best speech to text transcription app

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The 8 Best Voice-to-Text Apps of 2024

Dragon Anywhere is the best overall voice-to-text app

Stacey has worn many hats throughout her writing career, working in content marketing, nonprofit communications, and journalism at different points in her life.

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Voice-to-text apps can be helpful for accessibility needs and busy professionals alike. If you’re always on the go, transcribing interview notes, or you can think faster than you can write, these special programs can increase your efficiency and store the recordings safely and sound via the cloud. Depending on your needs, you can choose an app with customizable language for commonly used words or industry terms.

The main features to consider when looking at voice-to-text apps include accuracy, shortcuts, and available languages. Accuracy is one of the most critical factors, and some options perform much better than others in this area. These apps are becoming more mainstream, from basic software to advanced technology. Whether you want to take notes , send quick messages, or translate on the fly, the best voice-to-text apps below are ready to help.

Best Voice-to-Text Apps of 2024

Best overall: dragon anywhere, best assistant: google assistant.

• Best Transcription: Transcribe
• Best for Long Recordings: Speechnotes

Best for Notes: Voice Notes

• Best for Messages: SpeechTexter  

Best for Translation: iTranslate Converse

Best for niche industry terms: braina.

Dragon Anywhere

• Price: $15 per month or $150 per year
• Free Trial: One week
• Accuracy Rate: 99 percent

Why We Chose It

We chose Dragon Anywhere because of its 99 percent accuracy rating and options for voice editing and formatting.

Pros & Cons

No word limits

99 percent accuracy

Multiple ways to share documents

Expensive compared to some other apps

May take time to learn the built-in commands

Available for Android and iOS devices, Dragon Anywhere is a premium professional tool that’s a big deal in the world of dictation apps. It’s 99 percent accurate and comes with voice editing and formatting. You can use the app for as long as you need—there are no word limits.

Dragon Anywhere allows you to customize industry lingo for even more accuracy. After transcription, share your notes by email, Dropbox, Evernote, and more. For supported versions, you can synchronize Dragon Anywhere with your desktop and do voice work on your computer as well. However, to do this, you will need to purchase a desktop version of Dragon as well.

Its accuracy and rich features come with a cost, but the bill could be a worthy business investment if you often think of ideas on the fly or need to record meetings. The application costs $15 per month or $150 per year.

Google Assistant

• Price: Free
• Free Trial: N/A
• Accuracy Rate: Not disclosed

We chose Google Assistant because it can help you accomplish a variety of tasks.

Integrated into services you already use, such as email and messaging

Free to use

Not specifically designed for note-taking

Must use applets to boost note-taking abilities

Google Assistant does a lot, including playing music and opening maps. One of its best features? Voice recognition. You can use voice command to look up information and tell Google Assistant to perform certain functions, but it can also convert speech to text.

The app sends messages, manages tasks, and sets reminders. While it’s not a speech-to-text app in the purest sense, it will still help organize your ideas and notes with voice recognition.

Use IFTTT (If This Then That) to maximize your Google Assistant note-taking abilities. In one applet , Google Assistant can log all of your notes into a spreadsheet. You can also search IFTTT for other productivity-boosting applets or create your own as you see fit.  

Best for Transcription: Transcribe - Speech to Text

Transcribe - Speech to Text

• Price: $5 per hour of transcription, subscription options also available
• Free Trial: 15 minutes of transcription

Transcribe - Speech to Text offers you the opportunity to transcribe any voice or video file using the help of artificial intelligence.

Transcription available for over 120 languages and dialects

Easy-to-use software

Only available for Apple products

Journalists or executive assistants who have a lot of conversations to track may find this app useful. Using A.I., Transcribe can turn any voice or video memo into a transcription in over 120 different languages and dialects. After recording, you can drop your file in this app and export your raw text into another app such as DropBox.

Keep in mind that Transcribe is only available for Apple products with Voice Memo and video since there’s no direct in-app dictation. Transcribe can also get pricey. Users receive a free trial for 15 minutes of transcription. Every extra hour costs $5 and 10 hours costs $30, but there are also subscriptions available for frequent users.

Best for Long Recordings: Speechnotes - Speech to Text

Speechnotes - Speech to Text

• Accuracy Rate: 90 percent or better

We chose Speechnotes because it allows for extremely long recordings.

Long recordings allowed

Can add in punctuation where needed

In-app advertisements as a free app

Only available in browser and on Android

Writers who think faster than they can type will appreciate this app. Speechnotes is excellent for organizing long notes thanks to two special features. First of all, it doesn't stop recording—even if you pause to think or breathe—so you can keep the recording open for as long as needed. Second, you can tap a button or use a verbal command to insert punctuation marks into your work so they won't become too unwieldy.

The free app has a small ad banner, but you can upgrade to a premium version to get rid of it. Other perks: It won't clog up your phone space at 4 MB, plus it saves all your recordings as TXT files. Plus, you won’t need to open the app to use it either; you can tap on a widget to access Speechnotes. Keep in mind that Speechnotes is only available on your browser and Android. 

Voice Notes

We chose Voice Notes for its efficient layout to help you store notes.

Recognizes 120 languages

Only available on Android phones

Voice Notes has speech recognition that allows you to create notes efficiently. You can then organize your notes into categories and create reminders by customizing alerts synced with your phone calendar. The interface is intuitive and easy to use; simply press the microphone button and speak to record. You’ll even be able to make your notes with the phone screen turned off.

The app can recognize up to 120 languages, just in case you need to record notes in something other than English. The app is free, though you can subscribe to a premium plan to support the developer.

Of course, there are a few caveats. Voice Notes is a popular app, but the one major limitation is that it's only available on Android phones. Plus, you need to have Google voice search installed to use it.

Best for Messages: SpeechTexter - Speech to Text

SpeechTexter - Speech to Text

• Accuracy Rate: Better than 90 percent

SpeechTexter is a useful tool to help you draft texts, notes, emails, reports, and more with your voice. 

Desktop and android versions available

Over 70 languages supported

Customizable commands

Offline mode is less accurate

Need to send a quick message but find your hands occupied with other tasks? Here’s a quick solution. Using Google’s backend, SpeechTexter allows you to create text notes, emails, and reports with your own voice. The easy-to-use app supports over 70 languages with an accuracy rate higher than 90 percent. You can customize your own commands for punctuation as well.

It's possible to use the app when you're not connected to the Internet, though keep in mind that the accuracy lowers in offline mode and the recognition speed depends on your Internet connectivity. To use the app offline, make sure that you install language packs of your preference.

iTranslate Converse

• Price: $6 per month or $50 per year
• Free Trial: Yes

We chose iTranslate Converse because it is designed to help you translate languages on the go in noisy environments.

Works well in noisy environments

Enables real-time communication with someone in another language

38 languages recognized

Subscription fee

Unknown accuracy rate

Brought to you by the same developers behind the popular iTranslate app, iTranslate Converse is as close to real-time translation as you’ll get, which is convenient if you need to communicate with clients who don’t speak the same language as you or if you’re traveling abroad. All you have to do is set the two languages. Then tap, hold, and speak into your phone.

The app will pick up on the language that you’re speaking, then issue out a translation—yes, even in noisy environments. The app is capable of recognizing 38 languages. After your conversation is done, you can download full transcriptions. It’s not always perfect, of course, but it’s faster than going through a personal assistant app to look up translations for you.

While it has a subscription fee, iTranslate won't stretch your budget significantly. When you download it, you'll receive a free trial. After that runs out, you'll be upgraded to the pro version for $6 per month or $50 per year. You must cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the trial to avoid being put on a paid membership.

• Price: $0-$399
• Free Trial: No
• Accuracy Rate: 99%

Briana can help you utilize voice-to-text in a jargon-filled industry.

Personal A.I. builds to recognize your industry jargon

Over 100 languages recognized

May take some time to customize

Braina is a personal A.I. for Windows P.C.s with companion Android and IOS apps. The program can convert your voice into text for any website or software program, including a word processor. It recognizes most medical, legal, and scientific terms, which makes it ideal if you work in a niche industry with technical jargon. You can also teach Braina uncommon names and vocabulary with ease.

Braina has other helpful voice recognition features besides learning niche industry terms. For example, it can recognize over 100 languages to serve non-English users. The program also includes convenient dictation commands for deleting, tabbing, and casing.

The app has a few price tiers; there is a free version with limited access to features, while the pro version costs $79 per year or $399 for lifetime access (which often goes on sale for $199).

Final Verdict

Dragon Anywhere is our pick for the best overall voice-to-text app thanks to its streamlined tools, high accuracy rating, and accessible computer synchronization. The app costs a bit more than other popular options, but discounts are available on annual subscriptions, and it has no limit on words.

As a bonus, Dragon Anywhere also allows users to customize their experience for specific industry lingo and other terms. This app is also accessible for Android and iOS devices and features simple sharing options to multiple apps or email accounts.

Compare the Best Voice to Text Apps

Guide to choosing a voice-to-text app.

Not sure how to choose a voice-to-text app? Consider the following factors to select the best option for your needs:

• Accuracy rating
• Available languages
• Limits on words or usage
• Platform (Android or iOS)
• Exporting files
• Translation
• Customizable terms or industry language

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best voice to text app.

Dragon Anywhere is the best voice-to-text app on our list. This app is available for both Android and iOS users, has a high accuracy rating, and makes it easy to export files to your computer, email, or other apps.

What Is the Best Free Voice to Text App?

Speechnotes, Voice Notes, Google Assistant, and SpeechTexter are all great choices for free voice-to-text apps. Choose the best option for your specific needs based on maximum length of recording, available languages, and exporting options.

What Is the Best Way to Convert Voice to Text?

Voice-to-text apps and computer programs are both helpful ways to convert your voice to text. If you need to record notes on the go or away from your computer, a mobile app is likely best for you. On the other hand, some people prefer apps downloaded to their computers to take notes during meetings or classes.

What Is the Most Realistic Speech-to-Text?

Dragon Anywhere has the highest accuracy rating of voice-to-text apps compared in this list. Additionally, this app allows users to customize specific industry language and commonly used terms to make their transcriptions more realistic.

Methodology

To find the best voice-to-text apps we compiled a list of the most popular options available. Next, we took a closer look at several factors, including the price, free trial options, accuracy rates, and more. Finally, we decided which providers were best suited for what our readers needed.

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The best dictation software in 2024

These speech-to-text apps will save you time without sacrificing accuracy..

The early days of dictation software were like your friend that mishears lyrics: lots of enthusiasm but little accuracy. Now, AI is out of Pandora's box, both in the news and in the apps we use, and dictation apps are getting better and better because of it. It's still not 100% perfect, but you'll definitely feel more in control when using your voice to type.

I took to the internet to find the best speech-to-text software out there right now, and after monologuing at length in front of dozens of dictation apps, these are my picks for the best.

The best dictation software

Windows 11 Speech Recognition for free dictation software on Windows

Dragon by Nuance for a customizable dictation app

Google Docs voice typing for dictating in Google Docs

Gboard for a free mobile dictation app

Otter for collaboration

What is dictation software?

When searching for dictation software online, you'll come across a wide range of options. The ones I'm focusing on here are apps or services that you can quickly open, start talking, and see the results on your screen in (near) real-time. This is great for taking quick notes , writing emails without typing, or talking out an entire novel while you walk in your favorite park—because why not.

Beyond these productivity uses, people with disabilities or with carpal tunnel syndrome can use this software to type more easily. It makes technology more accessible to everyone .

If this isn't what you're looking for, here's what else is out there:

AI assistants, such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana, can help you interact with each of these ecosystems to send texts, buy products, or schedule events on your calendar.

AI meeting assistants will join your meetings and transcribe everything, generating meeting notes to share with your team.

AI transcription platforms can process your video and audio files into neat text.

Transcription services that use a combination of dictation software, AI, and human proofreaders can achieve above 99% accuracy.

There are also advanced platforms for enterprise, like Amazon Transcribe and Microsoft Azure's speech-to-text services.

What makes a great dictation app?

How we evaluate and test apps.

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog .

Dictation software comes in different shapes and sizes. Some are integrated in products you already use. Others are separate apps that offer a range of extra features. While each can vary in look and feel, here's what I looked for to find the best:

High accuracy. Staying true to what you're saying is the most important feature here. The lowest score on this list is at 92% accuracy.

Ease of use. This isn't a high hurdle, as most options are basic enough that anyone can figure them out in seconds.

Availability of voice commands. These let you add "instructions" while you're dictating, such as adding punctuation, starting a new paragraph, or more complex commands like capitalizing all the words in a sentence.

Availability of the languages supported. Most of the picks here support a decent (or impressive) number of languages.

Versatility. I paid attention to how well the software could adapt to different circumstances, apps, and systems.

I tested these apps by reading a 200-word script containing numbers, compound words, and a few tricky terms. I read the script three times for each app: the accuracy scores are an average of all attempts. Finally, I used the voice commands to delete and format text and to control the app's features where available.

I used my laptop's or smartphone's microphone to test these apps in a quiet room without background noise. For occasional dictation, an equivalent microphone on your own computer or smartphone should do the job well. If you're doing a lot of dictation every day, it's probably worth investing in an external microphone, like the Jabra Evolve .

What about AI?

Before the ChatGPT boom, AI wasn't as hot a keyword, but it already existed. The apps on this list use a combination of technologies that may include AI— machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) in particular. While they could rebrand themselves to keep up with the hype, they may use pipelines or models that aren't as bleeding-edge when compared to what's going on in Hugging Face or under OpenAI Whisper 's hood, for example. 

Also, since this isn't a hot AI software category, these apps may prefer to focus on their core offering and product quality instead, not ride the trendy wave by slapping "AI-powered" on every web page.

Tips for using voice recognition software

Though dictation software is pretty good at recognizing different voices, it's not perfect. Here are some tips to make it work as best as possible.

Speak naturally (with caveats). Dictation apps learn your voice and speech patterns over time. And if you're going to spend any time with them, you want to be comfortable. Speak naturally. If you're not getting 90% accuracy initially, try enunciating more.  

Punctuate. When you dictate, you have to say each period, comma, question mark, and so forth. The software isn't always smart enough to figure it out on its own.

Learn a few commands . Take the time to learn a few simple commands, such as "new line" to enter a line break. There are different commands for composing, editing, and operating your device. Commands may differ from app to app, so learn the ones that apply to the tool you choose.

Know your limits. Especially on mobile devices, some tools have a time limit for how long they can listen—sometimes for as little as 10 seconds. Glance at the screen from time to time to make sure you haven't blown past the mark. 

Practice. It takes time to adjust to voice recognition software, but it gets easier the more you practice. Some of the more sophisticated apps invite you to train by reading passages or doing other short drills. Don't shy away from tutorials, help menus, and on-screen cheat sheets.

The best dictation software at a glance

Best free dictation software for apple devices, apple dictation (ios, ipados, macos).

Look no further than your Mac, iPhone, or iPad for one of the best dictation tools. Apple's built-in dictation feature, powered by Siri (I wouldn't be surprised if the two merged one day), ships as part of Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems. On iOS devices, you use it by pressing the microphone icon on the stock keyboard. On your desktop, you turn it on by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation , and then use a keyboard shortcut to activate it in your app.

If you want the ability to navigate your Mac with your voice and use dictation, try Voice Control . By default, Voice Control requires the internet to work and has a time limit of about 30 seconds for each smattering of speech. To remove those limits for a Mac, enable Enhanced Dictation, and follow the directions here for your OS (you can also enable it for iPhones and iPads). Enhanced Dictation adds a local file to your device so that you can dictate offline.

You can format and edit your text using simple commands, such as "new paragraph" or "select previous word." Tip: you can view available commands in a small window, like a little cheat sheet, while learning the ropes. Apple also offers a number of advanced commands for things like math, currency, and formatting. 

Apple Dictation price: Included with macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Apple Watch.

Apple Dictation accuracy: 96%. I tested this on an iPhone SE 3rd Gen using the dictation feature on the keyboard.

Recommendation: For the occasional dictation, I'd recommend the standard Dictation feature available with all Apple systems. But if you need more custom voice features (e.g., medical terms), opt for Voice Control with Enhanced Dictation. You can create and import both custom vocabulary and custom commands and work while offline.

Apple Dictation supported languages: 59 languages and dialects .

While Apple Dictation is available natively on the Apple Watch, if you're serious about recording plenty of voice notes and memos, check out the Just Press Record app. It runs on the same engine and keeps all your recordings synced and organized across your Apple devices.

Best free dictation software for Windows

Windows 11 speech recognition (windows).

Windows 11 Speech Recognition (also known as Voice Typing) is a strong dictation tool, both for writing documents and controlling your Windows PC. Since it's part of your system, you can use it in any app you have installed.

To start, first, check that online speech recognition is on by going to Settings > Time and Language > Speech . To begin dictating, open an app, and on your keyboard, press the Windows logo key + H. A microphone icon and gray box will appear at the top of your screen. Make sure your cursor is in the space where you want to dictate.

When it's ready for your dictation, it will say Listening . You have about 10 seconds to start talking before the microphone turns off. If that happens, just click it again and wait for Listening to pop up. To stop the dictation, click the microphone icon again or say "stop talking."  

As I dictated into a Word document, the gray box reminded me to hang on, we need a moment to catch up . If you're speaking too fast, you'll also notice your transcribed words aren't keeping up. This never posed an issue with accuracy, but it's a nice reminder to keep it slow and steady. 

To activate the computer control features, you'll have to go to Settings > Accessibility > Speech instead. While there, tick on Windows Speech Recognition. This unlocks a range of new voice commands that can fully replace a mouse and keyboard. Your voice becomes the main way of interacting with your system.

While you can use this tool anywhere inside your computer, if you're a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you'll be able to use the dictation features there too. The best app to use it on is, of course, Microsoft Word: it even offers file transcription, so you can upload a WAV or MP3 file and turn it into text. The engine is the same, provided by Microsoft Speech Services.

Windows 11 Speech Recognition price: Included with Windows 11. Also available as part of the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Windows 11 Speech Recognition accuracy: 95%. I tested it in Windows 11 while using Microsoft Word. 

Windows 11 Speech Recognition languages supported : 11 languages and dialects .

Best customizable dictation software

Dragon by nuance (android, ios, macos, windows).

In 1990, Dragon Dictate emerged as the first dictation software. Over three decades later, we have Dragon by Nuance, a leader in the industry and a distant cousin of that first iteration. With a variety of software packages and mobile apps for different use cases (e.g., legal, medical, law enforcement), Dragon can handle specialized industry vocabulary, and it comes with excellent features, such as the ability to transcribe text from an audio file you upload. 

For this test, I used Dragon Anywhere, Nuance's mobile app, as it's the only version—among otherwise expensive packages—available with a free trial. It includes lots of features not found in the others, like Words, which lets you add words that would be difficult to recognize and spell out. For example, in the script, the word "Litmus'" (with the possessive) gave every app trouble. To avoid this, I added it to Words, trained it a few times with my voice, and was then able to transcribe it accurately.

It also provides shortcuts. If you want to shorten your entire address to one word, go to Auto-Text , give it a name ("address"), and type in your address: 1000 Eichhorn St., Davenport, IA 52722, and hit Save . The next time you dictate and say "address," you'll get the entire thing. Press the comment bubble icon to see text commands while you're dictating, or say "What can I say?" and the command menu pops up. 

Once you complete a dictation, you can email, share (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox), open in Word, or save to Evernote. You can perform these actions manually or by voice command (e.g., "save to Evernote.") Once you name it, it automatically saves in Documents for later review or sharing. 

Accuracy is good and improves with use, showing that you can definitely train your dragon. It's a great choice if you're serious about dictation and plan to use it every day, but may be a bit too much if you're just using it occasionally.

Dragon by Nuance price: $15/month for Dragon Anywhere (iOS and Android); from $200 to $500 for desktop packages

Dragon by Nuance accuracy: 97%. Tested it in the Dragon Anywhere iOS app.

Dragon by Nuance supported languages: 6 languages and dialects in Dragon Anywhere and 8 languages and dialects in Dragon Desktop.  

Best free mobile dictation software

Gboard (android, ios).

Gboard, also known as Google Keyboard, is a free keyboard native to Android phones. It's also available for iOS: go to the App Store, download the Gboard app , and then activate the keyboard in the settings. In addition to typing, it lets you search the web, translate text, or run a quick Google Maps search.

Back to the topic: it has an excellent dictation feature. To start, press the microphone icon on the top-right of the keyboard. An overlay appears on the screen, filling itself with the words you're saying. It's very quick and accurate, which will feel great for fast-talkers but probably intimidating for the more thoughtful among us. If you stop talking for a few seconds, the overlay disappears, and Gboard pastes what it heard into the app you're using. When this happens, tap the microphone icon again to continue talking.

Wherever you can open a keyboard while using your phone, you can have Gboard supporting you there. You can write emails or notes or use any other app with an input field.

The writer who handled the previous update of this list had been using Gboard for seven years, so it had plenty of training data to adapt to his particular enunciation, landing the accuracy at an amazing 98%. I haven't used it much before, so the best I had was 92% overall. It's still a great score. More than that, it's proof of how dictation apps improve the more you use them.

Gboard price : Free

Gboard accuracy: 92%. With training, it can go up to 98%. I tested it using the iOS app while writing a new email.

Gboard supported languages: 916 languages and dialects .

Best dictation software for typing in Google Docs

Google docs voice typing (web on chrome).

Just like Microsoft offers dictation in their Office products, Google does the same for their Workspace suite. The best place to use the voice typing feature is in Google Docs, but you can also dictate speaker notes in Google Slides as a way to prepare for your presentation.

To get started, make sure you're using Chrome and have a Google Docs file open. Go to Tools > Voice typing , and press the microphone icon to start. As you talk, the text will jitter into existence in the document.

You can change the language in the dropdown on top of the microphone icon. If you need help, hover over that icon, and click the ? on the bottom-right. That will show everything from turning on the mic, the voice commands for dictation, and moving around the document.

It's unclear whether Google's voice typing here is connected to the same engine in Gboard. I wasn't able to confirm whether the training data for the mobile keyboard and this tool are connected in any way. Still, the engines feel very similar and turned out the same accuracy at 92%. If you start using it more often, it may adapt to your particular enunciation and be more accurate in the long run.

Google Docs voice typing price : Free

Google Docs voice typing accuracy: 92%. Tested in a new Google Docs file in Chrome.

Google Docs voice typing supported languages: 118 languages and dialects ; voice commands only available in English.

Google Docs integrates with Zapier , which means you can automatically do things like save form entries to Google Docs, create new documents whenever something happens in your other apps, or create project management tasks for each new document.

Best dictation software for collaboration

Otter (web, android, ios).

Most of the time, you're dictating for yourself: your notes, emails, or documents. But there may be situations in which sharing and collaboration is more important. For those moments, Otter is the better option.

It's not as robust in terms of dictation as others on the list, but it compensates with its versatility. It's a meeting assistant, first and foremost, ready to hop on your meetings and transcribe everything it hears. This is great to keep track of what's happening there, making the text available for sharing by generating a link or in the corresponding team workspace.

The reason why it's the best for collaboration is that others can highlight parts of the transcript and leave their comments. It also separates multiple speakers, in case you're recording a conversation, so that's an extra headache-saver if you use dictation software for interviewing people.

When you open the app and click the Record button on the top-right, you can use it as a traditional dictation app. It doesn't support voice commands, but it has decent intuition as to where the commas and periods should go based on the intonation and rhythm of your voice. Once you're done talking, Otter will start processing what you said, extract keywords, and generate action items and notes from the content of the transcription.

If you're going for long recording stretches where you talk about multiple topics, there's an AI chat option, where you can ask Otter questions about the transcript. This is great to summarize the entire talk, extract insights, and get a different angle on everything you said.

Not all meeting assistants offer dictation, so Otter sits here on this fence between software categories, a jack-of-two-trades, quite good at both. If you want something more specialized for meetings, be sure to check out the best AI meeting assistants . But if you want a pure dictation app with plenty of voice commands and great control over the final result, the other options above will serve you better.

Otter price: Free plan available for 300 minutes / month. Pro plan starts at $16.99, adding more collaboration features and monthly minutes.

Otter accuracy: 93% accuracy. I tested it in the web app on my computer.

Otter supported languages: Only American and British English for now.

Is voice dictation for you?

Dictation software isn't for everyone. It will likely take practice learning to "write" out loud because it will feel unnatural. But once you get comfortable with it, you'll be able to write from anywhere on any device without the need for a keyboard. 

And by using any of the apps I listed here, you can feel confident that most of what you dictate will be accurately captured on the screen. 

Related reading:

The best transcription services

Catch typos by making your computer read to you

Why everyone should try the accessibility features on their computer

What is Otter.ai?

The best voice recording apps for iPhone

This article was originally published in April 2016 and has also had contributions from Emily Esposito, Jill Duffy, and Chris Hawkins. The most recent update was in November 2023.

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Miguel Rebelo

Miguel Rebelo is a freelance writer based in London, UK. He loves technology, video games, and huge forests. Track him down at mirebelo.com.

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The Best Dictation and Speech-to-Text Apps for Writers (2024)

by Guest Blogger | 0 comments

If you're more comfortable talking through your ideas than typing them out, you may want to try one of these speech to text apps for writers. Dictation and transcription provide quick solutions for everything from working through interviews to recording story ideas and chapters. Check out our guide by guest writer Jamie Biggs and see which one is the best fit for you! 

Welcome to one of our favorite community members and writers Jamie Biggs who loves to use dictation as she writes. You can read more about Jamie at the end of her article, and for a full run-down of the Best Book Writing Software, see our post here . 

What is dictation software?

Dictation software is a type of speech-to-text technology that allows you to create written documents without having to type or write them out. The voice recognition software converts your speech into text and then saves the document in an easily shareable format.

It’s perfect for writers, students, and professionals who need to get their ideas down quickly. With dictation software, you can save yourself time by speaking your thoughts rather than writing them out.

Why use dictation?

Want an edge in writing? I gave speech-to-text dictation a try, and find it’s a must-have for anyone who wants to up their creativity game and work smarter.

Whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, prepping interview transcripts for ghostwriting, or just trying to get your ideas out of your head fast, dictation software can expedite the process.

Many people find it easier to express their thoughts and ideas aloud, and speaking is quicker than typing (in most cases). It's perfect for writers who want to record their story ideas, and it can also be a useful tool to overcome writer’s block. When you’re having trouble organizing your thoughts, speaking those ideas instead of facing a blank page can be helpful.

Dictation is also an effective way to decrease physical strain. Typing for long periods can lead to physical discomfort or repetitive strain injuries. If you're spending hours behind a keyboard, consider trying it out. Dictation software provides an alternative method of text input, helping to ease strain on the fingers, hands, and wrists.

And of course, the convenience of writing on the go. Dictation software on mobile devices allows you to capture ideas or notes while on the move without needing to stop and type. We can capture writing during a walk outside, commuting to and from work, or even while waiting in line at a gas station using an app on your phone. 

Features of a strong dictation app

There are a few features that I looked at when testing these apps out. Here are the features I found most important: 

Accuracy: The most critical factor in any dictation app is its ability to accurately convert spoken words to written text. A great app needs accurate voice recognition for diverse accents and speech styles.

Real-time Transcription: Real-time transcription can provide writers with instant feedback on their dictation, enabling them to identify areas where they need to improve their writing skills.

Punctuation and Formatting: An app’s punctuation and formatting controls can make it possible for you to speak naturally without naming each punctuation mark.

Customization: The ability to control saving, sharing, and navigating through voice commands is available on some dictation apps. Customization options, such as language models or personalized dictionaries, can also improve accuracy. Adding an unusual name or unfamiliar word to your personalized dictionary will save you editing time.

Let's take a look at the best dictation apps I tried for writers. Note: some of the links below are affiliate links. 

The best dictation apps for writers:

Dragon naturally speaking (dragon professional individual).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking (now called Dragon Professional Individual) has been a leading force in the speech-to-text software market for a long time. The tool provides high accuracy, advanced punctuation and formatting options, support for multiple languages, and can be easily integrated with writing tools.

Initially, there is a learning curve for using this software. You will need time to train it to recognize your voice and speech patterns accurately. Learning how to use voice commands effectively can also take time.

Nuance Communications, the makers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking no longer supports iOS. They offer it for Windows only. However, they have an Apple application called Dragon Anywhere Mobile that is available on both iOS and Android devices. It is a scaled-down version of the Windows application.

I don't have a Windows PC and have not used the Dragon Professional Individual version for Windows. However, I use the Dragon Anywhere Mobile App on my iPad Pro.

The menu is easy to navigate and aside from a couple of missed words, it does a good job transcribing my voice.

Dragon is a little pricey compared to the other apps, but its level of accuracy and customization options might make it an investment worth making as a writer.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking – single user license Price: $699.00

Dragon Anywhere Mobile App Price: $150 yearly subscription or $15 monthly subscription

Here are some of the main pros and cons for the Dragon Apps: 

Otter.ai transcribes speech in real-time, making note-taking easy during interviews, or brainstorming sessions. Writers can easily record and organize content with this feature and not forget important details.

Otter.ai integrates with writing apps, allowing easy transfer of transcribed text. Writers can keep their writing workflow while using speech-to-text technology for productivity and creativity.

You can access Otter.ai by visiting their website (otter.ai) using a web browser on your computer. It is also available for both iOS and Android devices.

I found Otter.ai to be user-friendly, and it accurately transcribed speech. It automatically added punctuation, and did not require me to give punctuation commands as I dictated. 

The app added a time stamp with every start and stop. It was designed for meeting transcription and can identify multiple speakers within the meeting.

Writer’s will need to copy and paste the transcribed text into an editing software application to edit and remove the time stamps. If you are on a budget, the Basic subscription is a great place to start.

Otter.ai is available as a monthly or annual subscription based on monthly transcription minutes. BASIC – 300 monthly transcription minutes; 30 minutes per conversation. Price: Free

PRO – 1200 monthly transcription minutes: 90 minutes per conversation. Price: $99.99 yearly subscription or $16.99 monthly subscription

Otter.ai is a strong place to start if you're new to speech-to-text apps, as you can try those free features before committing to the larger subscription. 

Speechnotes

Speechnotes offers a user-friendly interface for quick and effortless dictation. Real-time transcription provides instant feedback, improving productivity and usability.

This website application was easy to navigate allowing me to immediately jump in and begin. You have the option to speak punctuation as you go, or to go back and insert by clicking the needed punctuation from the side menu.

You can dictate offline with Speechnotes, but with limitations. Multiple languages are supported, catering to diverse backgrounds and accommodating native language dictation.

It also offers a few ways to move your newly transcribed document from the dictation screen to upload into a Google Doc, Word Doc, or txt file. It also gives you the option to email or print your work from the same screen.

I liked this app. If you get past the ads at the bottom of the screen, then the price is definitely right.  But if ads are bothersome for you, the Premium subscription is very affordable.

Speechnotes Plans Dictation – Online dictation notepad and voice typing Chrome extension Price: Free

Dictation Premium – Premium online dictation notepad and voice typing Chrome extension. Support from the development team. No Ads. Price: $1.90 per month

Transcription – Pay as you go – no subscription Audio & Video recordings. $0.10 per minute of audio

Google Docs Voice Typing

Google Docs Voice Typing is a built-in feature of Google Docs that offers real-time transcription, offline support, and extensive language options. It also integrates seamlessly with Google's productivity suite, making it a convenient choice for writers who use Google Workspace.

Google Docs Voice Typing is a built-in feature of Google Docs, available to all Google account users at no additional cost. It's easily accessible and user-friendly for Google Docs users.

The feature transcribes spoken words into text in real-time.

Text-to-Speech with Google Voice is easy to set up from the Google Docs file menu. Select “tools” from the menu bar, and select “voice typing” from the drop down.

It is simple to use. click the microphone to start and stop transcribing. Google Voice Typing accurately transcribed for me, but required me to give punctuation voice commands which slowed the process, but you can even dictate and apply text styles using voice commands.

If you regularly use Google Docs for writing, this is can be easily added to your work in progress.

Google Docs Voice Typing Price: Free with any Google account

The price is right for this one, but it doesn't have the additional features or accuracy and sensitivity as some of the other paid app services. 

Apple Pages Dictation

Apple Pages Dictation offers users a hands-free writing experience with real-time transcription. It supports multiple languages and dialects.

There is some set-up required in order to utilize speech to text on Apple Pages. You will need to access settings from your Apple menu, click keyboard settings and turn on Dictation. Once this is completed, voice transcription is activated by double tapping the control key on the keyboard.

It has basic punctuation command capabilities like adding a comma or period. But it was not able to add a new paragraph or new line on command. I had to stop and add the new line manually and then restart by double clicking the control key again.

If you are testing the waters with speech to text, this is an option worth experimenting with if you are an Apple user. Pages comes with every Apple system.

Apple Dictation Price: Included in all Apple Devices

What is transcription?

Transcription and dictation are two related yet distinct processes. While dictation involves directly speaking into a program that instantly converts your words into text on the page, transcription follows a slightly different path.

For transcription, you provide the app with an audio file, which it then meticulously transcribes, transforming spoken content into written form. 

Why use transcription?

Using a transcription service offers a straightforward and user-friendly alternative voice recognition software. Transcription services eliminate the need to memorize and execute specific voice commands for punctuation, formatting, and editing. Instead, you simply upload your audio files, and the service handles the transcription process, delivering accurate written content.

This approach is particularly advantageous for individuals who may not be comfortable with or have the time to master complex voice commands. Transcription services cater to a wide range of users, including those without technical expertise. The process is as simple as submitting an audio file and receiving a transcribed text in return.

In contrast, mastering speech-to-text commands requires familiarization with a set of commands, which might vary across different platforms or software. It involves a learning curve that might not align with everyone's preferences or requirements.

Ultimately, utilizing a transcription service streamlines the process, making it accessible to users of varying technical skill levels. It allows individuals to focus on content creation, without the need to navigate intricate command structures, resulting in a smoother and more efficient transcription experience.

Do you need any special recording equipment?

In most cases, special recording equipment isn't necessary for using voice dictation and transcription. Modern voice dictation software is designed to work with the built-in microphones of devices like smartphones, laptops, and tablets. These microphones are generally sufficient for capturing your spoken words accurately. However, if you're in an environment with significant background noise, using an external microphone or a noise-canceling headset can improve the accuracy of the transcription.

For professionals who require high-quality recordings, such as podcasters or journalists conducting interviews, investing in a good-quality external microphone might be beneficial to ensure clear and crisp audio. Additionally, using a quiet environment without excessive ambient noise can enhance the accuracy of voice dictation.

Ultimately, while specialized recording equipment can enhance the quality of your recordings, it's not a strict requirement. 

The best transcription services for writers

Writers are increasingly turning to transcription services as invaluable tools to streamline their work processes and enhance productivity. Here are four online transcription services, features and benefits to consider.

Rev is a popular transcription service that provides accurate and quick transcription for audio and video files. They offer human-generated transcriptions and have options for different turnaround times.

Rev's interface is user-friendly and easy to navigate. select the type of order you would like to place and then upload your file.

Rev Services Pricing:

TranscribeMe

TranscribeMe offers both automated and human-powered transcription services. They specialize in providing accurate transcriptions for various industries.

Uploading an audio file was simple and straightforward, drag and drop.

TranscribeMe Services Pricing:

Happy Scribe

Happy Scribe offers both automated and human-assisted transcription services. They also provide options for translating transcripts into different languages.

The website is easy to navigate and upload your audio file. They offer the first 5 minutes of your audio file transcribed for free, giving you an opportunity to test drive their service.

Happy Scribe Pricing:

Scribie is another transcription service that offers human-generated transcriptions. They focus on providing accurate transcriptions and offer a variety of turnaround options.

 I have used Scribie for my own transcription needs and found the service quick and accurate. The have recently changed their pricing to a flat rate for human verified transcripts, no longer offering the AI transcribed files option. 

Scribie pricing:

Useful tips for dictation or transcription

By following these tips, you can make your dictation and transcription processes more efficient and accurate, ensuring that your spoken content is accurately transformed into written text.

Dictation tips

• Speak Clearly and Calmly : Enunciate your words clearly and speak at a moderate pace. Avoid speaking too fast or mumbling to ensure accurate transcription.
• Punctuation and Formatting Commands : Learn and use voice commands for punctuation (“period,” “comma,” “new line”) and formatting (“bold,” “italics”) to maintain proper structure in your text.
• Practice Makes Perfect : Familiarize yourself with the voice recognition system's response time and accuracy by practicing dictation with shorter passages before tackling longer content.
• Break Down Complex Sentences : For complex sentences, break them into smaller, manageable phrases to enhance accuracy.
• Proofread and Edit : After dictating, proofread and edit the transcribed text for any errors or discrepancies that might have occurred during dictation.
• Minimize Background Noise : Choose a quiet environment to reduce background noise that could interfere with accurate transcription.

Transcription tips

• Use Quality Audio : Provide clear and high-quality audio file recordings for accurate transcription. Minimize background noise and ensure the speakers' voices are distinct.
• Speaker Identification : If multiple speakers are involved, indicate speaker changes or use timestamps to differentiate speakers during transcription.
• Provide Context : Give transcribers context by sharing any relevant information about the subject, speakers, or terminology used in the recording.
• Accent and Jargon Awareness : If you have an accent or are using industry-specific jargon, consider using a transcription service or software that's familiar with these nuances.
• Review and Edit : After receiving the transcription, review and edit it for any errors or inconsistencies. Sometimes, context-based errors can occur.
• Time Management : Transcribing can be time-consuming. Consider using transcription services or software to expedite the process, especially for longer recordings.
• Backup and Security : Keep your audio recordings secure and backed up to prevent loss of valuable content.
• Regular Breaks : If you're transcribing for extended periods, take regular breaks to avoid fatigue and maintain accuracy.

Speech to text apps for writers can be incredibly useful tools, allowing them to quickly transcribe their spoken words into written form. By following these simple tips, you can make sure that your dictation and transcription processes are more efficient and accurate.

Pick a favorite paragraph or scene from your work in progress and convert it using a speech-to-text software or a transcription service.

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5 Transcribing Apps: The Best Way to Transcribe Audio Files to Text

When it comes to choosing a transcribing app, quality and accuracy is critical. Whether you’re writing important articles or taking notes for class, you need to be able to trust that the app you’re using will produce a good output.

Download Rev’s Audio Transcription App

Rev › Blog › Resources › Transcribe › Transcribe Audio to Text › 5 Transcribing Apps: The Best Way to Transcribe Audio Files to Text

The best transcribing apps deliver accurate transcripts, quick turnaround times, and a way for you to easily edit the files you’re given. Many apps say they can do all of this in a convenient way, but which is the best app to transcribe audio to text? We’ll help you decide. Here are some of the best apps for transcribing audio to text (free and paid options).

1. Rev Voice Recorder

Rev offers a free voice and audio recorder that will record and create audio files for transcription directly from your phone. All you need to do is use your phone’s microphone or plug an external mic into your phone and hit record.

The app will then store your files, organize them, and even give you a way to send them directly to Rev for transcription. Once ready, the accurate text file will be delivered to your inbox quickly and effortlessly, whether you choose our AI Transcription services or Human Transcription .

Highlights:

• 99% accuracy rate for Human Transcription
• 90%+ accuracy rate for AI Transcription
• Easy file sharing
• iOS and Android compatible

2. Rev Call Recorder

Similar to the Rev Voice Recorder, Rev’s free Call Recorder app uses innovative speech recognition technology to deliver accurate transcripts quickly. As the name suggests, Rev’s Call Recorder will record phone calls that you can send directly to Rev for high-quality voice-to-text transcriptions. It’s an excellent transcribing app for phone interviews in particular.

• Make unlimited recordings for free
• 99% accurate transcripts
• Easily share across platforms like email, Dropbox, and Evernote

3. Dragon Anywhere

With the same top-level speech recognition as its desktop automatic transcription software, Dragon Anywhere is one of our favorite audio/voice-to-text apps. This subscription-based app offers a range of features and supports French and German audio alongside English, making it ideal for international businesses. It’s also available for iPhone and Android.

• Ability to add custom words for enhanced accuracy
• Easy cloud-based sharing

4. Speechnotes

Speechnotes is a simple dictation app that will turn spoken words into text in real time. With no need to make an account, this app is quick and easy to use – just open up the app and press on the microphone icon to get started.

The app can be found on the Google Play Store and is free to download but does offer a range of premium features which you can purchase after download.

• Android app that uses Google voice recognition tech
• Multiple language options
• Easy to add in punctuation

If you’re looking for a free, automatic transcribing app, Otter is a great option.

Marketing itself as an app that makes taking meeting notes easier, Otter’s automatic recording and transcribing features are ideal for recording lectures, meetings and even Zoom meetings . For maximum flexibility, you can even import existing audio / video files for transcription. It’s available on the Google Play Store and the App Store to download for free.

• Live captioning feature for accessibility
• AI technology that improves over time

Why Use an App for Transcribing Audio?

Most people are living, working, and learning on the go. With multiple deadlines, creative personal projects, and more to juggle, it’s important to be efficient with your time and energy. Transcribing apps are one of the key ways to ensure flexibility and efficiency in your work.

What You Should Know About Audio Transcribing Apps

Ultimately, the best app for transcribing audio is the one that works with your existing workflow. The three main requirements for a reliable, efficient transcription app are:

• Transcription accuracy
• Affordable pricing
• Reliability

Any of these apps will transcribe your audio to text – we recommend taking some time to try them out and find the best solution for you.

How to Transcribe Audio Files to Text with Rev

Transcribing audio files to text is quick and easy with Rev. Just follow the steps below to get your accurate transcript.

Send Rev Your Audio File

Send us the URL of your media file, or upload the recorded audio file itself to our safe and secure network. You can then choose between Rev’s human audio transcription services ($1.50 per minute, 99% accurate) or AI-powered automatic transcription services ($0.25 cents per minute, 90%+ accuracy).

Ordering a Human Transcript

Once you’ve uploaded your files, place your order and our professional network of 70,000+ transcriptionists will get to work. To checkout, you’ll need to sign up for a free Rev account if you don’t already have one.

Ordering an AI Transcript

Once your files have been uploaded, Rev’s powerful generative AI model gets to work – you’ll receive a 90%+ accurate transcription file in under 24 hours, minimizing the effort needed to get to a finalized product.

Receive and Download Your Text File

You’ll be notified by email when your file is ready, giving you instant access to your transcription. You can also use our world-class Transcript Editor to make final edits to your transcript if needed. You can also download your transcript in a variety of text formats for easy sharing.

Learn More About Transcriptions

To learn more about Rev’s audio transcriptions , check out our service options . We offer AI and human transcription, plus we give you a variety of file choices for delivery.

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7+ Best Transcription Software of 2024 (Speech to Text Tools)

Choosing the right transcription software is vitally important to your business. From basic transcription services to more advanced services, the best transcription software can help you meet your goals. In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the 7+ best transcription software , so that you can pick the best one for you.

If you have audio or video recordings that you need turned into written text, Rev.com can help.

If you’re looking for a transcription tool that prioritizes privacy, look no further than Transcribe.

Trint is the perfect transcription tool to use on both Mac and Windows.

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Love talking and hate typing?

Transcription software helps you automatically convert audio and video files into electronic text, allowing you to create transcripts for online content.

You can create podcasts , videos, online courses , and other audio recordings with this technology.

Coupled with machine translation software, these tools can help businesses market their products to an international audience in multiple formats.

In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best transcription software based on accuracy, quality, pricing, features, and more. 

Let’s get to the list. 

What is the Best Transcription Software?

Here are my top picks for the best transcription software on the market.

1. Rev.com .

Best overall transcription software ($1.25 per minute). .

Rev.com is an audio or video-to-text service with a pool of vetted professional transcriptionists, captioners, and translators. 

They help you turn your recordings into written text that you can edit, save and export into many different formats.

This system works in tandem with built-in AI tools to ensure error detection for accuracy. 

Here’s how it works: 

• You’ll upload your audio or video file from your system, or you can even copy-paste the web URL. 
• One of their professionals (from a total pool of over 60,000) will transcribe your file. They provide a 100% guarantee of over 99% accuracy. 
• Finally, you’ll receive your transcripts as an editable document. You can also view and edit the document using Rev’s built-in editing tools. 

Their standard delivery time is 12 hours, less than 30 minutes for most files.

They also provide rush delivery in about four hours (for files < 30 minutes). 

They can even handle audio with background noise, multiple speakers, and diverse accents. However, note that they only work with English audio.

Rev.com also lets you automate uploads with their API or integration with Zapier and other video platforms. 

You can also apply for automated transcriptions if you’re in a hurry and want to receive files within five minutes.

It works using the concept of speech recognition, and there’s no human intervention.

Rev also falls into the closed captioning software category, but it does much more than that, which is why it is my top recommendation for transcription software.

Other features include: 

• English captions and subtitles. 
• The ability to subtitle your video files in over eight languages.
• Adds real-time captions to Zoom webinars and meetings. 
• A built-in voice recorder. 
• Free audio trimmer and cutter. 
• Transparent pricing structure.
• 24/7 customer support. 
• Integration with Google Drive and Dropbox. 
• Free iPhone call recorder. 
• A pool of native English-speaking experts to transcribe your files. 

Pricing: 

Rev provides tons of services with a transparent pricing structure. 

Here are the services (along with their cost): 

• Automated Transcription – $0.25 cents per minute 
• Human Transcription – $1.25 per minute 
• English captions – $1.50 per minute 
• Global subtitles – $5-12 per minute 

Rev also enables verbatim transcription for an additional $0.25 per audio minute. It even captures syllables like “Um” from the audio file. 

2. Transcribe .

Best for professional transcriptionists.

Transcribe is a privacy-focused transcription tool suitable for automatically converting audio files to text.

Whether you’re listening to podcasts, music, or even an official meeting, it can save time and money and increase productivity.

Transcribe comes complete with a specialized audio player that helps to decode audio.

It provides foot pedal support along with excellent slow-motion performance.

The software comes with a dedicated help file that explains all its features.

This service is suitable for professionals who want a clean and private way of transcribing audio.

I like the handy keyboard shortcuts that help to perform tasks such as inserting timestamps.

Coming to the features, Transcribe allows you to create subtitles for videos and export transcripts as WebVTT or SRT files.

One can use these captioning videos on social media platforms like YouTube or Vimeo.

The following is a list of some essential features of Transcribe:

• Automatic text expander for acronyms
• Easy conversion from speech to text
• Manual transcription facilities such as foot pedal integration
• Automatic audio pause and resume
• Easy-to-use browser-based interface
• Works without an internet connection
• Completely secure and private

Transcript’s pricing plans are dead simple. It has only two tiers: one for self-transcription and the other for automatic transcription. The following is a brief overview of each plan and the yearly pricing.

1. Self-Transcription at $20/year

• Media player with integrated editor
• Unlimited dictation
• Automatic text expansion
• Manual transcription aids such as foot pedal integration and playback loops

2. Automatic Transcription at $20/year + $6/hour of audio

• All facilities of the self-transcription plan
• Machine learning-based automatic transcription
• Video subtitle creation features
• Speaker identification with automatic timecodes

All plans are renewable yearly.

However, the service doesn’t provide auto-renewal, so you’ll have to give explicit consent for license renewal each year.

Best for Mac Users

Trint is suitable for Mac users or Windows users who don’t want to go through the hassle of installing transcription services software.

It lets you transcribe video and audio files from the comfort of your web browser.

It’s an all-in-one audio editing and transcription platform that lets you collaborate with team members using multiple tools.

The service has a fast turnaround time, full security terms, and low error rates.

Trint uses advanced machine-learning-based algorithms for transcribing audio and video.

It supports multiple languages and includes provisions for almost all dialects in the English language.

Besides turning audio into text within a few minutes, Trint provides options for editing the text and adding captions to video files.

It also allows you to embed these searchable transcripts on your website.

Here’s a List of the Top Features that Trint Offers:

• Fast audio-to-text transcription within minutes.
• AI-based transcription leads to reduced error rates.
• Simple tools for distributing transcripts and contents.
• A dedicated app for iPhone allows on-the-go accessibility.
• Supports multiple file formats for the transcripts

Trint’s pricing covers three tiers, and the features depend on your chosen plan.

Billing is monthly, though I recommend you go with the yearly billing cycle and save 20%.

1. Starter Plan at $48/month

• Transcribe 84 files per year
• Access to the Trint editor
• Single user access

2. Advanced Plan at $60/month

• Unlimited day-to-day transcriptions

3. Enterprise Plan at Custom Rates

• Everything in Pro Team Plan
• Dedicated security and reporting features
• Supports more than 11 users

Every plan has a fair usage policy with no hidden costs or extra charges.

You can even choose to pause your plan should the need arise.

However, for large-volume transcription, you’ll need to contact the company for custom quotes.

4. Descript .

Best for collaborative audio/video editing.

Descript brings a simple document editor feeling to creating audio/video transcriptions.

The tool combines a transcriber, screen recorder, and editor in the same package.

It also includes AI-powered publishing tools that make audio/video editing easy and fun.

Using Descript is simple: you drag and drop your media file onto the editor, and the software transcribes the audio into text.

The software displays the textual transcript in a simple document editor, where you can change it in any way you please.

Correct mistakes using Overdub, snip-out fillers, and add subtitles to your videos.

Descript lets you do all that and more. It even has remote recording features and provides dedicated collaborative tools for team players.

Descript is ideal for collaborating on projects that require multiple team members.

Apart from screen capture, remote recording, and speech-to-text conversion, the tool provides live collaboration and cloud-based syncing.

The following is a list of the essential features of Descript:

• Automatic transcription with almost instant turnaround times
• White-Glove service provides professional human transcriptionists.
• Web-link-based project sharing, editing, and commenting features
• World-class data security
• Supports multiple file formats (SRT/VTT/DOC/RTF)
• Live, automatic multitrack transcription
• Create audiograms from podcast highlights

Descript provides users with four pricing plans that give correspondingly greater features. All plans are monthly, but you can save up to 20% by paying yearly. Here’s a quick look at each of the plans and the associated benefits.

1. Free Plan at $0/month

• Record and edit one project
• 20 screen recordings at a maximum resolution of 720p
• Up to three hours of transcription

2. Creator Plan at $12/editor/month

• Unlimited number of projects and screen recordings
• Up to ten hours of transcription per month
• Timeline exporting ability

3. Pro Plan at $24/editor/month

• Overdub, filler word elimination, and Audiograms
• Batch file exporting ability
• Up to 30 hours of transcription per month

4. Enterprise Plan at Custom Pricing

• SSO features
• Dedicated accounts rep
• Custom onboarding and training

5. Express Scribe .

Best for fast transcription jobs.

If you need an audio transcription done extremely fast, I recommend you go with Express Scribe .

It’s an entirely free tool compatible with audio players and can integrate with phones and computers via USB.

Apart from fast transcription, it provides a searchable text editor that you can use to edit the transcripted text.

The software works seamlessly with Microsoft Word and also supports USB foot pedals.

Express Scribe works in both Windows and Mac systems and supports most audio and video file formats.

Whether you use the keyboard hotkeys or a dedicated foot pedal, this software promises and delivers speedy transcripts.

The following is a list of the essential features that Express Scribe offers:

• Variable playback speeds
• Automatic file management
• Multi-channel control
• Supports encrypted dictation files
• Integrates with both analog and digital voice recorders
• Automatic file reception and loading via FTP or email

Express Scribe has a free version you can download from the official site.

It offers most of the required features but with limited file format support.

For working with proprietary file formats, you can purchase the Pro versions of the tool.

The Pro version of Express Scribe is available in the following two variants:

• Express Scribe Professional at $70 ($49.99 after discount)
• Express Scribe Basic at $60 ($39.95 after discount)

You can also bundle other software with the primary tool, such as Express Dictate and Express Invoice. You can pay using most cards or via PayPal.

6. Inqscribe .

Best for ease of use.

Inqscribe is one of the newer entrants into the transcription software market and is extremely easy to use.

The software’s unique selling point is its straightforward interface which makes the tool easy to operate even for first-timers.

Inqscribe provides you with a detailed guide that explains how to use it.

The software gives you simple on-screen instructions that are easy to follow.

Apart from the above, it includes a glossary of standard transcription terms so that novices can get acquainted quickly.

The software is cross-platform, although the Mac version is still in the stages of Beta testing.

It works with the most popular audio and video formats.

You can add customized timecodes, type simple notes, and export subtitles.

Despite being simple to use, Inqscribe doesn’t skimp on its features.

The intuitive interface lets you play audio/video and type out transcripts in the same window.

The editor works like a word processor and lets you insert custom snippets with a single stroke.

Here’s a list of the most significant features of the tool:

• Compatible with QuickTime and Windows Media Player
• Can play audio/video from tertiary storage
• Pitch lock feature to prevent voice distortion
• Mouse-free, keyboard-based controls
• Compatible with USB foot pedals
• Easy transcript sharing
• Works with multiple export formats
• Fully Unicode compliant
• Supports multiple languages

Downloading Inqscribe is free, and you can use the software without purchasing any license.

However, here you’d be limited in the number of features available.

For the complete Inqscribe experience, opt for an individual license at $99.

You get attractive discounts if you buy in bulk (5 or more licenses).

Academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and students can also get special rates.

Best for Real-time Transcription

Otter is an online tool that lets you record audio in real-time and transcribe it on the go.

It’s compatible with the iOS and Android operating systems, which means you can use this speech recognition software to transcribe on mobile devices.

The tool provides users with multiple options for editing transcripts and sharing them.

It even has speaker identification features.

However, a significant drawback is that you can transcribe only up to 600 minutes of audio per month with the free version.

If you opt for the tool’s premium version, you can work with prerecorded audio and video files.

The software uses Ambient Voice Intelligence technology, which improves it with repeated use.

One of the significant features of Otter is its ease of collaboration.

Apart from AI-based voice recognition, the software can interface with remote working tools such as Zoom for collaborative transcription.

Here’s a list of the other notable features that Otter offers:

• Real-time audio recording and transcription
• Searchable transcripts
• AI-based adaptability
• Suitable for businesses as well as individuals
• Dictation features for academic use

Otter’s pricing offers three tiers: Basic, Pro, and Business.

The Basic plan is suitable for official meetings with limitations.

The Pro and Business plans give access to premium features and basic capabilities.

1. Free Plan at $0

• Variable speed recording and playback
• Collaboration features
• Up to 600 minutes per month

2. Basic Plan at $8.33/month

• Advanced import and export features
• Custom Vocabulary
• Up to 6000 minutes per month

3. Business Plan at $20/user/month

• Otter Live notes and captions for Zoom
• Centralized billing
• Up to 6000 minutes per user

4. Enterprise Plan

• Contact Otter’s sales team for more information

Plans can be billed yearly or monthly, with up to 36% savings on yearly billing.

Best for Podcasters

Sonix is a highly accurate automatic transcription service suitable for podcasters and anyone looking to transcribe audio effectively.

The service is used by over a million users worldwide and delivers accurate transcriptions in more than 40 languages.

The tool works entirely online: upload an audio/video file to the service, and it’ll return the transcription within five minutes or less.

Its in-browser editor allows you to edit transcripts precisely like a word document.

When using Sonix, you don’t have to worry about punctuation and speaker separation, as it takes care of everything automatically.

You can even perform a qualitative analysis of transcripts, which few transcription tools provide.

Although Sonix is best suited for podcasters looking to create highly accurate transcripts, it can transcribe any audio or video file.

Through the Sonix media player, you can share videos and transcripts with automated subtitles to drive more significant social traffic.

Apart from the above, the following features of Sonix are also of note:

• Extremely fast and accurate
• Affordable pricing plans
• Browser-based transcript editor
• Word-wise timestamps
• Supports various text formats (DOC/TXT/PDF)
• Allows multitrack uploads
• Custom dictionaries
• Automated translation

Sonix’s pricing plans are simple: it offers three tiers: Standard, Premium, and Enterprise.

Each plan comes with advanced features and is suitable for different users.

Here’s a breakup of the different pricing options for Sonix:

• Standard (pay-as-you-go) plan at $10/hour
• Premium plan at $5/hour + $22/user/month
• Enterprise plan with custom pricing for high-volume transcription

What is Transcription Software?

Transcription software refers to tools that allow users to convert audio tracks into digital text.

There are a large number of automatic transcription tools on the market, with varying levels of accuracy.

Some transcription services include human transcriptionists in the process to increase the accuracy of the transcripted text.

However, selecting the best transcription service is not a function of accuracy alone, as I explain in the next section.

Top Users Of Transcription Software

The following are the top five users of transcription software.

Journalists And Reporters

Being able to input a quote or record notes from an interview quickly is essential for journalists and reporters.

Transcription software can help save valuable time by automatically transcribing recorded audio into text so it can be easily edited and published.

Academic Researchers

Researching requires the safekeeping of information in written form, which can be difficult when dealing with large amounts of interviews.

By using transcription software, academic researchers have access to accurate transcripts quickly, allowing them to analyze and draw conclusions from their research more efficiently.

Medical Professionals

Accurate records are essential for medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers.

Transcription software simplifies recording patient visits and treatments by automating the creation of transcripts from audio recordings.

Lawyers often take extensive notes during court proceedings and must be able to recall what was said to build their case accurately.

Transcription software can help lawyers by automatically transcribing audio recordings of court proceedings so that they can focus on the details rather than writing everything down by hand.

Business Professionals

Business professionals are always looking for ways to work faster and wiser.

Transcription software makes it easy to quickly capture meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, or customer feedback without manually writing everything down.

Such software allows business professionals to collaborate more effectively and make decisions based on accurate information.

How Do You Select the Best Speech-to-Text Software ?

As I’ve already mentioned, selecting the best transcription software depends on various factors.

In the following section, I’ll briefly touch upon each of these.

1. Accuracy

This is the first and foremost aspect to consider when choosing transcription software.

Usually, most AI-based automatic transcription tools can reach accuracy levels of up to 90% accuracy, while human transcribers have almost 99% accuracy rates .

I recommend using the free trial to test the tool’s accuracy when selecting transcription software.

Are the transcriptions it produces free of grammatical errors?

Are there any lapses in the punctuation?

These are some of the aspects you need to take into consideration.

2. Features

After accuracy, the features available play the most decisive role.

Features such as subtitling, in-browser editing, and custom timestamp insertions are some of the important ones.

If you’re a business looking for a transcription tool that helps create marketing videos with subtitles, make sure your tool has collaboration features.

Such features can help streamline workflows and increase efficiency.

3. Turnaround Times

Turnaround time refers to the time it takes for a transcription service to return the completed transcripts.

Automatic transcription software is speedy, with turnaround times of a few minutes.

However, you might have to sacrifice accuracy.

If near 100% accuracy is what you need, opt for human-in-the-loop (HITL) transcription services.

These can often have turnaround times of a week or more, so you’ll have to consider a tradeoff between accuracy and time delivered.

4. Pricing Plans

Budget is always a consideration when opting for any service, and transcription software is no different.

As you’ve already seen, most services come with a multi-tiered pricing structure that’s differentiated based on the features you need.

While large businesses can opt for custom plans, small players and individual content creators can opt for pay-as-you-go payments.

Most transcription software comes with free versions or trials that you can use to test the waters.

5. Background Noise Cleanup

Not every audio or video file you need to transcribe will have clear audio.

There may be background noise, static or other disturbances, such as fillers and accents.

Your transcription software should be able to clean all this up and deliver clear transcripts.

Some software provides multilingual support and works with all available file formats.

6. Ease of Use

Ease of use is one factor you can’t compromise when selecting a transcription service.

A simple and intuitive user interface means you’ll be able to focus on your content without worrying about navigating the software.

7. Privacy Policies

Always check out the service’s privacy policies if you use an online transcription service for sensitive audio, such as meetings/discussions.

For sensitive data, you can also ask for a non-disclosure agreement.

The advancement of AI and machine learning has boosted the transcription software industry.

Experts expect the sector to expand at a 6.1% CAGR from 2020 to 2027.

If you’re on the search for the best transcription software, then here are the top picks to choose from:

• Transcribe : Best for Professional Transcriptionists
• Trint : Best for Mac Users
• Descript : Best for collaborative audio/video editing
• Express Scribe : Best for Fast Transcription Jobs
• Inqscribe : Best for Ease of Use
• Otter : Best for real-time Transcription
• Sonix : Best for podcasters

Whatever your transcription needs, I’m sure you’ll find a good option from the list above.

Further reading on AdamEnfroy.com: AI is not just limited to transcriptions.

Voice generation software can help you create a realistic voice using artificial intelligence, which can be used for gaming purposes, creating presentations, or even for customer-support-related tasks.

With advancements in AI, many businesses are also using tools such as chatbots to help with customer support.

Check out this post about the best AI chatbots in the market if you want to learn more about this topic.

Editorial Process:

Our reviews are made by a team of experts before being written and come from real-world experience. Read our editorial process here .

Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to us at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. These are products we’ve personally used and stand behind. This site is not intended to provide financial advice. You can read our affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy .

Adam Enfroy

We test and review software products based on an independent, multi-point methodology. If you use our links to purchase something, we earn a commission. Read our editorial process and disclosures .

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The 6 Best Speech-to-Text Apps for Note-Taking

Speech-to-text apps are the best way to take notes on the go. They can also save you time. Here are some of the best ones to use.

Whether you're taking meeting minutes, interviewing someone, or researching for a project, speech-to-text apps are an excellent tool that saves time. Both students and professionals can benefit from using an app that provides speech-to-text functionality.

You can use some apps in the list below in your browser, or you can use them in an app on your phone. Depending on what you want to do with the transcribed notes, some apps may be more valuable than others. You can find the apps on Android and iOS, so your options aren't limited depending on your phone.

1. Dragon Anywhere

Dragon Anywhere provides you with dictation capabilities without any word limits. Suppose you've had bad experiences with talk-to-text apps transcribing your audio incorrectly. You don't have to worry about that with Dragon Anywhere since it has 99% accuracy with powerful voice formatting and editing.

You can use the Train Words feature to teach Dragon Anywhere how you speak. Once you have your audio transcribed, you can share your documents by email, Dropbox, and other apps. The app doesn't limit the length of your documents. You can easily adjust formatting, edit them quickly, and share them on the most common cloud-sharing platforms.

Dragon Anywhere allows you to add custom words for industry-specific terminology for better dictation accuracy. The platform has solid voice formatting and editing options, including selecting words and sentences for deletion or editing.

You can save time crafting emails and dictating your text. You can open your dictation files in Microsoft Word or save your dictation to Evernote as a new note. Furthermore, you can change between Dragon Anywhere and your desktop to complete documents. The app allows you to dictate on multiple mobile devices, as long as you log in to your accounts and synchronize all your customizations.

Download : Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases)

Gboard is a platform that accurately converts audio to text with an API (application programming interface) powered by the best of Google's AI technology and research. You can access Gboard using Google Assistant, and the app transcribes your speech with accurate captions. You benefit from Google's advanced intense learning neural network algorithms in its automatic speech recognition.

You can test the app's Teach Speak-to-Text user interface to manage and create custom resources, such as standard industry terms and acronyms. One of Gboard's key features is its speech adaptation, which provides hints to improve your transcription accuracy of unique words or phrases. The feature uses classes to automatically convert spoken numbers into currencies, addresses, and years.

You can use Gboard to dictate emails, create Google Docs, and in any other app on your phone. You can transcribe video meetings to take meeting minutes. Gboard offers robust language support in over 125 languages and variations. If you're in a noisy room, the app's speech-to-text can handle the audio without needing any noise cancellation.

You can transcribe audio the app receives from the audio on your device's microphone, or you can upload pre-recorded audio from the cloud or your device. You may be interested in learning how to transcribe speech in real-time with Google Translate .

Download : Android | iOS (Free)

3. Speechnotes

Speechnotes is available as a mobile app and a web service. The online version of the platform works in your Chrome browser, so you don't have to download any programs—the company endeavors to provide the best online dictation tool. The app's creators designed it to provide an environment without distractions. The app simulates a blank sheet of white paper to spark your mind.

The app is free, and the creators claim that the accuracy is comparable to Dragon Anywhere. If you're looking for an app that allows you to use voice control other apps, Speechnotes isn't the app you're looking for, and the app is strictly a dictation app.

Features of Speechnotes include Autosave, which saves the document in real time when you make changes, so you don't have to interrupt yourself. You can save your transcription in Google Drive or download it as a document to your computer to email or print your note.

Data from Speechnotes shows that speaking instead of typing allows you to think and talk it out uninterrupted, which supports creative thinking, which is good for content creators. If you have a podcast, you might be interested in what Descript is and how you use it .

Download : Android (Free, in-app purchases)

4. Transkriptor

Transkriptor can convert audio recorded on your device or audio you've uploaded in minutes. When your transcription is ready, you get a notification on your phone, if you allow it, and receive an email.

You can transcribe interviews, video content, meetings, podcasts, and phone calls. You can save time and money using a transcription app to convert audio to text. Before talk-to-text apps, you had to hire someone to listen to audio and make notes, and now you can take advantage of the technology advancements.

Regardless of your profession, if you need to make notes, you can benefit from using Transkriptor. Whether you're a journalist, academic researcher, student, or lawyer, as long as you have to take notes, you can use the app to improve your efficiency.

You can download the text in various formats, such as SRT, TXT, or Microsoft Word, to share the text with others. To make your videos more accessible, you can create subtitles when you convert your event recordings to text. You might be interested in working with closed captions and transcriptions in Adobe Premiere .

Braina is another dictation application with speech recognition software that converts your voice into text on any website or software. For example, you can dictate in Microsoft Word or Notepad. The platform supports over 100 languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Hindi, German, and English. The app is easy, fast, and accurate, helping you be more productive.

Braina is an app you can use to control your computer. You can customize your voice commands and replies to automatically launch any software, open a website, or trigger keyboard macros utilizing the app to interact with your computer via Wi-Fi from anywhere in your home.

The app goes beyond the functionality of Siri and Cortana, providing you with a powerful office productivity tool. Braina is the result of solid research the creators did in the artificial intelligence industry. Like a human brain, the app is a digital assistant that can think, understand, and learn from experience.

Otter can take notes, record meetings, and generate text that you can share. If staff need to miss meetings to meet deadlines, you can record meetings and share notes to keep members in the loop.

You can capture all your important meetings and conversations, whether they take place in person or virtually. Otter assistant integrates with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. You can save the transcriptions in a secure, central, and accessible place.

Otter allows you to customize the app's vocabulary, including names and acronyms. It doesn't matter where you are; you can record and transcribe conversations in person, on your phone, or via video.

Otter for business allows you to connect with your Google or Microsoft Calendar and automatically schedule your Otter assistant to join Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams meetings. You can pay more attention to the discussion when you know the app is recording it, and it notes everything participants say. You may be interested in learning about the best tools for transcribing video meetings to shareable documents ​​​​​.

Are You Ready to Increase Your Efficiency?

Once you find a talk-to-text app that works for you, you can take advantage of the functionality to save time on minute-taking and researching topics. Some apps allow you to control your laptop or desktop computer from your phone, as long as you connect your device to your Wi-Fi network.

You can try different apps to see which one you feel more comfortable with. Depending on what you want to use the app to achieve, you can find an app that you can use to take notes, write emails, and write documents.

12 Best Speech-to-Text Apps for Android and iPhone in 2024

Saving time and effort with Notta, starting from today!

Speech-to-text apps are handy for everyday use and stand out from transcription software, which is often more time-consuming to use. The primary difference between the two is that speech-to-text apps will take live speech and transform it into readable content. For example, a speech-to-text app can create a text copy of what you dictate to your phone.

 In contrast, transcription software will create a text copy of an audio file. However, transcription apps almost always require you to upload a pre-recorded audio file, adding one more step to the process.

I’ve spent hours researching the best speech-to-text apps available for their usability, accuracy, pricing, and much more. Today, I'm sharing the 12 best speech-to-text apps for Android and iPhones.

How to Choose the Best Speech-to-text Apps

Our criteria for choosing the best speech-to-text apps for Android and iPhones include the following factors:  

Accuracy: A guaranteed accuracy level or customers experiencing strong accuracy with the speech-to-text app was a hugely important factor when choosing apps for our list. Accuracy is a crucial feature that ensures the app will save you time in the long run because you won’t have to go through and extensively edit the transcript.

User-friendliness:  User-friendliness is crucial to the functionality of any app. If I found the app unwieldy, difficult to use, or not organized intuitively, I didn’t include the app on our list.

Pricing:  I looked for apps that are reasonably priced and included the prices throughout our list so that you are aware of all fees going into using the app.

High customer ratings: I checked that the following speech-to-text apps for Android and iPhones had high customer ratings and satisfaction online.

Multi-language support:  I looked for apps with multiple-language support to fit many language needs.

App compatibility:  Speech-to-text apps that are compatible with other apps or integrate within other apps were prioritized on our list. This is an essential feature if you want to use the app among multiple platforms and apps.

No additional software required:  I prioritized apps that only needed one software or app to use and skipped any apps that required multiple downloads or software to operate thoroughly.

Security features: I looked into the app's security and privacy measures to protect your private information.

12 Best Speech-to-Text Apps

Verdict: Notta is an impressive app with over 98% accuracy and various helpful features, including organizational tools and options for exporting audio and text.

Notta  is an innovative, safe speech-to-text app offering free basic and multiple paid plan options. It does not share data with third parties or collect data. Your private data is also encrypted in transit, and you can request that data be deleted. In addition to these security measures, Notta can transcribe audio files and video calls live or post-recording. I also love that Notta directly connects to Notion, allowing you to save transcripts to Notion quickly.

Notta offers a massive variety of organization features, including the ability to organize your transcripts and voice notes in folders. The editing feature also allows you to edit the transcription and add images and notes. Notta also supports adding vocabulary to improve accuracy for English transcription and over 42 supported languages. In addition, it offers many export formats, such as docx, srt, txt, pdf, and xlsx. Lastly, Notta syncs across multiple devices, such as your phone, tablet, and computer, saving you time and energy transferring the files yourself.

Add images to a transcript.

Automatic correction and editing while you speak.

Multiple playback speeds.

Valuable organization features.

Syncs across multiple devices.

Doesn’t connect to smart home devices.

Pricing : Basic plan: $0, Pro: $8.25 per month billed annually

Supported OS : iOS, Android, PC, Mac, Chromebooks

Supported Languages : 58 languages, including English, Spanish, German, Chinese, and Arabic.

Looking for a better transcription? Notta AI offers accuracy, efficiency, and advanced features. Experience seamless transcription today!

2. Google Assistant

Verdict: Google Assistant is ideal for users looking for various features, including speech-to-text applications, search functions, and playing music.

Google Assistant  is your own personal assistant and includes many helpful features, including speech-to-text applications. Google Assistant can search for things for you, adjust your smart home’s temperature and lighting, and send text messages. Google Assistant integrates with mobile devices, smart speakers, smart displays, your car, TV, laptop, and smartwatches.

Google Assistant also offers a variety of security features. Your privacy is personal. The app doesn’t record everything you say while on standby, and you have the option to delete anything you say. You can also set your data up to auto-delete. In addition, Google Assistant also integrates with all other Google apps. Google Assistant also offers a Guest Mode, which prohibits the app from saving information to your Google Account.

Connects to your smart home and home automation devices.

Offers a huge variety of assistant and productivity features.

Uses artificial intelligence and can engage in two-way conversations.

Transcription editing features are limited.

Pricing : Free

Supported OS : Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Smart speakers, Smart home devices.

Supported Languages : 12 languages in total, including English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, and many dialects among these languages.

3. Apple Dictation for iOS users

Verdict: This app is ideal for iPhone and iPad users who want an app that allows them to add punctuation and formatting while they are speaking.

Apple Dictation  is a versatile, accurate speech-to-text app built into iPhone 6s or higher and iPads. It can be used without an Internet connection and offers a high accuracy rating. In addition, this app has impressive customer reviews and features great punctuation and formatting tools that I haven’t seen with many speech-to-text apps. With a few basic punctuation and formatting commands, you can format and add punctuation, like periods, commas, dollar signs, quotation marks, colons, and much more.

I like that Apple Dictation is flawlessly integrated into iOS products. It also has a simple user interface that makes using and learning the app easy. I also like that the dictation will either stop manually or automatically after 30 seconds of no speaking. All in all, this app is a great on-the-go option for iPhone and iPad users.

Can be used on iPhone 6 or later and iPad without an Internet connection.

You can use Voice Control to interact with your iPhone.

Dictate text of any length.

Not available on Android devices.

Not available in all countries and regions.

Supported OS : iOS, macOS and iPadOS.

Supported Languages : 16 total supported languages, including English, German, Finnish, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish.

4. Gboard - The Google Keyboard

 Verdict: Ideal for Android users looking for both glide typing and voice typing.

Gboard  offers reliable voice typing and accurate speech-to-text features. I love that it provides efficient voice and glide typing, allowing you to slide your finger from letter to letter rather than regular typing and dictating on the go. You can type faster using Gboard’s voice typing feature and talk to anyone with the built-in translate feature. The app also offers handwriting options, allowing your text to appear in cursive and printed letters. I also like that you can add GIFs, stickers, and emojis to your text to infuse your personality into the text. Lastly, it offers intelligent suggestions to improve spelling and readability while you type.

Gboard also has a variety of user-friendly functions, such as one-handed mode and the ability to customize the interface by making the number row available and creating symbol hints. It also allows you to choose your own theme, including or excluding key borders.

Gboard does not share data with third parties and allows you to request that data be deleted. This app also encrypts data in transit.

Offers GIFs, stickers, and emojis through emoji kitchen.

Multilingual typing allows you to switch between languages automatically.

Translate as you type with Google Translate.

Supports a huge number of languages.

Not available for iOS users.

No verbal punctuating formatting.

Supported OS : Android

Supported Languages : English, Spanish, Chinese, 150+ total supported languages.

Verdict: This app is best suited for Dragon Professional desktop product users or users who want unlimited Cloud syncing.

Dragon  is a highly accurate, fast speech-to-text app that syncs with other Dragon Professional desktop products. It also syncs to the Cloud and readily shares documents with other apps, like your email, Evernote, and Dropbox. A lifetime of upgrades is also included with the software.

I love that Dragon has no length limitations for your dictation, so you could dictate an entire book or business report if you want. It also has many voice formatting and editing options, including correction, deletion, editing, and standard formatting dictations. You can also add specific jargon from your industry to Dragon’s vocabulary and create custom voice commands to skip repetitive steps. For example, you could program a custom voice command to insert a clause or email signature into your document automatically.

Dragon is heavily focused on privacy and shares that all your communication with the Cloud is secured with enterprise-grade encryption. It also doesn’t access your personal information, such as your contacts or location.

99% accuracy and high speed.

Unlimited dictation to the Cloud.

Share documents to Dropbox, Evernote, email, and more.

Syncs with other Dragon Professional desktop products.

Requires active WiFi or cellular connection.

Pricing : $15 monthly or $150 yearly.

Supported OS : iOS and Android

Supported Languages : English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch.

Verdict: Otter is ideal for business use because of its collaborative and organizational functions.

Otter  is a cloud-based speech-to-text app with many features, from keyword summaries to the word cloud, real-time transcription, and additional playback speeds. Otter’s AI software automatically captures meeting notes, helps you find your transcriptions, and annotates and shares notes to allow for better collaboration.

Otter is recommended for lectures, meetings , interviews, and more, making it a versatile app. It offers many work functions, including collaboration features, bulk export options, and the capability to sync audio from Dropbox. In addition, the Teams plan offers additional features, including user management, centralized billing, two-factor authentication, voiceprints, live captioning, and user statistics. I like that Otter has different speakers and allows you to assign different speaker IDs, making it easier to understand your transcription.

Free tier available.

Multiple export options.

Live captioning available.

Team collaboration features.

Live chat support is not available.

Only supports English and regional accents.

Pricing : Basic plan: free, Pro plan: $16.99 per month, Business plan: $20/per user per month, enterprise plans available.

Supported Languages : English and regional accents.

Verdict: Verbit is an excellent platform for building a business due to its specialized teams and accessibility technology. 

Verbit  is trusted by over 3,000+ organizations, including Google, Blackboard, CNN, and Fox. Verbit has a considerable number of tools, including live captioning , audio descriptions, translation and subtitles. The audio description makes this an accessible option that supports audiences who have vision loss. The descriptions are created by expert human describers and are ideal for both corporate and learning video content.

Verbit has professional-grade accuracy and offers easy-to-schedule real-time services. It’s built for meetings, podcasts, events, and live formats. You can also integrate Verbit with Microsoft Teams , Zooms, and other apps. I like that this app uses a mixture of speech models, including algorithms and neural networks, to lessen background noise, making your audio easier to understand. This app is noted for being great at differentiating between speakers with different accents.

Verbit is a speech-to-text service, but it should be stressed that it’s more of an enterprise transcription service. However, I like that Verbit has industry-leading turnarounds and customized templates that fit corporate formatting requirements.

Enterprise service.

Smart AI software.

Team Technology.

Integrates with many platforms, like Vimeo, Zoom, YouTube, etc.

Not always live.

Pricing : Custom pricing

Supported OS : Android and iOS

Supported Languages : English and Spanish, with plans to expand in the future.

8. Speechmatics

Verdict: Speechmatics is an excellent app option that supports different accents and is ideal for prominent British accents.

Speechmatics  is a leading speech recognition technology that works on both existing video and audio files and live audio. This app is ideal for users concerned about converting speech to text with solid accents, especially prominent British accents. The app also advertises itself to be great for American, South African, and Jamaican accents.

Speechmatics has a high accuracy of 86.5% or more. It also offers many speech-to-text transcription services, including call center phone recording transcriptions that you can turn into searchable Word or text documents. The software is also compatible with video and other media and creates captions and keyword triggers to organize your files.

In short, I like that Speechmatics is a versatile, accessible, and comprehensive software. It’s also a massive plus that this app features speaker diarization, which detects and labels different speakers within the audio. Lastly, it offers extensive advanced punctuation to make transcription easier.

No contract required.

Automatic sample rate detection chooses the best transcription model.

Deploys in the Cloud.

Supports all major file formats.

Offers online support during traditional business hours for On Demand and Enterprise plans.

No free option available.

Offers only essential features with nothing standout.

Pricing : Free tier, On-demand with pricing starting at $2.75 per hour, Enterprise with custom pricing.

Supported Languages : 34 supported languages in total.

9. Braina Pro

Verdict: This app best suits someone who wants a powerful digital assistant and jargon dictation capabilities.

Braina Pro  is three times faster than typing and offers many personal virtual assist and dictation features. I love that it has a simple user interface design, making it easy to learn and use. In addition, the app is easy to set up and requires no voice training. Braina Pro can recognize unusual vocabulary, including scientific, legal, and medical terms and jargon.

I like that Braina Pro also offers many dictation commands, making accurate punctuation and formatting easy. The app is also organized, searches for online information, has a dictionary and thesaurus and plays and searches for songs and videos. I like that it can also use custom replies and offers support with its pro plans.

Overall, Braina Pro is a great virtual assistant and dictation app designed to optimize your productivity. Its custom voice commands can save you a lot of time.

Up to 99% accurate speech recognition.

Understands complex jargon and unusual vocabulary.

Offers both subscription model and lifetime payment choices.

Allows you to control your PC and use the Wi-Fi network remotely.

Need to be online and have Chrome installed for speech recognition functionality to work.

Pricing : Free plan, $79 for Braina PRO plan, $199 for lifetime Braina PRO plan.

Supported OS : Android, iOS, Windows

Supported Languages : English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and over 100 supported languages.

10. Just Press Record

Verdict: Just Press Record is an easy-to-use, highly accessible app with excellent VoiceOver support to ensure everyone can use it.

Just Press Record  is an award-winning audio recorder that records audio, transcribes, and syncs across all iOS devices, including Apple Watch. Just Press Record requires only a tap to start recording and a single swipe to pause, allowing you to record in the background discreetly. The app also features your last 12 recordings on your Apple Watch, so you can easily listen to your latest recordings. I like that it also syncs immediately with your other Apple devices, saving you time transferring files.

Just Press Record is a highly accessible app with Voiceover features , reduced motion and support, and extra-large complication templates. I also love that Just Press Record has many organizational and editing features, including the ability to rename recordings, create a dedicated tab for quick access to recordings on your Apple Watch, and search by transcription content. You can also make instantaneous corrections to your transcription, including adding text. Just Press Record also has the ability to visualize your audio in waveform and edit out audio cuts.

Simple user interface。

Pro audio recordings up to 24-bit with external microphones.

Organizational features available.

Edit your transcription.

Unlimited recording time.

Can’t add images or notes to your transcription.

No Android version available.

Pricing : $4.99 one-time fee

Supported OS : iOS

Supported Languages : Over 30 supported languages, including English.

11. Speechnotes

Verdict: Speechnotes is ideal for users wanting a simple user interface and easy editing choices.

Speechnotes  is a speech-to-text online notepad with professional and accurate free speech recognition. It has a built-in text editor, allowing you to make edits to your transcription quickly. In addition, it has an amazingly clean, efficient, easy-to-use user interface. The Speechnotes technology is cutting-edge and has high-quality accuracy. 

Speechnotes has many productivity features in addition to their dictation capabilities. I love that it has Cloud saving, export to Google Docs, and the ability to download as a document on your PC. It also auto-saves your document in real-time, so you never have to worry about losing your transcription. Speechnotes will also automatically capitalize letters at the beginning of the sentence, saving you time editing your document later.

Overall, I like that Speechnotes values user privacy by never saving anything you say or type with third parties other than Google’s speech-to-text engine. The website interface also doesn’t use any cookies and follows Google’s strict privacy policies.  Lastly, I like that it has custom key options, allowing you to create signatures, names, clauses, or save other frequently used text.

Available on PC and Android, no download is needed on PC.

Free unlimited usage.

Auto saves your document and edits.

No iOS app available.

In-app advertisements for free option.

Pricing : Free option and pro plans available.

Supported Languages : English, Czech, Dutch, and many more.

12. Transcribe - Speech to Text

Verdict: Transcribe is ideal for transcribing videos and voice memos to text using almost instant AI technology.

Transcribe is an excellent iOS app that automatically transcribes any voice memo or video. It supports a massive number of languages, over 120, including dialects. Transcribe is a highly-rated transcription app with a built-in text search feature that allows you to find transcriptions on your phone quickly. You can also export texts to various editors, including messages, mail, Facebook, and notes. It also syncs audio and transcripts across all of your devices.

I love that Transcribe has an easy-to-use interface and offers a dark mode to lessen eye strain. You can also import files from DropBox and other apps. The export functions within Transcribe are also many, including the ability to export your files as DOCS, SRT, PDF, and TXT.

Overall, I recommend Transcribe for iOS users looking for a user-friendly interface that syncs automatically across all your Apple devices.

Synchronize an unlimited number of files, up to 50 GB, with the app.

Free trial available.

Five extra hours of transcription free each month with the PRO plan.

No disclosed accuracy rate.

No Android app available.

Can’t add images or notes to your transcript.

Pricing : $5 per transcription hour, subscription options available.

Supported Languages : supports over 120+ languages and dialects, including English, Russian, and Spanish.

Best Speech-to-text Apps: At a Glance

Now that we have covered the top speech-to-text apps in detail, I compare and contrast them to help you decide the best one. 

Useful tips for using speech-to-text apps

You should follow a few essential tips when using a speech-to-text app to keep your transcription as accurate as possible.

Speak clearly and loudly.  The app should be able to hear you clearly to maintain the highest level of accuracy for the transcription. Use a microphone, if possible, to heighten your voice and reduce background noise. In addition, I recommend speaking slowly and enunciating clearly so that the app doesn’t misunderstand your words.

Avoid background noise as much as possible.  Background noise can skew the accuracy of your transcription and lead to gaps in the text.

Outline a draft first.  If you are dictating a voice memo or email, go over your notes or outline first. This can help you avoid pauses and errors while dictating.

Emphasize while you speak.  Take pauses before sentences, and don’t be afraid to take a long pause to collect your thoughts.

Learn voice commands.  Many speech-to-text apps offer dictation commands, such as “comma,” “period,” or “open quotes,” so that you can add punctuation to your transcription easily. Many of these apps also allow you to insert emojis as you go. Using voice commands will save you time in the long run by cutting down on edits later.

Choose the best app for your situation. Take a moment to assess the many speech-to-text apps available and choose an app that is best fitted to your needs. For example, if you plan on having multiple speakers for dictation, select an app advertised as good at identifying multiple speakers. Likewise, some apps offer many more supported languages and dialects, so if you have a strong accent or want transcription that translates to other languages, choose one of those apps.

Proofread your transcriptions.  Before sending your transcription to a colleague or fellow student, take a moment to look over the transcription for mistakes. Even the best speech-to-text apps will make occasional errors, so always take a moment to double-check for mistakes to avoid any embarrassing moments.  

Use placeholder commands.  Check if your speech-to-text app offers the ability to use a placeholder word. The placeholder word will signify to your app to insert a phrase, jargon, or email signature instead of needing to state the entire phrase each time you dictate to your app.

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1. How to use Google Docs to convert speech to text?

To use Google Docs to convert speech to text, start by opening a Google Doc with your browser. Then, click ‘Tools’  and click the microphone icon. Start speaking at a normal pace and volume so the Doc can pick up your audio easily. Please note that this accessibility feature is only available when Google Docs is open within a Chrome browser.

2. What is the most realistic text-to-speech?

The most realistic text-to-speech app is Nuance Dragon, Murf, Speechify, Synthesys, and Notevibs. Text-to-speech apps are a form of assistive technology that reads text aloud, giving it the nickname “read aloud” technology as well. Text-to-speech apps can read words on your computer or mobile device and convert them to audio aloud. These apps are helpful for those with vision impairments, students or employees wanting to have documents read aloud to reinforce learning, or individuals looking to multitask.

3. What is speech-to-text used for?

Speech-to-text is used for speech recognition and translating spoken words into text through a computer or app. Speech-to-text is also referred to as computer speech recognition or speech recognition. Additionally, its best uses are saving notes on your phone through dictation, media subtitling, clinical documentation, call analytics, and media content search.

4. Should I use free speech-to-text software or paid speech-to-text software?

Using free speech-to-text software or paid speech-to-text software is entirely up to you. However, free speech-to-text software often lacks quality technical support and may not have the best accuracy or speed. Much speech-to-text software also lacks capacity, so you may be limited by a small number of recording time. Lastly, free speech-to-text software may require a more significant time commitment on your part because lower accuracy may require you to make additional edits that you wouldn’t otherwise need to do.

5. Is voice-to-text software secure?

Yes, voice-to-text software is reasonably secure. As with anything, there is some risk to your security in using any software. However, voice-to-text software removes the human transcription element, decreasing the risk of security leaks or information being read by other humans.

Key Takeaways

The best speech-to-text apps have many great uses, from saving you time, freeing up your hands, and creating a neat transcription of your dictation. I hope today’s guide to the 12 best speech-to-text apps inspires you to use a great app to improve productivity and save time during busy work or school schedules. Notta  allows you to focus on current conversations, organize your transcriptions, and generate valuable documents, such as work memos, reports, and video subtitles from your transcriptions.

Chrome Extension

Help Center

vs Otter.ai

vs Fireflies.ai

vs Happy Scribe

vs Sonix.ai

Integrations

Microsoft Teams

Google Meet

Google Drive

Audio to Text Converter

Online Video Converter

Online Audio Converter

Online Vocal Remover

YouTube Video Summarizer

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10 best dictation apps for Android to transcribe audio to text

Dictation is a niche, but important function. After all, your voice is a lot faster than typing, pretty much all the time. Your mobile is perfect for this, given its portability. Of course, you’ll need a good app to use speech-to-text. Here are the best dictation apps for Android.

The best dictation apps for Android

Google keep, google translate.

• Live Transcribe

Microsoft Translate

Speechnotes, speechtexter, dragon anywhere, dictation websites, gboard (or most keyboards).

Price: Free

Gboard is a pretty good choice for voice dictation. It has a mic icon that you press. From there, just speak your sentences, and the app types it out. You can do this in a variety of apps, including note-taking apps, emails, or other text documents. We list Gboard because it uses Google’s speech-to-text technology. It works pretty well overall. However, most keyboards have a mic option that also works. It’s a good method for voice dictation because you can use your keyboard in almost any app.

By the way, this option is even better if you have a Pixel 6 or newer Pixel phone. These devices have Assistant voice typing , which is a much more advanced version of this app’s voice-to-text feature.

Google Keep is another good solution for dictation. You do need a keyboard with the functionality as well, though. The charm of Keep is that it keeps your audio file saved while your keyboard types out the transcription as you talk. You wind up with both the original audio file and also the transcription. It’s an excellent tool for this sort of thing, as many people use dictation for notes for the most part. Google Keep is a free option. Those looking for something a bit more professional can try Evernote as well.

Google Translate is a good option for dictation. You can easily and quickly translate between many languages, and a wide variety of them work offline. You can then copy and paste the translations wherever you want. It’s an excellent option for interviews where there is a multilingual element. Every translation stays on screen until you clear it. It can be a little tedious if you need to do a lot of translating, but it gets the job done.

Live Translate

Google’s Live Transcribe is an excellent way to transcribe things. You simply talk into it, and the app puts your voice into text. It has a variety of features, mainly for accessibility. That’s what the app is for, after all. However, it does save every transcription for three days on your phone. While it’s there, you can copy and paste it to your chosen note-taking or text document app. It may not work for super long applications, but otherwise, it works surprisingly well.

Microsoft Translate is one of the better dictation apps for the same reason as Google Translate. You can conduct things like interviews and get translations if the answers are in a different language from yours. The app boasts 70 languages, a two-pane mode in case both speakers need translation, and you can copy and paste stuff from the app into another one for future reference. Google Translate is the better option, but this is a good second option if Google isn’t doing it for you.

Price: Free / $16.99 per month

Otter is one of the most popular dictation apps on mobile right now. It’s technically a voice recorder app. You record voice audio, whether it be a work meeting or a school lecture. The app then gives you the option to listen and transcribe the audio. The free version of the app supports 300 minutes per month for free. Anything more serious and you need the subscription. There are also a bunch of other features, like collaboration features, the ability to identify speakers, and more. This is easily one of the best on mobile and one of the ones we’d recommend first.

Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $22.99 once

Speechnotes is an older option, but it still works decently well. This one is good for longer dictation. It boasts unlimited, non-stop dictation until you fill up your phone storage. Some other features include Google Drive backup, offline support, and controls for punctuation. There is also a home screen widget if you need it. The app has its ups and downs, a result of being around for so long. It’s also reasonably cheap with options for both a single and subscription price tier.

SpeechTexter is one of the better free dictation apps. It’s pretty simple to use. You simply open the app, hit the mic button, and start talking. This one supports more than 70 languages, decent accuracy, a custom commands dictionary, and you can share transcriptions if you need to. There aren’t a ton of features, but it is entirely free (with ad support), so it’s unreasonable to think it’ll compete with more expensive dictation apps. It still works well, even if it’s a bit anemic on features.

Price: $15 per month / $150 per year

Dragon Anywhere is made by Nuance, and is a professional-grade speech recognition service for your mobile device. It offers fast dictation, document creation/sharing, voice editing, cloud syncing, and seamless integration with Dragon Professional desktop services. Sounds fancy? It kind of is, which is why this app has no free version. You can get a 7-day trial, but the app costs $15 a month otherwise.

There are several free services online that can dictate and transcribe voice audio. Some examples include Dictanote, Amazon Transcribe , Speechnotes , Dictation.io , and many others. The services are usually free, at least to an extent, and you can access them from your mobile browser. Your browser needs mic permission, though, so be prepared for that. During testing, it seems most of them need Google Chrome to function properly so you’ll most likely need Chrome to make this solution work.

If we missed any great dictation apps to transcribe audio to text, tell us about them in the comments. You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists .

7 Best speech to text apps for iPhone in 2024

Some people can type hell for leather, but we have to agree that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. How would it be if you could type as fast as you speak? Well, why think when you can execute! While iPhone’s native Notes app can handle your basic transcribing needs, it lacks added functionality.

So, here’s a list of the best speech-to-text apps for your iPhone!

• dictate2us Record & Transcribe
• Rev Voice Recorder & Memos
• Day One Journal

1. Evernote: Notes organizer – Editor’s choice

Evernote is a widely used application for note-taking. However, it serves multiple purposes like clipping articles, scanning documents, and also allows adding content (pictures, videos, audio, etc.) with notes.  

Open the virtual keyboard and tap the mic below the return key to dictate text. You can now dictate, and it’ll not only be converted but also sync across your devices.

If you’re a student, you can use the app to take notes, track them, and even create separate notebooks. Further, you can also bring people, projects, and ideas together with shared Spaces. This is especially helpful for businesses or if you are working on a group project. Evernote also has multiple other features and is free to use.  

• Scan and convert handwritten notes
• Transcription works flawlessly
• Numerous useful templates
• Note linking
• Excellent organization system
• Cannot save data offline
• Lean cloud storage
• Cannot sync with more than 2 devices with the basic plan

Price : Free (In-App Purchases start at $10.00)

2. dictate2us Record & Transcribe – Fastest transcription service

Dicatate2us is one of the leaders in transcription services, and you can get the audio transcribed within an hour regardless of the time, 365 days a year. You can record letters, reports, case notes, interviews, etc.  

All you need to do is save a recording which will get uploaded to the platform. A person, yes, an actual person, will sit and transcribe the audio, after which an editor will check if there are errors, and then the Google doc file will be sent to you.  

Dicatate2us can be downloaded for free, and you get a $15 free trial credit. After the trial ends, you are charged a minute rate depending on the turnaround time. D2U uses military-grade encryption, so you need not worry about confidential data being hacked.

• Military-grade encryption
• Fast turnaround time
• $15 Trial credit
• Can’t transcribe instantly

Price : Free ($15 trial credit) 

3. Transcribe: Speech to Text – Instant transcription

Some people repeatedly listen to their voice memos as reminders. However, listening to the whole message to get to something you want to hear might be a time-consuming event, and Transcribe comes in. It is among the fastest transcription apps. A tap of a button is all it takes to transcribe your audio or video files. 

It lets you transcribe any voice or video file into text. All is done with the help of AI. You get 15 minutes of the free trial, after which you will need to either upgrade to the Pro version or buy add-on hours. Transcribe Pro offers features like exporting files in TXT, PDF, and DOCX formats. You also get 5 hours of transcription every month and can save up to 50GB of files on its cloud.  

• Instant transcription
• Supports both audio and video files
• Supports multiple file formats
• Not great for longer duration transcriptions
• Users have reported frequent app crashes

Price : Free (In-app purchase starts at $4.99)

4. Rev Voice Recorder & Memos – Simplified design

Rev Voice is yet another transcription service that people have employed to transcribe audio. The company claims a 99% plus accuracy rate alongside fast turnaround times. You can get a 30-minute recording transcribed under 12 hours.  

The Rev Voice app has a clean and minimal user interface. Besides transcribing audio, it also lets you record audio, trim the audio, etc. You can use the recorder in the background, and it will automatically pause when you receive a call.  

While the application is free to download, Rev charges 1 credit for a minute of audio transcribed, and if you avail of their services through their website, it’ll cost you $1.50 for a minute of audio transcribed. You can also view the progress of your order, and once done, you’ll receive it in your email inbox and the app.

• Affordable rates
• Effortless editing
• High accuracy rate
• The subscription model would make the service more appealing
• Turnaround times are longer

Price : Free (1 credit costs $1.99)

5: Dictation: Speech to text – Translate your transcription

Dictation serves one purpose, converting speech to text, and it does the job quite decently. But there are instances where it might miss a few words. You can not only record audio in the app but also import audio files.

Further, translation is a unique feature offered by Dictation. It supports over 40 languages. All you have to do is tap a button to translate the transcribed text.

The app also has iCloud Synchronization. Once turned on, you can dictate text from your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, etc.

Besides, you can also share the text across several social media platforms like Twitter, WhatsApp, etc. However, the app is infested with ads. You will need to upgrade to the pro version to get rid of ads, costing $17.49 per year.

• Translation with support for 40 languages
• Works flawlessly across multiple iOS devices
• Cluttered UI 
• Infested with ads 

Price : Free (Pro version costs $4.99 per month)

6. Day One Journal: Private diary – Journalling made fun

If you want to get into the habit of maintaining a daily journal but have been postponing the idea for a long time because you find writing to be a tedious process, Day One Journal is here to help. You can add notes to your journal at any time of the day as the app provides speech-to-text services.

It’s not just words; you can also add videos and images alongside handwritten entries or drawings to your journal. However, this feature is limited to the premium version. You can also take notes from your Apple watch. If that was not enough, you could also send text messages or emails to your journals.  Pretty impressive, right?

• Easy to use
• Supports and integrates images, videos, etc., in the journal
• Can only be used as a diary

Price : Free (Premium costs $5.99 per month)

7. Otter: Transcribe voice notes – Best for businesses

Otter works flawlessly for transcribing text and is an excellent tool for personal use. But it shines more when put to use in a corporate environment. You can automatically take notes (through speech to text), save these notes, and share them with everyone on the team.

Another great feature of Otter is that it provides live captioning to the deaf or people with special needs. The app also lets users highlight text, and the punctuation is quite accurate.

The integration of Otter with iOS helps you start recording through Siri shortcuts and syncs notes with the iOS calendar, contacts, etc. You can also record with AirPods. The app offers all these features for a limited amount of time as a free trial, after which the Pro subscription offers 6000 transcription minutes per month. A great overall app for businesses!

• Caters to specially-abled users
• Great iOS integration
• The free plan is good for personal use
• Transcription is a hit or miss for longer audio files
• No support for images in notes

Price : Free (Premium Costs $16.99 per month) 

Wrapping up!

Well, this was my list of the best speech-to-text apps for iPhone and iPad, which are beneficial for both students and professionals. If you found the right speech-to-text app that suits your requirements, share your thoughts in the comments below!

• Best translation apps for iPhone and iPad
• Best voice changer for Mac
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• Best voice recorder apps for iPhone

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• Accessibility and Aging
• For maintaining independence

The Best Dictation Software

Dictation software makes it easy to navigate your computer and communicate without typing a single phrase.

This flexibility is great if you simply need a break from your keyboard, but it’s especially important for people with language-processing disorders or physical disabilities. Firing off a quick text or typing a memo can be difficult—or even totally infeasible—if you have limited hand dexterity or chronic pain, but this kind of software can make such tasks a relative breeze.

After considering 18 options, we’ve found that Apple Voice Control and Nuance Dragon Professional v16  are more accurate, efficient, and usable than any other dictation tools we’ve tested.

Everything we recommend

Apple Voice Control

The best dictation tool for apple devices.

Apple’s Voice Control is easier to use and produces accurate transcriptions more frequently than the competition. It also offers a robust command hub that makes corrections a breeze.

Buying Options

Upgrade pick.

Nuance Dragon Professional v16

The best dictation tool for windows pcs.

Dragon Professional v16 is the most accurate dictation tool we tested for any operating system—but its hefty price tag is a lot to swallow.

But the technology behind dictation software (also called speech-to-text or voice-recognition software) has some faults. These apps have difficult learning curves, and the inherent bias that humans program into them means that their accuracy can vary, especially for people with various accents, sociolects and dialects like African American Vernacular English, or speech impediments. Still, for those able to work within the technology’s constraints, our picks are the best options available for many people who need assistance using a word-processing tool.

Apple’s Voice Control comes installed with macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, so it’s free to anyone who owns an Apple device. In our testing, it produced accurate transcriptions most of the time, especially for speakers with standard American accents. Competing tools from Google and Microsoft averaged 15 points lower than Apple’s software in our accuracy tests. Among our panel of testers, those with limited hand dexterity loved Voice Control’s assistive-technology features, which made it easy to navigate the OS and edit messages hands-free.

But while the experience that Voice Control provides was the best we found for Apple devices, it often misunderstood words or entire phrases spoken by testers with regional or other American accents or speech impediments such as stutters. Although such accuracy issues are expected for speech-recognition modeling that has historically relied on homogenous data sources , other tools (specifically, Nuance Dragon Professional v16 , which is available only for Windows) performed slightly better in this regard. Apple’s tool may also lag slightly if you’re running multiple processor-intensive programs at once, which our panelists said slowed their productivity.

At $700, Nuance Dragon Professional v16 is the most expensive speech-recognition tool we’ve found, but it’s the best option for people who own Windows PCs. Professional v16 replaces our previous Windows PC pick, the now-discontinued Nuance Dragon Home 15 . It offers added functionality for those working in finance, healthcare, and human services—and is probably overkill for most people. (If you need a free PC option, consider Windows Voice Recognition , but know it has significant flaws .)

Like its predecessor, Professional v16 involves a learning curve at first, but the Dragon tutorial does a great job of getting you started. Our panelist with language-processing disabilities said Dragon was one of the most accurate dictation options they tried, and the robust command features made it possible for them to quickly navigate their machine. Like our Apple pick, Dragon had trouble with various American dialects and international accents; it performed better for those testers with “neutral” American accents. It also struggled to eliminate all background noise, though you can mitigate such problems by using an external microphone or headset. Although Dragon produced the fastest transcriptions of any tool we tested, this wasn’t an unqualified positive: Half of our panelists said that they preferred slower real-time transcriptions to Dragon’s sentence-by-sentence transcription method because they found its longer pauses between sentences’ appearance on their screen to be distracting.

The research

Why you should trust us, who this is—and isn’t—for, how we picked and tested, the best dictation tool for apple devices: apple voice control, the best dictation tool for windows pcs: nuance dragon professional v16, other good dictation software, how to use dictation software, should you worry about your privacy when using dictation software, the competition.

As a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, I’ve spent five years covering complex topics, writing articles focusing on subjects such as dog DNA tests , blue-light-blocking glasses , email unsubscribe tools , and technology-manipulation tactics used by domestic abusers . I was an early adopter of dictation software back in the early aughts, with a much less polished version of Nuance’s Dragon software. Like other people I interviewed for this guide, I quickly abandoned the software because of its poor performance and difficult learning curve. Since then, I’ve occasionally used dictation and accessibility tools on my devices to send quick messages when my hands are sticky from baking treats or covered in hair product from my morning routine. While writing this guide, I dictated about a third of the text using the tools we recommend.

But I’m not someone who is dependent on dictation tools to communicate, so I consulted a variety of experts in the AI and disability communities to better understand the role that this kind of software plays in making the world more accessible for people with disabilities. I read articles and peer-reviewed studies, I browsed disability forums that I frequent for advice on my chronic pain, and I solicited input from affinity organizations to learn what makes a great dictation tool. And I brushed up on the latest research in AI technology and voice-recognition bias from Harvard Business Review , the Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Institute , and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Speech Accessibility Project , among others.

I also chatted with Meenakshi Das , a disability advocate and software engineer at Microsoft, and Diego Mariscal, CEO of the disabled-founders startup accelerator 2Gether-International , about the limitations of dictation tools for people with various disabilities. I discussed the ethics of artificial intelligence with Princeton University PhD candidate Sayash Kapoor . I attended a lecture by Kapoor’s advisor, Arvind Narayanan, PhD , entitled “ The Limits Of The Quantitative Approach To Discrimination .” I spoke with Christopher Manning , co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University, about the evolution of dictation software. And I consulted with Wirecutter’s editor of accessibility coverage, Claire Perlman, to ensure that my approach to this guide remained accessible, nuanced, and reflective of the disability community’s needs.

Lastly, I assembled a testing panel of nine people with varying degrees of experience using dictation software, including several with disabilities ranging from speech impediments to limited hand dexterity to severe brain trauma. Our testers also self-reported accents ranging from “neutral” American to “vague” Louisianan to “noticeable” Indian.

Assistive technology such as speech-to-text tools can help you do everything from sending hands-free texts while driving to typing up a term paper without ever touching your keyboard.

We wrote this guide with two types of users in mind: people with disabilities who rely on dictation software to communicate, and people with free use of their hands who occasionally use these tools when they need to work untethered from their keyboard. However, we put a stronger focus on people with disabilities because dictation software can better serve that population and can ultimately make it easier for them to access the world and communicate.

Users with limited or no hand dexterity, limb differences, or language-processing challenges may find speech-recognition software useful because it gives them the freedom to communicate in their preferred environment. For example, our panelists with learning disabilities said they liked to mentally wander or “brain dump” while using voice-recognition software to complete projects, and they felt less pressure to write down everything perfectly the first time.

Still, our approach had limits: We focused on each tool’s ability to integrate with and edit text documents, rather than to verbally navigate an entire computer screen, which is a feature that some people with cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, quadriplegia, and other neurological disabilities need—especially if they have no speaking issues and limited or no motor control. Our picks offer some accessibility features, such as grid navigation, text editing, and voice commands, that make using devices easier, but not everyone who tested the software for us used those features extensively, and the majority of voice-recognition software we considered lacks these premium options.

Aside from the absence of accessibility features, there are other potential hindrances to these software programs’ usefulness, such as how well they work with a range of accents.

The biases of dictation software

Speech-recognition software first became increasingly available in the 1980s and 1990s, with the introduction of talking typewriters for those with low vision , commercial speech-recognition software, and collect-call processing, according to Christopher Manning , co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence . But “speech recognition used to be really awful,” he said. “If you were an English-Indian speaker, the chances of it [understanding you] used to be about zero; now it’s not that bad.”

As we found in our tests, an individual’s definition of “bad” can vary widely depending on their accent and their speaking ability. And our AI experts agreed that the limitations of the natural language processing (NLP) technology used in dictation software are laid bare when faced with various accents, dialects, and speech patterns from around the world.

Sayash Kapoor , a second-year PhD candidate studying AI ethics at Princeton University, said that NLP tools are often trained on websites like Reddit and Wikipedia, making them biased against marginalized genders and people from Black, indigenous, and other communities of color. The end result is that most dictation software works best with canonical accents, said Manning, such as British and American English. Our experts told us that some speech-to-text tools don’t have fine-grain modeling for different dialects and sociolects, let alone gender identity, race, and geographic location.

In fact, one study found that speech-to-text tools by Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft exhibited “ substantial racial disparities ,” as the average word-error rate for Black speakers was nearly twice that of white speakers. This limitation affects not only how easily speakers can dictate their work but also how effectively they can correct phrases and give formatting commands—which makes all the difference between a seamless or painful user experience.

Inherent bias in speech-recognition tools extends to speech impediments, as well. Wirecutter approached several people with stutters or other types of speech and language disabilities, such as those resulting from cerebral palsy or Parkinson’s disease, about joining our panel of testers. But most declined, citing a history of poor experiences with dictation tools. Disability advocate Meenakshi Das, who has a stutter, said she doesn’t use any speech-to-text tools because more work needs to be done industry-wide to make the software truly accessible. (Das is a software engineer at Microsoft, which owns Nuance , the company that produces our pick for Windows PCs .)

Both Das and Kapoor have noticed a trend of accelerators working to close the bias gap for people with accents, speech impediments, and language-processing disabilities in order to make it possible for those groups to use dictation tools. In October 2022, for example, the University of Illinois announced a partnership with Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and nonprofits on the Speech Accessibility Project to improve voice recognition for people with disabilities and diverse speech patterns.

But until truly inclusive speech-to-text tools arrive, people in those underserved groups can check out our advice on how to get the most out of the software that’s currently available.

We solicited insights on speech-to-text tools from our experts and read software reviews, peer-reviewed studies, disability forums, and organization websites to learn what makes a great dictation tool.

We identified 18 dictation software packages and compared their features, platform compatibility, privacy policies, price, and third-party reviews. Among the features we looked for were a wide variety of useful voice commands, ease of navigation, the presence of customizable commands and vocabulary, multi-language support, and built-in hint tools or tutorials. Those programs that ranked highest on our criteria, generally offering a mix of robust features and wide platform availability, made our short list for testing:

• Apple Dictation ( macOS , iOS , iPadOS )
• Apple Voice Control ( macOS , iOS , iPadOS )
• Google Assistant on Gboard
• Google Docs Voice Typing
• Microsoft Word Dictate
• Nuance Dragon Home 15 (discontinued)
• Windows Voice Recognition
• Windows Voice Typing

We defaulted these tools to the American English setting and rotated using each tool for a couple of hours on our computers and mobile devices. Afterward, we graded their performance on accuracy, ease of use, speed, noise interference, and app compatibility. We placed an emphasis on accuracy rates, performing a series of control tests to see how well the dictation tools recognized 150- to 200-word samples of casual speech, the lyrics of Alicia Keys’s song “No One,” and scientific jargon from a peer-reviewed vaccine study . From there, we advanced the dictation tools with the highest marks to our panel-testing round.

Nine panelists tested our semifinalists over the course of three weeks. Our diverse group of testers included those with disabilities ranging from speech impediments to limited hand dexterity to severe brain trauma. They self-reported accents ranging from American to Catalan to Indian. All the panelists had varying degrees of prior experience with dictation software.

Meet our testers:

• Aum N., 34, who works in quality assurance and has an Indian accent
• Ben K., 41, an editor with a “moderate” stutter and a “standard” American accent
• Chandana C., 64, an analyst with a “noticeable” Indian accent
• Claire P., 31, an editor with a musculoskeletal disability called arthrogryposis
• Davis L., 27, an audio producer with a “vague” Louisianan accent
• Franc C. F., 38, a software engineer from Spain
• Juan R., 52, who survived a car accident that caused severe brain trauma and now has limited short-term memory and limited reading comprehension
• Polina G., 49, an engineering manager with ADHD
• Vicki C., 33, a software engineer with a shoulder injury and repetitive stress injury

The panelists sent text messages, drafted emails, and coded software using the various speech-to-text tools, after which they provided extensive notes on their experiences and identified which tools they would feel comfortable using regularly or purchasing on their own.

To arrive at our picks, we combined the panelists’ experiences with the results of our control round, as well as recommendations from our experts.

Price: free Operating system: macOS, iOS, iPadOS Supported languages: 21 to 64 languages , depending on the settings, including Hindi, Thai, and several dialects of English and Italian.

Apple Voice Control is easy to use, outperforms major competitors from Google, Microsoft, and Nuance, and offers dozens of command prompts for a smoother experience, an especially helpful feature for people with limited hand dexterity. Because Voice Control is deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem, it’s more accessible than many of the other tools we tested. It’s available for free in macOS , iOS, and iPadOS ; you can activate it by going to Settings > Accessibility on your preferred device. Once you activate it, you may notice that it works similarly to the Dictation and Siri functions on your phone. That’s because they use the same speech-recognition algorithms. This means the learning curve inherent to all speech-to-text tools is marginally less difficult with Voice Control, particularly if you’ve used Dictation or Siri before, as they’re already familiar with your speech patterns. (If you’re wondering how Dictation and Voice Control differ, Dictation is a speech-to-text tool that omits the various accessibility and navigation functions of Voice Control.)

In our tests, Voice Control routinely produced more accurate transcriptions than the competition, including Nuance Dragon, Google Docs Voice Typing , and Windows Voice Recognition . In our control tests, it was 87% accurate with casual, non-accented speech. Comparatively, Dragon was 82% accurate, while Windows Voice Recognition was only 64% accurate. Google Docs Voice Typing performed on a par with Voice Control, but it failed at transcribing contractions, slang, and symbols much more frequently. Most of the tools we tested, Voice Control included, were about 10% less accurate during our jargon-rich control tests that included scientific words from an immunology study. (One notable exception in this regard was Dragon, which showed no noticeable drop-off with more technical language.)

Half of our testers agreed that they would regularly use Voice Control, and that they would even pay for it if they relied on dictation software. Specific words they used to describe the software included “accurate,” “good,” and “impressive.” Still, our real-world tests pushed Voice Control to its limits, and the software often misunderstood words or phrases from testers who had diverse accents or stutters. Unfortunately, such accuracy issues are to be expected for speech-recognition modeling that has historically relied on homogenous data sources. But Voice Control’s performance improves the more you use it , so don’t give up immediately if you find inaccuracies frustrating at first.

Apple’s assistive technology was a standout feature for our testers with limited hand dexterity, as it allowed them to navigate their machines and edit their messages hands-free. These command prompts have a challenging learning curve, so you’re unlikely to have a flawless experience out of the gate. But asking “What can I say?” brings up a library that automatically filters contextually relevant commands depending on your actions. For example, selecting a desktop folder produces a short list of prompts related to file access (such as “Open document”), while moving the cursor to a word-processing tool brings up “Type.” The interface allows you to quickly sort through the relevant commands, a feature that some panelists found useful.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Our panelists with accents experienced mixed accuracy results using Apple Voice Control. Testers with nonstandard English accents or speech impediments said that the performance of Apple’s software improved when they spoke slowly. “When using it to type, sometimes it got things quite off,” noted panelist Franc, a native Spanish and Catalan speaker who tested the software in English. Similarly, my own experience dictating this guide proved challenging: I found that I had to overenunciate my words to prevent Voice Control from capitalizing random words and mistyping the occasional phrase.

Our panelists agreed that Apple Voice Control was the slowest tool they tested for transcribing text, though that difference in speed was a matter of seconds, not minutes. Sometimes speech-recognition software processes a complete sentence, rather than single words, before displaying the text on the screen, a tendency that about half of our panelists found frustrating. “It was really distracting to wait to see whether [Voice Control] had picked up what I said,” noted tester Vicki, who has a repetitive stress injury that makes typing difficult.

Wirecutter’s editor of accessibility coverage, Claire Perlman, who also served on our panel, echoed this sentiment. She said the lag time was marginal at the start of her session but became noticeably painful the longer she used the software. Claire also noted that her 2019 MacBook Pro, equipped with a 1.4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, overheated while running Voice Control for extended periods. “The lag that I’m experiencing now is very distracting and makes me feel like I have to slow my thought process in order to have it typed correctly,” she said. We attempted to replicate this issue with a 2019 MacBook Pro equipped with a 2.6 GHz six-core Intel Core i7 processor, and after an hour of use we found that Apple’s Speech Recognition process fluctuated between occupying 54% to 89% of our CPU and that Apple Dictation’s usage ranged from 1% to 35%, confirming that the robust platform requires a lot of processing power. That said, you may find that the lag disappears when you close other CPU-intensive programs, such as Chrome or a game.

As we previously mentioned, successfully wielding Voice Control’s command prompts requires experience and finesse. Testers who read through the quick-start guide and watched YouTube tutorials reported the easiest experience. “There is a learning curve,” said tester Chandana, who has an Indian accent. But the software’s “What can I say?” screen was a big help, Chandana said: “I was able to use many functions that I wanted to use before but did not know that I could.”

Lastly, Voice Control works best within Apple’s own apps, and some people may find that inherent limitation challenging or annoying. “I found it to be more accurate in Pages and iMessage than Google Docs and WhatsApp,” Claire noted. In just one example, although Voice Control correctly captured dictated commands such as “Select line” or “Delete ” in Pages , it couldn’t execute them in Google Docs.

Price: $700 per license Operating system: Windows Supported languages: English, French, Spanish (depending on purchase region)

Nuance Dragon Professional v16 is the best option for Windows PC users because it surpasses the Microsoft Word and Windows dictation tools in accuracy, quickly processes and displays transcriptions, and offers a helpful training module and selection of command prompts to get you swiftly up to speed. Unlike most other dictation software in our tests, it worked well with technical, jargon-heavy language, an advantage that could make it useful for people who work in the sciences. (While we only tested the now-discontinued Nuance Dragon Home 15 for this guide, Professional v16 uses the same technology while making it easier to dictate large amounts of data in a corporate setting. Plus, if you’ve used earlier versions of Dragon in the past, you’ll be happy to know that this version of Dragon represents a significant improvement over previous generations.)

Our panelists said that Dragon was one of the most accurate speech-recognition tools they tried, describing it as “extremely accurate,” “reliable,” and in at least one case, “flawless.” Wirecutter’s Claire Perlman, who has arthrogryposis , said, “I was truly blown away by the accuracy of Dragon. It had only two to three errors the whole time I used it.” Our control tests found similar results. Dragon was 82% accurate in transcribing casual speech (slightly behind Apple Voice Control, which produced 87% accuracy), and in transcribing technical language, it didn’t exhibit the steep decline in accuracy that we saw from other software, including Apple’s Voice Control and Dictation tools.

Dragon’s transcriptions appeared with minimal lag time on testers’ screens, whereas tools like Otter and Windows Voice Recognition took twice as long to produce phrases or sentences. But panelists found Dragon’s sentence-by-sentence transcription to be a mixed bag. Some testers preferred to see entire phrases or sentences appear simultaneously on the screen. “The speed combined with the accuracy meant that I did not feel like I had to pay constant attention to what was happening on the screen and could instead focus on my thoughts and writing,” Claire said. Other testers preferred real-time, word-by-word transcriptions: “There were definitely moments where I was sitting there drumming my fingers and waiting,” said Wirecutter editor Ben Keough. Dragon lets you adjust for less lag time or better accuracy by going to Options > Miscellaneous > Speed vs. Accuracy. But we didn’t notice a difference in performance when we changed this setting during our control tests.

Like all the dictation software we tested, Dragon requires a bit of know-how to get the most out of its features and achieve the best performance, but its multitude of accessibility voice commands were a favorite feature among our panelists. Unlike most of the options we tested, Dragon launches with a brief tutorial that walks you through how to use it, from setting up the best microphone position to dictating text to using punctuation prompts.

You can revisit the tutorial at any point if you need a refresher, which panelist Juan found helpful with his traumatic brain injury and short-term memory problems. “The tutorial gives you a good start on its functionality,” he said. Wirecutter’s Claire Perlman noted, “I used to use Dragon years ago, and back then, training the system to recognize your voice was an onerous process. This time, I found the whole setup and training process genuinely helpful and very quick. And I felt like I could really operate it hands-free.”

The biggest drawback to Dragon is that it costs $700 per license. The experts we spoke with said that this barrier to entry may make using this software infeasible for many people who are disabled, including those who are on a limited income because they can’t find remote work that accommodates their disabilities. Additionally, having to download and enable the software can be a hassle that reminds people with disabilities that their situation is an afterthought in the digital age—especially in comparison with Apple Voice Control or even Windows Voice Recognition, which are integrated into device operating systems.

This software is compatible only with the Windows desktop operating system; you can’t install it on Android, Apple’s operating systems, or ChromeOS. (That is, unless you partition your hard drive, but in that case you run the risk of slowing down the operating system, which one panelist with a drive partition experienced.) Users can subscribe to Dragon Anywhere ($150 a year), which works with iOS and Android devices. But because our panelists didn’t test Dragon Anywhere, we can’t comment on its usability or accuracy.

Dragon isn’t a speech-recognition tool that you can use right out of the box—the first time you load the software, it prompts you to complete a series of short tutorials. This means it’s important to set aside some time getting to know the program before rushing to write, say, an overdue memo or term paper. (That said, regardless of the speech-to-text tool you choose, we recommend familiarizing yourself with it before diving into a text-heavy project.)

Although Dragon was the most accessible and accurate Windows-compatible dictation software we tested, it still faltered in its transcriptions at times, especially for testers who didn’t use a dedicated microphone or headset. Nuance recommends buying its Dragon USB headset ($35) or Dragon Bluetooth headset ($150) for the best experience and says that users can improve the program’s accuracy rate by making corrections to text via voice prompt and running its Accuracy Tuning feature to optimize its language models. Judging from our testing, we can say that any high-quality dedicated mic that’s positioned correctly will improve your results. Even so, one panelist who used a wired headset noticed that Dragon could not capture diverse names like “Yeiser” but had no issues with traditionally Anglo names like “Brady.”

Finally, this dictation software is available in only three languages—English, French, and Spanish—a stark reminder that accessibility isn’t always accessible to all. Within those constraints, you can specify a language region to ensure that the spelling matches your preferred region, such as Canadian English versus American English. (The ability to purchase a preferred-language license may vary depending on where you live .)

If you want a free Windows-compatible option: Consider Windows Voice Recognition . In our tests, its accuracy rate was 64% compared to Dragon’s 82%, but like Dragon you can train Windows to better understand your voice the more you use it. Other free tools we tested that had subpar accuracy rates can’t be trained, including Google Docs Voice Typing .

Our panelists agreed that no dictation software is perfect, but for the most part, such programs’ functionality improves the more you use them. Here’s how to get the most out of your speech-to-text tool:

• Take the tutorial. Seriously. Some of these tools have difficult learning curves, with specialized commands for numerals, punctuation, and formatting. Before dictating your memoir, make sure to review the software’s instruction manual and keep a list of its command shortcuts nearby.
• Set your primary language. Less than half of the tools we tested allow you to set your primary language if it’s outside the country of origin. But if your tool has this option, make sure to use it. This can make the difference between the software transcribing theater or theatre , or even recognizing your accent at all.
• For immediate accuracy, enunciate. For long-term success, speak naturally. Many dictation tools offer vocabulary builders or claim to learn your speech patterns over time, so don’t force yourself to sound like a machine—unless you want to use that stiff voice every time you dictate.
• Consider a dedicated microphone. Speech-to-text tools, including our top picks, work better when you keep your mouth close to the microphone and work in a quiet environment. In general, you can cut out the majority of background disturbances and transcription misfires by using a dedicated external USB microphone or a wireless or wired headset that crisply captures your voice.
• Pay attention to the on/off switch. Some of these tools go into sleep mode after a few seconds of silence, or they may pick up side conversations you don’t want to transcribe. If you pause to collect your thoughts or turn around to answer a colleague’s question, make sure the dictation tool is on the right setting before you speak.

You give up some privacy when you speak into a microphone so that a speech-to-text tool can transcribe your words. As is the case when you’re speaking on the phone, anyone nearby may hear what you say. And many dictation tools feed your audio into their learning algorithms to improve their service or to sell you something. In some cases, a company may even turn over all of your speech-to-text recordings and transcriptions to law enforcement. Ultimately, if you’re dealing with sensitive data and have another means to communicate—which we know isn’t possible for many people who need these tools—it’s best not to share your information with a speech-to-text program. Of course, we could say the same thing about sending unsecured texts or uploading documents into the cloud, too.

Here’s what the makers of our picks do with your data:

Apple’s Voice Control processes dictations and commands only locally, on your device , so no personal data is shared or saved with a third party. But some information that you speak into sibling programs Dictation and Siri may transmit to Apple’s servers. (Because many people, including several of our panelists, use Dictation and Siri, we concluded that the differences are worth calling attention to.)

Typically, Apple can’t access Dictation and Siri audio recordings that you compose on your device unless you’re dictating into a search box or the service requires third-party app access. Apple may collect transcripts of Siri requests, dictation transcripts, IP addresses, and contact information to perform app tasks, improve its services, and market its products. And anytime Apple interacts with a third-party app, such as a transcription service for meeting notes, that voice data may be sent to Apple, or you could be subject to that app’s separate terms and conditions and privacy policy. When you opt in to Apple’s “Improve Siri and Dictation,” the audio recordings and transcripts that Apple saves are accessible to its employees , and data is retained for two years, though the company may extend retention beyond that period at its discretion.

Apple also uses your audio and transcripts to market products and services. You can opt out of allowing Apple to review your audio files under System Settings ( Settings on mobile devices) > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements ; you can delete your six-month history by going through System Settings ( Settings on mobile devices) > Siri & Search > Siri & Dictation History . With iOS 14.6, however, according to Gizmodo , Apple may still collect some analytics data even if you opt out.

As for information shared with third parties, certain providers must delete personal information at the end of the transaction or take undisclosed steps to protect your data. And Apple may disclose your information to law enforcement agencies as required by law.

Nuance, which owns Dragon software, routinely collects dictation data. The service can access any sensitive information you dictate, including medical records or proprietary information, and doesn’t always require your direct consent to do so. For example, in its privacy policy , Nuance says, “If we are processing personal data on behalf of a third party that has direct patient access, it will be the third party’s responsibility to obtain the consent.” And “snippets” of audio recordings are reviewed by people who manually transcribe the data in order to improve Nuance’s services. Nuance retains data for three years after you stop using the services, and you can request that the company delete your data record .

Additionally, although Nuance collects electronic data such as your IP address and registration information to market its products, the company says it doesn’t sell customer data to third parties. However, Nuance affiliates and partners may have access to the data through its sales division or customer service division. And like Apple, Nuance may share personal data to comply with the law .

Beyond considering dictation software in particular, be sure to examine the data-retention policies of any software you’re dictating into (whether that’s Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or whatever else), which fall under the maker’s own privacy practices.

Apple Dictation ( macOS , iOS , iPadOS ) performs similarly to our pick, Apple Voice Control, but it lacks the robust features that many people want in a speech-to-text tool, including key command functions.

We can’t recommend Microsoft Word Dictate  or Otter due to their transcription lag times and subpar accuracy rates, which ranged from 54% to 76%, far behind Apple Voice Control’s 87% and Dragon’s 82%. Additionally, Otter’s platform is not a great choice for document dictation, as it doesn’t integrate well with word-processing tools; it’s better suited for live-event closed captioning.

The Braina Pro tool was popular in the mid-aughts, but its website is outdated, and it hasn’t had any user reviews in years.

The Google Assistant on Gboard interface works only with Gboard-compatible mobile devices, which means it’s useless to desktop users and anyone who doesn’t own an Android or iOS smartphone.

In our tests, Google Docs Voice Typing failed to accurately capture sociolects and casual speech. It also doesn’t work well for people with speech impediments, has poor formatting features, and is nearly impossible to use for anyone who can’t access a mouse and keyboard.

IBM’s Watson Speech to Text is a transcription service that charges by the minute after the first 500 minutes. And the free plan deletes your transcription history after a month of inactivity. We think those shortcomings are enough to disqualify it.

Windows Voice Typing isn’t as robust a tool as Windows Voice Recognition, and we found its accessibility commands to be limiting.

We considered several Chrome-specific apps, including Chromebook Dictation , Speechnotes , and SpeechTexter , but we skipped testing them because of their limited features and usage restrictions that made them inaccessible to most people.

We also considered the following options but quickly learned that they’re designed for specific commercial uses:

• Amazon Transcribe is built for commercial products.
• Speechmatics is designed for commercial products, such as live transcription for video conferences, so it’s too expensive and inaccessible for the average person.
• Suki Assistant is designed for medical dictation.
• Verbit offers transcription services for businesses.

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.

Meenakshi Das, disability advocate and software engineer, Microsoft , text interview , September 30, 2022

Sayash Kapoor, PhD candidate, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University , phone interview , October 6, 2022

Christopher Manning, co-director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University , Zoom interview , October 5, 2022

Diego Mariscal, founder, CEO, and chief disabled officer, 2Gether-International , Zoom interview , October 26, 2022

Steve Dent, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Google to improve speech recognition for people with disabilities , Engadget , October 3, 2022

Su Lin Blodgett, Lisa Green, Brendan O’Connor, Demographic Dialectal Variation in Social Media: A Case Study of African-American English (PDF) , Proceedings of the 2016 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing , November 1, 2016

Prabha Kannan, Is It My Turn Yet? Teaching a Voice Assistant When to Speak , Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University , October 10, 2022

Allison Koenecke, Andrew Nam, Emily Lake, Sharad Goel, Racial disparities in automated speech recognition , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , March 23, 2020

Speech Recognition for Learning , LD OnLine, “Tech Works” brief from the National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) , August 1, 2010

Arvind Narayanan, The Limits Of The Quantitative Approach To Discrimination , James Baldwin Lecture Series, Department of African American Studies, Princeton University , October 11, 2022

Meet your guide

Kaitlyn Wells

Kaitlyn Wells is a senior staff writer who advocates for greater work flexibility by showing you how to work smarter remotely without losing yourself. Previously, she covered pets and style for Wirecutter. She's never met a pet she didn’t like, although she can’t say the same thing about productivity apps. Her first picture book, A Family Looks Like Love , follows a pup who learns that love, rather than how you look, is what makes a family.

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Speech to Text Converter

Descript instantly turns speech into text in real time. Just start recording and watch our AI speech recognition transcribe your voice—with 95% accuracy—into text that’s ready to edit or export.

How to automatically convert speech to text with Descript

Create a project in Descript, select record, and choose your microphone input to start a recording session. Or upload a voice file to convert the audio to text.

As you speak into your mic, Descript’s speech-to-text software turns what you say into text in real time. Don’t worry about filler words or mistakes; Descript makes it easy to find and remove those from both the generated text and recorded audio.

Enter Correct mode (press the C key) to edit, apply formatting, highlight sections, and leave comments on your speech-to-text transcript. Filler words will be highlighted, which you can remove by right clicking to remove some or all instances. When ready, export your text as HTML, Markdown, Plain text, Word file, or Rich Text format.

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Other tools from descript, youtube transcript generator, article to video, youtube description generator, split-screen video editor, social media video maker, video to text converter, podcast description generator, video to gif converter, video clip maker.

Speech to Text

• 3 Create a new project Drag your file into the box above, or click Select file and import it from your computer or wherever it lives.

Expand Descript’s online voice recognition powers with an expandable transcription glossary to recognize hard-to-translate words like names and jargon.

Record yourself talking and turn it into text, audio, and video that’s ready to edit in Descript’s timeline. You can format, search, highlight, and other actions you’d perform in a Google Doc, while taking advantage of features like  text-to-speec h, captions, and more.

Go from speech to text in over 22 different languages, plus English. Transcribe audio in  French ,  Spanish , Italian, German and other languages from around the world. Finnish? Oh we’re just getting started.

Yes, basic real-time speech to text conversion is included for free with most modern devices (Android, Mac, etc.) Descript also offers a 95% accurate text-to-speech converter for up to 1 hour per month for free.

Speech-to-text conversion works by using AI and large quantities of diverse training data to recognize the acoustic qualities of specific words, despite the different speech patterns and accents people have, to generate it as text.

Yes! Descript‘s AI-powered Overdub feature lets you not only turn speech to text but also generate human-sounding speech from a script in your choice of AI stock voices.

Descript supports speech-to-text conversion in Catalan, Finnish, Lithuanian, Slovak, Croatian, French (FR), Malay, Slovenian, Czech, German, Norwegian, Spanish (US), Danish, Hungarian, Polish, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese (BR), Turkish.

Descript’s included AI transcription offers up to 95% accurate speech to text generation. We also offer a white glove pay-per-word transcription service and 99% accuracy. Expanding your transcription glossary makes the automatic transcription more accurate over time.

• The Best Speech-to-Text Apps and Tools for Every Type of User

You don't need to use your fingers when you can type by talking with the best dictation software we've tested. It's fast, easy, and helps people who otherwise can't type.

Typing isn't easy or even possible for everyone, which is why you might prefer to talk. Speech-to-text software, also sometimes called dictation software, makes it possible, by turning what you say into typed text.

Speech-to-text software is different from voice control software, although some apps do both. Voice control is the accessibility feature that lets you open programs, select on-screen options, and otherwise control your device using only your voice. Both macOS and Windows have voice control included. It's called VoiceOver on macOS and Speech Recognition in Windows.

Don't confuse speech-to-text software with transcription software , either, even if the categories overlap. Transcription software is typically for transcribing meetings or recordings, sometimes of multiple people, and generally after the fact. Dictation software, meanwhile, is a way to use your voice to type in real time. You talk to your computer or mobile device and immediately see the words on the screen. You can add punctuation by saying the name of the punctuation out loud—for example, "period," "comma," or "open quote" and "end quote."

Speech-to-text features or apps also should not be confused with text-to-speech tools , sometimes known as screen readers, which read text on the screen to you aloud.

Most people don't need to install software to dictate text to their computer or phone. That's because every major operating system has a speech-to-text feature built in, and they work about as well as anything else on the market. Here we point out where to find these features on your device, and talk about a powerful commercial product with more features, should you need to do more with a speech-to-text tool than the built-in options offer.

Windows Speech, often referred to as voice typing, was among the most accurate tools I tested for this article. Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 come with Speech, which you can try out using the keyboard shortcut Windows Key-H anywhere you can type. Up pops a window with a microphone icon. Tap the microphone and start talking. Text shows up more or less in real time. 

You can add punctuation manually using commands , or you can try the experimental auto-punctuation feature. As a writer, I prefer adding punctuation manually—I'm pretty particular about my punctuation—but the automated feature worked fairly well and I could imagine it being good enough for some people. See our complete guide to learn more about using speech recognition and dictation in Windows .

You can dictate text in Microsoft Office by clicking the prominent Dictate button in all versions of Word, Powerpoint, OneNote, and Outlook. This brings the excellent engine Microsoft offers all Windows users, complete with the auto-punctuation feature, to just about every major operating system—the web, Android, iOS, and macOS versions of Office all include this dictation feature. It's great news if you use one of those systems and don't love the built-in speech-to-text engine.

Apple has included Dictation in macOS since 2012. To enable the feature, head to System Settings > Keyboard and scroll down to Dictation, where you can also set a keyboard shortcut. Newer Macs have a dedicated function key that looks like a microphone (F5) to enable and disable dictation in the top row of the keyboard. The speech detection is very accurate and shows up in near real time. You can add punctuation with spoken commands . Potentially incorrect words are underlined in blue after you're done with dictation, and you can right-click or Command-click on them to see other potential options, similar to how spellcheck works. Note that Apple silicon Macs can do dictation for the most common languages offline, whereas Intel Macs send audio to Apple servers for processing.

Dictation (Mobile)

If you use the default keyboard on the iPhone and iPad, there's a microphone icon to the left of the space bar (as shown in the image) or sometimes below the space bar on the right side, that you can tap to use dictation. It works almost exactly the same as on macOS. Tap that microphone key and a microphone icon will show up next to your cursor. Start talking and your text will appear. You can add punctuation and formatting using spoken commands , just like on the Mac. The text recognition is accurate, the same as on the Mac.

Android's default keyboard, Gboard, also has a built-in dictation feature . Tap the microphone in the top-right corner of the keyboard and start talking. It works in any Android app where you can type text, and the recognition is quite accurate. You can add punctuation with spoken commands, like saying "comma" and "period," just like on other systems.

Google Docs Voice Typing

Google Docs has a built-in dictation feature called Voice Typing . Google says it only works if you're using the Chrome browser, but by observation it works in Microsoft Edge and perhaps other Chromium-based browsers. Click Tools > Start voice typing and a large microphone icon appears, which you can click to start talking. Punctuation and formatting is handled by voice commands . Recognition works about as well as Gboard, which makes sense—they're likely using the exact same engine.

Dragon Professional

Dragon is one of the most sophisticated speech-to-text tools. You use it not only to type using your voice but also to operate your computer with voice control. Dragon Professional, the most general version, isn't cheap at $699. A mobile-only version, Dragon Professional Anywhere, is a $15-per-month subscription with a one-week free trial. Additional versions of the software are available for use by legal, health care, and law enforcement professionals, with a focus on understanding the specialized language in those sectors. If you need a business-grade speech-to-text tool that's more powerful than the default software that comes with your operating system, Dragon is worth looking into.

More Inside PCMag.com

• The Best Text-to-Speech Apps and Tools for Every Type of User
• The Best Transcription Services for 2024

About Justin Pot

Justin Pot believes technology is a tool, not a way of life. He writes tutorials and essays that inform and entertain. He loves beer, technology, nature, and people, not necessarily in that order. Learn more at JustinPot.com .

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Best text-to-speech software of 2024

Boosting accessibility and productivity

• Best overall
• Best realism
• Best for developers
• Best for podcasting
• How we test

The best text-to-speech software makes it simple and easy to convert text to voice for accessibility or for productivity applications.

1. Best overall 2. Best realism 3. Best for developers 4. Best for podcasting 5. Best for developers 6. FAQs 7. How we test

Finding the best text-to-speech software is key for anyone looking to transform written text into spoken words, whether for accessibility purposes, productivity enhancement, or creative applications like voice-overs in videos. 

Text-to-speech (TTS) technology relies on sophisticated algorithms to model natural language to bring written words to life, making it easier to catch typos or nuances in written content when it's read aloud. So, unlike the best speech-to-text apps and best dictation software , which focus on converting spoken words into text, TTS software specializes in the reverse process: turning text documents into audio. This technology is not only efficient but also comes with a variety of tools and features. For those creating content for platforms like YouTube , the ability to download audio files is a particularly valuable feature of the best text-to-speech software.

While some standard office programs like Microsoft Word and Google Docs offer basic TTS tools, they often lack the comprehensive functionalities found in dedicated TTS software. These basic tools may provide decent accuracy and basic options like different accents and languages, but they fall short in delivering the full spectrum of capabilities available in specialized TTS software.

To help you find the best text-to-speech software for your specific needs, TechRadar Pro has rigorously tested various software options, evaluating them based on user experience, performance, output quality, and pricing. This includes examining the best free text-to-speech software as well, since many free options are perfect for most users. We've brought together our picks below to help you choose the most suitable tool for your specific needs, whether for personal use, professional projects, or accessibility requirements.

The best text-to-speech software of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the entries on our best text-to-speech software list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.

The best text-to-speech software overall

1. NaturalReader

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid.

If you’re looking for a cloud-based speech synthesis application, you should definitely check out NaturalReader. Aimed more at personal use, the solution allows you to convert written text such as Word and PDF documents, ebooks and web pages into human-like speech.  

Because the software is underpinned by cloud technology, you’re able to access it from wherever you go via a smartphone, tablet or computer. And just like Capti Voice, you can upload documents from cloud storage lockers such as Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive.  

Currently, you can access 56 natural-sounding voices in nine different languages, including American English, British English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch. The software supports PDF, TXT, DOC(X), ODT, PNG, JPG, plus non-DRM EPUB files and much more, along with MP3 audio streams. 

There are three different products: online, software, and commercial. Both the online and software products have a free tier.

Read our full NaturalReader review .

• ^ Back to the top

The best text-to-speech software for realistic voices

Specializing in voice synthesis technology, Murf uses AI to generate realistic voiceovers for a range of uses, from e-learning to corporate presentations. 

Murf comes with a comprehensive suite of AI tools that are easy to use and straightforward to locate and access. There's even a Voice Changer feature that allows you to record something before it is transformed into an AI-generated voice- perfect if you don't think you have the right tone or accent for a piece of audio content but would rather not enlist the help of a voice actor. Other features include Voice Editing, Time Syncing, and a Grammar Assistant.

The solution comes with three pricing plans to choose from: Basic, Pro and Enterprise. The latter of these options may be pricey but some with added collaboration and account management features that larger companies may need access to. The Basic plan starts at around $19 / £17 / AU$28 per month but if you set up a yearly plan that will drop to around $13 / £12 / AU$20 per month. You can also try the service out for free for up to 10 minutes, without downloads.

The best text-to-speech software for developers

3. Amazon Polly

Alexa isn’t the only artificial intelligence tool created by tech giant Amazon as it also offers an intelligent text-to-speech system called Amazon Polly. Employing advanced deep learning techniques, the software turns text into lifelike speech. Developers can use the software to create speech-enabled products and apps. 

It sports an API that lets you easily integrate speech synthesis capabilities into ebooks, articles and other media. What’s great is that Polly is so easy to use. To get text converted into speech, you just have to send it through the API, and it’ll send an audio stream straight back to your application. 

You can also store audio streams as MP3, Vorbis and PCM file formats, and there’s support for a range of international languages and dialects. These include British English, American English, Australian English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish and Russian. 

Polly is available as an API on its own, as well as a feature of the AWS Management Console and command-line interface. In terms of pricing, you’re charged based on the number of text characters you convert into speech. This is charged at approximately $16 per1 million characters , but there is a free tier for the first year.

The best text-to-speech software for podcasting

In terms of its library of voice options, it's hard to beat Play.ht as one of the best text-to-speech software tools. With almost 600 AI-generated voices available in over 60 languages, it's likely you'll be able to find a voice to suit your needs. 

Although the platform isn't the easiest to use, there is a detailed video tutorial to help users if they encounter any difficulties. All the usual features are available, including Voice Generation and Audio Analytics. 

In terms of pricing, Play.ht comes with four plans: Personal, Professional, Growth, and Business. These range widely in price, but it depends if you need things like commercial rights and affects the number of words you can generate each month. 

The best text-to-speech software for Mac and iOS

5. Voice Dream Reader

There are also plenty of great text-to-speech applications available for mobile devices, and Voice Dream Reader is an excellent example. It can convert documents, web articles and ebooks into natural-sounding speech. 

The app comes with 186 built-in voices across 30 languages, including English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese and Korean. 

You can get the software to read a list of articles while you drive, work or exercise, and there are auto-scrolling, full-screen and distraction-free modes to help you focus. Voice Dream Reader can be used with cloud solutions like Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote. 

The best text-to-speech software: FAQs

What is the best text-to-speech software for youtube.

If you're looking for the best text-to-speech software for YouTube videos or other social media platforms, you need a tool that lets you extract the audio file once your text document has been processed. Thankfully, that's most of them. So, the real trick is to select a TTS app that features a bountiful choice of natural-sounding voices that match the personality of your channel. 

What’s the difference between web TTS services and TTS software?

Web TTS services are hosted on a company or developer website. You’ll only be able to access the service if the service remains available at the whim of a provider or isn’t facing an outage.

TTS software refers to downloadable desktop applications that typically won’t rely on connection to a server, meaning that so long as you preserve the installer, you should be able to use the software long after it stops being provided. 

Do I need a text-to-speech subscription?

Subscriptions are by far the most common pricing model for top text-to-speech software. By offering subscription models for, companies and developers benefit from a more sustainable revenue stream than they do from simply offering a one-time purchase model. Subscription models are also attractive to text-to-speech software providers as they tend to be more effective at defeating piracy.

Free software options are very rarely absolutely free. In some cases, individual voices may be priced and sold individually once the application has been installed or an account has been created on the web service.

How can I incorporate text-to-speech as part of my business tech stack?

Some of the text-to-speech software that we’ve chosen come with business plans, offering features such as additional usage allowances and the ability to have a shared workspace for documents. Other than that, services such as Amazon Polly are available as an API for more direct integration with business workflows.

Small businesses may find consumer-level subscription plans for text-to-speech software to be adequate, but it’s worth mentioning that only business plans usually come with the universal right to use any files or audio created for commercial use.

How to choose the best text-to-speech software

When deciding which text-to-speech software is best for you, it depends on a number of factors and preferences. For example, whether you’re happy to join the ecosystem of big companies like Amazon in exchange for quality assurance, if you prefer realistic voices, and how much budget you’re playing with. It’s worth noting that the paid services we recommend, while reliable, are often subscription services, with software hosted via websites, rather than one-time purchase desktop apps. 

Also, remember that the latest versions of Microsoft Word and Google Docs feature basic text-to-speech as standard, as well as most popular browsers. So, if you have access to that software and all you’re looking for is a quick fix, that may suit your needs well enough. 

How we test the best text-to-speech software

We test for various use cases, including suitability for use with accessibility issues, such as visual impairment, and for multi-tasking. Both of these require easy access and near instantaneous processing. Where possible, we look for integration across the entirety of an operating system , and for fair usage allowances across free and paid subscription models.

At a minimum, we expect an intuitive interface and intuitive software. We like bells and whistles such as realistic voices, but we also appreciate that there is a place for products that simply get the job done. Here, the question that we ask can be as simple as “does this piece of software do what it's expected to do when asked?”

Read more on how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar .

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John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY. 

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Speech to Text - Voice Typing & Transcription

Take notes with your voice for free, or automatically transcribe audio & video recordings. secure, accurate & blazing fast..

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Automatically transcribe audios & videos - upload files from your device or link to an online resource (Drive, YouTube, TikTok and more).

Speechnotes is a reliable and secure web-based speech-to-text tool that enables you to quickly and accurately transcribe your audio and video recordings, as well as dictate your notes instead of typing, saving you time and effort. With features like voice commands for punctuation and formatting, automatic capitalization, and easy import/export options, Speechnotes provides an efficient and user-friendly dictation and transcription experience. Proudly serving millions of users since 2015, Speechnotes is the go-to tool for anyone who needs fast, accurate & private transcription. Our Portfolio of Complementary Speech-To-Text Tools Includes:

Voice typing - Chrome extension

Dictate instead of typing on any form & text-box across the web. Including on Gmail, and more.

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Speechnotes' API enables you to send us files via standard POST requests, and get the transcription results sent directly to your server.

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iOS TextHear app

TextHear for iOS, works great on iPhones, iPads & Macs. Designed specifically to help people with hearing impairment participate in conversations. Please note, this is a sister app - so it has its own pricing plan.

Audio & video converting tools

Tools developed for fast - batch conversions of audio files from one type to another and extracting audio only from videos for minimizing uploads.

Our Sister Apps for Text-To-Speech & Live Captioning

Complementary to Speechnotes

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Speech to Text online notepad. Professional, accurate & free speech recognizing text editor. Distraction-free, fast, easy to use web app for dictation & typing.

Speechnotes is a powerful speech-enabled online notepad, designed to empower your ideas by implementing a clean & efficient design, so you can focus on your thoughts. We strive to provide the best online dictation tool by engaging cutting-edge speech-recognition technology for the most accurate results technology can achieve today, together with incorporating built-in tools (automatic or manual) to increase users' efficiency, productivity and comfort. Works entirely online in your Chrome browser. No download, no install and even no registration needed, so you can start working right away.

Speechnotes is especially designed to provide you a distraction-free environment. Every note, starts with a new clear white paper, so to stimulate your mind with a clean fresh start. All other elements but the text itself are out of sight by fading out, so you can concentrate on the most important part - your own creativity. In addition to that, speaking instead of typing, enables you to think and speak it out fluently, uninterrupted, which again encourages creative, clear thinking. Fonts and colors all over the app were designed to be sharp and have excellent legibility characteristics.

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Fast turnaround - results within minutes. Includes timestamps, auto punctuation and subtitles at unbeatable price. Protects your privacy: no human in the loop, and (unlike many other vendors) we do NOT keep your audio. Pay per use, no recurring payments. Upload your files or transcribe directly from Google Drive, YouTube or any other online source. Simple. No download or install. Just send us the file and get the results in minutes.

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Speechnotes is powered by the leading most accurate speech recognition AI engines by Google & Microsoft. We always check - and make sure we still use the best. Accuracy in English is very good and can easily reach 95% accuracy for good quality dictation or recording.

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Both Speechnotes dictation & transcription are lightweight-online no install, work out of the box anywhere you are. Dictation works in real time. Transcription will get you results in a matter of minutes.

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Super private - no human handles, sees or listens to your recordings! In addition, we take great measures to protect your privacy. For example, for transcribing your recordings - we pay Google's speech to text engines extra - just so they do not keep your audio for their own research purposes.

Health advantages

Typing may result in different types of Computer Related Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI). Voice typing is one of the main recommended ways to minimize these risks, as it enables you to sit back comfortably, freeing your arms, hands, shoulders and back altogether.

Saves you time

Need to transcribe a recording? If it's an hour long, transcribing it yourself will take you about 6! hours of work. If you send it to a transcriber - you will get it back in days! Upload it to Speechnotes - it will take you less than a minute, and you will get the results in about 20 minutes to your email.

Saves you money

Speechnotes dictation notepad is completely free - with ads - or a small fee to get it ad-free. Speechnotes transcription is only $0.1/minute, which is X10 times cheaper than a human transcriber! We offer the best deal on the market - whether it's the free dictation notepad ot the pay-as-you-go transcription service.

Dictation - Free

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Privacy policy.

We at Speechnotes, Speechlogger, TextHear, Speechkeys value your privacy, and that's why we do not store anything you say or type or in fact any other data about you - unless it is solely needed for the purpose of your operation. We don't share it with 3rd parties, other than Google / Microsoft for the speech-to-text engine.

Privacy - how are the recordings and results handled?

- transcription service.

Our transcription service is probably the most private and secure transcription service available.

• HIPAA compliant.
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- Dictation notepad & extension

For dictation, the recording & recognition - is delegated to and done by the browser (Chrome / Edge) or operating system (Android). So, we never even have access to the recorded audio, and Edge's / Chrome's / Android's (depending the one you use) privacy policy apply here.

The results of the dictation are saved locally on your machine - via the browser's / app's local storage. It never gets to our servers. So, as long as your device is private - your notes are private.

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The whole payments process is delegated to PayPal / Stripe / Google Pay / Play Store / App Store and secured by these providers. We never receive any of your credit card information.

More generic notes regarding our site, cookies, analytics, ads, etc.

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• In case you would like to upload files to Google Drive directly from Speechnotes - we'll ask for your permission to do so. We will use that permission for that purpose only - syncing your speech-notes to your Google Drive, per your request.

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How to Use Voice Typing on Google Docs on Mobile and Desktop

While Google Docs is primarily geared toward drafting formal letters, invites, meeting notes, and table of contents , you can also use it to jot down ideas or as a journal. To that end, Google Docs is quite feature-rich and supports features like Voice Typing which makes penning down thoughts more convenient.

The Voice Typing feature eliminates writer’s block by allowing users to jot down rough and unstructured ideas. You don’t have to waste your time thinking of writing perfect sentences – instead, you can just voice your thoughts, scattered as they may be. Here’s how to enable the feature and use it on your mobile and desktop.

Use Voice Typing on Google Docs on Mobile

The Google Docs mobile app lets you manage your documents on the go. The app lets you edit your documents and even save them as PDF files on your iPhone or Android phone. Let us see how you can use the Voice Typing feature with the mobile app.

iPhone users can simply use the Speech-to-Text feature available with the iOS Keyboard to use Google Docs’ Voice Typing feature. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open the Google Docs app and then open a new or previously created document.

Step 2: Tap on the page to bring up the keyboard. Then, tap the Microphone icon at the bottom-right corner.

Step 3: Start dictating the words, and Google Docs will convert the speech to text.

If you don’t see the Microphone icon, check if Voice Dictation has been enabled. Here’s how you can go about it.

Step 1: Open the Settings app and then tap on General.

Step 2: Select Keyboard and tap the toggle next to Enable Dictation.

You can also enable Auto-Punctuation and tweak other aspects from the same menu.

If Dictation still fails to work, refer to our post for more solutions. Note that the solutions outlined in the guide will apply to all iPhones on all iOS versions.

Step 1: Open Google Docs and select a new or previously created document.

Step 2: Tap on the document area to enable the keyboard. Then tap the Microphone icon.

You can refer to our post if Dictation fails to work on your Android phone .

Use Voice Typing on Google Docs on Desktop

For desktop users, the Voice Typing feature comes built-in with Google Docs. However, it is only available for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge users on Mac and Windows PCs. Here’s how to enable and use it.

Step 1: Open your web browser and go to docs.google.com.

Visit Google Docs

Step 2: Sign in to your account and open a new or existing document.

Step 3: Click on Tools in the top Menu Bar and then select Voice Typing.

Step 4: Select the Microphone icon on the left side. Your browser will then prompt you to enable microphone access. Tap Allow.

You can also click the dropdown menu and select your preferred language.

And voila! You can now start using Voice Dictation on your Mac or Windows PC in Google Docs.

How to Use Punctuation and Formatting Styles With Voice Typing

The best part about voice typing on Google Docs is that you can also dictate and insert punctuation. This saves you the time of manual entry and correction. Once you enable the microphone, you can start voicing commands like “select all”, “bold”, “italics”, and more. There are a plethora of other voice commands available for voice typing. A word of caution, though: your dictated punctuation might not always get translated correctly. So, be patient while using the feature.

Use Microsoft Voice Typing Launcher For Google Docs on Windows 11

Windows 11 has a feature called Voice Typing Launcher (Microsoft Speech Services) that is designed to be used for voice typing. You can activate this feature to use voice typing on Google Docs or any other application. Before following the steps to enable it, make sure that you have installed the latest software update.

Step 1: Open Google Docs on your web browser and sign in to your account.

Step 2: Go to your document and press Windows key + H to enable Microsoft Speech Services.

Step 3: From the popup, click the Microphone icon to start using it.

You can click the Settings icon to make changes, including using a different microphone and enabling automatic punctuation. We tested the same on our end and the service introduced commas and full stops automatically, which is great.

You can also refer to our post if Voice Typing is not working on Windows 11 .

Use Dictation on Mac For Voice Typing on Google Docs

You can also use the Dictation feature on Mac to facilitate Voice Typing. It’s a built-in tool that lets you use speech-to-text in Google Docs. All the voice commands for using punctuation will work with this, too. You can refer to our post to learn how to use Dictation on Mac .

Rest Your Fingers

The Voice Typing option on Google Docs is a much-needed respite from endless typing sessions. The feature can also come in clutch when you need to take note of something while juggling other tasks. Let us know if you found this guide useful in the comments below.

Last updated on 16 March, 2024

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

DID YOU KNOW

Paurush Chaudhary

Paurush dabbles around iOS and Mac while his close encounters with Android and Windows. Before becoming a writer, he produced videos for brands like Mr. Phone and Digit and worked briefly as a copywriter. In his free time, he satiates his curiosity about streaming platforms and devices like Apple TV and Google TV. On weekends, he is a full-time cinephile trying to reduce his never-ending watchlist, often bumping it longer.

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Description.

Transkriptor is speech to text app that transcribes meeting, class, audio, and voice to text! Use automatic transcription app to take meeting note and dictate interview. It supports all file formats so, you can convert audio and video to text easily! The speech to text app offers 90 minutes of free transcription. So, you can test the accuracy of audio transcriber. - Audio to text converter takes meeting notes for you! - Be more productive in school, work, and life - Convert mp4 and mp3 to text - Automatically convert audio to text within minutes with transcriber - Add subtitles to videos with creating srt files - Transcribe voice memo via transcriber for WhatsApp What is Transkriptor? It is transcription app that converts voice to text by using A.I.-powered technology similar to Happy Scribe, Transcribeme, Voicepop, and otter ai. Our audio dictation app can be used in many areas from to dictate an interview to creating video captions. You only need to sign up to try dictation app for free. From account dashboard, you can start a new transcription, download and view your previous files. Why Should You Use Speech To Text Converter? Fast Voice to text converter: Automatic dictations are as accurate as manual dictation. Moreover, it takes less time to do automatic transcription than manual transcriber. Unlike other transcription apps, Transcriptor provides you with speed, accuracy, and affordability at the same time. So, you can easily take speech notes and create subtitles captions for videos. Transcribe audio to text easily: You can record voice and transcribe by one click. If you don’t know how to dictate voice to text, don’t worry. We have easy guides for many use cases that show how to transcribe interviews, how to use the subtitle generator tool and voice note or podcast transcript. Thanks to the new update you can transcribe WhatsApp voice note through the app. Convenient speech to text: With Transkriptor, which is one of the best voice to text converter, you can transform many file formats like mp3, mp4, wav, m4a to text. It can transcribe video to text or voice to tex. It will help you add subtitles to videos. You can generate Youtube Video subtitle with autocap. It can even convert your speech notes to text and dictate your podcasts. You can easily convert your audio and video to text. Also, you can transcribe YouTube video to text. Copy paste video link and let Transkriptor convert Youtube to text. Affordable voice to text app: Transkriptor provides audio to text and video to text converter at the lowest price. In addition, it offers a free trial to its users. If you like the performance, you can start to convert voice to text automatically. You will see that Transkriptor is more efficient than many speech to text apps. It supports verbatim group transcribe, so you can use it for multi-speaker speeches and meetings. Accurate dictation to text : Powered by state of an art A.I. speech-to-text algorithm; therefore, its accuracy can reach 99% (depending on the language and audio quality). It learns speech patterns like an otter and atexto, and its accuracy improves every day. So it can yield better results than some of the best speech to text services. Transkriptor is an online transcription app, so you need an internet connection to transcribe notes or use caption generator for videos. How can I improve transcription audio to text quality? Background noise is the enemy of the transcript. As far as possible, try indoor recording. Clean your audio before transcribing your audio recording. Can I transcribe free? Yes! You only need to sign up to receive your credits to free transcribe! Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Version 1.0.24

- Small fixes.

Ratings and Reviews

371 Ratings

Good app ,but notes

The application is good for the Arabic language, but there is some difference between the subscription plan within the application and the subscription plan on the website. The website has three plans for personal subscription, while in the application there are only two plans.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your review! We are glad you enjoyed our speech to text app. We are working on updating subscription plans on the app.

Impressive Accuracy for Persian

This AI transcription app impresses with remarkable accuracy, offering a cost-effective solution per minute in comparison to alternatives. However, there’s room for improvement in editing features. Integrating a function to link transcribed words with their corresponding timestamps in the video or audio would elevate the user experience significantly.

Accurate, good value.

Compared to similar apps Transkriptor provides more minutes for the subscription cost. I’m very impressed with how the app adds punctuation in the right spots. you can shout, whisper, or talk like Yogi Bear. This app seems to understand everything.

Thanks for using Transkriptor!

App Privacy

The developer, Transkriptor, Inc. , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

• Identifiers

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

English, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese

• 300 Minutes (Monthly) $9.99
• 3000 Minutes (Monthly) $24.99
• 2400 Minutes (Monthly) $29.99
• 2400 Minutes/Month (Yearly) $179.99
• 300 Minutes/Month (Yearly) $71.99
• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

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5 Free Transcription Software to Boost Your Online Meetings in 2024

Free Meeting Transcription software FAQ

Spread the word

In this article, we’ll explore 5 free transcription software options of 2024 that we picked among various online transcription providers. We’ll highlight their features as well as pros and cons, so you can choose the best one to use in your online meetings.

Understanding Meeting Transcription Software Types

First, let’s explore the types of transcription services for online meetings:

Real-Time Transcription: This service turns live speech into written text instantly. It paves the way for better accessibility and instant documentation. It’s invaluable for capturing the feel of live events. It ensures no detail is missed. Automated Transcription: Powered by cutting-edge AI, automated transcription offers rapid audio-to-text conversion. This method is especially good for processing lots of audio quickly. It is a staple in settings that need fast transcription, like online meetings. Human-Powered Transcription: This approach is unmatched in its accuracy and sensitivity to subtle content. It’s irreplaceable for projects needing a human touch to discern subtle nuances in speech. Hybrid Transcription: This approach is unmatched in its accuracy. It is also sensitive to subtle content. It’s irreplaceable for projects needing a human touch to discern subtle nuances in speech.

Each type of transcription has unique benefits. You might prioritize speed, accuracy, or a mix of both. Knowing these services helps you choose the best transcription solution for your needs.

5 Free Transcription Software For Online Meetings in 2024

Using transcription software can save time, help you take important meeting notes, and boost efficiency in your online meetings. You’ll never miss important details while using one of those apps:

1. Krisp.ai

Overview: Krisp.ai’s free plan offers unlimited transcription. It also has high accuracy rates and custom vocabulary features. Therefore, it is the go-to choice for users who want a reliable and efficient meeting transcription tool.

2. Otter.ai

Overview: Otter.ai is great at real-time transcription. It’s especially useful for students and professionals who need to transcribe meetings and lectures.

3. Fireflies.ai

Overview: Fireflies.ai transforms team meetings with automatic transcriptions and smooth video conferencing, however, you may find its free plan somewhat limiting.

Overview: Sonix is great for businesses and professionals working with multilingual content. It provides fast and accurate transcriptions across a wide range of languages although offers only trial of 30 minutes for free use.

Overview: Airgram elevates meeting efficiency. It does this with real-time transcription, task assignments, and time-stamped notes. However, its transcription accuracy and real-time features may vary with internet quality.

Why Krisp is a Superior Choice as Your Transcription Software in 2024?

Eventually, what makes Krisp.ai a superior choice for transcribing your online meetings is in its combination of unlimited transcriptions, high accuracy, and the ability to customize your vocabulary on its free plan.

Krisp.ai ensures that users don’t have to compromise on quality or capability despite not paying a premium.

Besides getting Transcription, you can summarize them to get Action Items and a Detailed Summary for your meeting.

Use the demo below to try Krisp transcription magic yourself.

  Get Krisp for Free

How to make Krisp automatically transcribe meetings? In order to make Krisp always transcribe your meetings without prior action, make sure to keep the Note Taker toggle on.You may check out more in this article .

Related Articles

AI + Machine Learning , Announcements , Azure AI , Azure AI Speech , Azure OpenAI Service , Speech to text

Accelerate your productivity with the Whisper model in Azure AI now generally available

By Marco Casalaina Vice President Of Products, Azure AI

Posted on March 13, 2024 4 min read

Human speech remains one of the most complex things for computers to process. With thousands of spoken languages in the world, enterprises often struggle to choose the right technologies to understand and analyze audio conversations while keeping right data security and privacy guardrails in place. Thanks to generative AI, it has become easier for enterprises to analyze every customer interaction and derive actionable insights from these interactions.

Build intelligent apps at enterprise scale with the Azure AI portfolio.

Azure AI offers an industry-leading portfolio of AI services to help customers make sense of their voice data. Our speech-to-text service in particular offers a variety of differentiated features through Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Speech. These features have been instrumental in helping customers develop multilingual speech transcription and translation, both for long audio files and for near-real-time and real-time assistance for customer service representatives.

Today, we are excited to announce that OpenAI Whisper on Azure is generally available. Whisper is a speech to text model from OpenAI that developers can use to transcribe audio files. Starting today, developers can begin using the generally available Whisper API in both Azure OpenAI Service as well as Azure AI Speech services on production workloads, knowing that it is backed by Azure’s enterprise-readiness promise. With all our speech-to-text models generally available, customers have greater choice and flexibility to enable AI powered transcription and other speech scenarios.

Since the public preview of the Whisper API in Azure , thousands of customers across industries across healthcare, education, finance, manufacturing, media, agriculture, and more are using it to translate and transcribe audio into text across many of the 57 supported languages. They use Whisper to process call center conversations, add captions for accessibility purposes to audio and video content, and mine audio and video data for actionable insights. 

We continue to bring OpenAI models to Azure to enrich our portfolio and address the next generation of use-cases and workflows customers are looking to build with speech technologies and LLMs. For instance, imagine building an end-to-end contact center workflow—with a self-service copilot carrying out human-like conversations with end users through voice or text; an automated call routing solution; real-time agent assistance copilots; and automated post-call analytics. This end-to-end workflow, powered by generative AI, has the potential to bring a new era in productivity to call centers around the world.

Whisper in Azure OpenAI Service  

Azure OpenAI Service enables developers to run OpenAI’s Whisper model in Azure, mirroring the OpenAI Whisper model functionalities including fast processing time, multi-lingual support, and transcription and translation capabilities. OpenAI Whisper in Azure OpenAI Service is ideal for processing smaller size files for time-sensitive workloads and use-cases. 

Lightbulb.ai , an AI innovator, is looking to transform call center workflows, has been using Whisper in Azure OpenAI Service.

“By merging our call center expertise with tools like Whisper and a combination of LLMs, our product is proven to be 500X more scalable, 90X faster, and 20X more cost-effective than manual call reviews and enables third-party administrators, brokerages, and insurance companies to not only eliminate compliance risk; but also to significantly improve service and boost revenue. We are grateful for our partnership with Azure, which has been instrumental in our success, and we’re enthusiastic about continuing to leverage Whisper to create unprecedented outcomes for our customers.” Tyler Amundsen, CEO and Co-Founder, Lightbulb.AI

To learn more about how to use the Whisper model with the Azure OpenAI Service click here:  Speech to text with Azure OpenAI Service . 

Try out the Whisper REST (representational state transfer) API in the Azure OpenAI Studio . The API supports translation services from a growing list of languages to English, producing English-only output. 

OpenAI Whisper model in Azure AI Speech 

Users of Azure AI Speech can leverage OpenAI’s Whisper model in conjunction with the Azure AI Speech batch transcription API. This enables customers to easily transcribe large volumes of audio content at scale for non-time-sensitive batch workloads.

Developers using Whisper in Azure AI Speech also benefit from the following additional capabilities:

• Processing of large file sizes up to 1GB in size with the ability to process large amounts of files with up to 1000 files in a single request that processes multiple audio files simultaneously.
• Speaker diarization which allows developers to distinguish between different speakers, accurately transcribe their words, and create a more organized and structured transcription of audio files.
• And lastly, developers can use Custom Speech in Speech Studio or via API to finetune the Whisper model using audio plus human labeled transcripts. 

Customers are using Whisper in Azure AI Speech for post-call analysis, deriving insights from audio and video recordings, and many more such applications. 

For details on how to use the Whisper model with Azure AI Speech click here:  Create a batch transcription .

Getting started with Whisper

Azure openai studio  .

Developers preferring to use the Whisper model in Azure OpenAI Service can access it through the  Azure OpenAI Studio.  

• To gain access to Azure OpenAI Service, users need to  apply for access . 
• Once approved, visit the  Azure portal  and create an Azure OpenAI Service resource. 
• After creating the resource, users can begin using Whisper. 

Azure AI Speech Studio  

Developers preferring to use the Whisper model in Azure AI Speech can access it through the batch speech-to-text in Azure AI Speech Studio.    

The batch speech to text try-out allows you to compare the output of the Whisper model side by side with an Azure AI Speech model as a quick initial evaluation of which model may work better for your specific scenario. 

The Whisper model is a great addition to the broad portfolio of capabilities that Azure AI offers. We are looking forward to seeing the innovative ways in which developers will take advantage of this new offering to improve business productivity and to delight users. 

Let us know what you think of Azure and what you would like to see in the future.

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