Can I transcribe an MP4 without converting it? yes, drop the video in as it is.
Yes: upload the MP4 exactly as it came off the camera, phone or meeting app, and the speech is read straight from its audio track, for any file up to 10 hours or 5 GB (2 GB before your first pack). A 2-hour MP4 is transcribed in about 4 minutes, the first 20 minutes are free, and its 120 minutes come from the $6 pack of 500.
Video in, text out
The MP4 already holds everything a transcript needs.
No converter, no extra copy
An MP4 is a container: the picture and the sound travel side by side inside it. The sound is all a transcript needs, and it is read from the container directly, so there is no reason to export an MP3 first, install a converter or keep a second copy of every recording on your drive.
When the file is large
The upload box on this page takes files up to 500 MB. A bigger MP4, up to 5 GB, continues on the upload page, and one above 2 GB starts once a pack is on your account. Only above 5 GB does it make sense to strip the picture away before sending.
Other video files too
MOV from an iPhone or a camera, WEBM from a browser recorder and the MP4 files that meeting tools save all go in the same way. A video that has no sound track, or whose narration lives in a separate audio file, has nothing to transcribe; send the audio file instead.
Timestamps that match the video
Because the transcript is built from the same file you will publish, the SRT and VTT captions line up with the MP4 frame for frame, with no offset left over from a converted copy. Chapters and the brief point to the same moments you see in the player.
Converting first, or not
A conversion step adds time and gives the words nothing.
✗ Converting the MP4 first
What people often do because older tools only accepted audio.
- Install an editor or a converter
- Wait for a full re-encode of the file
- Guess at a bitrate and a format
- Keep two copies of every recording
- Risk trimming the first or last seconds
- Captions to re-align against the original
✓ Uploading the MP4 as it is
The same file you recorded, sent once.
- Drag the MP4 straight from the folder
- Speech read from the built-in sound track
- One file to store and to delete
- Captions on the original clock
- Brief, chapters and quotes with times
- TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON back
Sample output
A recorded product demo, straight from the MP4.
Illustrative lines invented for this page, not from a real recording, as they might appear for a long screen-recorded walkthrough.
Export
One transcript. Five clean formats.
Every pack exports all five — no format is held back for a higher tier.
Plain text
De-ummed paragraphs. Ready to paste.
SRT captions
Timed to the speech. Every video editor reads this.
WebVTT
HTML5 player + YouTube uploads.
Show notes
Formatted with chapters and pull-quotes.
Machine-readable
Timestamped text for your own tools.
Pricing
Honest pricing, no surprises.
A pack from $6 (500 minutes) opens the full transcript. After that, no subscription and no auto-renew — every tier is a one-time minute pack, and credits never expire. Buy once, use the minutes whenever you need them.
Casual pack
$6/500 min
8 hours of audio — $0.72 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 500 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$12/2,000 min
33 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 2,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Questions about MP4 files.
Can I transcribe an MP4 file without converting it to MP3?
Yes. Upload the MP4 itself; the speech is taken from its audio track. Any MP4 up to 10 hours or 5 GB is accepted, and up to 2 GB before your first pack.
Will converting to audio give a better transcript?
No. The words in the audio track are the same either way, and re-encoding an already compressed sound track can only lose a little detail. Convert only when the file is too large to send as it is.
What if my MP4 is over 5 GB?
Export the sound alone from your editor or player, or re-save the video at a lower bitrate. An hour of speech as 128 kbps audio is roughly 58 MB, so even a long video shrinks far below the limit.
How long does an MP4 take, and what does it cost?
About 2 minutes per audio hour once it has uploaded. Three 75-minute lecture videos make 225 minutes on the $6 pack of 500; twenty 2-hour videos in a month make 2,400 minutes and call for the $24 pack of 5,000.
Does it work with phone videos and screen recordings?
Yes. Portrait phone videos, meeting recordings and screen captures are all just video files with a sound track. Background music is not transcribed; the speech is, in any of 99 languages detected automatically.
Which exports come back, and is the video kept private?
TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON, with speakers named in the summary, key quotes and chapters. Your video is transcribed on our own servers and is never used for training, and you can delete it whenever you like.
Related
More on video files.
Got the MP4 already? Send it exactly as it is.
Upload my MP4Operated by Neugence Technology Pvt. Ltd. · contact@whipscribe.com · Security · Privacy · Terms