Live Transcription

Live transcription: words appear as you speak

No need to finish recording and import it later. Start recording in Quiet Typist and the text appears segment by segment as you talk. When you stop, the recording and transcript are saved to History together, ready to play back, copy, export or hand off to AI for cleanup.

Record and transcribe in one step

Made for moments when you need to see the words right away: in-person discussions, online meetings, interviews and online classes. No waiting until the recording is over.

See the text as you speak

Each time you finish a sentence, the recognized text shows up on screen, and you can scroll back up to earlier parts at any time.

Record your computer's audio too

Capture the sound from online meetings, classes and videos directly, or record it together with your microphone. On Mac, this requires macOS 14.2 or later.

Saved automatically when you stop

The recording and transcript are saved to History together. Recordings go to a folder in your Documents by default, and you can change the location in Settings.

Speech recognized locally

Speech recognition runs on your own computer and recordings are never uploaded to the cloud. You only need an internet connection when using AI cleanup.

Live transcription in 4 steps

Start from the Record page in the Quiet Typist desktop app, then open the transcript to keep working when you're done.

  1. 01

    Choose an audio source

    Pick your microphone, your computer's audio, or both at once.

  2. 02

    Start recording

    Text appears live as you speak. You can pause and pick up again whenever you like.

  3. 03

    Stop and save

    Click Stop and the recording and transcript are saved to History together.

  4. 04

    Play back and tidy up

    Check the text against the recording, then copy it, export it or use AI to turn it into notes.

Live transcription FAQ

Importing transcribes recordings and videos you've already made. Live transcription produces text while you record, so the transcript is mostly done by the time you stop. It's the better fit when you need to see the content on the spot.

Yes. Set the audio source to Computer audio to record sound from meeting apps, online classes and videos. If you'll be speaking too, choose your microphone and computer audio together. On Mac, this requires macOS 14.2 or later.

Yes. After pausing, click Resume and the recording and text continue where they left off, saved as a single entry.

No. Speech recognition happens on your computer, and recording files are stored on your own machine. You only need to be online when using AI to clean up a transcript.

Live transcription is a Pro feature. It's currently available in the Mac, Windows and Linux desktop apps, but not yet on mobile.

Related features

Download free and start transcribing offline

Batch process meetings, interviews and videos on Windows, Mac, Linux or Android, with your original files and transcripts kept on your own device.