Free · Audio · 8 of 8 tools · updated Oct 17, 2026
Free AI tools for speech-to-text transcription
Whisper is the strongest tool for speech-to-text transcription you can use without paying, at 83/100. What you get for nothing: Free (MIT); hosted API $0.006/min. 8 of the 8 tools tracked for this job have a free tier, an open-source licence, or are free outright. It is also the top-ranked tool for this job overall, free or not.
Same evidence score as the ranking — GitHub stars, Hacker News mentions, release activity, free access — recomputed nightly, never sold. See all 8 tools for speech-to-text transcription.
Top 3
evidence / 100
+ Free, runs fully offline, and remains the accuracy benchmark that most commercial transcription services are measured against.
− No speaker diarization out of the box, it hallucinates text during silence, and large models are slow without a GPU.
+ Strong accuracy plus built-in audio intelligence (speaker labels, chapters, PII redaction) and LeMUR for asking questions of a transcript.
− No consumer app, and per-hour pricing adds up on high volumes compared with self-hosted Whisper.
+ Among the fastest real-time transcription APIs available, with diarization and keyword boosting built in.
− Developer-only; there is no end-user app, and accuracy on heavily accented speech trails Whisper-class models.
All 8, side by side
| Tool | Score | Pricing | What you get free | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whisper | 83 | Open source | Free (MIT); hosted API $0.006/min | cli, api, mac, windows, linux |
| AssemblyAI | 26 | Free tier | Free credits; then per hour of audio | api |
| Deepgram | 18 | Free tier | $200 free credit; Nova STT from about $0.0043/min | api |
 Fireflies.ai | 11 | Free tier | Pro from $10/mo billed annually | web, ios, android, chrome-extension |
 Otter.ai | 11 | Free tier | Pro from $8.33/mo billed annually | web, ios, android, chrome-extension |
 Rev | 11 | Free tier | AI $0.25/min; human $1.50/min | web, ios, android, api |
 Descript | 10 | Free tier | Hobbyist from $12/mo billed annually | web, mac, windows |
 Auphonic | 9 | Free tier | 2 free hours/mo; paid from about $11/mo | web, api |
A free tier counts, and so does an open-source licence you can self-host — both are in the table, so a tool that is only free for a trial is not here.
Head to head: Whisper vs AssemblyAI Whisper vs Deepgram AssemblyAI vs Deepgram