Home › Transcribe an audio file › Transcribe an M4A file
M4A is what phones and laptops record. Drop the file here as it is, or pick it on your phone, and get a timestamped transcript and a summary whether it is a two-minute memo or a six-hour day of recordings.
The file you have
Sometimes a link works. Upload the file, or paste a link if it sits in Google Drive ('Anyone with the link') or at a direct address ending in .m4a.
How it works
On an iPhone, share the memo or recording to Files first. On a computer it is already a file.
On a phone, tap the box and choose the file. No conversion to MP3 is needed.
Free preview and summary; a pack opens the full transcript and every export.
Good to know
What comes back
The same four things for every M4A recording, whatever its length.
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 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.
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.
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
A 1 h 20 min interview is 80 minutes, so the $4 pack (500 minutes) covers it 6 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.
Pick a pack to open secure checkout. Workspace is $19 a month for unlimited transcription (300-hour fair-use mark). Full pricing
1,901 recordings, 830 audio hours, 64 languages detected. An hour of audio came back in 3.7 minutes for half of the recordings and within 19.7 minutes for nine in ten, measured from the moment the file landed to the finished transcript. Refreshed 2026-10-02; method on how we test.
FAQ
Drop the .m4a in the box on this page, or tap the box on a phone and pick it. The transcript comes back with timestamps, usually within a few minutes.
No. M4A is read directly.
Yes. Share the recording to Files, open this page in Safari, tap the upload box and choose the file.
Same engine. That page is the quick converter; this one covers where M4A recordings come from, long recordings and the files that fail.
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.
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.
Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. You can delete a recording and its transcript at any time.
Related: M4A to text converter · M4A format notes · Transcribe a voice memo · iPhone voice memos to text · iPhone call recording to text · Transcribe a Zoom recording · Transcribe an MP3 · Transcribe a WAV file
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Free preview, no signup to try. Up to 10 hours or 5 GB in one file.
Upload a file or paste a link: see how our transcription services work, audio transcription services for interviews and calls and online transcription services.