Apple Live Captions
Don’t want to install Apple Live Captions? Drop the file here.
The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free: a recording up to 20 minutes transcribes in full, a longer one is previewed, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, and credits never expire.
System-wide live captions on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
Best for apple users wanting free, on-device system-wide captioning for accessibility. Pricing: free · built into OS.
What it is
Live Captions is Apple's system-wide live captioning feature for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Works in FaceTime, phone calls, and any audio playing on the device.
Watch out for: Available in supported languages only; on-device quality varies.
Install / use
support.apple.com — built in
What people actually do with Apple Live Captions-style transcription
The tool is the means. These are the jobs — each one priced at published rates, each one wired up on its own page.
Features
| Speaker diarization | No |
| Word-level timestamps | No |
| Streaming / real-time | No |
| Languages supported | 10 |
| HIPAA eligible | No |
Apple Live Captions vs Whipscribe
| Feature | Apple Live Captions | Whipscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Products | Transcription APIs |
| Pricing | Not verified | $6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free |
| Speaker identification | Not verified | Named in the summary, key quotes and chapters |
| Word timestamps | Not verified | Yes |
| Streaming | Not verified | No |
| Languages | 10 | 99 |
| Platforms | iOS, iPadOS, macOS | Web, API, MCP |
Alternatives to Apple Live Captions
Frequently asked about Apple Live Captions
Is Apple Live Captions free?
Yes. Apple Live Captions is free (free · built into OS).
Does Apple Live Captions work on Mac, Windows and Linux?
Apple Live Captions runs on iOS, iPadOS and macOS.
How do I get started with Apple Live Captions?
There is nothing to install — Apple Live Captions is used in the browser. Create an account on the vendor's site and upload or connect your audio.
How many languages does Apple Live Captions support?
Apple Live Captions lists 10 languages.
What are the limitations of Apple Live Captions?
Available in supported languages only; on-device quality varies.
Who is Apple Live Captions best for?
Apple users wanting free, on-device system-wide captioning for accessibility.
Is Apple Live Captions open source?
No. Apple Live Captions is a proprietary product. If you need source you can read and run yourself, the open-source tools in this directory are the place to look.
Can I use Apple Live Captions in the browser?
No — Apple Live Captions is a iOS, iPadOS and macOS application, not a web app. You install it rather than sign in to it.
What kind of tool is Apple Live Captions?
In this directory Apple Live Captions is filed under product as a product.
What are the alternatives to Apple Live Captions?
There is a side-by-side page at /tools/apple-live-captions-alternatives comparing Apple Live Captions with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.
Can I automate Apple Live Captions-style transcription without running it myself?
Yes. If what you want is transcripts rather than the tool itself, Whipscribe does the same job as a hosted API: submit a file or URL, poll a job id, pull the result as txt, json, srt, vtt or docx. $0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. The automation recipes on this site show it wired to Drive folders, Zoom recordings, S3 buckets and no-code platforms.
How is Whipscribe different from Apple Live Captions?
Apple Live Captions is another vendor's product; Whipscribe is a per-minute transcription service. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and never used for training, and every job returns five formats plus an AI summary, quotes and topics. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export.
What does transcription cost if I use Whipscribe instead of Apple Live Captions?
$0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: a 3-hour recording is about $2.16, a thousand-hour archive is about $720 once. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, so you can see what your recording holds before paying anything.
Where is the Apple Live Captions category heading?
Three things are moving across the whole speech-to-text market right now: summaries, action items and speaker insights generated on top of the transcript rather than sold separately; private, secured deployment where the audio never leaves a boundary you control; and agent access — transcription exposed as a tool that Claude, Cursor or a workflow runner can call directly. Whipscribe ships all three today: per-job insights, our own servers, and an MCP server.
Whipscribe is a hosted transcription service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.
Transcribe your recordings
Using Apple Live Captions today? Send your next recording here and compare the transcript. Transcribe any language, any recording · Transcription services from $0.29 an hour · Transcribe from any meeting or recording platform · How to transcribe, step by step
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Need the subtitle file itself?
Upload the recording or paste a link and download SRT or VTT: see an SRT subtitle file from any recording, the YouTube to SRT page and the subtitle generator.
Rather have it done for you?
Free tools cost setup time. When you want a finished transcript instead: see how the best transcription services compare, cheap transcription services and the real cost per hour and how our transcription services work.