tl;dv is the #1 choice for teams on a budget who need powerful meeting intelligence. With unlimited recordings, timestamped highlights, support for 30+ languages, and a forever-free plan, it's ideal for distributed teams and asynchronous-first organizations that need to systematically summarize meeting content without incurring any costs.
Top 7 Free Transcription Software Tools
1.
Fireflies offers a free plan ideal for individuals just starting with transcription and meeting notes. The plan provides unlimited transcription with 800 minutes of meeting storage per seat, as well as limited AI-generated summaries, enabling users to capture key meeting insights at no additional cost. It supports integration with popular video conferencing platforms and offers real-time transcription in over 100 languages, as well as mobile and web accessibility.
Free Plan Features:
- Unlimited transcription and limited AI summaries
- 800 minutes of storage per user seat
- Real-time transcription and notes in multiple languages
- Mobile app (Android, iOS) and Chrome extension for accessibility
Integrations in Free Plan:
- Zoom
- Google Meet
- Microsoft Teams
- Mobile App (Android, iOS)
- Chrome Extension
2. Otter.ai
Otter.ai's Basic plan is designed for individuals who want to try out AI-powered transcription and meeting notes without any cost. It offers 300 monthly transcription minutes with a limit of 30 minutes per conversation and allows users to import up to three audio or video files for lifetime transcription. The plan supports live transcription on popular meeting platforms and provides essential features, including speaker identification, audio playback, and multi-language support, for iOS and Android apps.
3. Notta
Notta's free plan is for individuals starting with transcription. It provides 120 minutes per month with a 3-minute limit per conversation. Users can upload up to 50 files per month and receive 10 AI summaries. It supports speaker identification and web meeting transcription.
4. tl;dv
tl;dv offers a free plan designed for anyone new to AI meeting tools. This plan includes unlimited meetings and viewers, unlimited AI moment summaries, and transcription in over 30 languages, all without any time limits or credit card requirements. It also supports video recording, speaker recognition, and basic AI meeting notes, making it a robust free option for meeting transcription and collaboration.
5. Sembly AI
Sembly AI's free plan is designed for beginners to explore its capabilities. It offers a single-user workspace with 1 hour of recording and upload time per month. The plan provides standard-quality transcription and introductory AI-generated meeting notes and tasks. Video recording, advanced automations, and multi-meeting AI chat are not included, and meetings are deleted after four months.
6. Google Meet:
Google Meet's free plan is designed for personal use and small group meetings. It allows up to 100 participants per meeting with a 60-minute time limit for group calls and no time limit for one-on-one sessions. Users can join unlimited meetings, use screen sharing, and access live captions in multiple languages, making it a robust free video conferencing solution.
7. OpenAI Whisper (Self-hosted):
OpenAI Whisper is a top speech recognition system you can run locally. It offers accurate transcription and translation without requiring data to be sent to the cloud. Self-hosting keeps your data private and allows you to customize its operation. It works well out of the box with no need for extra tuning.
Free Plan Comparison Table
Which Free Tool Should You Choose?
Decision Framework
Need the most free minutes? Fireflies (800 min)
Want the highest accuracy? Otter.ai (99%+)
Need multiple languages? Notta (104 languages)
Want unlimited usage? Whisper (self-host)
Only use Google Meet? Google Meet (built-in)
Focus on video highlights? tl;dv
Need task management? Sembly AI
