You've been here before
Every 'free' tool has a catch.
Typist isn't playing that game. Read why you're tired, then try us.
'Free' tools kept asking for your card.
You clicked 'free trial,' it asked for a credit card, and then it logged you out after 10 minutes. You're just trying to transcribe one file.
Local Whisper melted your laptop.
You tried running Whisper locally. Your fan sounded like a jet engine, and you still don't have a transcript an hour later.
Per-minute pricing adds up fast.
Rev is $1.50/min. That one 90-minute recording costs more than your lunch. Multiply by your whole backlog — no thanks.
You just want the text.
You don't need an AI chatbot, an editor, a team workspace, or a 4-seat minimum. You need a transcript. That's it.
The free tier, spelled out.
Not a trial. Not a demo. Not a card grab. A real free tier — built for the one-off file, the indie project, the weekend experiment.
No credit card
Don't even have to fake one. Sign in, upload, done.No trial countdown
3 free transcriptions. No hidden timer, no 'upgrade in 48 hours' popup.Real export formats
TXT and DOCX out of the box — paste into anything.Your files are yours
Delete whenever. We don't train on your audio. No weird data resale.How it works
Drag, drop, done.
Three steps. Under a minute. Free.
Upload any audio
MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, voice memos, Zoom exports — drag and drop. Up to 100 MB on free, 5 GB on Premium.
Typist transcribes
~30 seconds for a 1-hour file. 99+ languages. Handles accents, technical terms, and noisy rooms.
Export the text
TXT and DOCX on free. PDF and SRT on Premium. Paste into anything — Notion, Docs, Premiere, your clipboard.
See it for yourself
Real files. Real output.
Press play — hover the transcript to reveal timestamps.
So the question is — how do you actually find product-market fit? And I think the honest answer is, you don't find it. It finds you. You ship something, you talk to users, and one morning your servers are on fire. That's when you know. The pull becomes undeniable. Users start telling other users.
Why Typist
Fast, accurate, honest.
Transcribe in seconds. 200x faster than real-time. A 1-hour file is done in ~30 seconds.
Any audio file. MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, FLAC, OGG, WebM. Drag, drop, done.
Drag and drop audio/video file
MP3, WAV, MP4, MOV, M4A and more...
99+ languages. Tuned for accents, jargon, and code-switching.
Text goes anywhere. TXT, DOCX, PDF, SRT. Paste into Notion, Premiere, Google Docs, or your clipboard.
The people using Typist
Podcasters. Creators. Brokers. Broke students.
Anyone with a voice file and an internet connection.
"I run a solo podcast. I needed to transcribe 80 eps for a new blog without paying Rev prices. Typist did the entire backlog in an afternoon. Free tier got me started, Premium paid for itself in one sitting."
"I record everything — ideas on walks, half-baked features, meeting highlights. Typist turns them into actual notes I can search. I call it my external brain."
"Transcribed 3 months of customer support calls to look for patterns. Found 4 repeat issues I had no idea existed. Saved me the cost of a consultant."
"Captioning my YouTube videos used to take hours. Typist does it in seconds and handles Japanese perfectly — which is not a thing most of the free tools get right."
"Client dropped a 4-hour interview recording on a Friday. I had a searchable transcript before they finished their follow-up email. Turned a weekend job into a lunch break."
"I can't afford Rev. I can't afford Otter Pro. I couldn't even afford Spotify. Typist's free tier got me through a whole semester of beat reporting. I'm not kidding, thank you."
How we compare
Typist vs everyone else.
Free to start. Fast. Honest about what you get.
| Tool | Speed | Max upload | Languages | Free tier | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Typist | 1hr in ~30s | 5 GB | 99+ | 3 free, no card | $20/mo unlimited |
Whisper (local) | Hours on your laptop | Unlimited (local) | 99+ | Free (install hell) | Your CPU, your fan |
Rev | 1hr in ~5 min (AI) | 2 GB | 17 | None | $0.25–$1.50/min |
Otter.ai | Real-time | ~3 GB | 3 | 300 min/mo | $16.99/mo (Pro) |
TurboScribe | 1hr in ~3 min | 5 GB | 98+ | 3/day (30 min) | $10/mo |
Sonix | 1hr in ~5 min | 500 MB | 53 | 30 min trial | $10/hr or $22/mo |
Pricing
Start free. Scale when you're ready.
3 free transcriptions. No card. No trial countdown.
3 free transcriptions
No card required
Files up to 100 MB
Perfect for 1-2 hour audio
Turbo model access
Fast and accurate
TXT + DOCX exports
Paste anywhere
7-day file retention
Auto-deletes after a week
Unlimited transcriptions. 5 GB files. Every export format.
Unlimited transcriptions
No daily or monthly caps
Up to 5 GB per file
Long recordings, full sessions
Priority processing
Skip the line, always
All models, all languages
World's fastest + highest accuracy
PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT exports
Every format you need
Unlimited retention
Your library, forever
Questions
The stuff people actually ask.
Drag, drop, done. Free to start.
No card, no trial countdown, no subscription wall. Transcribe your first file in the next minute.
No credit card · Up to 100 MB · Ready in ~30 seconds