Transcribe interviews privately
Transcribe interviews free without uploading the audio anywhere. Built for journalists, researchers, and hiring teams. Runs locally in your browser.
Drop your video or audio file here
or click to browse. It’s free, no signup.
MP4 · MOV · WebM · MKV · AVI · MP3 · WAV · M4A and more
🔒 100% private: transcription runs in your browser. Your file is never uploaded.
Interview recordings are often the most sensitive files you have: sources, research participants, job candidates. Most transcription services upload them to their servers. FreeTranscribe runs the speech-recognition model inside your browser instead, so the recording stays on your device.
Get a full written transcript for quotes, qualitative analysis, or sharing with your team, free and without an account.
Why local transcription helps with confidentiality
When the audio never leaves your computer, there’s no third-party service holding a copy, no retention policy to check, and nothing to ask to be deleted later. That makes it easier to keep the promises you made about who can hear a recording.
This isn’t legal advice, so follow your newsroom, ethics board, or company policy. Still, “the audio was never uploaded” is a simple thing to be able to say.
Tips for interview recordings
- Get consent before recording; the rules differ between countries and states.
- Keep each voice close to a microphone. A phone placed between two people works surprisingly well.
- Speaker labels aren’t generated. The timestamps make it quick to mark who is speaking.
How it works
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Drop your file
Nothing is uploaded. The file stays on your device the whole time.
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AI transcribes locally
OpenAI’s Whisper model runs in your browser, so no server ever sees your file.
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Copy or download
Plain text, or timestamped SRT and VTT subtitles ready to use anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
Is this suitable for research interviews?
Many researchers prefer local tools precisely because the data never leaves their machine. Check your ethics approval for specific requirements, such as where transcripts must be stored.
Can it tell the interviewer and interviewee apart?
Not automatically yet. All speech is transcribed with timestamps; add names while you review.
How accurate is it for quotes?
Whisper is accurate on clear speech, but always check a quote against the recording before publishing. The timestamps make that quick.