WAV to text

Transcribe a WAV file, straight from the recorder

Upload a WAV and get a clean, speaker-labeled transcript in minutes. WAV is uncompressed, so it's the highest-quality input you can give a transcriber, and there's no conversion step. Test the quality free on your first 10 minutes. See the live accuracy benchmark.

Transcribe a WAVFirst 10 minutes free. No credit card.

Hear it, read it, at the same time

A real transcript synced to its audio. Press play, or click any word to jump to that moment. Your WAV works the same.

Sample preview
play it · click any word to jump

Host:All right, welcome back to the show. So today, we are getting into something I think every single creator struggles with, which is, honestly, how do you actually finish the stuff you start?

Guest:Oh, this is so my topic because I am genuinely terrible at it.

Host:Right? So, okay, the thing that flipped it for me was time boxing. You give a task like 30 minutes, and when that timer goes off, you stop. Doesn't matter if it is done.

Guest:Wait, wait. Even if it is not finished?

Host:Especially if it is not finished. That is kind of the whole point. The deadline does the work.

Guest:Huh. Okay, that is actually kind of brilliant. I always thought I had to, you know, see the whole thing through in one sitting.

Host:Yeah. That is the trap. Little blocks every day beats one big heroic marathon that, let's be real, never actually happens.

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What to know about WAV

WAV is lossless, so it's the best possible input

A WAV file is uncompressed: nothing was thrown away to save space, unlike MP3. That makes it the ideal quality to hand a transcriber, because the model hears exactly what the microphone captured. If you recorded on a field recorder or in a DAW, you probably have a WAV, and that's the file to upload.

Does a WAV transcribe more accurately than an MP3?

A little, at the margins, but far less than people expect. What actually moves accuracy is clean speech and low background noise, not the format. A clean WAV and a clean MP3 come out about the same; a noisy WAV still needs a review. The audio pillar covers the trade-offs across every audio format.

Do you need to convert the WAV first?

No. Upload it as-is. Converting WAV to MP3 only discards detail to shrink the file, so it can make the transcript slightly worse, never better. The one real cost of WAV is size, which just means the upload takes a bit longer.

What you get back

A speaker-labeled, timestamped transcript synced to the audio, with a per-word confidence view and exports to TXT, DOCX, SRT, and WebVTT. Files up to 20 hours, 90+ languages detected automatically. Working with other formats? Start from the audio to text tool.

WAV transcription at a glance

FormatWAV (uncompressed, lossless PCM audio)
Typical sourceField recorders, DAWs, studio sessions, archival audio
Conversion neededNone, FileToText reads WAV natively
Best exportsTXT, DOCX, SRT, WebVTT
Max length20 hours per file
Free previewFirst 10 minutes of any file

WAV transcription FAQ

Updated July 2026
Upload the WAV directly, with no conversion and no software to install, and FileToText returns a speaker-labeled, timestamped transcript in minutes. WAV is uncompressed, lossless audio, so nothing was thrown away when it was recorded: it is the ideal input quality for transcription. FileToText reads WAV natively, along with MP3, M4A, AAC and most video formats, so you never need a converter. The first 10 minutes of any file are free on a free account; after that it is $3 per audio hour, billed per started hour, and a single file can run up to 20 hours. Accuracy is 95%+ on clear speech, lower with heavy background noise or overlapping voices. Export the transcript as TXT, DOCX, SRT, or WebVTT, or keep a read-only share link. See the live monthly benchmark →
WAV is uncompressed, so it keeps every detail of the recording, while MP3 discards some to save space. In practice the model cares about how clearly the speech was captured, not the format, so a clean WAV and a clean MP3 transcribe about the same. WAV's real cost is size: the files are many times larger, which just means a slower upload.
No. Upload the WAV as-is. Converting it to MP3 first only discards audio detail, never adds it. FileToText reads WAV natively, so skip the converter.
You can transcribe up to 20 hours of audio in one file. WAV is uncompressed so those files are large, and the only practical effect is a longer upload; the transcription itself handles the full length in one pass.

Start transcribing here