The 9 Best Speech-to-Text Apps in 2023 (Tried & Tested)

Most speech recognition apps have no trouble transcribing a native speaker being recorded with a pro microphone in a quiet room. This isn’t a challenge.

So to test them more thoroughly, I created a nightmare recording of two non-native speakers with loud city background noise.

How did theyfare?

Let’s findout.

Otter was one of the most frequently mentioned solutions when we asked for suggestions on Twitter and in the Ahrefs community. And for good reason. It is easy to set up, has an intuitive interface, and offers clear pricing.

Unique features

What stands out from the rest is the app’s ability to record online meetings and transcribe them—simply by pasting the meeting URL. But you can also import a video/audio file or record audio right in theapp.

Besides, you can connect your calendar to never miss a meeting.

Transcript quality

I got decent results, but there was a lot to edittoo.

It didn’t get some names right. But I can’t blame any tool for not picking up “Ahrefs” or “Tim Soulo” 100% of thetime.

One thing I found is that after it notified the transcriptions were ready, it might still do something in the background (adjust time stamps, tag speakers, etc.). Like a student still scribbling on a test paper while passing it to the teacher.

Pricing

You can start for free and upgrade to a paid plan later. You can import up to three files and record 290 minutes of meetings before you need to upgrade (as of April2023).

Setting up an account was a no-brainer. I found the...