Top 10 AI Transcription Tools for Enhanced Productivity

Transcription allows you to convert spoken words into written text. With this process, you can create a record of your meetings, make your video or audio files more accessible, add subtitles to meet video editing requirements or generate new content like articles and blog posts.

However, transcription can be a time-consuming process when done manually. You might have to listen for hours to transcribe longer content.

Organizations across many fields are implementing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to improve productivity, enhance communications, and help meet business objectives. Transcription is no exception. 

AI can automate most types of transcription, rendering adequate drafts in a short turnaround time and allowing you to focus on higher-priority tasks. AI transcription tools are trained using vast amounts of data and dictation so that they can perform processes like captioning, subtitling, and note-taking. 

In this article, we cover the top AI transcription tools to help transform your workflow and boost your productivity.

Best AI transcription services

Explore these top AI transcription services to help you find the best solution for your needs.

1. Otter.ai

Otter.ai offers automated meeting notes and real-time transcription services. The platform connects automatically to Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams and can generate summaries for meetings. It can also help students take notes for in-person and virtual lectures. Otter.ai is trained to ignore filler words, creating a succinct transcription.

Sales teams can use Otter.ai to extract valuable insights from previous customer interactions to optimize their strategies. Apart from real-time meeting transcription, Otter.ai allows you to upload and transcribe pre-recorded audio and video content in formats like MP4, MP3, WAV, MPEG, and AAC.  

Best for: Businesses and students attending meetings and classes

Pros:

• Cross-platform functionality (Android, iOS, and Windows)
• Live transcription of recordings
• Can be integrated into multiple meetings concurrently
• Ability to transcribe YouTube videos and Dropbox files
• Can generate transcript docs in different formats like PDF, DOCX, and TEXT
• Interactive transcripts to make comments and share with colleagues

Cons:

• Videos may not be transcribed correctly all the time
• Otter.ai may confuse certain speakers when generating transcripts
• Live notes and captions for Zoom are only supported in higher-tier plans

Pricing: Otter.ai offers a free basic plan. Paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month (when billed annually).

2. Trint

Trint allows you to convert audio and video files to text, which you can use to create content for podcasts, social media, and blogs. The platform supports various video formats and lets you edit generated transcripts to your liking. For instance, you can add speaker notes and verify time codes.

You can also draft narratives using the Trint drag-and-drop interface to identify high-impact moments in transcripts and move the content to new documents. You can also collaborate with colleagues by adding markers and comments to transcripts.

Best for: Creators looking to turn audio and video files into blog posts and articles

Pros:

• Ability to generate quick captions for videos
• Can transcribe text in 50+ languages
• Export transcripts in multiple formats
• Ability to generate time-coded sound bites
• Can read transcripts and listen to audio playback simultaneously to check for accuracy

Cons:

• Unlimited transcription feature only available in Advanced and Enterprise plans (more expensive)
• May generate inaccurate text
• Transcriptions in certain languages may contain errors

Pricing: Trint offers a free transcription trial. Paid plans start at $52 per user (when billed annually).

3. Rev AI

Rev AI, a product by Rev, offers a speech-to-text technology to help convert spoken word to text. It advances from the transcription services initially provided by Temi, also a product of Rev, supporting transcription of both live and prerecorded audio and video content. Using machine learning algorithms, Rev AI can identify the dominant language in audio and video files, and extract key topics from text—but only in English.

You can also train Rev AI models using custom vocabulary, unique names, and industry-specific terminologies to facilitate an accurate transcription process. Other AI features include the ability to identify different speakers, to use advanced punctuation and capitalization, and to apply minute-by-minute time stamps in transcripts.

Best for: Online streamers looking to make their content more accessible

Pros:

• Provides a speech-to-text API you can integrate into your applications
• Available in 58+ languages
• Supports up to eight speaker channels
• Ability to add closed captions to make content accessible to those with visual and hearing impairments
• Offers a manual transcription service to boost the quality of outputs
• Ability to filter profanity from text
• Generates real-time captions with low latency in live streams

Cons:

• Transcribed content may not be right all the time
• Pay-as-you-go pricing can get expensive when you have a lot of content needing transcription
• Speech recognition may not work well when speakers have an accent
• Must pay extra for features like sentiment analysis, topic extraction, and language identification

Pricing: Rev AI has a pay-as-you-go model, with machine translation costing $0.02 per minute.

4. Sonix

Sonix is audio transcription software that lets you generate content and translate it into more than 49 languages, including Spanish, French, and Arabic. It features an in-browser editor that allows you to search, modify, and share your transcripts with other people. The platform also generates automated subtitles to make visual content accessible to different audiences.

You can access automated summaries of your transcripts, giving you an overview of what's happening. With Sonix's AI algorithms, you can search for phrases, words, and themes in your transcripts and organize them in a multi-folder nesting.

Best for: Content creators wanting to enhance content accessibility

Pros:

• Word-by-word time stamps
• Can identify speakers and separate their exchanges into different paragraphs
• Allows you to add notes and comments to transcripts
• Export transcripts in multiple formats, including Microsoft Word, TXT, and PDF
• Can set custom dictionaries
• Ability to combine multiple audio recordings into one transcript
• Offers verbatim transcription where each detail in a recording is transcribed
• Automated time code realignment

Cons:

• Generated transcripts may not be accurate all the time
• Premium plans offering collaboration tools are a bit expensive

Pricing: Sonix offers both pay-as-you-go transcription and monthly subscriptions. The Standard plan is pay-as-you-go and costs $10 per hour. Monthly subscriptions start at $5 per hour plus $16.50 per user per month (when billed annually).

5. Fireflies

Fireflies focuses on meeting transcriptions across different video conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Meet. But you can also upload pre-recorded content and transcribe it into English or any other language.

Various collaboration tools are available on Fireflies, allowing you to add comments and notes to transcripts and share them with colleagues.

Best for: Meeting-focused teams like sales personnel, management, and recruiters

Pros:

• Ability to transcribe content in 60+ languages
• Allows you to create custom topic trackers to monitor various subjects in transcripts
• Can turn parts of your meetings into shareable sound bites
• Supports numerous integrations, including Zapier, Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams
• Free Forever plan to try out features before committing

Cons:

• Fireflies charges per seat, which can get expensive for large teams
• May be subject to inaccuracies
• Training custom models to improve accuracy is only available in the Enterprise edition, which is more expensive

Pricing: Fireflies offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $10 per seat per month (when billed annually).

6. Beey

Beey is a user-friendly platform for transcribing online meetings, interviews, and podcasts, as well as subtitling and language translation. It can scan subtitles in your content and offers automatic transcription in other supported languages.

The intuitive editor on Beey lets you edit and format your transcripts to ensure they're accurate. Other supported features include voice recognition, separation of speakers, voice recording, and machine translation.

Best for: Video producers and podcasters

Pros:

• Ability to transcribe live stream content
• Offers an API you can integrate into your apps
• Ability to search through your archived transcripts fast
• Can download transcribed content in different formats
• Translate text into 20 languages
• Ability to merge multiple audio channels into one transcript
• Provides tutorials to guide new users

Con:

• Can be expensive for individuals and small teams

Pricing: Beey offers a free trial. Pricing starts at $9.35 per hour of transcription.  

7. MeetGeek

MeetGeek helps automate numerous processes during a meeting, ensuring you focus on having meaningful conversations. For instance, it offers auto transcription for live meetings and takes notes, generates summaries of lengthy recordings, and rearranges transcribed content based on topics, allowing you to follow along easily.

In addition, MeetGeek adds time stamps to transcripts, ensuring you track where different interactions happened in audio or video files.

Best for: Startups to help increase meeting productivity

Pros:

• Can capture and share meeting highlights with your colleagues
• Can store your meeting notes from different channels in a centralized location for faster retrieval
• Compatible with popular apps like HubSpot, Slack, and Notion
• Can identify specific keywords in meetings and pre-recorded content

Cons:

• Free plan offers only five hours of transcription per month
• The ability to download transcript files is available only with paid versions
• Transcripts may have errors

Pricing: MeetGeek offers a free basic plan. Paid plans start at $15 per user per month (when billed annually).

8. Scribie

Scribie offers a four-step transcription service for more accurate transcripts. First, it uses AI to analyze your content and generate text from speech autonomously. Human reviewers then review the outputs for accuracy. The transcripts are further proofread before being subjected to a quality check. In other words, Scribie relies on both machines and human reviewers.

Best for: Legal, academic, and marketing transcription

Pros:

• Comes with human-verified transcripts
• Ability to extract text from noisy or accented video and audio files
• Allows you to sign NDA forms, ensuring you get the privacy you need

Cons:

• Charges per minute, which can be expensive for long-form content
• Can be slower compared to fully autonomous AI transcription tools

Pricing: Scribie transcription is available for $0.80 per minute.

9. Temi

Temi, a product of Rev, is advanced speech recognition software that uses a proprietary algorithm to transcribe audio and video files. While Rev AI focuses on providing developer-centric transcription services, Temi caters to end users with a simple editing tool for cleaning and optimizing generated transcripts to match individual needs.

Best for: Journalists and reporters

Pros:

• Can be integrated with YouTube, Gmail, and Google Drive
• Supports a wide variety of audio and video formats
• Ability to transcribe content directly from your browser
• Straightforward pricing plan allows you to access all of Temi's features in one package

Cons:

• May produce unusable outputs when transcribing audio and video files with heavy background noise
• Doesn't perform well when processing strong accents

Pricing: Temi charges $0.25 per audio minute.

10. Verbit

Verbit offers a wide variety of services, including live captioning and real-time transcription, closed captioning, and note-taking. It also facilitates audio description, enabling you to create meaningful experiences for people with visual impairments.

Best for: Transcribing live events like meetings, podcasts, and interviews

Pros:

• Supports numerous platforms like YouTube, Zoom, OneDrive, Vimeo, BlackBoard, and Dropbox
• Ability to format transcripts to match your needs
• Speaker identification
• Able to push through strong accents and generate helpful transcripts

Con:

• Prices not publicly available

Pricing: Contact Verbit's sales teams to get a custom quote.

Key features to look for in AI transcription tools

AI transcription tools have useful functionalities to help convert speech to text. When looking for an AI-powered transcription tool, consider the following features:

• Speaker identification. Audio and video content may sometimes have multiple speakers or characters. Ensure that your selected AI tool can identify and differentiate these speakers.
• Real-time transcription. When dealing with events like live streaming, meetings, and podcasts, you want an AI transcription tool that converts spoken word to text in real-time. This helps you create reference points and make your content more accessible.
• Time stamps. A good AI transcription tool should transcribe content and include time codes in transcripts for easier navigation and reference.
• Handling background noise. You may not have high-quality audio and video files all the time. A good AI transcription should be able to ignore background noise and produce accurate transcripts.
• Download formats. Ensure the selected automated transcription service lets you download content in your desired format. Some popular document formats are MS Word, PDF, TXT, and SRT.

Manage transcriptions with Upwork

AI transcription tools automate time-consuming processes like real-time transcription, subtitling, and captioning, enabling you to focus on the creative part of your projects. Their ability to add time codes to transcripts allows you to quickly refer to specific audio and video file sections. Plus, you can format transcripts in different styles to match your branding.

But one recurrent setback among AI subscription tools is that they aren't 100% accurate. Some tools might be unable to push through background noise to deliver quality work. Interpreting and processing strong accents also poses a challenge to these platforms.

Upwork has independent transcriptionists who can help you harness the power of AI in your workflows. These experts can monitor AI outputs to ensure you end up with high-quality transcripts.

If you're a transcriptionist looking for work, Upwork can help you find different transcription jobs and earn extra income. Get started today!

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation. 

Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.