Microsoft Live Captions

Name: Microsoft Live Captions
Price: 11 USD
Author: Microsoft

by Microsoft

Windows 11 system-wide live captioning for any audio on the device.

TL;DR

Windows 11 system-wide live captioning for any audio on the device.

Best for windows 11 users wanting free system-wide accessibility captions. Pricing: free · built into Windows 11.

What it is

Microsoft Live Captions is built into Windows 11 and provides system-wide captions for any audio playing on the device. Includes translation in supported languages.

Best for: Windows 11 users wanting free system-wide accessibility captions.
Watch out for: Windows 11 only; on-device captioning quality varies.

Install / use

support.microsoft.com — built in

Features

Speaker diarization	No
Word-level timestamps	No
Streaming / real-time	No
Languages supported	60
HIPAA eligible	No

Microsoft Live Captions vs Whipscribe

Feature	Microsoft Live Captions	Whipscribe
Category	Products	Transcription APIs
Pricing	free · built into Windows 11	free beta
Speaker diarization	—	Yes
Word timestamps	—	Yes
Streaming	—	No
Languages	60	99
Platforms	Windows	Web, API, MCP

Alternatives to Microsoft Live Captions

Otter.ai

Meeting-bot transcription product for Zoom/Meet/Teams.

free / from $10/mo

Rev

Human + AI transcription, highest accuracy tier on the market.

AI from $0.25/min · human from $1.50/min

Descript

Audio/video editor that treats the transcript as the timeline — different product category.

free / from $12/mo

Whipscribe is a managed faster-whisper + whisperX 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.