Transcribe a podcast to text
Transcribe a podcast to text for show notes, search, and accessible pages. Upload the episode, keep speaker labels, and export a clean transcript in minutes.
Free sign-up, 60 min/month · 99+ languages · Up to 500 MB per file
What is Podcast Transcription?
Transcribing a podcast to text turns an episode recording into a written transcript that can be published, searched, or used to draft show notes. The episode file is uploaded as it is, the spoken language is detected, and speaker turns can be labelled for a host and guest format. Timestamps are kept so a passage can be found in the audio, and the transcript can be exported as plain text, SRT, or VTT.
Why choose Podcast Transcription?
A transcript gives an episode a second life: it can be read, searched, quoted, and indexed. Producing it from the finished recording avoids re-recording or a separate studio workflow, and the same pass can supply captions for a video version. Names and recurring terms can be corrected once, before anything is published.
Every Episode Needs Notes Nobody Has Time to Write?
Show notes, quotes, and chapters all start from the same place: a long recording that has to be listened to again. Doing that by hand for every episode does not scale, and a rough summary loses the lines that make an episode worth sharing. A transcript turns the episode into text that can be skimmed, searched, and quoted. The host and guest can be labelled so a passage is attributable, and timestamps make it possible to point listeners to the exact moment.
What makes Podcast Transcription different?
It is aimed at published episodes rather than studio editing: one upload, readable speaker turns, and a transcript that can ship with the show.
Host and guest labels
Searchable episode text
Text, SRT, or VTT export
Formats, languages, limits
- Languages
- 99
- Detected automatically. Set it by hand when a recording mixes languages or carries a heavy accent.
- File types
- 13
- MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, MP4, MOV, WebM and more. Video is processed directly — no separate audio step.
- Per file
- 500 MB
- Large files upload straight to storage with a visible progress bar, up to 500 MB.
- Exports
- TXT · SRT · VTT
- Plain text, SRT and VTT subtitles, ready for a document, an editor, or a caption track.
How to use Podcast Transcription in 3 steps
Upload the episode
Add the finished audio or video file, up to the per-file size limit.
Label the voices
Turn on speaker separation and rename the host and guest after the job.
Publish or reuse
Correct names, then copy quotes, export text, or create captions.
Podcast Transcription
Start with an episode you already published. Sign up free and get 60 minutes a month.
Free sign-up, 60 minutes a month, no credit card. Export when you are done.
Transcribe a podcastFrequently asked questions about Podcast Transcription
Which podcast files can be transcribed?
MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, MP4, MOV, and WebM files are accepted directly. A finished episode exported from a DAW works as well as a phone recording. There is no need to bounce a special copy for transcription; the published file can be uploaded as it is.
How long can an episode be?
A single file can be up to 500MB, which covers most hour-long episodes, and there is no separate duration cap during the demo. Processing time grows with length. For a very long episode, splitting by segment makes the transcript easier to publish section by section.
Can host and guest be labelled separately?
Yes. Speaker separation can be switched on before the job, and each change of voice begins a labelled turn. The labels can be renamed to the host and the guest afterwards. Separate microphones give the cleanest separation; a shared studio microphone may merge crosstalk into one turn.
Is podcast transcription free?
A file can be transcribed and exported without payment, and no card is requested to start. Free sign-up includes 60 minutes a month; paid plans raise limits for a weekly show. The per-file size cap and the two-job limit apply to every plan.
Can the transcript be used for show notes?
Yes. Quotes, chapter markers, and guest names can be pulled from the text and checked against the timestamps. The transcript is not a generated summary, so the wording stays as spoken. That makes it safe to quote directly, and the timestamps make each chapter easy to place.
What happens to music and ads in the episode?
Music with no speech is usually left out, while a host reading over a music bed may produce a stray line. Ads are transcribed like any other speech unless they are removed before upload. Cleaning those sections in the editor is usually quicker than editing the audio.
Does the transcript work for accessibility?
A full transcript gives readers a text alternative to the audio and makes the episode searchable. It does not replace captions for a video version, but the same timecoded transcript can be exported as SRT or VTT and used as a starting point for captions.
Is the episode kept after transcription?
The file is stored only so the recognizer can read it and is deleted when the job finishes or fails. The transcript stays in the account until it is deleted. Audio is not used to train models, and the provider processes it only on Dictawave's instructions.