Free Audio & Video Transcription

Yes — VocaScript is completely free to use as a guest, no account required. Signing in is optional but raises your usage limits and enables cross-device storage. If you hit a rate-limit message as a guest, sign in and retry immediately from the same page.

Both. Paste a media URL (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and 10,000+ other sites) or upload a local audio/video file — the workflow is identical. If a URL fails to download, switch to direct file upload as a fallback. You can also use the browser extension to capture audio directly from any tab.

Transcriptions must complete within 15 minutes. Very long files, heavy service load, or provider capacity issues can cause a job to time out or fail. If this happens: retry with a shorter clip, or try again after a few minutes. Audio-only files process significantly faster than full video downloads, so extracting audio first can help with long content.

Guest limits: 3 transcriptions per hour, 5 uploads per hour, and 10 media downloads per hour. Signed-in limits: 20 transcriptions per hour, 30 uploads per hour, and 50 media downloads per hour. Limits reset automatically based on each action window. Sign in to increase your quota immediately — no waiting required.

VocaScript supports 10,000+ websites including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook, Vimeo, Reddit, Twitch, SoundCloud, and many more. Direct file uploads work for any audio or video file on your device. Support can vary based on each platform's access controls and anti-bot protections.

Sometimes. Public URLs usually work directly. Restricted content — private videos, members-only posts, or age-gated media — often requires your active session cookies from the platform. Install the browser extension and use it while logged into the source platform to pass your session credentials to the download. If that still fails, download the file yourself and upload it directly.

The extension acts as a secure bridge between your browser and our transcription engine. It solves three major problems: First, platforms aggressively block automated servers (bot protection) even for 100% public videos. Second, it allows you to download age-restricted content. Third, it securely passes your active session, allowing you to transcribe private videos, paywalled content (like Patreon), and members-only streams that require you to be logged in.

File uploads are accepted up to 2 GB. Videos above 1080p are rejected during validation — if your video is higher resolution, compress it or export at 1080p before uploading. For very large files (over 500 MB), processing takes longer and upload failures are more likely on slow connections; splitting the content into shorter clips is the fastest workaround.

Step 1: Confirm the URL is publicly playable. Step 2: Retry once — transient errors often resolve themselves. Step 3: For repeated URL failures, try the browser extension (which passes your session cookies) or upload the file directly. Step 4: For transcription failures, try a shorter audio clip or re-run after a few minutes. Most failures are transient or input-related, not permanent.

Yes. VocaScript supports automatic and manual language selection for 100+ languages. After transcription, you can manually edit individual segments directly in the app, or use our specialized AI editing tools before exporting.

No. Unlike generic AI models that try to "fix" sentences or guess missing words, we apply strict anti-hallucination guardrails to the transcription process. The AI is instructed to produce verbatim transcriptions (including filler words) and to use an [inaudible] tag when speech is truly unintelligible. This ensures your transcript is an accurate reflection of the audio, not an AI summary.

VocaScript includes two powerful built-in AI correction tools. The Proofread tool scans your transcript to fix spacing, spelling, and grammar errors while strictly preserving the speaker's unique tone and dialect. For specific audio misunderstandings (like names or acronyms), use the Retranscribe tool to select a segment, provide custom instructions, and regenerate just that portion using the surrounding conversational context.

We use a multi-layered validation and auto-healing system. If the AI hallucinates bad JSON or misaligns a timestamp (such as sliding hours into the minutes position), our engine automatically catches these anomalies in real-time and normalizes them behind the scenes. For any edge cases that cannot be auto-fixed, our intuitive native Timestamp Editor lets you easily shift timestamps left or right with a single click.

Export as TXT (plain reading), SRT or VTT (subtitles), or JSON (structured data). You can also copy the full transcript to clipboard and paste it directly into ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI tool for summarization, translation, or analysis. The "Send to AI" button inside the transcript opens your preferred AI assistant with the transcript pre-loaded.

Guest data lives only in your browser (IndexedDB) and is not sent to our servers. Signed-in users get cloud-linked storage: transcripts are stored permanently, but media files are automatically deleted after 7 days to manage storage capacity. Download anything you need to keep. Your transcript text is always preserved even after media cleanup.

Yes. If your original media came from a URL, VocaScript can re-download it for you just open your transcript and use the "Recover Media" option. If the source is no longer available online, re-uploading your local copy is the fallback. Your transcript is never deleted by automatic cleanup, so your text content is safe regardless.

Yes. VocaScript works in mobile browsers. You can upload files directly from your camera roll, and basic URL processing works for fully public videos. However, if a URL requires authentication (like a private video or age-restricted content), it will fail on mobile because our browser extension (which handles auth) is desktop-only. For restricted content on mobile, the best workaround is to save the video to your device first, then upload the file.