Voice to Text Transcription for Meetings and Recordings
Transcription turns a recording into searchable text: upload an audio or video file, or let a bot join your meeting, and get back a transcript with the speakers separated and a summary on top. Three services cover most of what people need. What separates them is not accuracy, it is how many languages they handle and where their free tier stops.
Transkriptor is the default pick outside English: 100+ languages, 90 free minutes to test it on your own audio, and the cheapest annual plan of the three.
For meetings, pick by language. Notta if Japanese or translation is involved, Otter.ai if your meetings are English and you want the best-known workflow.
The three services at a glance
Limits and prices read off each vendor's own site on 27 August 2026. The free tier is the number that matters: in this category people buy at the moment the free minutes run out, so check it against one real recording of yours.
| Service | Languages | Where it runs | Free tier | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transkriptor | 100+ | Web, iPhone, Android, Chrome extension, meeting recording | 90 minutes free (renewal not stated) | From $9.99/mo; Pro $19.99/mo or $99.99 a year |
| Notta | 58 for transcription, 42 for translation | Web, iPhone, Android, Chrome, Mac and Windows apps, meeting bot | 120 minutes a month, but only 3 minutes per recording | Pro $8.17/mo billed yearly; Business $16.67/mo |
| Otter.ai | English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese | Web, iPhone, Android, Chrome, desktop, meeting bot | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 imports in total | Pro $8.33/mo billed yearly; Business $19.99/mo |
Uploading a file or sending a bot to the meeting
All three services work in the same two ways, and the difference decides which limits apply to you. Uploading suits recordings you already have: an interview, a lecture, a voice memo. You give the service a file and get a transcript back in minutes, and the meter runs on the length of the audio. A notetaker bot suits recurring meetings: you connect your calendar, the bot joins Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, transcribes live and produces a summary with action items, and the meter runs on the length of the call.
Two practical consequences. If you mostly upload, per-recording limits matter more than the monthly pool, which is why Notta's three-minute cap on a single recording bites long before its 120 monthly minutes do. And if a bot is joining calls with other people, tell them: the bots announce themselves by default, but consent rules differ by country and by employer.
Transkriptor: the widest language coverage
For whom: anyone whose audio is not in English, and anyone comparing on price.
Transkriptor supports 100+ languages, which makes it the default pick outside English. It works in the browser with apps for iPhone and Android, so field interviews and lecture recordings can go straight from the phone, and it also takes files from cloud storage and links to online video. The free plan is 90 minutes, and the pricing page does not say whether they renew, so treat them as a one-time trial: enough to test it on a real recording. Paid plans start at $9.99 a month for 300 minutes; the Pro plan is $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year, which is the cheapest serious annual price of the three. Students get 50% off. Its interface and site exist in 23 languages, which matters for teams that do not work in English.
Notta: strong meeting workflow, and Japanese
For whom: teams that live in meetings, especially across languages.
Notta transcribes 58 languages and translates into 42, and it is one of the leading tools on the Japanese market, where it is the safe local choice rather than an import. It offers real-time transcription and translation, a meeting bot for Zoom, Meet, Teams and Webex, and it runs on the web plus iPhone, Android, Chrome and desktop apps for Mac and Windows. The free plan gives 120 minutes a month but caps a single recording at three minutes, so the first real meeting hits the wall. Pro is $8.17 a month billed yearly; Business at $16.67 removes the monthly ceiling.
Otter.ai: the English-first meeting assistant
For whom: English-speaking teams who want the tool everyone already recognises.
Otter.ai is the best-known name in meeting transcription, with live transcripts, speaker identification, AI summaries and a chat that answers questions about your meetings. Its language list is the shortest here: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese, with an English-only interface. The free tier is generous on paper, 300 minutes a month, but two limits do the real work: 30 minutes per conversation, and three file imports for the lifetime of the account. Pro is $8.33 a month billed yearly. Within its languages it is excellent; outside them, the two services above are the answer.
How to choose
Start with language, because it removes options rather than ranking them: English, and meetings above all points at Otter.ai; Japanese, or translation in the same tool points at Notta; anything else, or several languages at once points at Transkriptor. Then test the free tier against one real recording, not a demo clip: accuracy on your microphone, your accent and your crosstalk is the only measurement that predicts anything.
Two more things before you pay. If the recording is an interview or a lecture rather than a meeting, the workflow is different and partly free: see how to transcribe an interview or lecture. And if the material is confidential, check the vendor's own documents rather than its marketing page; we read them for sixteen voice tools in who trains on your audio, and the defaults are not what most people assume.