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Editorial Team · 2026-10-11
Best AI Transcription Apps, Ranked
By Editorial Team · published 2026-10-06 · updated 2026-10-06
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Every transcription app advertises free minutes, and almost none of them means the number the way you would. One caps each recording at three minutes, one shows only the first 30 minutes of any conversation, one hides most of a long file during the trial. Otter wins: 300 free minutes a month, live text as people speak, and a bot that joins your calls. We ranked five apps on what the free plan really transcribes and what paying fixes. Prices and limits are as of October 2026.
How we picked
We compared Otter, Rev, Notta, Transkriptor and Speechify from our catalogue on the questions that decide whether a recorder is usable: how many minutes the free plan gives, how long a single recording can be, whether the full transcript is readable without paying, which languages work, and whether the app can sit in on online calls.
Speechify belongs to the list for a different reason — it goes the other way, turning text into speech — and we explain where it fits below.
1. Otter — 300 minutes, live, and in your meetings
Otter turns a phone into a live transcriber: tap record, watch the words appear as people speak, then get a summary, action items and an outline. It also sends a bot called Notetaker into Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls from a synced calendar.
The free Basic plan gives 300 minutes a month — the largest free allowance here. The catch: only the first 30 minutes of any one conversation stay readable until you pay. For lectures and long meetings that matters; for notes, interviews and most calls it does not. Our score: 7.4.
2. Rev — a clean recorder for interviews
Rev is free to download and record with, and shows a live transcript while you talk. The Free plan covers 45 AI transcription minutes a month, in English only. Every upgrade is bought on rev.com in a browser, not inside the app.
It targets interviews, case notes and field research, and it cannot record phone calls. Our score: 7.3. If your recordings are English interviews and you want nothing in the way, Rev is the simplest of the five.
3. Notta — 58 languages, three minutes at a time
Notta transcribes live speech, imports audio and video files, captures Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex calls from a pasted link, adds AI summaries, and works in 58 languages — the widest range here.
Its free plan lists 120 minutes a month, but each recording is capped at three minutes, so in practice it is a trial rather than a daily recorder. Pro lifts the cap to five hours per recording. Our score: 6.9. Pay for it if your meetings are not in English.
4. Transkriptor — speaker labels and a chat about the meeting
Transkriptor records meetings and voice notes, imports audio, video and YouTube links, and returns an editable transcript with speaker labels, AI summaries and an AI chat that answers questions about what was said.
Minutes are the currency: Lite gives 300 a month and Pro 2,400. The trial is the trap. It credits 90 minutes, yet shows only 5 minutes 36 seconds of any file longer than seven minutes, so you cannot judge a long recording before paying. Our score: 6.6.
5. Speechify — the other direction
Speechify does not transcribe; it reads PDFs, web pages, emails and photographed book pages aloud with word-by-word highlighting, and adds an AI chat, quizzes and generated podcasts. We include it because people looking for voice AI often want exactly this.
The free plan stops at 1.5x speed with 10 basic voices; Premium costs $139 a year and unlocks 5x speed, scanning and the AI tools. On Android, reviewers report a broken Kindle link and a free trial that renews as a full year after the v6.2.0 rebuild. Our score: 6.9.
What the free minutes really mean
The headline number and the usable number are different on every app:
- Otter: 300 minutes a month, but only the first 30 minutes of each conversation readable.
- Notta: 120 minutes a month, in recordings of three minutes or less.
- Rev: 45 minutes a month, English only, with no per-recording trap.
- Transkriptor: a 90-minute trial that shows 5:36 of any file over seven minutes.
For a weekly hour-long meeting, none of the free plans is enough, and Otter's 30-minute window is the first wall you meet. For short voice notes and interviews, Otter and Rev both work free.
Meetings versus recordings
Two apps here join online calls for you: Otter from a synced calendar, Notta from a pasted link across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex. Rev and Transkriptor are recorders first. If most of what you need transcribed happens on calls, that one feature narrows the choice to two.
Which app for which job
- A university lecture, one hour. Otter records it live, but the free plan shows only the first 30 minutes; Notta's free plan stops each recording at three. This is the job that needs a paid plan on any app, and Otter's is the one to pay for.
- An interview in English. Rev: a clean recorder, a live transcript, 45 free minutes a month, and nothing interrupting the conversation.
- A team call in Spanish or German. Notta, for its 58 languages and its ability to join Zoom, Meet, Teams or Webex from a link — on Pro, so the call is not cut into three-minute pieces.
- Weekly voice notes to yourself. Otter's 300 free minutes cover this comfortably, since notes rarely run past 30 minutes.
- A recording you want to question afterwards. Transkriptor's AI chat answers questions about what was said, which is useful for long meetings — once you are paying.
- A long PDF you have no time to read. Speechify reads it to you; this is the one job none of the others does.
Bottom line
Otter is the best AI transcription app on a phone: 300 free minutes a month, words on screen as people speak, and a bot that joins your calls. Use Rev for English interviews with nothing in the way, Notta for meetings in other languages, and read Transkriptor's trial terms before you rely on it. Speechify is the pick only if you want text read to you rather than speech written down.
