A free voice memo to text converter that turns iPhone voice memos into text, with a time on every line, on your own device.
Drop a voice memo's .m4a file and Whisper writes it out with a time on every line. Nothing is uploaded.
Add your recording
Private: nothing leaves your device. The model downloads once (77 MB) and your browser keeps it.
This free voice memo to text converter turns your iPhone voice memos into text, with a time on every line.
Drop the memo's .m4a file, and Whisper writes it out in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, so private notes stay private.
Here's how to get a memo off your iPhone, and what to do with the text.
What is a voice memo to text converter?
A voice memo to text converter writes out a recording from Apple's Voice Memos app, or any phone recorder. You get the words, each with its time.
It runs Whisper, OpenAI's speech recognition model, on your own device.
Get a voice memo off your iPhone
Apple's iPhone guide says: "By default, recordings are exported in .m4a format." That's the file to drop here.
In Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap the More button, then Save to Files. AirDrop and Mail send the same .m4a file.
Skip the Editable option: it saves "QuickTime Audio format," meant for editing layers later.
On your device or on our server
The page opens on your device. Whisper, OpenAI's speech recognition model, runs in your browser, and the file never leaves it.
For long files, pick On our server. The sound goes in 2-minute pieces to Groq's Whisper and comes back as text in seconds.
| On this device | On our server | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | Nothing leaves your device | Sent in pieces, not kept |
| Download | 77 MB once, or 563 MB for Best | None |
| Length | No limit | Up to 30 minutes a file |
| Cost | Free | Free, within a daily limit |
Groq, the company that runs the server's Whisper, says in its data policy that "by default, Groq does not retain customer data for inference requests." We don't keep the sound either.
Standard or Best
Standard is whisper-base, a 77 MB download that runs in any modern browser. On a 2021 MacBook Pro, it wrote a 23-second clip in 5 seconds.
Best is whisper-large-v3-turbo, 563 MB, on browsers with WebGPU. It wrote 100 seconds in 10, and a Spanish clip word for word, after its download.
| Model | Download | Runs on | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 77 MB | Any modern browser | Quick notes, clear speech |
| Best | 563 MB | Browsers with WebGPU | Names, accents, other languages |
Without WebGPU, Best is whisper-small, 249 MB, which is slower. Each model downloads once, and your browser keeps it.
Languages
Whisper was trained on "680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask supervision," says its paper. The language list has every language it knows, from Afrikaans to Yoruba.
Leave it on Detect it, and the tool hears the language in the first words and keeps it for the rest. Pick the language when you know it: names and short clips come out better.
Timestamps, SRT and VTT
Every line keeps its time. Press a time and the recording plays from there, and the line being said lights up as it plays.
Download it as plain text, Markdown, SRT or VTT. SRT and VTT are the caption files YouTube, Vimeo and video editors take.
Turn memos into action
A memo is often a list of ideas said out loud. Make a to-do list, in step 3, pulls out every task and decision, each with the time you said it.
Your own AI does it in your account, so it's free.
Get a cleaner transcript
- Pick the language – when you know it, instead of Detect it.
- Use Best – for names, accents and anything but clear English.
- Record close to the mic – your voice rises above the room's noise.
Two things cost the most words:
- Music under the voice – Whisper can drop words, or invent a line in a long music break.
- People talking over each other – Whisper follows one voice at a time.
After that, Add punctuation in step 3 tidies the text in your own AI, without changing a word.
After you convert
Record your next note in the browser with speech to text, or convert a memo to MP3 with the M4A to MP3 converter.
Who is the voice memo to text converter for?
It's for anyone who records ideas as voice memos:
- M4A to MP3 converter – people who need the memo as an MP3
- Speech to text – anyone who dictates in the browser
- Book outline generator – authors who speak their chapters first
- Writing prompt generator – writers who want a prompt to talk through
More tools like these are on my free tools page.
Do more with your recording
Dictate on your Mac with
Voice memo to text converter FAQs
Questions about the voice memo to text converter? Here's what to know.
A voice memo to text converter writes out a recording from Voice Memos, or any phone recorder.
This one runs Whisper in your browser, so the memo stays private.
In Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap More, then Save to Files, or AirDrop it.
Apple exports it as an .m4a file.
Yes, pick Make a to-do list in step 3, and your own AI pulls out every task.
Each one keeps the time you said it.
Yes, most phone recorders save M4A, MP3 or AAC, and it reads all three.
Drop the file the same way.
Yes, this voice memo to text converter is free, with no account and no limit on your device.
On our server, each visitor gets 40 minutes a day.
No, not on this device: Whisper runs in your browser and the file never leaves it.
On our server, the sound is sent in pieces, written out, and not kept.
A translation sends the text only.
No, Whisper writes what's said without names.
Add the names yourself in the text, or in your editor.
This voice memo to text converter is for anyone who thinks out loud:
- Podcast transcript generator – podcasters who need show notes and quotes.
- Audio converter – anyone who records and edits audio.
- Audio recorder – people who record interviews and notes in the browser.
Founders and writers use it to turn walks and drives into notes, and the memos never leave their device.
I did.
I'm Navid Moazzez, and the voice memo to text converter is one of my free tools on navid.me.
Read more about me.
There's an audio to text converter, a video to text converter, speech to text, a voice memo to text converter, Spanish transcription, an audio translator and a podcast transcript generator.
The rest are in free tools.
Navid Moazzez
AI business strategist & AI OS builder
Navid Moazzez helps creators and founders master AI and build their own AI Operating System (AI OS) to automate their business and life.
Navid.me is reader-supported. When you buy through links on this site, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
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