Camtasia · export MP4 or M4A

Transcribe a Camtasia recording to text.

Camtasia records into its own .trec file, which nothing else can open. Export the project as an MP4 or as audio only, drop that here, and the narration comes back as a transcript and an SRT you can import back into Camtasia as captions.

Free preview and summary Up to 10 hours or 5 GB per file 99+ languages TXT · DOCX · SRT · VTT · JSON

The file you have

What Camtasia gives you, and what to export.

Raw recording: A .trec file (older versions: .camrec). It is a Camtasia container and cannot be uploaded here or opened in other software.
Export for transcription: Export → Local File gives an MP4. Export → Audio Only gives an M4A (or WAV), which is the smaller and faster choice.
Typical size: An exported hour of 1080p screen video is 300 MB to 1 GB; the audio-only export is under 60 MB.

There is no link to paste for this one. Get the file onto your phone or computer first, then upload it in the box above.

How it works

Three steps, the first one is the only one that takes any thought.

Export from Camtasia

Open the recording or project and choose Export → Audio Only (or Local File for an MP4).

Drop the export here

M4A, WAV and MP4 all upload as they are.

Bring the captions back

Export SRT from the finished transcript and import it in Camtasia's Captions panel; the timings line up with the timeline you exported.

Good to know

What trips people up, and what to do about it.

Upload the export, not the .trec. A .trec will be refused because it is not a media file anyone but Camtasia can read.
Export after your cuts, not before, if you want captions. The SRT's timestamps match the file you uploaded, so transcribe the edited timeline.
Narration recorded as a separate track is included in a normal export. Muted tracks are not, so unmute the voice track before exporting.
Courses with many lessons: export each lesson and upload them one after another. Each keeps its own transcript, and minutes are counted per file.

Example. A 40-minute software training module, exported audio-only, is a 35 MB M4A. The transcript is back in about a minute and a half; the SRT imports into the Captions panel, and the summary becomes the lesson description in the course platform.

What comes back

More than a wall of text.

The same four things for every Camtasia recording, whatever its length.

A transcript with timestamps

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 summary, chapters and key quotes

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.

Questions answered from the recording

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.

Every export

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

Free preview. Packs from $4, and the minutes never expire.

A 40-minute training module is 40 minutes, so the $4 pack (500 minutes) covers it 12 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.

$4500 minutesBuy $81,000 minutesBuy $122,000 minutesBuy $245,000 minutesBuy

Pick a pack to open secure checkout. Workspace is $19 a month for unlimited transcription (300-hour fair-use mark). Full pricing

What we measured, last 30 days

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

Camtasia to text, answered.

Can I upload a .trec file to get a transcript?

No. A .trec only opens in Camtasia. Export the recording as MP4 or audio only from Camtasia and upload that file.

How do I add the transcript back to Camtasia as captions?

Export the transcript as SRT, then in Camtasia open Captions and import the SRT file. The captions follow the timeline as long as you transcribed the same edit you are captioning.

Which export should I choose for the fastest result?

Audio Only. The transcript is identical and the file is a fraction of the size of the video.

What does transcribing Camtasia recordings cost?

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.

How long can the recording be?

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.

Is the recording kept private?

Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. You can delete a recording and its transcript at any time.