MP3 to text
Drop an MP3 from a podcast, a recorder app or a lecture. Every sentence comes back written down with the time it was said, to copy or keep as a file.
A real run, word for word
We made this clip ourselves (voice by Kokoro, pictures by FLUX) so it can be published here and every word checked. It was not taken from any platform.
0:00Welcome back to the show. Today's question came from a listener who drinks a coffee at
0:04four in the afternoon and then wonders why she is awake at midnight. Here is the short answer.
0:10Caffeine has a half-life of around five hours in most adults, so half of that afternoon cup
0:15is still working at nine in the evening. It does not only make it harder to fall asleep.
0:21Even people who drop off easily can get less deep sleep, and they rarely notice it the next morning.
0:27So a simple rule many sleep researchers suggest is a cut-off time.
0:31Try no caffeine after 2 in the afternoon for a week and see how your mornings feel.
Checked against the script that was spoken: all 119 words match.
One number was written as digits (“two” → “2”); that is formatting, not counted.
Written down by whisper-large-v3 on fal, 2026-11-03. The live tool runs whisper-large-v3-turbo on Groq; this sample was recorded before launch with Whisper large v3, the larger model of the same family.
How do you transcribe an MP3 to text?
Drop the MP3 above. Your browser reads how long it is and shows the price, which is nothing for a recording up to 3 minutes, three times a day. The file then goes to our transcription worker, Whisper large v3 turbo writes the speech down, and the transcript appears here with a timestamp per line. Copy it, or save it as .txt, .srt or .vtt. Longer recordings, up to 10 minutes and 100 MB, are 3 credits a minute once you sign in.
- Best for
- Podcasts, memos, lectures, calls
- Also takes
- M4A, WAV, OGG, OPUS, FLAC, AAC
- Free
- 3 a day, up to 3 min
- Paid
- 3 credits a minute, up to 10 min
From an MP3 to a transcript you can use
Find the file
Podcast apps, voice recorders and call recorders can usually export or share an MP3. An M4A from an iPhone voice memo works as it is; there is no need to convert it.
Upload and pick the language
Automatic detection is fine for one language. Name it when the recording opens with a jingle or silence, which can make the first lines come out in the wrong language.
Read it once, then copy
Names, brand words and numbers are where speech models slip. The timestamp beside each line takes you to that second of the recording to check it.
MP3 to text questions
Is this MP3 to text converter free?
For three recordings a day of up to 3 minutes each, yes, with no account. After that it is 3 credits a minute, rounded up, up to 10 minutes; 1,500 credits are $15, which is 500 minutes. Failed runs are refunded.
Does the bitrate matter?
Less than the recording itself: a clear voice near the microphone matters far more than whether the MP3 was saved at 64 or 320 kbps. We have not measured where a very low bitrate starts to hurt.
Can it transcribe a whole podcast episode?
Up to 10 minutes at a time for now. Cut a long episode into parts of 10 minutes or less in any audio editor and upload each one; the timestamps start again at 0:00 in each part.
Does it label who is speaking?
No. The text runs on from one voice to the next. For a two-person show, the timestamps help you mark where each speaker takes over.
Is the recording kept?
No. It is deleted within two hours of the run, and the transcript is visible only to you.
I have a video, not an MP3.
Use video to text: it takes MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV directly.
Transcribe an MP3
Drop the file. Three a day are free.
More tools
Explore each tool’s instructions, output limits and available recorded examples.
