Voice to Text — Free Live Transcription
Speak and watch your words appear in real time. Uses the Web Speech API built into Chrome, Edge, and Safari — pick from 77 languages, see in-progress phrases dimmed until they finalize, then copy the transcript or download it as a TXT file, with optional timestamps.
Your transcript never touches our servers — it lives only on this page until you copy or download it. Speech recognition runs on your browser's built-in engine (Chrome routes audio through its vendor's speech service; recent Safari versions can recognize on-device).
How to transcribe speech to text in your browser
- Pick your language. Choose from 16+ locales — English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, and more. You can switch mid-session.
- Start and allow the mic. Click Start transcribing and grant microphone permission when the browser asks.
- Speak naturally. In-progress phrases appear dimmed and italic; once the engine is confident, they turn into final transcript paragraphs with a timestamp.
- Copy or download. Stop anytime — the transcript stays. Toggle timestamps, then Copy to clipboard or download as a .txt file.
Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this work in every browser?
It needs the Web Speech API: Chrome, Edge, and Safari support it; Firefox currently does not. On unsupported browsers the page explains this and recommends Chrome or Safari.
Is my voice sent anywhere?
Your transcript stays on this page — orangebot.ai never receives your audio or text. Recognition itself is performed by your browser's built-in speech engine; in Chrome that engine processes audio on Google's speech servers, while newer Safari versions can recognize on-device.
Does it add punctuation?
Sometimes. Chrome adds automatic punctuation for English and a few other languages; most locales come back unpunctuated, so expect to add periods and commas while editing.
Why does transcription pause after silence?
Browsers end a recognition session after a stretch of silence. This tool restarts it automatically so dictation feels continuous — your previous text is always kept.
Can I transcribe an audio or video file?
No — the Web Speech API only listens to the live microphone. Play the file out loud near your mic as a workaround, or use a dedicated file-transcription service for accuracy.
How accurate is it?
Very usable for clear speech in a quiet room — typically 90%+ for major languages. Accents, background noise, and technical vocabulary lower accuracy; a good microphone helps more than anything.
Which browser transcribes where — on-device vs vendor servers
Live speech-to-text on the web runs through the Web Speech API, and the single most misunderstood thing about it is that "in the browser" does not always mean "on your device". Where the audio is processed depends entirely on which browser you opened the page in.
| Browser | Recognition engine | Audio leaves device? | Works offline? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome / Edge (desktop) | Google speech service | Yes — audio is streamed to the vendor | No |
| Safari 16+ (macOS/iOS) | Apple on-device recognition | No, for supported languages | Often yes |
| Firefox | Not implemented | N/A — the API is unavailable | N/A |
| Chrome on Android | Google speech service, may use on-device model | Usually yes | Sometimes |
- Either way the transcript never reaches orangebot.ai — it stays in this page until you copy or download it. The distinction above is about your browser vendor, not this site.
- For anything confidential, use Safari or dictate into a local tool instead; there is no way for a web page to force Chrome to recognize on-device.
- Recognition sessions time out after a stretch of silence in most browsers; long dictation works better in short takes than one continuous hour.
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