PRESTO
Don’t want to install PRESTO? 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.
Multilingual conversational SLU dataset — 6 languages with disfluencies + code-switching.
Upstream is archived. PRESTO’s repository has been set read-only by its owner, so there are no further releases, fixes, or security patches. The last commit landed 2023-03-17. It can still be cloned and run, and forks may be maintained elsewhere. See the repository.
Best for realistic SLU with disfluencies (revisions / restarts), code-switching, multi-turn context. Pricing: free.
What it is
PRESTO is Google's multilingual SLU corpus — 6 languages of conversational task-oriented dialogue with disfluencies, code-switching, and multi-turn context. License: CC BY 4.0.
Watch out for: CC BY 4.0 · text + audio in en, es, de, fr, ja, hi · ~550k utterances. Cite: Goel et al., EMNLP 2023.
Install / use
What people actually do with PRESTO-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 | 6 |
| HIPAA eligible | No |
Links
PRESTO vs Whipscribe
| Feature | PRESTO | Whipscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Open source | Transcription APIs |
| Pricing | free | $6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free |
| Speaker identification | No | Named in the summary, key quotes and chapters |
| Word timestamps | No | Yes |
| Streaming | No | No |
| Languages | 6 | 99 |
| Platforms | GitHub, HuggingFace | Web, API, MCP |
Alternatives to PRESTO
Frequently asked about PRESTO
Is PRESTO free?
Yes. PRESTO is free and open source.
Does PRESTO work on Mac, Windows and Linux?
PRESTO runs on GitHub and HuggingFace. It is not listed for other platforms; check the vendor for anything beyond GitHub and HuggingFace.
How many languages does PRESTO support?
PRESTO lists 6 languages.
Does PRESTO identify different speakers?
No. PRESTO does not label speakers; a conversation comes back as one continuous text. If you need speaker labels, that is a separate tool or a different service.
Does PRESTO give word-level timestamps?
No — PRESTO produces segment or sentence timing only, so subtitle cues can land mid-word.
Can PRESTO transcribe live audio?
No — PRESTO works on finished files, not a live stream.
Is PRESTO HIPAA compliant?
PRESTO does not claim HIPAA compliance. For PHI, run it on infrastructure you control or choose a service that will sign a BAA.
What are the limitations of PRESTO?
CC BY 4.0 · text + audio in en, es, de, fr, ja, hi · ~550k utterances. Cite: Goel et al., EMNLP 2023.
Who is PRESTO best for?
Realistic SLU with disfluencies (revisions / restarts), code-switching, multi-turn context.
Does PRESTO run offline?
PRESTO runs on your own machine — it is open source, so nothing leaves the computer unless you configure it to.
Can I use PRESTO in the browser?
No — PRESTO is a GitHub and HuggingFace application, not a web app. You install it rather than sign in to it.
Where is the PRESTO source code?
On GitHub at github.com/google-research-datasets/presto. It is maintained by Google Research.
What kind of tool is PRESTO?
In this directory PRESTO is filed under dataset as a open-source tool.
What are the alternatives to PRESTO?
There is a side-by-side page at /tools/presto-alternatives comparing PRESTO with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.
Can I automate PRESTO-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.
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
Running PRESTO yourself? Send the same file 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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Long recording to get through?
One file up to 10 hours, as an upload or a link: see transcribing a long MP3 or M4A, how to transcribe a podcast and the SRT file generator.
Looking at paid options?
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