up to 60 minutes and 1.5 GB — and it comes back as a full text transcript in a couple of minutes, ready to search and quote from. No account needed.
How to properly transcribe an interview?
Record clearly, then upload the file to ScribeGrab. Read the transcript back once — especially names and technical terms — before quoting from it.
How do you transcribe an interview accurately?
ScribeGrab transcribes the speech and labels each speaker automatically. For publishable quotes, proofread the passages you plan to use.
How to transcribe an interview online for free?
Upload the interview recording to ScribeGrab — it's free, no account needed, up to 60 minutes per file — and download the transcript as TXT.
What's the best way to record an interview before transcribing it?
One mic per person if you can, or a single phone placed between you both rather than near just one speaker — the model handles a bit of room noise fine, but two voices at very different volumes is what usually costs you a word or two.
What is a transcription of an interview?
It's the interview's speech written down as text, ideally with each speaker labelled and lined up to a timestamp so a quote can be checked against the original recording.
Interview transcription meaning: just the words, or more?
Just the words, by default: what was said, by which speaker, and when. It doesn't summarise, interpret or clean up filler on its own — that's a separate step you do afterward if you need it.
How to write an interview report
Start from the transcript, not your memory of the conversation: pull the exact quotes you'll use, group them by theme, and write the connecting text around them. A transcript with speaker labels and timestamps makes this a lot faster than replaying the recording.
How to write a report about an interview
Same approach as any interview report: transcribe the recording first, then build the write-up around verified quotes rather than paraphrasing from memory, which is where most reporting errors creep in.
Is there a transcribing interviews app?
Not as a phone app to install — ScribeGrab is a website, so there's nothing in an app store. Whether you're after a transcribing interviews app or an interview transcription app, opening the site in any browser does the same job.
How to summarize an interview
Read the transcript once for the throughline, then pull the handful of points and quotes that actually matter — a transcript with timestamps makes it easy to jump back and re-check anything before it goes in the summary.
Is free interview transcription here limited to short clips?
Up to 60 minutes and 1.5 GB per file, 10 recordings a day, free either way.
Can I transcribe for free more than one interview a day?
Ten a day, every day, resetting at midnight — not a one-time offer.
Does ai interview transcription separate the interviewer from the person answering?
Yes — it labels up to eight distinct voices automatically as Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on.
Is this cheaper than paid interview transcription services overall?
It's free up to 60 minutes a file, where most paid services charge per minute.
Can I ai transcribe free interviews recorded on a phone, not just a proper recorder?
Yes — a phone recording uploads the same as any other audio file.
I have a recorded interview — can I just transcribe it here directly?
Yes, upload the file above and the transcript comes back in a couple of minutes.
Is this the best ai tool for transcribing audio, or does it depend on the file?
It depends more on the recording quality than the tool — a free option is still worth trying first.
Is there a transcribe interview example I can see before uploading my own?
The example above shows a short voice memo transcript; interviews come back in the same plain-paragraph style.
Does transcribe interview free cover video calls too, not just audio recorders?
Yes — upload a video file and the audio track transcribes the same way as a plain recording.
How accurate is transcribe interview ai on two people talking closely together?
Good on clear turns; crosstalk where both speak at once is harder for any speech model.
Do I need to install anything at all to transcribe interview online today?
No — the whole process runs in the browser tab, nothing to download first.
Can I transcribe interview data for a formal research project this way?
Yes — the transcript is plain text you can code or analyse in whatever software your project uses.
Do I still need to take transcribe interview notes by hand afterward?
Not for the words themselves — the full transcript replaces hand notes; you still add your own analysis.
Can I transcribe interview recordings from an old handheld recorder?
Yes — WAV and MP3 from an older recorder upload and transcribe the same as anything else.
Is this suitable to transcribe interview research for a university project?
Yes, plenty of students use it this way — just proofread names and technical terms afterward.
Is there a transcribe interview tool that also times each line?
Yes — SRT and VTT with timestamps come free alongside the plain transcript.
How long does it take to transcribe interview to text for a one-hour recording?
Roughly two minutes of processing per hour of audio.
Is transcribe interview ai free really free, or is there a hidden card requirement?
No card, no account — just upload and download.
Can I ai transcribe interview free files in a language other than English?
Yes — around 100 languages are detected automatically, free either way.
Is transcribe interview online free limited to one attempt per interview?
No — up to 10 separate recordings a day, each free.
Does it transcribe interview with ai accurately enough to quote directly in a paper?
On clear audio, yes — always give names and figures a quick check before quoting.
Can I transcribe interview to text free and still get subtitle files too?
Yes — SRT and VTT come with every upload, free, alongside the plain TXT.
Does transcribe interview audio to text ai handle background café noise well?
Reasonably — the model focuses on speech, though heavy background noise still makes it harder.
How to transcribe interview for research use, step by step from upload to download?
Upload the recording, download the transcript, then code or annotate it in your own research software.
How to transcribe interview in research without extra reformatting work afterward?
The plain TXT export drops straight into qualitative analysis software without reformatting.
How to transcribe interview for qualitative research so nothing gets paraphrased?
Every spoken word comes through verbatim, which is the baseline most qualitative methods require before coding begins.
How to transcribe interview for thematic analysis without losing exact wording?
The full verbatim transcript is exactly what thematic analysis starts from.
Can I choose the interview transcribe format used for export, like Word or PDF instead of plain text?
It downloads as TXT, SRT and VTT; pasting the TXT into Word or a PDF tool is a separate step.
Is there a limit to how many times I can transcribe my interview recordings each day?
Ten uploads a day, each up to 60 minutes, resetting at midnight.
Does it handle a transcribe qualitative interview job with several participants speaking?
Yes, up to eight distinct voices get separate speaker labels automatically.
How much does it cost to transcribe the interview if it runs under an hour?
Nothing — free up to 60 minutes and 1.5 GB per file.
Can I transcribe your interview recordings from a phone instead of a computer?
Yes — any device with a browser and an upload button works the same way.
Is there a catch to transcribe an interview for free here?
Just the daily cap of 10 recordings — no watermark, no account, no per-minute charge.