How do you transcribe a long recording on iPhone? Upload it from Safari.
Open whipscribe.com in Safari on the iPhone, tap upload, and pick the recording from Files, Photos or a voice memo you saved to Files; one recording can run up to 10 hours or 5 GB, and a 4-hour one is transcribed in about 8 minutes. Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes, and credits never expire.
From the phone in your pocket
Getting a long recording off the iPhone.
Voice Memos to Files
In Voice Memos, tap the recording, then the share button, and choose Save to Files. The memo is saved as an M4A, small enough that several hours stay far below 2 GB. Then upload it from the Files picker in Safari.
Videos from Photos
A long video from the Camera can be picked straight from Photos in the upload dialog. Video is much heavier than audio: an hour of 4K can pass 2 GB on its own. Large files upload with or without a pack, up to 5 GB.
Keep the upload going
A large file takes a while on mobile data. Use Wi-Fi when you can and keep Safari open with the screen on until the upload finishes; once it is up, processing happens on the server and you can lock the phone. The upload page takes the biggest files.
Read it on the phone
The brief with thesis and takeaways and the chapters with timestamps read comfortably on a small screen; ask the chat a question instead of scrolling hours of text. Speakers appear by name in the summary, key quotes and chapters. DOCX, TXT, SRT, VTT and JSON save to Files.
Phone transcription limits
What usually stops a long recording on a phone.
✗ Short-clip tools
Phone dictation and short-clip apps are built for minutes, not an afternoon.
- Live dictation that stops after a pause
- Apps that cap a recording at an hour
- A desktop needed to upload a big file
- Long memos cut into pieces by hand
- A subscription for one recording
- A wall of text with no structure
✓ A long-file tool in Safari
The same limits as on a computer, from the phone you recorded with.
- Up to 10 hours per recording
- Voice Memos via Save to Files
- Videos straight from Photos
- Four hours ready in about eight minutes
- Brief and chapters for a small screen
- One-time packs, credits never expire
Sample output
From a 4-hour voice memo of a site visit.
Made-up lines for illustration only. The memo was saved to Files and uploaded from Safari.
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 on iPhone, answered.
Do I need an app to transcribe on iPhone?
No. Open whipscribe.com in Safari and upload from the page. Pick a voice memo you saved to Files, a video from Photos, or any audio file in Files or iCloud Drive.
How long does a 4-hour iPhone recording take?
About 8 minutes after the upload, at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio. A voice memo of that length uploads quickly on Wi-Fi; a long video takes longer because it is much bigger.
What does a 4-hour recording cost?
A 4-hour recording counts as 240 minutes. Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes. Packs are one-time, with no subscription, and credits never expire.
My iPhone video is over 2 GB.
Before the first pack, uploads go up to 5 GB, the same as with a pack on the account. If the recording is also on Google Drive or YouTube, paste the link instead and skip the phone upload entirely.
The recording is longer than 10 hours.
One file can run up to 10 hours. For anything longer, make two trimmed copies in Voice Memos or Photos, split at a pause, and upload each one separately.
Which languages work, and is the recording private?
99 languages are detected automatically, and a recording that switches language is detected on its main language. Your recording is transcribed on our own servers, and it is never used for training.
Related
Related answers about phones.
A long recording on your iPhone. Text in minutes, from Safari.
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