How to Transcribe an MP4 Video to Text
Open the Video to Text converter, add your MP4 file, leave the language on auto-detect and press Transcribe. When the transcript appears, fix any misheard words and download it as a TXT file. The steps below explain each choice and what to do if something goes wrong.
What you need
- An MP4 video with an audio track, up to 500 MB and 60 minutes long. MOV, M4V, WebM, MKV and AVI files work the same way.
- An up-to-date browser such as Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, on a computer or a phone.
- No account and no software to install.
Step 1: Add your MP4 file
Drag the video onto the upload area, or click Choose file. On an iPhone or Android phone, you can pick the video from your photo library or the Files app. Nothing is processed until you press Transcribe.
Step 2: Choose where to transcribe
On this device (default)
Speech recognition runs inside your browser, so the video never leaves your computer. The first time, your browser downloads a speech model of about 80–150 MB and keeps it for next time. Speed depends on your device: a recent laptop handles most videos well.
On our server
Better for phones, older computers and long videos. The video is uploaded over an encrypted connection, only its audio is transcribed, and the video is deleted as soon as the audio is extracted. There is a daily limit on server transcription minutes per visitor so the tool can stay free.
Step 3: Set the spoken language
Auto-detect works well for most videos. If the clip is short, or the speaker switches languages, pick the language from the list. Telling the model what to expect improves accuracy.
Step 4: Review the transcript
The transcript appears line by line, each with its start time, next to a player with your video. Click a time to jump to that moment, and click any line to correct it. Pay special attention to:
- names of people, companies and products;
- numbers, dates and prices;
- technical terms and acronyms;
- sections with music, crosstalk or background noise.
Step 5: Download or copy the text
Click Download TXT to save a plain-text file, or Copy text to paste it into Google Docs, Word or Notion. Tick Include timestamps in export if you want each line to start with its time, like [00:01:04], which helps when you quote the video or write show notes. Your corrections are included in the export.
Troubleshooting
“We didn't detect any speech in this file”
The video may be silent, or its speech too quiet or covered by music. Check that the video plays with sound on your device.
The file is too large
Convert the video to audio first with MP4 to MP3, then upload the MP3 to Audio to Text. An MP3 is usually a small fraction of the video's size, so it also uploads much faster.
The video is longer than 60 minutes
Split it into shorter parts with any video editor and transcribe each part.
Your browser can't read the file
Some videos use codecs a browser can't decode. Choose On our server and try again: the server reads the audio with FFmpeg, which supports far more formats.
Need subtitles instead of a document?
A transcript is for reading. If you want captions that appear on the video, use the Subtitle Generator. It creates timed SRT and VTT files you can upload to YouTube or open in a video editor.