Free tool
WAV to text converter
Drop a WAV file here to turn WAV to text: the converter reads it in your browser a slice at a time, so size is no problem, and writes the transcript with a time on every paragraph, ready to copy or download.
- Free
- Large WAVs welcome
- Nothing is stored
Drop your WAV file here, or Choose your WAV file
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.
Recording interviews or lectures in WAV? NoteOwl transcribes them on your Mac with unlimited transcription, whatever their length, and labels who is speaking.
How it works
How do you convert WAV to text?
Choose the WAV or drop it on the converter. The page reads it in slices, blends its channels into one, splits the sound at pauses and sends short pieces for AI transcription. The text appears in order, with the time each paragraph starts.
- 1
Pick the WAV
Straight off a recorder’s memory card, from an audio editor’s export folder, or from your downloads. Any sample rate is fine.
- 2
Let it run
The transcript fills in piece by piece. The first 30 minutes of each WAV are transcribed, however big the file is.
- 3
Download
Copy the text, or save it as TXT, SRT, VTT or a Word document that keeps the WAV’s name.
Why are WAV files so large?
Because WAV doesn’t compress the sound: every sample is kept exactly as it was recorded. A minute of CD-quality stereo takes about 10.6 MB, so an hour-long interview can pass 600 MB. The converter copes with that without uploading the file.
It never loads the whole WAV. In our test, a 70-minute WAV of 1.2 GB was ready to transcribe in about 4 seconds in Chrome on a Mac, because only the part being transcribed is read. For a smaller copy to email, the WAV to MP3 converter makes one in your browser.
- 8 kHz µ-law, mono
- Usually fromPhone systems and voicemail
- Per minuteAbout 0.5 MB
- 48 kHz, 16-bit, mono
- Usually fromVoice recorders on a mono setting
- Per minuteAbout 5.8 MB
- 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo
- Usually fromAudio editors and CD-quality exports
- Per minuteAbout 10.6 MB
- 48 kHz, 24-bit, stereo
- Usually fromField recorders and audio interfaces
- Per minuteAbout 17.3 MB
| Format | Usually from | Per minute |
|---|---|---|
| 8 kHz µ-law, mono | Phone systems and voicemail | About 0.5 MB |
| 48 kHz, 16-bit, mono | Voice recorders on a mono setting | About 5.8 MB |
| 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, stereo | Audio editors and CD-quality exports | About 10.6 MB |
| 48 kHz, 24-bit, stereo | Field recorders and audio interfaces | About 17.3 MB |
Which kinds of WAV can the converter read?
Nearly all: 16-bit and 24-bit PCM, 32-bit float, and the µ-law and A-law sound that phone systems use, at any sample rate and with any number of channels. A WAV compressed with ADPCM is the exception: it opens in Safari, but not in Chrome or Edge.
Standard WAV sound is decoded by the page’s own code rather than the browser’s, so it behaves the same in Chrome, Edge and Safari. Extra information recorders write into the file, such as broadcast details or a title, is skipped.
What happens to a stereo or multitrack WAV?
All its channels are blended into one before transcription, so a voice on any of them is kept. That suits recorders with two built-in microphones, or a lavalier on each person. The transcript doesn’t name the speakers, though.
For a separate transcript of each person, export every track as its own mono WAV from the recorder or your audio editor, and transcribe them one at a time.
Does a 24-bit or 96 kHz WAV transcribe better?
No. Every recording is brought down to 16 kHz, 16-bit mono before it’s transcribed, because that’s what speech recognition works with. A quiet room and a microphone close to the speaker help far more than a higher recorder setting.
Can NoteOwl transcribe long WAV recordings on a Mac?
Yes, at any length. NoteOwl transcribes WAVs on your Mac with unlimited transcription and on-device AI models, labels each speaker and keeps every recording searchable. The WAV never leaves your Mac.
FAQ
Questions about converting WAV to text
Is the WAV to text converter free?
Yes. It takes 3 WAV files a day without an account and transcribes up to 30 minutes of each. Copying the text and all four downloads are part of it.
Is there a size limit for WAV files?
Not as such. The page reads only as much of the WAV as it transcribes, so even a file of more than a gigabyte works. Recordings longer than 30 minutes are transcribed up to that point, and a note above the transcript says so.
Why won’t my WAV file open?
In Chrome or Edge, it probably holds ADPCM sound, a compressed kind of WAV those browsers can’t decode. Open the page in Safari, which can, or export the file again as a standard 16-bit WAV from an audio editor such as Audacity. A damaged or half-copied file gives the same message.
Does it read 32-bit float WAVs?
Yes. Recorders that capture in 32-bit float, to avoid clipping, write WAVs the converter reads as easily as 16-bit and 24-bit ones. Nothing needs converting first.
What happens to my WAV file?
It stays on your device. The page decodes it locally and sends short pieces of the sound, over a secure connection, to a cloud AI transcription service, which transcribes each piece and discards it. NoteOwl stores no audio and no text.
Should I convert a WAV to MP3 before transcribing it?
There’s no need. The converter reads WAV directly and only ever handles the part it transcribes, so the file’s size doesn’t slow anything down. Make an MP3 only if you want a smaller copy to share.
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
- AAC to textTurn a AAC file into text free in your browser: AI transcription with times, as text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
- FLAC to textTurn a FLAC file into text free in your browser: AI transcription with times, as text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
- OGG to textTurn a OGG file into text free in your browser: AI transcription with times, as text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
- Opus to textTurn a Opus file into text free in your browser: AI transcription with times, as text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
The same in other tools
Related
- Audio to textTranscription software for your Mac: drop in an audio or video file and get a speaker-labelled transcript with timestamps, unlimited, with nothing uploaded
- WAV to MP3 converterConvert WAV to MP3 in your browser, 16-bit to 32-bit float at any sample rate, and see how much smaller the MP3 is; nothing is uploaded
WAV recordings into searchable notes 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
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