Free tool
Interview transcription
Drop in a recorded interview for free interview transcription: the converter writes what was said with a time on every paragraph, so you can find a quote, check it against the audio and copy it into your notes or article.
- Free
- Times to find every quote
- Nothing is stored
Drop your interview recording here, or Choose your interview recording
MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG or WebM. Up to 30 minutes of each file, 3 free files a day. The language is detected automatically.
Interview often? NoteOwl transcribes interviews on your Mac with unlimited transcription, labels each speaker by name and keeps every conversation searchable.
How it works
How do you transcribe an interview?
Drop the interview recording on the converter. It cuts the sound into short pieces at pauses and transcribes them, showing the text with times as it goes. Then add the speakers’ names, check the quotes you need and save the transcript.
- 1
Add the recording
From a phone, a dictaphone, or a Zoom or Teams call saved to your computer. MP3, M4A, WAV and the MP4 of a video call all work.
- 2
Let it transcribe
Paragraphs appear one by one, each starting with its time. Up to 30 minutes of each interview are transcribed.
- 3
Name the speakers and save
Download the Word file, type each speaker’s name or initials where they start, and keep it with your notes.
Does the transcript say who is speaking?
No. This free converter writes one transcript with times, without speaker names. In an interview that’s quick to fix by hand: questions are short and answers are long, and the times take you straight to any moment you’re unsure about.
For names added for you, NoteOwl labels each speaker on your Mac, and recognises a voice you’ve named before.
- 1
Download the Word file
Each paragraph keeps its start time, so every line can be found in the recording.
- 2
Name the first exchange
Listen to the first minute, then type the interviewer’s and the guest’s initials at the start of their paragraphs.
- 3
Split where both speak
Where a question and its answer share a paragraph, press Return before the answer and add the guest’s initials.
How do you check a quote against the recording?
Use the time beside its paragraph. Find the quote in the transcript, note the time, and play the recording from a few seconds before it in any audio player. Names, numbers and technical terms are the words most worth checking.
In the downloaded text or Word file, search for a word you remember from the answer to find its paragraph quickly.
How do you record an interview that transcribes well?
Keep the microphone close to the person who talks most, choose a quiet room, and let each answer finish before the next question. For a video call, save the call itself rather than holding a phone near the laptop.
One voice at a time
People talking over each other is the part of any interview that transcribes worst.
Close to the guest
A phone 30 to 50 cm from the guest catches their voice far better than one at the end of a table.
Record the call itself
Zoom and Teams can record a call directly. That copy is much cleaner than a phone recording a speaker.
Test before you start
Record ten seconds, play them back, and move the microphone before the interview begins.
Which interview recordings can you transcribe?
Any common audio or video file: an M4A or MP3 from a phone, a WAV from a field recorder, or the MP4 a video call saves. The converter takes the sound out of a video by itself.
- iPhone Voice Memos
- What you getAn M4A file; share it to Files to pick it here
- Android recorder apps
- What you getUsually an M4A or MP3 file
- Zoom, recorded to your computer
- What you getAn audio-only M4A and an MP4 with the video
- Microsoft Teams
- What you getAn MP4 you can download from OneDrive or SharePoint
- A handheld voice recorder
- What you getMP3 or WAV, depending on its settings
| Recorded with | What you get |
|---|---|
| iPhone Voice Memos | An M4A file; share it to Files to pick it here |
| Android recorder apps | Usually an M4A or MP3 file |
| Zoom, recorded to your computer | An audio-only M4A and an MP4 with the video |
| Microsoft Teams | An MP4 you can download from OneDrive or SharePoint |
| A handheld voice recorder | MP3 or WAV, depending on its settings |
Want every interview transcribed with names on your Mac?
NoteOwl transcribes interviews on your Mac with unlimited transcription and labels each speaker; name a voice once and it’s recognised in later recordings. Every interview stays on your Mac, searchable together. See how journalists use it.
FAQ
Questions about interview transcription
Is this interview transcription free?
Yes. Transcribe 3 interviews a day, up to 30 minutes of each, with no account. The Word, text and subtitle downloads are all included.
Can it transcribe an interview in another language?
Yes. It detects the language of each part of the recording, about every 30 seconds, and shows the main language with the transcript. An interview that switches between two languages is written in each one as it goes.
Is a recorded interview kept anywhere?
No. Short pieces of its sound go over a secure connection to a cloud AI transcription service, which transcribes each one and discards it. NoteOwl keeps no audio and no transcript, so download the transcript before you close the page.
How accurate is the interview transcript?
A clear recording comes back nearly word for word. Crosstalk, distance from the microphone and background noise cost the most accuracy, and names and specialist terms are the likeliest to need a fix, so check every quote against the audio before you publish it.
Can I transcribe a Zoom or Teams interview?
Yes. Download the recording, then drop the MP4, or Zoom’s audio-only M4A, on the converter. It uses the sound and ignores the picture.
How long can the interview be?
Up to 30 minutes of each file are transcribed. A longer interview gets its first 30 minutes, and the page says so. Split it into parts to transcribe the rest, or use NoteOwl on a Mac, which transcribes interviews of any length.
Keep exploring
More audio to text tools
- Audio to text converterTranscribe audio to text free: drop in an MP3, M4A, WAV or other recording and get an AI transcript with times, as text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
- Lecture transcriptionTranscribe a recorded lecture or class free in your browser, with times, ready to turn into study notes; nothing is stored
- Podcast transcriptMake a podcast episode transcript free in your browser, with times for show notes and SRT subtitles; nothing is stored
- Voice memo to textTurn a phone voice memo into text free in your browser, from an iPhone or Android recorder; nothing is stored
- Voicemail to textTurn a saved voicemail into text free in your browser, from an iPhone, Android or office phone system; nothing is stored
Related
- Speaker recognitionTranscripts that say who said what: speakers separated automatically, and a voice named once is recognised in later meetings, on your Mac
- AI transcription for journalistsInterviews transcribed speaker by speaker with timestamps, quotes checked against the audio, nothing uploaded
- Interview notes templateAn interview notes template to copy, what each section holds, an example, and how NoteOwl writes interview notes
Interviews into notes, privately on your Mac
Free to download. Runs entirely on your Mac.
macOS 26 or later · Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) · 16 GB memory minimum, 24 GB recommended
About NoteOwl
NoteOwl is private AI meeting notes and memory for the Mac. It captures meetings without a bot joining the call, labels every speaker, writes summaries and action items, and builds a memory of every conversation that you can chat with — fully offline, because the speech recognition and the AI run on the Mac itself. Dictation into any app is free; Pro is a one-time purchase.
NoteOwl pricing: what’s free and what Pro adds
Last updated