Interview transcription, free, in your browser
Drop the interview recording, an MP3, M4A or WAV, or an MP4 or MOV video, and Burncaps writes every word as a script under the player. Correct any word with a click, then download the transcript as a text file in paragraphs, with each paragraph's time if you tick it, or as SRT or VTT. It does not name the speakers, so you add who said what. Text and subtitle files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes, with no sign-up.
The video never leaves your browser. On a computer, the sound is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service; on a phone, it goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone. The service gets short pieces of sound, never the picture.
- Video never uploaded
- Free, no sign-up
- Times at each paragraph
- Text, SRT or VTT
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
How to transcribe a recorded interview
- Drop the recording. An audio file from a phone or a recorder, or the video of the interview. It opens in this page and the video is never uploaded to us, which you can check in a computer browser's network tab while it works.
- Spell the names right. Type the names, places and jargon the interview uses in Names to spell right, and our AI spells them right in the script (only the text goes). Leave it empty and nothing is sent for it.
- Read it against the recording. Every word sits under the player. Click a word to correct it, and one click changes it everywhere it was heard; click a word and press Cut, and the Text file leaves it out.
- Download the transcript. Tick Times in the Text file, under the file buttons, and press Text: each paragraph starts with its time in the recording, like [00:01:23]. Or press SRT or VTT for a time on every line.
Where the words go
The video stays in your browser. On a computer, English is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service, which is also offered for other languages and for recordings over ten minutes; on a phone the sound goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone. The service gets short pieces of sound, never the picture, and passes them to Microsoft's speech recognition in the EU, which by Microsoft's terms for the service stores none of it. The script's text leaves your device only if you type names to spell right, choose a translation or choose Clips (it then goes to our AI); ticking Keep everything on this device stops that, and keeps the sound on your device too. Transcribe a video without uploading it shows how to check every request yourself.
How to lay out an interview transcript
There is no single standard, but most interview transcripts, for research, a news story or a hiring panel, share the same parts, so that anyone can match a quote to the moment it was said:
- A heading: who was interviewed and by whom, the date, and the name of the recording's file.
- One paragraph per turn, each starting with the speaker's name or a label, such as Interviewer and Participant, or initials.
- A time at the start of each turn, so a quote can be found in the recording in seconds.
- A mark for what you could not hear, with its time, rather than a guess, for example [inaudible 00:12:41].
- One line saying which kind it is: verbatim keeps every word as said, with ums, false starts and repeats; clean verbatim leaves those out and keeps the meaning, without rewording.
Here is how the parts come together from the Text file, with Times in the Text file ticked:
| Line in the transcript | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Interview with Siobhan Kelly by Tom Ashworth, 14 October 2026. File: kelly-interview.m4a. Clean verbatim. | You write the heading. |
| [00:00:04] Tom: Thanks for making the time. How did the bakery start? | The time and the words are the Text file's; you add "Tom:". |
| [00:00:09] Siobhan: It started in my mum's kitchen. We sold at the Saturday market for two years before we had a shop. | A new paragraph, because the speaker finished a sentence and stopped for about a second; you add "Siobhan:". |
Paragraphs follow pauses, not voices
A new paragraph starts where the speaker finishes a sentence and stops for about a second, or after five sentences without such a stop. Two people can share a paragraph if one answers without a pause, and one person's long answer can run over several, so check each break before you put a name at its start. The Text file does not name or label who is speaking. Speech models do not always write every um or false start: for clean verbatim, click any filler you want gone and press Cut; for strict verbatim, listen through and add what is missing.
What Burncaps gives, and what it does not
| For an interview | Burncaps |
|---|---|
| Every word, as a script you can correct | Yes: click any word to correct it; one click changes it everywhere it was heard |
| Times | At the start of each paragraph in the Text file, if you tick Times in the Text file; on every line in SRT and VTT |
| Who is speaking | No: the text file has no speakers' names, and it does not tell voices apart |
| Recording the interview | No: it transcribes a recording you already have, as a file, never a link |
| Length | Up to three hours and 10 GB; text and subtitle files free without limit up to ten minutes |
| Languages | 59, the list in Listening settings; the Text file is in the language spoken |
| An account | None to try it |
An interview recorded on Zoom
Zoom can save each person's sound as a file of its own: its setting Record a separate audio file for each participant, in the desktop app's Settings under Recording, puts one file per person in an Audio Record folder, each named starting with the person's name (Zoom's help, Starting a computer recording, read on 3 November 2026). Drop each file in turn and you have each person's words with their times. Each file is a recording of its own, so over ten minutes each one uses one of your free videos. Zoom recording transcript says where Zoom, Teams and Meet keep their recordings.
Long interviews
Up to ten minutes, a recording's text and subtitle files are free, as often as you like. A longer one, up to three hours and 10 GB, gives its first ten minutes free (the text then ends at the last pause before ten minutes), and all of it as one of your free videos (2 every 30 days), in the 7-day Captions + Clips trial (free, no card), or with Captions + Clips or Captions. A phone takes the same recordings as a computer.
How long it takes
On a 2020 MacBook with 8 GB of memory, 90 minutes of English were heard on the device in 8.8 minutes (5 October 2026). Our speech service is much quicker: before a recording over ten minutes is heard, a computer asks once which way to listen, each with its time, while your speech-service allowance covers it. Over ten minutes, Burncaps reads MP4, MOV, M4A, MP3 and WAV files with AAC, MP3 or plain sound in them; transcribe audio to text covers audio files in more detail.
Then quote the best moments as clips
A filmed interview can also become posts. Choose Clips, and Burncaps finds the best moments of a talk, podcast or interview and cuts each into a ranked, captioned 9:16 clip; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and Captions + Clips exports every clip, unlimited. Clips are cut from the picture, so they need the video, not an audio file.
What it costs
Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. Then try Captions + Clips free for 7 days, no card. Captions + Clips is $29 a month for unlimited clips and captions; Captions is $9.98 a month or $49 once.
Questions, answered plainly
How do I transcribe an interview for free?
Drop the recording, an MP3, M4A or WAV, or an MP4 or MOV video, on this page. Burncaps hears it in your browser and writes every word as a script under the player; correct any word with a click, then press Text for a .txt file in paragraphs, or SRT or VTT. Text and subtitle files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes, with no sign-up.
Is my interview recording uploaded?
No. Burncaps opens the video in your browser and never receives it. On a computer, the sound is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service; on a phone it goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone (short pieces of sound, never the picture, to Microsoft's speech recognition in the EU, which by Microsoft's terms for the service stores none of it).
Does it say who is speaking?
No. The Text file holds the words in paragraphs and does not name or label who is speaking, and it does not tell voices apart, so you add the names yourself. Its paragraphs follow pauses, not speakers, so check each break before you put a name at its start.
Does the transcript have timestamps?
Only if you want them. The Text file is in paragraphs; tick Times in the Text file, under the file buttons, and each paragraph starts with its time in the recording, like [00:01:23]. For a time on every line, save SRT or VTT instead: each subtitle line is timed to the voice.
Is it verbatim or clean verbatim?
It is the words as the speech model heard them, and speech models do not always write every um or false start. For clean verbatim, click any filler you want gone and press Cut, and the Text file leaves it out; for strict verbatim, listen through and add what is missing.
How long can the interview be?
Up to ten minutes, a recording's text and subtitle files are free, as often as you like. A longer one, up to three hours and 10 GB, gives its first ten minutes free, and all of it as one of your free videos (2 every 30 days), in the 7-day Captions + Clips trial (free, no card) or on a paid plan.
Which languages can it transcribe?
59, the list in Listening settings. It listens first and names the language it hears above your script, with a one-click change. The Text file is in the language spoken; a translation of the lines goes into the SRT and VTT files.
Burncaps facts, checked 3 November 2026
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or finds the best moments of a talk, podcast or interview and gives them back as ranked, captioned 9:16 clips.
Price: free for 2 videos every 30 days, each one recording with its captioned video and up to 3 clips, no mark and no sign-up; then the free 7-day Captions + Clips trial, no card (your email only); then Captions + Clips, $29 a month, gives unlimited clips and captioned videos, or Captions, $9.98 a month or $49 once, gives unlimited captioned videos. Captions paid once is not a subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound goes only to our speech service, on a phone unless you switch it off, on a computer only if you choose it. Because the video never reaches us, we cannot keep it or train AI on it, and we train no AI on anything you make.
Files: MP4 or MOV in, MP4 out. Captions on the whole video: up to ten minutes. Clips: up to three hours, on a phone or a computer. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes; a longer recording, up to three hours, gives its script and those files (the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos, in the trial or with Captions + Clips or Captions) and its clips (every one found and shown before you sign up; up to 3 from each free video exported free, every one in the trial or with Captions + Clips).
Clips: about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, the ones we would post first circled, each showing the words it opens and ends on and the reason it was chosen; each cut to 9:16 with ums and dead air removed, an opening card and captions, framed on whoever is talking. Every clip of the whole recording is found and shown, free and with no sign-up; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and the 7-day trial and Captions + Clips export every clip, unlimited.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 59 languages, 60 caption styles.
After it listens: correct any word (one click changes it everywhere), add or cut words, one to six words at a time, position, size, text and highlight colours, and names this browser remembers, all free and without listening again.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: sixteen caption tools compared, from the vendors' own pages.