How to turn an MP4 into a transcript
An MP4 to transcript converter takes the speech in a video file and writes it down as text, with a timestamp on each line. Drop a short clip into the box at the top of this page and you get the transcript back in a few seconds, with no software to install.
Most video you have on your devices is already MP4: phone videos, screen recordings, meeting recordings, exported edits and downloaded webinars. If someone talks in it, this page can turn it into text.
What this MP4 to text converter does, and who it's for
The tool reads the audio track of your video, runs it through a speech recognition model and gives you the words line by line. It detects the language for you (English, Spanish, French, German and most major languages), so there is nothing to set up.
It's useful for creators who want subtitles or a script from a finished video, students with recorded lectures, teams with meeting and interview recordings, and anyone who would rather skim a page than scrub through a timeline to find one sentence.
How to transcribe an MP4 here
- Find the video on your phone or computer. This page takes
.mp4and.m4vfiles. - Drop it into the box at the top of the page, or click the box to choose the file. You'll see its size and whether it fits the free limit.
- Press Transcribe. Short clips usually take a few seconds.
- Read the transcript on the page. Each line starts with the time it was said.
- To keep it, sign in with a free account and download it as
.txt,.txtwith timestamps, or an.srtsubtitle file.
What you get back
You get the speech in your video as clean text, split into short lines, each with a timestamp like 1:42. That makes it easy to find a quote again, jump to the right spot in your editor, or check what was actually said.
Without an account you can read the opening lines right here. With a free Claras account you can copy the full text and download it. The .srt file is ready to load into YouTube, a video editor or a media player as subtitles.
Open the recording in Claras and you also get an AI summary with a TL;DR and key points, clickable chapters, and a chat where you can ask questions about the video. Answers cite the timestamp they came from. You can export a PDF, or send the transcript to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or NotebookLM.
Screen recordings, Zoom calls and lectures
- Screen recordings. Tutorials and product demos recorded on a Mac, Windows or phone often come out as MP4. A transcript turns a walkthrough into written steps or help docs.
- Zoom and other meeting recordings. These are usually long, so they rarely fit the free 4 MB limit as video. Zoom's local recordings often save a separate audio-only
.m4afile next to the MP4, which is much smaller. Try that file with the M4A to text tool, or open the full recording in the Claras app. - Lectures and webinars. An hour-long class makes a big video file. In the Claras app you get the full transcript plus a summary and chapters, so you can study the key parts instead of rewatching the whole thing.
- Interviews and podcasts on video. A transcript makes quotes easy to pull and check.
How to get the audio out of a video
Video files are big because of the picture, not the sound. If your MP4 is over the free limit, saving just the audio often makes it small enough. A few ways to do it:
- On a Mac: open the video in QuickTime Player, then choose File, Export As, Audio Only. You get an
.m4afile. - On Windows or Mac with VLC: choose Media, Convert / Save, add your video, and pick an audio profile such as MP3.
- From the command line: if you have ffmpeg,
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -ac 1 -b:a 48k audio.mp3saves a small mono MP3 that works well for speech.
Then use the MP3 to text, M4A to text or transcribe audio file tool. Audio is far smaller than video, so a longer stretch of speech fits under the same limit.
File size limits, and bigger files
The free tool sends your whole file in one request, so it takes files up to about 4 MB. Without an account it transcribes the first 10 minutes. That's plenty for short clips, but video gets large quickly, and a few minutes of HD footage can already be over the limit.
Bigger files go through the Claras app after you sign up. There, the audio is taken out of the video right in your browser, so the size of the video doesn't matter much, and recordings several hours long work fine. If your file is too big, the page shows a button that takes you there.
Tips and edge cases
- No speech, no transcript. Videos with only music, background noise or silence have nothing to write out. Text shown on screen isn't part of the audio either.
- Other formats. If your video is a
.mov(common on iPhones and Macs) or another format, export or share it as MP4 first, or pull out the audio as shown above. - Several speakers. The transcript follows what is said in order. It doesn't label who is speaking, so for interviews you may want to add names yourself.
- Audio quality matters. A clear voice close to the mic gives the cleanest text. Loud music, echo or people talking over each other can cause small mistakes, so check names and numbers.
- Muted videos. If the clip was recorded without sound, or the audio track was removed in an editor, there's nothing to transcribe.
What happens to your file
Your video is sent once to be transcribed and is not stored. It is processed only on providers that keep no copy, and it is never used to train AI models.
Free limits and paid plans
- No account: your first file is free, up to about 4 MB, and the first 10 minutes are transcribed.
- Free Claras account: 1 hour of audio and video file transcription a month, plus 3 videos a month from YouTube, Instagram or TikTok links. No card needed.
- Pro: $5 a month, with 10 hours of file transcription every 30 days and 50 videos a day.
- Unlimited: $12 a month, with 100 hours of file transcription every 30 days and no daily cap on videos.
Both paid plans start with a 14-day free trial. If you transcribe MP4 files every week, say lectures or client calls, Pro is usually enough. You can see everything on the pricing page, or create a free account and try your first long recording on the free hour.
Claras runs in the browser at app.meetclaras.com and as a Chrome extension, and the same account handles video links and your own files.
More free tools from Claras
Have a voice recording instead? Voice memo to text turns it into notes. For a video that's already online, the Instagram and TikTok transcript tools work straight from a link.