Podcast transcription, free, from your episode file
Drop your episode, an MP3, WAV or M4A, or the video of a video podcast, and Burncaps writes every word as a script under the player. Correct a word once and one click changes it everywhere it was heard, then download a text transcript for your show notes, or an SRT or VTT file with a time on every line. 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
- Episodes up to 3 hours
- Text, SRT or VTT
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
From episode file to transcript
- Drop the episode. The file you export from your editor or recorder: MP3, WAV and M4A work, and so do AAC, OGG, FLAC or Opus files your browser can play, or the MP4 or MOV of a video episode.
- Spell the names right. Type your guest's, your sponsor's and the show's names in Names to spell right, and our AI spells them right in the script (only the text goes). This browser remembers them for next week's episode.
- Read and correct. 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 to leave it out.
- Download the files. Press Text for a .txt transcript in paragraphs (tick Times in the Text file and each paragraph starts with its time, like [00:01:23]), or SRT or VTT for a time on every line, up to two lines of 42 characters.
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. Transcribe a video without uploading it shows how to check every request yourself.
Transcripts on Apple Podcasts
Apple makes a transcript of every episode itself, and lets you show your own instead. This is what Apple's page for creators says, read on 3 November 2026:
| What Apple's page says | Apple's own transcript | A transcript you provide |
|---|---|---|
| How it gets there | Made automatically after a new episode is published, shortly after it can be heard | Through your RSS feed's transcript tag, if your hosting provider supports transcripts; for subscriber episodes, uploaded in Apple Podcasts Connect |
| The file | None to make | VTT or SRT |
| Languages | English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish | The same languages; for another language, Apple suggests linking the transcript in the episode notes |
| Speaker names | Not stated | A VTT file can name the speaker of every line, and Apple shows the name when the speaker changes |
| What listeners see | "Automatically generated" | "Provided by" and your show's name |
Before you send ours to Apple
Burncaps gives both files Apple names, SRT and VTT, with every word you corrected. Its VTT names no speakers, so add the names yourself if you want Apple to show them. Apple also asks that a transcript you provide is free of spelling and punctuation errors and covers every part of the episode. The source: Apple Podcasts for Creators, Transcripts on Apple Podcasts, read on 3 November 2026. For a video podcast on YouTube, the YouTube subtitle generator has YouTube's own steps for the SRT.
What to do with the transcript
Show notes
The Text file is the episode in paragraphs, ready to cut down into notes or a write-up. With Times in the Text file ticked, each paragraph carries its time, so you can point listeners to the moment a topic starts.
Subtitles
The SRT and VTT files put a time on every line, timed to the voice and never running across a sentence, for Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Vimeo or your own player. The SRT file format, explained shows what each line means.
Captions and clips
From a video episode, the same script burns animated word-by-word captions into a new MP4, or cuts the best moments into captioned 9:16 clips for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
Someone else's show?
Burncaps works on a file you have, never a link, so it cannot fetch a show from Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For a show you listen to, Apple's page says Apple Podcasts shows transcripts in its app on iOS 17.4 or later: touch and hold an episode, then tap View Transcript.
Then cut the episode into clips
Choose Clips on a video episode, and Burncaps returns 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.
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. An audio-only episode gives its transcript and subtitle files, not clips, because clips are cut from the picture. The podcast clip maker shows how clips follow two people at a table.
Long episodes
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.
Questions, answered plainly
How do I transcribe my podcast for free?
Drop the episode file, an MP3, WAV or M4A, or the MP4 of a video episode, 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 transcript, or SRT or VTT for a time on every line. Text and subtitle files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes, with no sign-up.
Can I give my own transcript to Apple Podcasts?
Apple makes its own transcript automatically after an episode is published. Its page for creators, read on 3 November 2026, says that to provide your own it takes a VTT or SRT file: through your RSS feed's transcript tag, if your hosting provider supports transcripts, or uploaded in Apple Podcasts Connect for subscriber episodes. Burncaps gives both files.
Does the transcript name the host and the guest?
No. The Text file holds the words in paragraphs and does not name or label who is speaking, and the SRT and VTT files name no speakers either, so you add the names yourself. Type the guest's name in Names to spell right and it is spelled right wherever it is said.
Can I transcribe a podcast from a link?
No. Burncaps works on a file you have, never a link, so it cannot fetch a show from Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For a show you listen to, Apple's page says Apple Podcasts shows transcripts in its app on iOS 17.4 or later: touch and hold an episode, then tap View Transcript.
How long can an episode 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.
Can it make clips from the episode?
From a video episode, yes: choose Clips and 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. An audio-only episode gives its transcript and subtitle files, not clips, because clips are cut from the picture.
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.