Do I need a card for the free plan?
No. Ours is $0 with 3 files a day and up to 30 minutes per file, and it asks for no card. That is our pricing page, read on the same day as the others in the table.
Free tools
Free audio to text tools, and what they really give you
Free audio to text tools compared: 3 files a day, 30 minutes, 120 minutes a month or unlimited — what each free plan gives, read on 21 October 2026.
3 files a day up to 30 minutes, free99+ languagesSpeaker separation and timestamps
In short
The free plans differ more than the prices do: ours gives 3 files a day with no card, Otter gives 300 minutes a month, Notta two hours a month, and Fireflies and tl;dv publish an unlimited transcription. Read on 21 October 2026.
The case
What a free plan is actually for
A free plan is not a small plan, it is a decision about what the service wants to be paid for. One service counts files, another counts minutes, a third counts seats. We read the pricing pages of seven of them on 21 October 2026 and wrote down exactly what each one gives away.
How to pick a free plan you can live with
- 1
Count the work, not the files
Three files a day sounds small until you count the minutes inside them. One recording of an hour is one file and 60 minutes of your allowance at the same time.
- 2
Look for the limits that are not written
A session limit, a file size, a number of speakers, a queue. Notta publishes a 3-minute limit per session; we publish 30 minutes per file on the free plan, no minute limit.
- 3
Try it with a real recording
A free plan is worth what it does with your worst file: the noisy one, the long one, the one with three people talking at once. Ours refuses a file 30 minutes on the free plan with a clear error.
Tips
Read the units: files, minutes or seats are different currencies.
Free plans change; the dates in the table are the dates we read.
Try the worst file you have, not the easiest one.
Questions this page answers
Which free plan is the largest?
Fireflies and tl;dv publish an unlimited transcription on their pricing pages. Ours is counted in files and minutes, and the paid plan carries no minute limit a month.
Is a free plan enough for a podcast?
For one episode a week, often yes. Ours gives 3 files a day, and a podcast is one file; for a daily show with 30 minutes of material, the paid plan is the honest answer.
Why does the table stop at seven services?
Because those are the ones we could read on 21 October 2026 without a subscription and without a guess. Fathom and MeetGeek could not be reached at all that day.
Sources
- TTurboScribe — pricingturboscribe.ai · checked 21 October 2026
- SSonix — pricingsonix.ai · checked 21 October 2026
- NNotta — pricingnotta.ai · checked 21 October 2026
- OOtter — pricingotter.ai · checked 21 October 2026
- FFireflies — pricingfireflies.ai · checked 21 October 2026
Reading: 7 minutesUpdated 
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3 files a day up to 30 minutes, free99+ languagesSpeaker separation and timestamps