Video to text
The speech in a video written out as paragraphs of text, by a model running in this tab.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first use
- Open source
- No watermark · limit is your device’s memory; phones hold less
Turn an MP4, MOV or WebM video into text in your browser. Whisper reads the soundtrack on your device, so a lecture or Zoom recording is not uploaded. It is free, needs no account and adds no watermark, and your files are not uploaded: everything runs in your browser on your device. The first run downloads the speech model (about 76 MB) and the WebAssembly engine that runs it to your browser, and after that the tool works offline.
Done
Open the network tab. Your files never appear in it.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
A recorded lecture, a Zoom call, a screen recording of a demo: the words are in the video, but finding the one you need means watching it all. This page reads the soundtrack of the video and writes what is said as paragraphs of plain text you can search, quote and paste into your notes.
A worked example: a 50-minute lecture saved from Zoom as an MP4. Drop it here with the language left on Detect. Only the soundtrack is decoded, in the tab; the picture is never touched. The speech is cut at pauses into pieces and transcribed by Whisper on your device, and a new paragraph starts wherever there was a pause of two seconds or more. Copy it, or download it as a .txt file.
The first run downloads the speech model (76 MB) and the engine that runs it from this site, once; after that it works offline. The video is not uploaded. Long videos take proportionally longer and need memory, since the whole soundtrack is decoded first. For timed captions instead of plain text, use Video to subtitles; for sound-only files, Audio to text; for the sound itself, Video to MP3.
How it works
- Drop the video: MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM or MKV.
- Leave the language on Detect, or pick it for short or noisy recordings.
- Press Transcribe, then copy the text or download it as a .txt file.
In your browser, not on a server
Your browser’s own decoders read the sound, from an audio file or a video’s soundtrack, and it is resampled to 16 kHz mono in the tab. The recording is cut at pauses into pieces of up to 28 seconds, and each piece goes to OpenAI’s Whisper base model (MIT), 8-bit ONNX weights run by transformers.js (Apache-2.0) and onnxruntime-web (MIT) in a background worker. The model, 76 MB, is downloaded from this site on first use and cached. Its timed segments become paragraphs, SRT or WebVTT.
Compared with upload-based tools: Online transcription services upload the recording to their servers, cap free minutes, and some keep your audio to train their models. Here the model runs on your device: nothing is uploaded, there is no minute limit beyond your device’s memory (phones hold less), and it works offline after the first run.
Verify it yourself. Give the page a short while after your first run to save itself for offline use, then turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode and run the tool again. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
Which video files does it read?
MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM and MKV, as long as your browser can play the sound track. For audio-only files use Audio to text.
Is there a length limit?
No fixed limit. Long videos take proportionally longer, and very long ones (several hours) need a device with plenty of memory, since the whole soundtrack is decoded first.
Does it work offline?
After the first run, yes: the page and the speech model (76 MB) are stored by your browser, so you can transcribe without a connection.
Can I get subtitles instead of plain text?
Yes. Use Video to subtitles for an SRT or WebVTT file timed to the speech.
Does it say who is speaking?
No. It writes what is said, not who said it. Long pauses start a new paragraph, which usually falls where the speaker changes.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server in this process. The page is a static file and the work is done by code running inside your browser tab. Give the page a short while after your first run to save itself for offline use; then you can turn off Wi-Fi and it still works.
More video and audio tools
Transcribe audio to text
Speech to text and subtitles made by an AI model running in this tab. Interviews, lectures and voice notes are never uploaded.
Add subtitles to video
Captions written from the speech and burned into the picture, on your own device. Or bring an SRT and burn in that.
Vocal remover
Split a song into the music and the voice with an AI model running in this tab. Karaoke tracks and acapellas without uploading anything.
Video background remover
The person stays, the room goes: blurred, a flat colour or a picture of your choice, done frame by frame on your own device.
Other conversions
Guides
- How to transcribe audio to textEvery platform has a way to turn speech into text now, at very different prices. Here is what each one offers, and a free option that never uploads the recording.
- A free Otter.ai alternative with no monthly minute capOtter.ai's free tier meters your minutes each month and caps how long a single recording can run. Here is what that looks like, and an alternative with nothing to meter.