Video to text, without uploading the video
The words are what you need — the pixels are just weight. Screen recordings, recorded calls, lecture captures, and camera footage all carry a soundtrack worth reading, but video files are enormous, and “upload your 2 GB recording” is where most online tools quietly fall over.
This tool never uploads the video. The audio track is pulled out locally in your browser, transcribed on your hardware, and the transcript is yours to edit and export. Your files are never uploaded — everything runs on your device.
Checking what this browser supports…
How to get text from a video
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Drop in the video file
MP4, WebM, and MOV are supported directly. Only the audio track is decoded — the video frames are never even touched.
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Transcription runs locally
However large the file, there is no upload wait. Long recordings stream their transcript progressively with a visible ETA.
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Use the text
Edit segments, search the transcript, copy the plain text — or export SRT/VTT if what you actually wanted was subtitles.
Why local wins for video
Gigabytes, no problem
A two-hour recording that would take all evening to upload starts transcribing in seconds, because it never has to leave your disk.
Footage stays private
Screen recordings routinely contain names, code, dashboards, and faces. Nothing here is uploaded, so none of that is exposed.
Subtitle-ready output
Exports include SRT and VTT with timings that match the video, ready to load into players and editors.
Video transcription questions
- Which video formats are supported?
- MP4, WebM, and MOV cover most recordings. If your browser can play the file, it can almost certainly transcribe it here — the same built-in decoder is used.
- Does the video get uploaded?
- No. The file is read locally and only its audio track is decoded, in your browser. Your files are never uploaded — that is the entire architecture, not a settings toggle.
- Can I turn the result into subtitles?
- Yes — export SRT or VTT with segment timings. If subtitles are your main goal, the dedicated subtitle generator page walks through that flow.
- What about videos with music or noise?
- Speech mixed with music or background noise transcribes less cleanly than a quiet voice track. The model — OpenAI’s open-source Whisper — is robust as speech recognition goes, but no tool transcribes what can’t be heard.
- Is there a resolution or length limit?
- Resolution is irrelevant (frames are skipped entirely), and no length limit is imposed. Long files are bounded only by your device’s memory and time.