How to transcribe a long voice memo from the phone's recorder to searchable text.
To transcribe a long voice memo, share it out of the recorder app as a file (Save to Files on iPhone, Share from the recorder on Android) and upload it here whole; a 4-hour memo comes back in about 8 minutes. Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes, and credits never expire.
Four steps
From a long memo on the phone to a transcript you can search.
1. Turn the memo into a file
On iPhone, open the memo in Voice Memos, tap the three dots or Share, and choose Save to Files; you get an M4A. On Android, open the recording in your recorder app and use Share or Export. Most save M4A or MP3; if yours offers a format choice, either works.
2. Upload from where you are
Open this page in the phone's browser and pick the memo from Files or Downloads, or send it to a computer first if the phone connection is weak. The upload box here handles files up to 500 MB, which covers many hours of compressed memo audio; larger ones go through the upload page.
3. Let it run
Processing takes about 2 minutes per hour of audio, so four hours is ready in roughly 8. You can lock the phone once the upload has finished. The memo waits in your Library with its transcript when you return.
4. Read it the short way
A long memo rarely needs reading top to bottom. The brief gives the main points and takeaways, chapters split the hours by topic, and the chat answers questions such as what was said about the budget, each with a timestamp you can play.
Getting the words out of a long memo
Scrubbing the waveform versus reading the transcript.
✗ Listening back on the phone
Dragging a thin waveform for a remark you half remember.
- Hours of playback at double speed
- Losing your place when a call comes in
- Notes typed with one thumb
- No way to search a spoken word
- The phone's own transcript, if any, cut short
- Still unsure what was decided
✓ Uploading the memo
The full recording becomes text with a clock on every line.
- One upload from the phone's browser
- About 8 minutes for a 4-hour memo
- Search for any word that was said
- Chapters by topic across the hours
- A brief with the main points
- TXT or DOCX to paste into notes
Sample output
A long memo left running through a working day.
Illustrative only, not a real recording: four lines from a memo recorded across a site visit and the drive home.
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
Questions about transcribing long voice memos.
What format does a voice memo come in?
On iPhone, Voice Memos shares an M4A. Android recorder apps usually save M4A or MP3, depending on the app and its settings. Both upload as they are; there is no need to convert.
My memo is very long. Will it fit?
Up to 10 hours or 5 GB per file. Compressed memo audio is small, so length is almost always the limit you reach first. A memo left running overnight past ten hours needs one cut into two files.
How long does a long memo take?
Close to 2 minutes for every audio hour. Two hours takes around 4 minutes, four hours around 8, and a full 9-hour day around 18.
What does it cost?
Nothing for the opening-minutes preview. A 4-hour memo is 240 minutes on the $4 pack of 300. Credits never expire.
Can I record in a language other than English?
Yes. 99 languages are detected automatically, and a memo that switches language is detected on its main one. Background noise such as traffic or music is skipped; the speech is transcribed.
Is the memo kept private?
Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. Delete the memo and its transcript from your Library whenever you like.
Related
More on memos and phone recordings.
The memo you left running for hours is about 8 minutes from being text.
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