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Transcribe audio from a URL.

Paste the link and the file is fetched for you; nothing is downloaded to your device. Direct file addresses, public video and podcast pages, feeds and shared cloud files all work. Links that need a sign-in do not.

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

The link you have

Which links work.

Direct file links: An address ending in .mp3, .m4a, .wav, .ogg, .flac, .mp4 or .webm. The surest kind of link.
Public video and audio pages: YouTube, X, Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook, Rumble, SoundCloud, the Internet Archive and others, as long as the page plays without signing in.
Podcast links: RSS feeds (the newest episode), episode MP3 addresses and Apple Podcasts episode links.
Cloud storage: Google Drive and Dropbox share links, when sharing is set to anyone with the link.
What does not work: Anything behind a sign-in (Zoom, Panopto, company SharePoint), protected audio (Spotify), and links to chats or messages (WhatsApp).

A link works here. Paste the link in the box above. The quick test for any link: open it in a private browser window. If it plays there without signing in, it will usually work here.

How it works

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

Copy the link

The file's own address if you have it; otherwise the public page.

Paste it in the box

Short links are followed to where they lead. Links that cannot work are refused straight away with the reason, before any wait.

Read the result

Summary and preview free; a pack opens the full transcript and exports.

Good to know

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

Signed or expiring links (the long addresses cloud storage generates) work until they expire. Paste them soon after creating them.
A page with several players is ambiguous. Give the file's own address, or the specific video's page.
Live streams have no end to transcribe. Use the recording once the stream is over.
Free link fetches are capped at 5 GB; the same limit as uploads.
From code, it is one request: curl -X POST https://whipscribe.com/api/v1/transcribe/url -H 'X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"url":"https://example.org/audio.mp3"}'. API access is included with any pack; see the documentation.

Example. A paralegal is sent a link to a 2 h 10 min hearing recording on a court's website, an address ending in .mp3. Pasted here, it is fetched server to server; the transcript is ready about five minutes later and nothing ever touched the office's slow connection. Checked 4 October 2026: a direct .mp3 address, a YouTube link, an Apple Podcasts episode link and a podcast RSS feed pasted through this site each came back as text; a Spotify link was refused with a message saying its audio is protected.

What comes back

More than a wall of text.

The same four things for every linked audio 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 2 h 10 min recording is 130 minutes, so the $4 pack (500 minutes) covers it 3 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

FAQ

Transcribing from a link, answered.

How do I transcribe audio from a URL?

Paste the link in the box on this page. The audio or video is fetched from that address and transcribed with timestamps; you do not download or upload anything.

Which links can be transcribed?

Direct links to audio and video files, public pages on sites such as YouTube, X, TikTok and SoundCloud, podcast feeds and Apple Podcasts links, and Google Drive or Dropbox links shared with anyone who has the link.

Why was my link refused?

It needs a sign-in, points at protected audio such as Spotify, or leads to a page rather than a recording. The message says which. Download the file and upload it instead.

Is there an API for transcribing from a URL?

Yes. POST the address to /api/v1/transcribe/url with your API key, then fetch the job's result. API access is included with any credit pack.

What does it cost to transcribe audio from a link?

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.