Transcribe WAV to text
WAV is uncompressed audio, so it is large: a one-hour lecture recorded as 16-bit stereo is about 600 MB, and our limit is 64 MB per file. Convert the file to mp3 first, or record in a thinner format — the page shows the arithmetic.
| What goes in | What comes out | What the price covers |
|---|---|---|
| What goes in | A WAV file: the raw audio of a recording device, a DAW export or a voice recorder, usually 16-bit PCM | One file: up to 64 MB and 120 minutes (two hours) on every plan, including Team |
| What comes out | The text, and a start and an end time on every segment; speaker labels when you ask for them | On every plan, including the free one |
| Export | TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT, CSV and DOCX | DOCX is a Pro feature; the other five are on every plan |
| Price and limits | Free: $0, 3 files a day, up to 30 minutes per file, no card and no trial clock | Pro: $10 a month paid yearly ($120 a year) or $20 a month, with fair use of 1,500 minutes of audio per calendar month |
| Where it runs | Our own transcription engine, a model profile tuned for Russian and for the Russian-English mix | A Russian or mixed file is processed on our own infrastructure outside the United States; a file that is entirely in English may go to a cloud speech provider in the United States when that fallback is enabled on the server |
How to do it in four steps
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Check the size before you upload
One file is up to 64 MB and 120 minutes. WAV is uncompressed, so the size follows the length of the recording almost linearly — the table below has the arithmetic.
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Convert it to mp3 when it does not fit
On your own computer:
ffmpeg -i lecture.wav -b:a 64k lecture.mp3. At 64 kbps two hours are about 57.6 MB, so the whole recording fits (calculated). The command runs on your machine; we do not run it for you and we do not accept a link. -
Or record in a thinner WAV
A speech-optimised WAV — 16 kHz, mono — is about 1.9 MB a minute, and an 8 kHz mono file about 0.48 MB a minute, which is telephone quality. Pick the quality you can live with; the numbers are in the table.
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Upload, and read the result
Drop the file into the widget on this page, choose the language or let it be detected, and read the first lines.
How big a WAV file is, and whether it fits 64 MB
| The file | How big it is | Does it fit 64 MB? |
|---|---|---|
| 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, stereo — a CD-quality master | about 10.1 MB a minute, so a 6-minute recording is about 60 MB | Only the first few minutes |
| 16-bit, 16 kHz, mono — speech-optimised | about 1.9 MB a minute, so two hours are about 230 MB | No: up to about 33 minutes |
| 8-bit, 8 kHz, mono — telephone quality | about 0.48 MB a minute, so two hours are about 57.6 MB | Yes: the whole two hours fit |
| mp3 at 64 kbps — the usual way to hand over a recording | about 4.8 MB per 10 minutes, so two hours are about 57.6 MB | Yes |
What it costs against the 1,500-minute allowance
| Your workload | Minutes a month | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| 20 voice memos of 2 minutes | 40 | 3% of the allowance (calculated) |
| 60 one-minute answers | 60 | 4% of the allowance (calculated) |
| 10 lectures of 45 minutes | 450 | 30% of the allowance (calculated) |
| 16 lectures of 90 minutes | 1,440 | 96% of the allowance (calculated) |
Put a file on the page and read the first lines.
The widget below is the same one as on the home page: file → transcript with timecodes and speakers → export. The transcript is saved to your account.
Drop an audio or video file
or — mp3, wav, m4a, mp4, up to 64 MB and two hours
Transcription runs under your account: sign in or create a free account.
No account yet? The free plan needs no card. Create a free account or sign in.
Questions this page answers.
Which file formats can I upload?
Audio and video containers: mp3, wav, m4a, mp4, webm, ogg, flac, aac, wma, mov. One file at a time, up to 64 MB and 120 minutes.
Why is my WAV file so large?
WAV stores the audio uncompressed: 16-bit stereo at 44.1 kHz is about 10.1 MB a minute (calculated). The quality is high, but the size follows the length of the recording.
How do I make it smaller?
Convert it to mp3 with ffmpeg — ffmpeg -i lecture.wav -b:a 64k lecture.mp3 — or record a thinner WAV. Both are described on this page.
Does the service convert the file for me?
No. We read the file you upload. The conversion command runs on your own computer.
How much does it cost?
Free is $0 with 3 files a day and up to 30 minutes per file, and no card is needed. Pro is $10 a month paid yearly ($120 a year) or $20 a month, with fair use of 1,500 minutes of audio per calendar month.
Can I get the transcript as subtitles?
Yes: SRT and VTT are two of the six export formats, and the start and end time of every segment is written into them.
Related pages.
The same file after the conversion, with the bitrate arithmetic.
The format of the phone recorders, and how to get the file off the phone.
When the recording does not fit 64 MB and 120 minutes.
Every plan, every limit, in one table.
Upload, edit, export and keep the history of every transcript.
The live answer base: 99 questions about the price, the limits, the languages, the exports, the privacy and the API, each with the page of this site it comes from.
Mark Vesyoly, Founder.
Every number on this page comes from the service contract, the pricing page or our own measurements. The author of the page and the publisher of the site are the same person. Questions and corrections: support@transcrib.si.