Three free AI-powered transcription tools for journalists

Credit: Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

You have just returned to the office after a brilliant interview, ready to write your masterpiece, when suddenly the sense of dread hits you – it is time to transcribe.

Fortunately, audio-to-text transcription tools can do this tedious task in a fraction of the time it would take you to type it up manually.

Simply upload your file and the tool will produce a written version for you. But fair warning, they are not foolproof and require clean audio files, with minimal background noise and distorted speech, to transcribe accurately.

Here is a small compilation of transcription tools for you to try out.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud users get a speech-to-text tool as part of their account. New customers get $300 (approximately £235) in free credits and 60 minutes for transcribing audio per month.

Otter.ai

Otter.ai creates automatic meeting notes as its OtterPilot auto-joins Zoom, Google, and Microsoft Teams meetings to take notes with no extra work required.

The free basic plan comes with 300 monthly transcription minutes, capped at 30 minutes per conversation. Or increase transcription minutes with Pro (£8 / $10 a month) and Business (£16 / $20 a month) premium plans.

Users can also import files into the tool to transcribe them, but the free plan only allows three audio or video imports lifetime on the account. That goes up to ten a month for Pro accounts, and unlimited for Business accounts.

Speechmatics

Speechmatics offers transcription in 50 languages. The tool uses live input to create an immediate transcription and translation.

You get 8 hours free per month and they feature a Pay As You Grow scheme for $0.30 an hour (£0.24) which is available on a free trial.

This article was originally published on 25 March 2017 by Caroline Scott and was updated on 15 March 2024 by Isabel Meszaros to include new transcription tools

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