How to transcribe a long recording from a link, without downloading it.
To transcribe a long recording from a link, paste a YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, Kick, Google Drive or podcast RSS link into the box and the recording is fetched on our side, up to 10 hours or 5 GB per file, at about 2 minutes per audio hour. Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes, and credits never expire.
The steps
Four steps, and the slowest one is copying the address.
Copy the right address
Use the address of the recording itself rather than a channel page or a playlist. On YouTube that is the watch link of the video or of the saved live replay; on Twitch and Kick, the VOD; on Vimeo, the video page; on Google Drive, a share link set so anyone holding it can view, or the link to a whole folder; for a podcast, the RSS feed or the episode. If a recording only plays after you sign in, our fetch cannot reach it either.
Paste it and let the server do the carrying
Paste the address into the box at the top of this page and press the button. The recording travels from the platform to our servers, so nothing leaves your laptop and a weak hotel or campus connection does not matter. Processing then runs at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio: a 90-minute talk in about 3 minutes, a 5-hour replay in about 10.
Read the preview, then finish it
Every recording starts with a free preview of its opening minutes. A recording shorter than that comes back complete; a longer one is previewed, and a pack from $4 transcribes the rest from where the preview ended, with no second fetch to arrange. Stream recordings over 6 hours start once a pack is on the account, so buy first for a marathon VOD.
Take the results with you
The transcript arrives with a brief of the thesis and takeaways, chapters with timestamps, the names, numbers and dates that were said, and the questions the recording answers. Speakers are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters. Download TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT or JSON, or ask the chat about anything in the recording.
Link versus download and upload
Downloading four hours of video only to upload it again is two slow jobs.
✗ Download, then upload
What happens when a tool only accepts files.
- Gigabytes pulled down to your own disk
- The same gigabytes pushed back up
- Uploads that stall on shared Wi-Fi
- Format conversions before the tool will take it
- The Whisper API's 25 MB limit forcing cuts
- Disk space spent on a file you needed once
✓ Paste the link
The recording moves server to server.
- YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, Kick, Drive and RSS
- Live replays and VODs fetched directly
- Up to 10 hours or 5 GB per recording
- About 2 minutes per audio hour
- Speakers named in the summary, quotes and chapters
- TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON
Sample
Hours into a fetched replay, the times still match the player.
Illustrative sample written for this page, not taken from a real broadcast. The timestamps follow the recording at the link, so 02:47:10 here is 02:47:10 in the platform's own player.
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 $4 (300 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
$4/300 min
5 hours of audio — $0.80 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 300 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$18/3,000 min
50 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 3,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$32/6,000 min
100 hours of audio — $0.32 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 6,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Long recordings from a link, answered.
Which links can I paste?
YouTube videos and live replays, Twitch and Kick VODs, Vimeo videos, Google Drive share links and folders, and podcast RSS feeds or single episodes. For any other platform, such as a webinar portal or a cloud recording behind a login, download the recording first and upload the file; even before a first pack, uploads go up to 5 GB.
Is the length limit different for a link?
No, it is the same as for an upload: up to 10 hours or 5 GB per recording, whichever comes first. An archive longer than 10 hours does not fit one file, so download it, cut it in two at a natural break and upload both parts.
What does a long recording from a link cost?
Minutes count the audio, however it reaches us. A 4-hour replay is 240 minutes and fits the $4 pack of 300 minutes. Credits never expire.
Why did my Google Drive link fail?
Usually because the file is shared only with named people. Change its sharing to anyone with the link can view, then paste the link again. A folder link brings in the recordings inside it, which saves pasting a semester of files one at a time.
Can I paste a link while the stream is still live?
No. This works on the recording afterwards, and no bot joins a live call or stream. Paste the replay or VOD link once the broadcast has ended and the platform has saved it.
Is a recording fetched from a link kept private?
Yes. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training, and that holds whether the recording arrived as a link or as an upload.
Related
More about links and long files
Keep the file where it is. Paste the link and get a free preview of the opening minutes.
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