Free tool
Chinese to English audio translator
This Chinese to English audio translator transcribes a Mandarin recording in Chinese characters and translates it line by line, so you can read a meeting, a class or a voice message in English, see when each part was said, and check the Chinese whenever you need to.
- Free
- Chinese → English
- Nothing is stored
Drop your Chinese recording here, or Choose your Chinese recording
MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG or WebM. Up to 30 minutes of each file, 3 free files a day. Translates Chinese speech into English.
Mandarin meetings every week? NoteOwl transcribes Chinese on your Mac with unlimited transcription, labels who said what and keeps it all searchable.
How it works
How do you translate a Chinese recording into English?
To translate Chinese audio to English, drop the recording here: the page is set to Mandarin speech and English text. The speech is written down in simplified characters, then translated in batches of neighbouring lines, each line keeping its time. Read the English; the Chinese is a switch away.
- 1
Drop the Mandarin recording
A supplier call, a lecture, a family voice message or an interview, as MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG or another audio file.
- 2
Characters, then English
Transcribed in Chinese, then translated. Recordings are covered up to 30 minutes.
- 3
Read and keep it
Copy the English or save it as TXT or Word, with or without times.
Why does the English sometimes say “he” for an animal, or “it” for a person?
Because 他 (he), 她 (she) and 它 (it) all sound like tā. The transcript has to pick a character, and the English follows it: in our test an animal’s 它的 was written 他的, so the English read “His lower jaw…”. Check pronouns that matter against the recording.
It works the other way too: a man’s 他 written as 它 came out as “It did not set a reduction amount…”. The time beside each paragraph takes you straight to the moment, and a few seconds of listening settles who was meant.
How is Mandarin speech written down first?
In simplified characters, often with no punctuation at all: in our test, only 5 of 40 pieces of Mandarin came back with any. The English is built from those lines in batches, so it adds the full stops and commas the Chinese transcript left out.
Overall, Mandarin speech came through well: in our test of whole recordings transcribed and turned into English, Chinese scored good, ahead of Japanese and Korean.
What does English add that the Chinese didn’t say?
Tense, articles and often a subject. Chinese verbs don’t mark past or present, so English has to choose: “来源于去年七月份的流星雨” became “come from the meteor shower of last July”. Read with the context in mind when timing matters.
How do people’s names come out in English?
By sound, or by meaning. Chinese writes foreign names in characters, and the English has to guess the spelling: 拉奥尼奇 came back as “Laonić” for Raonic, and 小皮奎特, the younger Piquet, became “Little Piquet”. Correct names you know before you share the text.
- 不久前，他在布里斯班公开赛上败于拉奥尼奇。
- English translationNot long ago, he was defeated by Laonić at the Brisbane Open.
- 小皮奎特在 2009 年匈牙利大奖赛之后被解雇。
- English translationLittle Piquet was fired after the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.
| Chinese | English translation |
|---|---|
| 不久前，他在布里斯班公开赛上败于拉奥尼奇。 | Not long ago, he was defeated by Laonić at the Brisbane Open. |
| 小皮奎特在 2009 年匈牙利大奖赛之后被解雇。 | Little Piquet was fired after the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. |
Mandarin meetings every week?
NoteOwl understands Chinese on your Mac: Mandarin meetings and recordings get unlimited transcription, each speaker is labelled, and every conversation stays searchable. For the Chinese transcript on its own, use Chinese audio to text.
FAQ
Mandarin recordings in English: questions
Is the Chinese to English audio translator free?
Yes. 3 recordings a day, up to 30 minutes each, no account. The English transcript, the Chinese one and all downloads are included.
Can I see the Chinese transcript too?
Yes. Set Show to Original: the Chinese appears in simplified characters with the same times as the English, and saves as text or SRT.
How are times and dates written in the English?
In English style: 上午 8 点 46 分 came back as “8:46 a.m.” in our test, and years stay as digits.
The speakers mix in English words. Is that a problem?
The page hears everything as Chinese; brand names and terms such as PC often stay in Latin letters inside the transcript. If whole stretches are in English, use the main audio translator with Detect automatically.
Will it name the speakers?
No. The web transcript has words and times only. NoteOwl on a Mac labels each speaker in its own transcripts.
Is my recording kept anywhere?
No. Your browser sends short pieces of sound to a cloud AI transcription service and the Chinese text to a cloud AI translation service; each throws away what it was sent. NoteOwl stores no audio or text.
Keep exploring
More audio translator tools
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The same in other tools
Related
- Chinese audio to textTranscribe a Chinese recording free in your browser, with the language set to Chinese; text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
- Chinese speech to textChinese dictation, meetings and imported recordings transcribed on your Mac, with a real NoteOwl transcript of a sample recording
Mandarin conversations, transcribed and searchable 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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