Free transcription without signing up

Because transcription costs real money per minute of audio — it runs on GPU hardware billed by the second. Most tools recover that by treating the free tier as lead generation: enough to prove it works, then an account to continue. That's a reasonable business model, but it isn't the same thing as free.

Some are usable with no account at all, including this one — but almost none are uncapped, and that includes us. What varies is which cap they choose: file length, submission frequency, a monthly allowance, or an account gate on the download. Here it is the first three and never the last. A tool with no cap at all and no account is either subsidised by something else or about to change.

This one never asks for payment details before a file, and never asks for an account at all. There is a paid option — credits, bought once, for people who transcribe a lot — but nothing is required up front and no card is stored. Worth checking specifically elsewhere: a card requested before the first file usually means a trial that converts, not a free tier, and the two get described with the same word.

Length, frequency, and a monthly allowance. 20 minutes per file, 2 per hour, and a small number of free runs a month — the tool shows how many you have left before you spend one — after that a run costs one credit, roughly 20–30 cents. All stated up front. There is still no account, no card, and no export paywall: every transcript downloads as TXT, SRT and VTT whether you paid or not.

Here, yes — TXT, SRT and VTT all download with no account. Export is the single most commonly paywalled feature in this category, so it's worth checking specifically rather than assuming.

Split it first. Cutting at natural pauses rather than at fixed times keeps sentences intact, then each section transcribes separately and the text joins back together. Timestamps restart at zero per section, so caption files need each section's offset added.