How to convert an MP4 to text
Pick the MP4 from your device: a phone clip, a camera file or a screen recording all go in the same upload box. An MP4 up to 1 GB uploads as it is. A larger one, up to 2 GB, has its audio track pulled out in your browser first, so only the audio travels over your connection. The upload is resumable, so a dropped connection picks up where it left off.
After the upload, the page shows your place in the transcription queue and an estimated wait. The transcript then appears here with a timestamp on every line, and a speaker label on each line when more than one person talks.
A transcript of the audio track
An MP4 is a container: a picture plus an audio track. Only the audio track matters for transcription, which is why a narrated screen recording, a phone clip and a camera file all come out as the same kind of transcript, with punctuation, timestamps and speaker labels. The free tool uses the same transcription pipeline as our paid product, on infrastructure we operate, and your media is not sent to third-party AI providers. Per-language accuracy is published openly on our benchmarks page.
Free limits for MP4 files
One free transcription per day, shared across all free tools. The MP4 can run up to 45 minutes and be up to 2 GB. Timestamps, speaker labels and automatic language detection across 52 languages and dialects are included. Free transcripts are deleted automatically about 24 hours after they finish, so copy the text out or sign up to keep it.
A free account raises the length limit and adds signup credit, exports (TXT, SRT, VTT and more), a searchable library of your videos, and cited answers to questions about them. Pricing has the details.
More free tools
MOV, WebM and other video formats are covered on the free video to text converter page. Audio-only files go in the free MP3 to text converter or the free audio to text converter. If the MP4 is one that Zoom saved after a call, the free Zoom recording transcription tool page explains where to find the file, and the free interview transcription tool page is written for filmed conversations. Anything already on YouTube goes in the free YouTube transcript generator, which takes a link instead of a file. All of them are collected on the free tools page.