Best transcription app for your recordings and meetings
Transcription apps fall into a few camps: meeting assistants that join your calls, services that offer human transcribers, tools that turn recordings into documents, and the transcription built into your phone. Which one is best depends on what you record and what you need at the end. Below are five options with facts taken from their public pages in October 2026 and a plain verdict on who each one suits. Stenograph is our product; we tell you where a competitor is the better choice.
Listening
How we chose what to compare
We compared what can be checked: how recordings get into the app, whether a bot joins your calls, what the output looks like, export formats, and the price on the public pricing page as read in October 2026. We did not measure accuracy and do not quote accuracy figures. Vendors change plans often, so confirm current pricing on their sites.
Transcription apps side by side
| App | How audio gets in | Joins calls as a bot | Output | Price as listed in October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stenograph | Upload of audio and video files, meetings recorded on your device, live dictation | No, recording happens on your device | Transcript with timestamps and speaker labels, summary, decisions, action items, formatted documents; export to Word, PDF, TXT, SRT | Solo 49 USD monthly or 24 USD per month billed yearly; Pro 99 or 49; Team 299 or 149; Enterprise 999 or 499 |
| Otter.ai | Joins online meetings, records in the app, file import | Yes, an assistant can join calls | Live transcript, summaries, action items | Has a no-cost tier; Pro 16.99 USD monthly or 8.33 billed yearly; Business 30 or 19.99 |
| Fireflies.ai | Joins online meetings, file upload | Yes, a notetaker joins calls | Transcript, summaries, search across meetings, integrations | Has a no-cost tier; paid plans about 18 and 29 USD per seat per month |
| Rev | File upload, recording app | Lists a notetaker for calls on its site | AI transcripts and, as a separate service, human transcription and captions | Per its public pricing page, with separate rates for AI and human transcription |
| Phone voice memo transcription | Recorded in the built in voice memo app on recent iPhone and Android phones | No | Plain transcript on the device | Included with the phone |
Which transcription app fits which person
Stenograph
Choose Stenograph when the transcript is a step towards a document: a letter, a memo, an article, minutes you send to a client. It keeps your own terms and professional vocabularies, formats the result, and sits in the same subscription as dictation into any app. It does not send a bot into your calls, which some people prefer and others find less convenient. It is priced for professionals, not for occasional use. More on ai transcription.
Otter.ai
Otter.ai is a good fit for people who live in video meetings and want a live transcript to appear while the call is running. Its yearly Pro price is low, and a no-cost tier lets light users get started.
Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai suits teams that want every call recorded automatically, searchable later and connected to their CRM and project tools. If automatic capture of all meetings is the priority, it is built for that.
Rev
Rev is the option to consider when you need a person to review the transcript, for example for legal records, publication or captions that must meet a strict standard. Human transcription costs more and takes longer, and Rev states that openly.
Phone voice memos
The transcript in your phone's voice memo app is the easiest place to start. For a quick memo you want to read later it is enough, and you should use it before paying for anything. It does not format, summarize or apply your vocabulary.
What separates a good transcription app from a merely convenient one
- Terms: names, products and jargon spelled correctly, which depends on whether you can add your own. See custom vocabulary speech recognition.
- Speakers: who said what, labeled clearly in multi person recordings.
- Timestamps: a way to jump back to the audio moment behind a sentence.
- Output: a transcript you can use as is, or one you must rewrite.
- Exports: Word, PDF, TXT and SRT for captions.
- Data handling: whether audio is kept, and whether your content trains AI models. See dictation privacy.
How Stenograph handles files and meetings
Upload an interview, a lecture, a podcast episode or a recorded dictation and Stenograph returns a timestamped transcript with speaker labels. For meetings, start recording on your laptop or phone, in person or with a call playing through your speakers, and get the transcript plus a summary with decisions and action items. Audio is processed and then deleted. Details live on audio transcription software, meeting transcription app and ai meeting note taker.
- 300 transcription minutes and 30 meeting summaries per month on Solo
- 900 minutes and 60 summaries on Pro
- 3,000 pooled minutes and 200 summaries on Team
- 10,000 pooled minutes and 600 summaries on Enterprise
Guides for common recordings
If you are starting with a specific kind of file, these walkthroughs help: how to transcribe a voice recording, how to transcribe zoom calls, and how to transcribe iphone voice memo files into clean text.
Stenograph plans for transcription
Yearly billing is the default and halves the price. Solo is 24 USD per month billed yearly, Pro 49, Team 149 and Enterprise 499. Payments are final and you can cancel at any time, keeping access until the paid period ends. See stenograph pricing.
Questions about transcription apps
Does Stenograph join my Zoom or Teams calls
No. It records on your device, so there is no bot in the participant list. If you want a bot that joins automatically, Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai are designed for that.
Which transcription app is the most accurate
We do not publish accuracy comparisons because we have no independent measurement. Test any app on a recording that is typical for you.
Can Stenograph produce subtitles
Yes. Export a transcript as SRT for captions or as Word, PDF or TXT for documents.
Is a human checking my transcripts
No. Stenograph uses AI only. If you need human transcription, Rev offers it as a separate service.
Can I try Stenograph before paying
Yes, through a one-time demo on the home page. Plans start at 24 USD per month billed yearly and no plan is priced at zero.
Turn your next recording into a document
Upload a file or record a meeting, then export the transcript, summary and action items in the format you need.