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A BigBlueButton recording is usually a playback page, not a file. Where your server offers the video format, download the MP4; where it does not, here is what works instead.
The file you have
There is no link to paste for this one. A playback link is a web application, not a media file, so it cannot be fetched. Use the MP4 if your server provides one.
How it works
In the recordings list, look for 'video' beside the recording and download the MP4.
Record it with a screen recorder with system sound on; see the screen-recording pages linked below.
The class comes back as timestamped text with chapters.
Good to know
What comes back
The same four things for every BigBlueButton recording, whatever its length.
Every line carries its time. Click a line to hear that second again, or search a name or phrase and jump to each place it was said.
A brief with the takeaways, chapters with their start times, and the quotes worth keeping. Speakers are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters.
Ask where a topic came up or what was decided, and get the answer with the time it was said, instead of scrolling the whole text.
TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT, JSON from the same transcript: a document to edit, caption files for video, plain text to paste, structured data for your own tools.
Pricing
A 90-minute class is 90 minutes, so the $4 pack (500 minutes) covers it 5 times over. Every recording gets a free preview and a summary you can read before paying; a pack opens the full transcript and every export. Packs are one-time purchases with no subscription and no seat fee.
Pick a pack to open secure checkout. Workspace is $19 a month for unlimited transcription (300-hour fair-use mark). Full pricing
1,901 recordings, 830 audio hours, 64 languages detected. An hour of audio came back in 3.7 minutes for half of the recordings and within 19.7 minutes for nine in ten, measured from the moment the file landed to the finished transcript. Refreshed 2026-10-02; method on how we test.
FAQ
If your server has the video recording format enabled, an MP4 is listed beside the recording. If only 'presentation' is listed, there is no file; ask the administrator or capture the playback with a screen recorder.
No. The playback is a web page that plays several streams together, not a media file a link can fetch.
The preview and the summary are free. A pack opens the full transcript: $4 for 500 minutes, $8 for 1,000 minutes, $12 for 2,000 minutes, $24 for 5,000 minutes. Packs are one-time, credits never expire, and Workspace is $19 a month if you transcribe every week.
One file can run up to 10 hours or 5 GB. The box on this page takes files up to 500 MB; a larger file continues on the main upload page, which uploads it in parts. Most recordings come back in about two minutes per hour of audio.
Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. You can delete a recording and its transcript at any time.
More lecture capture sources: Panopto · Blackboard Collaborate · Canvas Studio · Mediasite · Echo360
Related: Jitsi Meet · Transcribe a lecture · Transcribe a screen recording · OBS recording to text
Every file type, recording and source · All platforms · All file formats · Long recordings · Transcription services
Free preview, no signup to try. Up to 10 hours or 5 GB in one file.
For the recordings and videos it produces: see video transcription services, an online transcription service with nothing to install and transcription services from $4.