the start and the end time of every segment, so any passage of the lecture has its minute
For students
Transcribe a lecture for students
Transcribe a lecture for students: a timecode on every line, the text of the seminar and a Word file on Pro. Free $0, 3 files a day, up to 30 minutes on the free plan, no minute limit on Pro.
3 files a day up to 30 minutes, free99+ languagesSpeaker separation and timestamps
In short
Record the lecture, upload the file, and the transcript comes back with a timecode on every line, so any passage can be checked against the audio. One file is up to 30 minutes, and the free plan is $0 with 3 files a day.
The case
Why a lecture needs a timecode
A lecture hall is a bad place to take notes and a worse place to write them up afterwards. The recording already holds the argument of the whole hour; what it lacks is a way to find the part where the term you are tested on was defined. That is the job of the transcript: the words in order, the timecodes attached, and every line pointing at the minute it was said.
What a student gets from the lecture
TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT, CSV and DOCX (DOCX is a Pro feature)
Otter gives 20 % off its Pro plan for students and teachers with an address ending in .edu: $6.67 a month paid yearly, $13.59 a month paid monthly
How to transcribe a lecture
- 1
Get the recording of the lecture
A phone on the desk or the recorder of the university is enough. Keep the original file: the transcript is made from it, and the audio settles any dispute about a sentence.
- 2
Send it and let the language be found
Drop the file on the widget above: up to 30 minutes on the free plan. Leave the language on automatic detection, or set 99+ languages yourself.
- 3
Look the term up in the lecture
Every line carries the time it starts and ends. Open the transcript in any text editor, find the word you need and note the minute it was said.
- 4
Take the notes into your own system
Markdown for a wiki page, TXT for a document, DOCX for a Word file on Pro, CSV when the notes have to be counted.
Tips
Keep the recording next to the transcript.
Name the file after the course and the week.
A lecture 30 minutes on the free plan has to be split.
Questions this page answers
Is the free plan enough for a student?
The free plan is $0 with 3 files a day and 30 minutes per file, and it asks for no card. A recording of half an hour fits in those limits; a lecture of 30 minutes does not.
What about a discount for students?
Otter gives 20 % off its Pro plan for students and teachers with an address ending in .edu: the yearly plan becomes $6.67 a month and the monthly one $13.59. That is otter.ai/pricing, read on 21 October 2026.
Can I correct a misspelled term?
Yes. The editor in the app takes the fix, and the export files are made from the corrected text. Your original recording is never touched.
Does the transcript keep the slides?
No. The transcript is the sound of the lecture written down; nothing is read from the picture and nothing is written back into the file you uploaded.
Who can hear my recording?
A Russian or mixed file is processed by our own engine on infrastructure outside the United States. A pure English file may go to a cloud speech provider there when that fallback is on.
Sources
- OOtter pricing (the student and teacher discount)otter.ai · checked 21 October 2026
Reading: 5 minutesUpdated Transcribsi editorial team
Drop a recording — the text arrives in a minute
Speakers by name, a time on every line, export to TXT, SRT, VTT, CSV and Markdown.
3 files a day up to 30 minutes, free99+ languagesSpeaker separation and timestamps