Best Free Transcription Apps (2026): What's Actually Free

The best free transcription app is usually one you already have. Voice Memos transcribes recordings at no cost on iPhone 12 or later, Google Recorder does it on Pixel phones with up to 18 hours per recording, and Transcript Assist is free in Samsung's Voice Recorder on recent Galaxy phones. For files on a computer, MacWhisper's free version and OpenAI's open-source Whisper run locally with no minute cap. The freemium cloud apps are where "free" gets thin: as of October 2026, Otter's free plan stops each conversation at 30 minutes, and Notta's stops at 3.

Flint fits if you want one free option on both iPhone and Android: its free tier transcribes without a limit using your phone's speech engine, imports audio files, and includes a 3-day trial of its more accurate cloud transcription.

Most "free transcription app" lists are written by companies whose free plan is a sales funnel, so the word "free" rarely tells you what you can actually do. Below, each option is checked against its own vendor pages for the four things that matter: monthly minutes, the cap on a single recording, whether you can import a file, and where your audio goes. For paid AI apps and human services too, see our complete guide to transcribing audio.

What Does "Free" Actually Mean for a Transcription App?

Free transcription comes in three kinds, and each has a different catch.

Built into your phone. Voice Memos, Google Recorder and Samsung's Voice Recorder cost nothing and have no monthly allowance. The catch is reach: each works only on its own brand of phone, mostly transcribes only what you record in it, and supports fewer languages.

Freemium cloud apps. Otter and Notta give you a monthly allowance on their servers, with a cap on each recording. The caps are sized to show you the product, not to handle a semester of lectures, and your audio is uploaded to their cloud.

Open-source and local. Whisper is a free speech recognition model from OpenAI, and apps like MacWhisper wrap it in a normal interface. It runs on your own computer with no minute limits. The catch is hardware and setup: the best models need a capable machine, and Whisper itself is a command-line tool.

The Free Transcription Apps, Checked One by One

Every limit below comes from the vendor's own pages, checked in October 2026.

Apple Voice Memos (iPhone)

What's free: everything. Voice Memos transcribes on iPhone 12 or later, live or after recording. You can search recordings by the words inside them, jump to where a word was said, and copy the whole transcript.

The limit: Apple lists 10 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese), and the feature isn't available in every region. It's built for recordings you make in Voice Memos rather than files from elsewhere, and you get a transcript, not a structured note.

Who it suits: anyone with a recent iPhone who wants the words from their own recordings. It's the obvious first transcription app for iPhone, and our guide to transcribing voice memos walks through it.

Google Recorder (Pixel)

What's free: everything, on Pixel 3 and later phones and Pixel Tablet. Google says Recorder transcribes through an on-device Google service, and a single recording can run up to 18 hours. Pixel 6 and later add speaker labels, and Pixel 8 and later can summarize recordings in Google's cloud.

The limit: Pixel only. Live transcription on Pixel 6 and later covers English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Hindi and Mandarin. More languages are available through "Transcribe again," which Google notes may process audio on its servers.

Who it suits: Pixel owners. For a long lecture recorded on the phone itself, it's hard to beat at any price.

Samsung Voice Recorder with Transcript Assist (Galaxy)

What's free: transcripts, summaries and translated transcripts inside Voice Recorder on select Galaxy phones, including the S24, S25 and S26 series, Z Fold, Z Flip and some A series models. Samsung states that its basic Galaxy AI features are free and lists Transcript Assist in 22 languages. SamMobile reported in July 2026 that transcripts are currently generated on the phone, with a cloud option coming.

The limit: recent Galaxy models only, and it works on recordings in the Voice Recorder app. Samsung also notes that future enhanced AI features may be paid.

Who it suits: Galaxy owners who want a free transcription app for Android that's already installed.

Otter.ai Basic

What's free: 300 transcription minutes a month, speaker identification, apps for iOS, Android and the web, and Otter's assistant joining Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls.

The limit: each conversation is capped at 30 minutes, you get 3 audio or video file imports for the lifetime of the account, conversation history shows your 25 most recent, and exports are mp3 and txt only. Transcription covers English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. Pro costs $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed annually.

Who it suits: people whose recordings are short meetings. A 50-minute lecture won't fit in one free conversation. If you're weighing paid options, see our Otter alternatives.

Notta Free

What's free: 120 transcription minutes a month, 50 file uploads a month, 10 AI summaries a month and speaker identification, across Notta's web and mobile apps.

The limit: each recording is capped at 3 minutes, which rules out almost any real interview or lecture, and transcript export is listed as a Pro feature. Pro costs $8.17 a month billed annually and raises the cap to 5 hours per recording.

Who it suits: trying Notta before paying. As a standalone free tool, the 3-minute cap decides it.

MacWhisper Free (Mac)

What's free: MacWhisper's free version is listed as "free forever" and runs Whisper models on your Mac. Record from the microphone or drag in mp3, wav, m4a, ogg, opus, mov or mp4 files, transcribe in 100 languages, and export text or .srt and .vtt subtitles. The developer says no data leaves your machine.

The limit: no minute cap is listed, but some models are only fully available in Pro. Pro adds speaker recognition, batch transcription, YouTube links and more export formats for a one-time €64. The larger, more accurate models want more than 8GB of RAM.

Who it suits: Mac users transcribing files they already have, especially sensitive ones.

Whisper (open source, any computer)

What's free: everything. OpenAI released Whisper's code and model weights under the MIT license. It runs locally from the command line or Python, handles many languages, and has no limits beyond your hardware.

The limit: setup and hardware. You need Python and ffmpeg, and the largest model needs about 10GB of GPU memory, per the project's README. OpenAI's model card also notes that accuracy varies widely by language and that the model can produce repeated or invented text.

Who it suits: anyone comfortable in a terminal, on Windows, Mac or Linux, who wants unlimited free transcription.

Already paying for Microsoft 365? Word's Transcribe isn't free, since it requires a Microsoft 365 subscription, but subscribers get 300 minutes of uploaded audio per month (wav, mp4, m4a or mp3), mainly in Word for the web.

How Do the Free Tiers Compare?

App	Free allowance	Per-file cap	Import files?	Platform	Runs on device?
Apple Voice Memos	Unlimited	None listed	No, in-app recordings	iPhone 12 or later	Apple doesn't say
Google Recorder	Unlimited	18 hours	No, in-app recordings	Pixel 3 or later	Yes
Samsung Transcript Assist	Free (basic Galaxy AI)	Not published	Voice Recorder files	Recent Galaxy phones	Yes, currently
Otter.ai Basic	300 min/month	30 minutes	3, lifetime	iOS, Android, web, desktop	No (cloud)
Notta Free	120 min/month	3 minutes	50/month	iOS, Android, web	No (cloud)
MacWhisper Free	No cap listed	None listed	Yes	Mac	Yes
Whisper	Unlimited	None	Yes	Windows, Mac, Linux	Yes
Flint (free tier)	Unlimited on-device, plus trial credits	Long recordings (hours)	Yes	iPhone, Android	Phone's speech engine in on-device mode (note written in cloud from text)

Which Is the Best Free Transcription App for You?

The best transcription app overall may be a paid one, but the best free transcription app is simply the one whose limits don't touch your recordings.

You record on an iPhone and just need the words. Voice Memos, if your language is on Apple's list.

You have a Pixel or a recent Galaxy. Google Recorder or Samsung's Voice Recorder with Transcript Assist.

You have audio files on a computer. MacWhisper Free on a Mac, or Whisper anywhere if you don't mind a terminal.

You need notes from short video meetings. Otter Basic works, within its 30-minute cap and 300 minutes a month.

You want one app on iPhone and Android, with file imports and notes rather than raw text. Flint's free tier, covered below.

Your recordings are sensitive. Stay local with MacWhisper or Whisper.

How Accurate Is Free Transcription, and How Do You Improve It?

On clear audio with one speaker, free tools are usually good enough that your job becomes checking rather than typing. With accents, noise, several speakers or jargon, phone speech engines and smaller local models fall behind large cloud models.

A few habits help more than switching apps:

• Record close to the speaker, within about a meter, in the quietest room you can find.
• Avoid crosstalk. Overlapping voices are the hardest case for every system, free or paid.
• Set the language yourself when auto-detection keeps guessing wrong.
• Add custom vocabulary where it exists. Otter Basic allows 5 terms, Notta Free 3, and Flint has Key Terms for names and jargon.
• On Whisper tools, use the biggest model your machine can run. For English-only audio, Whisper's English-only models tend to do better at the small sizes.
• Check names, numbers and quotes against the audio, and keep the original recording so you can.

Where Does Flint Fit Among Free Transcription Apps?

Flint is a voice note app for iPhone and Android, and its free tier is built around one setting: where your audio is turned into text, explained in our guide to processing modes.

On the free tier, "On my phone" mode transcribes with your phone's built-in speech engine. On-device transcription is free and unlimited, uses no credits, and the audio is never sent to Flint's servers. The trade-off is accuracy: phone engines are noticeably weaker than cloud ones with accents, background noise, several speakers and technical vocabulary. New installs also get a 3-day trial with starter credits for Flint's cloud transcription, so you can hear the difference on your own recordings. After that, cloud accuracy is a one-time purchase, either a Credits Pack of hours that stack and don't expire or the Essentials and Pro plans. There's no subscription.

What you get beyond a transcript:

• File imports. Share an audio file into Flint from another app, or pick one on the Transcribe screen.
• Notes, not just text. Each note keeps the transcript, the audio with timestamps, and a written note in the format you choose: Note, Todo, Keypoints, Meeting, or a custom format you define.
• Speakers. A multiple-speakers toggle tries to work out who said what.
• Languages. Cloud transcription covers about 40 languages. In on-device mode, you get whatever languages your phone's speech engine supports.

Flint is local-first, so recordings live on your phone rather than on Flint's servers. One detail matters if privacy is your reason for choosing on-device mode: the audio isn't sent to Flint's servers, but the written note is generated by Flint's cloud AI, so the transcript text is sent to write it.

When Is Flint Not the Right Tool?

If your phone's built-in transcription already covers your recordings and language, use it. There's no reason to add anything.

If nothing at all may leave your device, not even text, MacWhisper or Whisper on a computer is the stricter choice, since Flint sends the transcript text to the cloud to write the note. The free on-device mode also has a real accuracy ceiling. For noisy rooms, strong accents or several speakers, you'll want cloud transcription, which costs money once the trial credits are gone.

For long lectures, keep Flint in the foreground. Recording can stop if you switch apps or leave the screen locked for a long stretch. Flint also has no desktop app, doesn't join Zoom, Meet or Teams calls, doesn't record phone calls, and isn't a full-verbatim transcription service.

Flint is available on the App Store and on Google Play.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free transcription app? It depends on your device. Voice Memos on iPhone 12 or later, Google Recorder on Pixel, Transcript Assist on recent Galaxy phones, and MacWhisper or Whisper on a computer are all free with no monthly minute cap. Freemium cloud apps are tighter: Otter's free plan caps each conversation at 30 minutes as of October 2026.

Is there a completely free transcription app with no limits? Whisper comes closest. It's open source under the MIT license and runs on your own computer, so there are no minute caps, only the limits of your hardware. Built-in phone tools also don't charge per minute, but they're tied to specific phones and languages.

Can iPhone transcribe audio for free? Yes. Voice Memos transcribes recordings on iPhone 12 or later in 10 languages, live or after recording, and lets you copy and search the transcript. It's built for its own recordings, so for imported files you need a separate app such as Flint.

Is free transcription accurate? On clear, single-speaker audio, usually accurate enough that you review rather than retype. Accuracy drops with noise, accents, overlapping speakers and jargon, and on-device engines and small local models drop further than large cloud models. Always check names, numbers and quotes against the recording.

Is it safe to use free transcription apps? Local tools are the safest, because the audio stays on your hardware: Google documents that Recorder transcribes on-device, and MacWhisper and Whisper run on your computer. Freemium cloud apps upload your audio to their servers, so read their retention and AI-training terms before using them for anything sensitive.

What is the best free transcription app for Android? On a Pixel, Google Recorder. On a recent Galaxy, Voice Recorder with Transcript Assist. On other Android phones, Otter Basic works for short recordings, and Flint's free on-device mode has no minute limit and imports files.

Free transcription shouldn't stop at the 30-minute mark. With Flint you get unlimited on-device transcription on iPhone and Android, import the recordings you already have, and turn transcripts into notes you can use. One-time purchase, free to try. Download Flint on the App Store or Google Play.