Transcribe video to text, free, in your browser
Drop an MP4 or MOV video, or an MP3, WAV or M4A recording, and Burncaps writes down every word as a script under the player. Click any word to correct it, then download the words as a text file, or as SRT or VTT subtitles. 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
- Audio files too
- Text, SRT or VTT
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
How to transcribe an MP4 to text
Burncaps is a free video to text converter that works inside the page, so the video itself never goes anywhere. Converting a video to text takes three steps, with no account.
Drop the file
An MP4 or MOV video, or an audio file. 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.
Read and correct
When it has listened, every word sits under the player as a script. Click a word to correct it, and one click changes it everywhere it was heard. Type names, brands and jargon in Names to spell right and our AI spells them right in the script (only the text goes).
Download the text
Press Text, beside SRT, VTT and ASS, for a .txt file in paragraphs. Tick Times in the Text file and each paragraph starts with its time in the recording, like [00:01:23].
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.
What the text file holds
The Text file is the transcript as paragraphs, in the language spoken, with your corrections and without any words you cut. A new paragraph starts where the speaker finishes a sentence and stops for about a second, or after five sentences without such a stop. Here is a short recording's file with Times in the Text file ticked:
| Line in the file | What it is |
|---|---|
| [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to the bakery, where today we are making a Bakewell tart. It takes about an hour from start to finish, and most of that is waiting. | The first paragraph. The time at its start, in hours, minutes and seconds, is there only when Times in the Text file is ticked; it is off until you tick it. |
| (an empty line) | Between paragraphs. |
| [00:00:11] First, the pastry needs to rest in the fridge for thirty minutes or so. While it rests, we make the frangipane with butter, sugar, eggs and almonds. | A new paragraph: the speaker finished a sentence and stopped for about a second. |
When you need a time on every line
Save SRT or VTT instead. Each subtitle line is timed to the voice, up to two lines of 42 characters, and never runs across a sentence, so the file goes straight into YouTube, Vimeo or a video player. The Text file does not name who is speaking. The SRT file format, explained shows what each line of a subtitle file means.
Only the sound? Audio files
A podcast, an interview, a lecture or a voice note with no picture works the same way, and opens straight on its script. Transcribe audio to text covers audio files: which ones open, how long they may be and what comes back. There is a page for each common file too: MP3 to text, M4A to text and voice memo to text. Audio to SRT is the same job when you want subtitles.
Languages, and how accurate it is
It writes 59 spoken languages, the list in Listening settings. It listens first and names the language it hears above your script, with a one-click change. Twelve Indian languages, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Nepali and Odia, can be written by our speech service or on your own device by a speech model made for each (AI4Bharat IndicConformer, open source). The Text file is in the language spoken; a translation of the lines goes into the SRT and VTT files.
Accuracy, honestly
No speech model gets every word right, and how close it comes depends most on the recording: one clear voice near the microphone is written best, while music under the voice, people talking over each other, a far-off microphone or a strong accent bring more mistakes. Three things help. Max accuracy in Listening settings is a larger speech model for harder audio (a 1.4 GB download, once). Our speech service is the other way to listen, used on a phone unless you keep the sound on it and offered on a computer. And every word can be corrected with a click before you download. We give no single accuracy figure for English, because it changes with every recording; for twelve Indian languages we measured both ways on public test recordings, and every number is in speech to text accuracy in 12 Indian languages.
Meetings, lectures and long recordings
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 video over ten minutes opens on its clips, and its Whole video side holds the script and the files. A phone takes the same recordings as a computer.
Before you drop an hour-long meeting
A long recording takes a while to hear on your own computer, and 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. The Text file gives the words in paragraphs, not who said them, so a meeting's notes still need the names added. Subtitles for long videos says more about long files.
What to check in any free transcription tool
| Ask | Why it matters | Burncaps |
|---|---|---|
| Where does the video go? | A copy on someone else's server is out of your hands, whatever its privacy policy says | Nowhere: it opens in your browser; the sound goes to our speech service only as set out above |
| How much is free? | Free minutes counted by the month can run out in one long meeting | Text and subtitle files free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes; a longer one's first ten minutes free |
| What can you download? | A transcript you can only read on a web page is hard to reuse | A text file in paragraphs, with times if you tick them, and SRT, VTT and ASS subtitle files |
| Can you fix it? | Names, brands and jargon are where speech models go wrong | Click any word to correct it; one click changes it everywhere it was heard |
| Does it need an account? | A sign-up before the first try | No account to try it |
| Does it name the speakers? | Meetings and interviews need to know who said what | No: the text file has no speakers' names |
Then burn the words in, or find the best clips
The same script makes a captioned video: animated word-by-word captions in 60 styles, burned into a new MP4 for a video up to ten minutes, free for 2 videos every 30 days with no watermark. Or 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.
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 a video to text for free?
Drop the video, an MP4 or MOV, 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, or SRT or VTT for subtitles. Text and subtitle files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes, with no sign-up.
Can I transcribe an audio file, like an MP3?
Yes. MP3, WAV and M4A work, and so do AAC, OGG, FLAC or Opus files your browser can play. You get the same script, the same text file and the same subtitle files. Over ten minutes, use an M4A, MP3 or WAV file with AAC, MP3 or plain sound inside.
Does the text file 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 my video 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).
How long can the recording 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.
How accurate is the transcript?
It depends most on the recording: one clear voice near the microphone is written best, and music under the voice, people talking over each other or a strong accent bring more mistakes. Max accuracy in Listening settings and our speech service help with hard audio, and every word can be corrected with a click before you download. For twelve Indian languages we measured both ways on public test recordings and published every number.
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.
Does it say who is speaking?
No. The Text file holds the words in paragraphs and does not name or label who is speaking, so for a meeting or an interview you add the names yourself.
Burncaps facts, checked 2 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.