Transcribe a QuickTime recording audio or screen, hours long.
QuickTime Player on a Mac saves a New Audio Recording as an M4A file and a screen or movie recording as a MOV, and both transcribe here at about 2 minutes per hour of audio. A four-hour recording comes back in about 8 minutes, with the first 20 minutes free.
From QuickTime Player
Saved on the Mac, ready to drag in.
Where the file is
QuickTime asks for a name and a folder when you save a recording, so it is wherever you chose, often Documents or the Desktop. Drag it from Finder onto the upload box. If you cannot remember where it went, Recents in Finder lists the most recent files.
Screen recordings are MOV
A screen recording of a webinar or online meeting is a MOV video. MOV files upload through the upload page, which takes videos up to 5 GB. Before a pack is on the account, files up to 2 GB start straight away.
Shrink a large MOV first
Hours of screen video can run to several gigabytes. In QuickTime Player, File, Export As, Audio Only saves just the sound as an M4A, a fraction of the size, and the transcript is the same because only speech is transcribed.
Eight minutes for four hours
Processing takes about 2 minutes per hour of audio, so a four-hour recorded workshop is done in about 8 minutes. A full ten-hour recording, the most one file can hold, takes about 20.
Where long Mac recordings go wrong
QuickTime records for hours. Most transcription tools do not read for hours.
✗ The usual detours
A long MOV runs into limits before it runs into a transcript.
- A video too large for an upload form
- A size cap that rejects the MOV outright
- Converting to MP3 in a separate app
- Slicing a webinar into upload-sized chunks
- Captions with times that reset in every piece
- Notes rebuilt by replaying the screen
✓ QuickTime file in, document out
The recording goes up whole and comes back on one timeline. Because QuickTime writes ordinary M4A and MOV files, nothing about the Mac setup has to change. Record the way you already do, save, and drag the result in when the session ends.
- M4A or MOV, no converter needed
- Roughly 2 minutes per hour of sound
- Host and presenters named in the summary and chapters
- SRT and VTT that match the original video
- First 20 minutes free
- Packs from $6 with no expiry
Sample
A four-hour webinar screen-recorded in QuickTime.
This sample is illustrative, written for this page and not taken from a real recording. Timestamps follow the original MOV from its first frame.
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
- Unlimited AI chat per 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
- Priority queue
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
QuickTime recordings, answered.
How long does a QuickTime recording take to transcribe?
Close to 2 minutes for each hour of sound. A four-hour recording is ready in about 8 minutes; for a large MOV, the upload is usually the slower part.
What will a four-hour QuickTime file cost?
A four-hour webinar draws 240 minutes. The first 20 minutes are free for a first-time visitor, and the $6 pack of 500 minutes transcribes the rest, leaving 260. A monthly run of eight four-hour webinars, 1,920 minutes, fits the $12 pack of 2,000 minutes.
My MOV is several gigabytes. Will it upload?
One file can be up to 5 GB or 10 hours. A MOV over 2 GB starts once a pack is on the account. To keep it small, export the audio only from QuickTime Player and upload that M4A.
Do I have to split a long screen recording?
Only if it is longer than 10 hours. Trim it into two parts in QuickTime Player and save each one.
Which languages are supported?
99, detected automatically. A webinar in Portuguese, Korean or Swedish needs no setting before upload.
Which formats come back, and is the recording private?
Export as TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT or JSON, with caption timings taken from the original file. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Other long Mac files
Drag in the recording. Start with 20 free minutes.
Transcribe my QuickTime fileOperated by Neugence Technology Pvt. Ltd. · contact@whipscribe.com · Security · Privacy · Terms