Microsoft Translator (Live)

by Microsoft

Don’t want to sign up for Microsoft Translator? 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.

Cross-device live conversation translation — share a room code, every device speaks its own language.

Web, iOS, Android, Windows  ·  free

TL;DR

Best for multi-participant ad-hoc meetings (front desk, customer service, fieldwork) where each speaker has a phone in a different language. Pricing: free.

Category
Products
Pricing
free
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android, Windows

What it is

Microsoft Translator's Live Conversation mode uses a room code to join 2-100 devices into a session; each device displays + speaks its preferred language. The free consumer surface; an Azure Translator API tier exists for production embeds.

Best for: Multi-participant ad-hoc meetings (front desk, customer service, fieldwork) where each speaker has a phone in a different language.
Watch out for: 100-language vendor claim. Free tier is rate-limited. Conversation mode quality drops in noisy rooms.

Install / use

Go to Microsoft Translator (Live) translator.microsoft.com

What people actually do with Microsoft Translator (Live)-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.

Wire it into Google DriveMake.comZapiern8nZoomSlack

Features

Speaker diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeYes
Languages supported100
HIPAA eligibleNo

Microsoft Translator (Live) vs Whipscribe

FeatureMicrosoft Translator (Live)Whipscribe
CategoryProductsTranscription APIs
PricingNot verified$6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free
Speaker identificationNot verifiedNamed in the summary, key quotes and chapters
Word timestampsNot verifiedYes
StreamingNot verifiedNo
Languages10099
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, WindowsWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to Microsoft Translator (Live)

Frequently asked about Microsoft Translator (Live)

Is Microsoft Translator (Live) free?

Yes. Microsoft Translator (Live) is free.

Does Microsoft Translator (Live) work on Mac, Windows and Linux?

Microsoft Translator (Live) runs on Web, iOS, Android and Windows.

How do I get started with Microsoft Translator (Live)?

There is nothing to install — Microsoft Translator (Live) is used in the browser. Create an account on the vendor's site and upload or connect your audio.

How many languages does Microsoft Translator (Live) support?

Microsoft Translator (Live) lists 100 languages. That is the Whisper-family multilingual set, so quality varies by language — English and the large European languages are strongest.

What are the limitations of Microsoft Translator (Live)?

100-language vendor claim. Free tier is rate-limited. Conversation mode quality drops in noisy rooms.

Who is Microsoft Translator (Live) best for?

Multi-participant ad-hoc meetings (front desk, customer service, fieldwork) where each speaker has a phone in a different language.

Is Microsoft Translator (Live) open source?

No. Microsoft Translator (Live) 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.

What kind of tool is Microsoft Translator (Live)?

In this directory Microsoft Translator (Live) is filed under live translation as a product.

What are the alternatives to Microsoft Translator (Live)?

There is a side-by-side page at /tools/microsoft-translator-live-alternatives comparing Microsoft Translator (Live) with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.

Can I automate Microsoft Translator (Live)-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 Microsoft Translator (Live)?

Microsoft Translator (Live) 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 Microsoft Translator (Live)?

$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 Microsoft Translator (Live) 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

Explore

Long recording to get through?

One file up to 10 hours, as an upload or a link: see how to transcribe an MP3 of any length, a podcast episode as text from its link and the SRT 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, affordable transcription priced per hour and how our transcription services work.