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Best Transcription Tools in 2026

Tools for transcribing audio and video to text

109 tools evaluated · 10 top picks · Updated May 2026

Key Takeaways
  • Granola is our #1 pick for transcription in 2026.
  • We analyzed 109 transcription tools to create this ranking.
  • 9 tools offer free plans, perfect for getting started.

Transcription tools have split between meeting transcription (Otter, Fathom, Granola, Fireflies) and general-purpose audio-to-text (Descript, Rev, Trint). Most professional users adopt a meeting tool for calls and a separate tool for one-off audio files.

7 top transcription tools compared

Starting price, average user rating, and our pick for each category.

ToolOur takeStarting priceRating
Granola logo
Granola
Community favoriteFree + paidn/a
Microsoft Teams Phone logo
Microsoft Teams Phone
Best overallContact sales4.4
Fathom logo
Fathom
Highest ratedFree5.0
Ask Fellow logo
Ask Fellow
Solid pickFree + paid4.8
Otter.ai logo
Otter.ai
Solid pickFree + paid4.5
Avoma logo
Avoma
Solid pickFree + paid4.6
Scratchpad logo
Scratchpad
Solid pickFree + paid4.4

How the Top Transcription Tools Compare

The transcription category is highly competitive in 2026, with Granola and Microsoft Teams Phone both ranking among the top choices on Toolradar's assessment, followed closely by Fathom. The tight competition reflects how mature this market has become.

Pricing varies significantly among the top picks: Granola (freemium (free tier available)), Fathom (free), Ask Fellow (freemium (free tier available)) offer free access, while Microsoft Teams Phone requires a paid subscription. Teams on a budget should start with Granola, which delivers strong value despite its free tier.

Computed from live tool ratings, review counts, and editorial scores.Editorial policy
01
Granola logo

The AI notepad that transforms raw meeting notes into actionable insights.

Freemium

Granola is an AI-powered notepad designed to help individuals and teams, particularly product teams, get more value from their meetings. It transcribes computer audio directly, eliminating the need for invasive meeting bots, and allows users to take their own notes during calls. After a meeting, Granola uses advanced AI models to enhance these raw notes, extracting key themes, insights, action items, and even generating follow-up emails or summaries. The tool is particularly beneficial for product teams, enabling them to turn customer conversations into actionable product insights, validate roadmap decisions, and build a searchable library of user research. It integrates with popular tools like Notion, Slack, HubSpot, and Zapier, streamlining workflows and ensuring that insights are easily shared and acted upon across different departments. Granola aims to help users stay present in meetings while ensuring no critical information is missed, ultimately boosting productivity and decision-making.

Granola UI screenshot
Exclusive offer

New users get 100% off their first month with code TECHPRESSO

02
Microsoft Teams Phone logo

Cloud calling in Microsoft Teams

Paid4.4/527,576 ratings

Microsoft Teams Phone is a cloud-based calling solution built into Microsoft Teams that replaces traditional PBX systems. It provides VoIP and PSTN calling, AI-generated call summaries, auto attendants, call queues, and real-time transcription, all managed from a single admin console with 99.999% uptime SLA.

03
Fathom logo

AI notetaker that summarizes your meetings so you can focus on the conversation.

Free5.0/57,006 ratings

Fathom is an AI notetaker that automatically transcribes, summarizes, and extracts action items from your virtual meetings. It aims to eliminate the need for manual note-taking, allowing users to stay fully present during conversations. The tool provides shockingly accurate transcripts, instant summaries, and action items, which are delivered directly to your inbox. Fathom integrates seamlessly with popular communication and productivity tools like Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, and Asana, automatically syncing meeting notes, insights, and action items. It also features an "Ask Fathom" capability, allowing users to search meeting content and get customizable AI summaries tailored to their team's workflow. This helps teams move work forward faster by reducing time spent on searching and follow-up. Fathom is designed for various teams including sales, marketing, operations, HR, and product & engineering, helping them improve collaboration, track progress, and gain actionable insights from every meeting.

04
Ask Fellow logo

Secure AI meeting assistant to record, transcribe, and summarize every meeting with privacy in mind.

Freemium4.8/52,396 ratings

Fellow.ai is an AI meeting assistant designed to securely record, transcribe, and summarize meetings across various platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. It prioritizes privacy by ensuring AI models are never trained on user data and offers robust control settings for who can access recordings and notes. The platform centralizes all meeting assets, making them searchable and actionable. Beyond basic transcription and summarization, Fellow.ai includes an AI agent called AskFellow that can answer questions about meetings, generate documents, automate email follow-ups, create memos, and update CRM systems. It also provides collaborative agendas for pre-meeting preparation and offers integrations with over 50 tools, including project management platforms, Confluence, Notion, Salesforce, and HubSpot. Fellow.ai is built for entire organizations, offering enterprise-grade features like advanced recording permissions, domain control, user provisioning, and org-wide analytics, making it suitable for teams across customer success, marketing, engineering, sales, product, HR, and IT. This tool is ideal for individuals and organizations looking to enhance meeting productivity, ensure data privacy, and streamline post-meeting workflows. It helps teams stay organized, informed, and efficient by automating tedious tasks associated with meeting management and follow-up.

Ask Fellow UI screenshot
05
Otter.ai logo

AI meeting notes and transcription

Freemium4.5/51,655 ratings

Otter.ai is an AI-powered meeting assistant that automatically transcribes, summarizes, and extracts action items from your meetings. With up to 95% accuracy, it works seamlessly with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, joining your meetings as a participant to capture everything. Beyond transcription, Otter uses AI to generate summaries, identify key topics, and assign action items to team members. The AI Chat feature lets you query past conversations-ask "What did we decide about the Q4 budget?" and get instant answers. With integrations to Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Notion, Otter fits into existing workflows. Used by major companies including Salesforce, Harvard, Amazon, and IBM, it is consistently rated as one of the most accurate transcription tools available.

06
Avoma logo

AI meeting assistant for revenue teams

Freemium4.6/51,358 ratings

Avoma is an AI meeting intelligence platform for revenue teams. It provides meeting recording, transcription, notes, and conversation intelligence to help sales and customer success teams improve performance.

Avoma UI screenshot
07
Scratchpad logo

The AI workspace for sales that removes admin work and boosts productivity.

Freemium4.4/51,652 ratings

Scratchpad is an AI-powered workspace designed for sales professionals to streamline their workflow, reduce administrative tasks, and improve CRM data quality. It acts as a modern interface between sales teams and Salesforce, offering a fast and flexible environment for managing deals, taking notes, and updating records. The platform integrates various tools like sales sheets, a notetaker with call recording and AI transcription, and AI agents that automatically update Salesforce fields. By automating mundane tasks and providing real-time data synchronization with Salesforce, Scratchpad helps sellers focus more on selling, leading to higher adoption of CRM, better data accuracy, and improved team alignment. It's ideal for sales teams and RevOps leaders looking to enhance sales execution and scale revenue.

08
Descript logo

Edit audio and video like a doc

Freemium4.6/51,037 ratings

Descript is an all-in-one video and podcast editor with text-based editing, AI voice cloning, transcription in 25+ languages, and Underlord AI tools for automated editing and content creation.

09
Speechify Voice Typing logo

Free Voice Typing Dictation. Just Talk.

Freemium4.6/5878 ratings

Speechify Voice Typing is an AI-powered speech-to-text tool that converts spoken words into accurate, editable text in real time. It supports multiple languages and accents, offers voice commands for punctuation and formatting, and integrates with popular apps like Google Docs and email clients. The adaptive AI learns from usage patterns to improve accuracy over time.

Speechify Voice Typing UI screenshot
10
Riverside.fm logo

Record podcasts and videos remotely

Freemium4.2/51,661 ratings

Riverside is an AI-powered platform for recording, editing, and distributing professional video and audio content remotely. It captures studio-quality recordings locally at up to 4K video and 48kHz audio, independent of internet quality. The platform includes a text-based video editor, AI-driven noise removal, filler word removal, eye contact correction, automatic transcription, and Magic Clips that generate short-form social content automatically. Riverside supports live streaming in full HD to multiple destinations simultaneously, podcast hosting with analytics, and direct publishing to YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Used by Spotify, Microsoft, The New York Times, and TED.

Why these transcription tools didn't make our top 10.

We evaluated 109 transcription tools and these 20 ranked 11 through 30. They're solid options that fell short on one or two axes (review depth, pricing transparency, feature parity), but worth a look if the leaders don't fit your stack or budget.

Kapwing logo
Kapwing
Browser-based video editor with AI features
Rev AI logo
Rev AI
The world's most accurate API for AI- and human-generated transcripts and speech insights.
tl;dv logo
tl;dv
AI meeting recorder for sales and product
Vonage Business logo
Vonage Business
Unified communications for voice, video, messaging, and SMS
MeetGeek logo
MeetGeek
AI meeting assistant for recording and summaries
CoRecruit logo
CoRecruit
AI assistant for recruitment agencies, automating notes, ATS updates, and candidate submittals.
Deepgram logo
Deepgram
Enterprise Voice AI: STT, TTS & Agent APIs for accurate, realistic, and cost-effective voice solutions.
Grain logo
Grain
AI meeting notes and highlights
Bluedot logo
Bluedot
The most accurate AI note taker that captures, transcribes, and summarizes every meeting, bot-free.
Chorus by ZoomInfo logo
Chorus by ZoomInfo
Boost sales with AI-powered call insights and coaching
CallMiner logo
CallMiner
Analyze 100% of customer conversations for CX, compliance, and performance
AssemblyAI logo
AssemblyAI
Speech-to-text API with high accuracy transcription
Rewatch logo
Rewatch
Centralize, organize, and share your team's video knowledge asynchronously.
Notta logo
Notta
AI-powered notetaker for transcribing, summarizing, and translating meetings and audio in real-time.
Metaview logo
Metaview
AI agents for recruiting to source, engage, and hire better with intelligent automation.
Podcastle logo
Podcastle
One AI platform for audio, video & voice: record, edit, dub, subtitle, clone voices, and build voice agents.
Sonix logo
Sonix
Automated transcription service
Bubbles logo
Bubbles
AI meeting notetaker and screen recorder that turns every meeting into action and enables async collaboration.
Virtual Interview Platform by Hyring logo
Virtual Interview Platform by Hyring
AI-powered live interviews with automated evaluation and insights
AI Video Interviewer logo
AI Video Interviewer
Automate and scale candidate interviews with human-like AI

Browse all transcription tools

109 tools
Microsoft Teams Phone logo
Microsoft Teams Phone
Cloud calling in Microsoft Teams
paid
Fathom logo
Fathom
AI notetaker that summarizes your meetings so you can focus on the conversation.
free· Web, Windows, macOS
Ask Fellow logo
Ask Fellow
Secure AI meeting assistant to record, transcribe, and summarize every meeting with privacy in mind.
freemium· Web
Otter.ai logo
Otter.ai
AI meeting notes and transcription
freemium· Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Chrome
Avoma logo
Avoma
AI meeting assistant for revenue teams
freemium· Web
Scratchpad logo
Scratchpad
The AI workspace for sales that removes admin work and boosts productivity.
freemium· Web, macOS
Descript logo
Descript
Edit audio and video like a doc
freemium· Web
Speechify Voice Typing logo
Speechify Voice Typing
Free Voice Typing Dictation. Just Talk.
freemium· Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Chrome
Riverside.fm logo
Riverside.fm
Record podcasts and videos remotely
freemium· Web, macOS, iOS, Android
Fireflies.ai logo
Fireflies.ai
AI meeting transcription and search
freemium· Web, Chrome, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS
Kapwing logo
Kapwing
Browser-based video editor with AI features
freemium· Web
Rev AI logo
Rev AI
The world's most accurate API for AI- and human-generated transcripts and speech insights.
paid· Web
tl;dv logo
tl;dv
AI meeting recorder for sales and product
freemium· Web
Vonage Business logo
Vonage Business
Unified communications for voice, video, messaging, and SMS
paid
MeetGeek logo
MeetGeek
AI meeting assistant for recording and summaries
freemium· Web, iOS, Android, Chrome
CoRecruit logo
CoRecruit
AI assistant for recruitment agencies, automating notes, ATS updates, and candidate submittals.
freemium· Web
Deepgram logo
Deepgram
Enterprise Voice AI: STT, TTS & Agent APIs for accurate, realistic, and cost-effective voice solutions.
freemium· Web
Grain logo
Grain
AI meeting notes and highlights
freemium· Web
Bluedot logo
Bluedot
The most accurate AI note taker that captures, transcribes, and summarizes every meeting, bot-free.
freemium· Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Chorus by ZoomInfo logo
Chorus by ZoomInfo
Boost sales with AI-powered call insights and coaching
paid· Web
CallMiner logo
CallMiner
Analyze 100% of customer conversations for CX, compliance, and performance
paid· Web
AssemblyAI logo
AssemblyAI
Speech-to-text API with high accuracy transcription
paid· Web
Rewatch logo
Rewatch
Centralize, organize, and share your team's video knowledge asynchronously.
freemium
Notta logo
Notta
AI-powered notetaker for transcribing, summarizing, and translating meetings and audio in real-time.
freemium· Web, iOS, Android, Chrome
Metaview logo
Metaview
AI agents for recruiting to source, engage, and hire better with intelligent automation.
freemium· Web
Podcastle logo
Podcastle
One AI platform for audio, video & voice: record, edit, dub, subtitle, clone voices, and build voice agents.
freemium· Web
Sonix logo
Sonix
Automated transcription service
paid· Web
Bubbles logo
Bubbles
AI meeting notetaker and screen recorder that turns every meeting into action and enables async collaboration.
freemium· Web, Chrome
Virtual Interview Platform by Hyring logo
Virtual Interview Platform by Hyring
AI-powered live interviews with automated evaluation and insights
paid· Web
AI Video Interviewer logo
AI Video Interviewer
Automate and scale candidate interviews with human-like AI
paid· Web
Adobe Podcast logo
Adobe Podcast
AI-powered audio editing and creation for everyone
freemium· Web
Nylas logo
Nylas
Integrate email, calendar, and meetings into your application with universal APIs.
paid· Web
Happy Scribe logo
Happy Scribe
AI and human transcription, captions, and translation in 120+ languages
freemium· Web, iOS, Android
Airgram logo
Airgram
AI-powered meeting assistant for transcription, summarization, and action item tracking.
freemium
Speechmatics logo
Speechmatics
AI speech technology powering voice AI agents, real-time transcription, and text-to-speech across 55+ languages.
freemium· Web
Screenloop logo
Screenloop
Automate the mundane in hiring, amplify human intelligence with AI-powered ATS and interview tools.
paid· Web
Castos logo
Castos
Podcast hosting for WordPress and beyond
paid· Web
Sembly AI logo
Sembly AI
AI meeting assistant for teams
freemium· Web
Voiser logo
Voiser
Convert text to speech and speech to text using AI in over 70 languages.
paid· Web
Tomedes logo
Tomedes
Professional human and AI-powered translation, localization, and interpretation services for global businesses.
paid· Web
Supernormal logo
Supernormal
AI-powered meeting assistant that transcribes, summarizes, and identifies action items.
freemium· macOS, Windows, Web
Wispr Flow for Android logo
Wispr Flow for Android
The voice-to-text AI that turns speech into clear, polished writing in every app.
freemium· macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Web
Snipd logo
Snipd
The AI-powered podcast app to save insights, chat with episodes, and discover highlights.
freemium· iOS, Android, Web
Gladia logo
Gladia
The speech-to-text backbone for voice agents, customer support, and meeting assistants.
freemium· Web
Maestra logo
Maestra
AI-powered platform for transcription, subtitling, and dubbing in over 125 languages.
freemium· Web
Read.ai logo
Read.ai
AI copilot for transforming meetings, emails, and messages into summaries, insights, and instant answers.
freemium· Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Chrome
Tactiq logo
Tactiq
AI meeting transcripts and summaries for Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.
freemium· Web, Chrome
Circleback logo
Circleback
AI-powered notes, action items, automations, and search for all your meetings.
freemium· Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS
Vegas Pro logo
Vegas Pro
Professional video editing software for faster, more creative, and endless possibilities.
paid· Web
Komodo Decks logo
Komodo Decks
AI-powered screen recorder that transcribes, documents, and provides intelligent insights from your videos.
free· Web, Windows, macOS, Chrome, iOS, Android
Zubtitle logo
Zubtitle
Add subtitles, edit, and repurpose videos for social media in minutes.
freemium· Web
Type Studio logo
Type Studio
Edit videos by editing text, automatically add subtitles, and repurpose content.
freemium
Whisper logo
Whisper
Open-source speech recognition
free
Trint logo
Trint
AI transcription and translation for global content creation
paid· Web
Headliner logo
Headliner
Promote your podcast, radio show, or blog with engaging video content and automated social sharing.
free· Web, iOS, Android
Noty.ai logo
Noty.ai
AI Meeting Assistant to transcribe, summarize, and transform conversations into actionable tasks.
paid· Web
Vowel logo
Vowel
AI-powered video conferencing that transcribes, summarizes, and searches your meetings
freemium
Parrot AI logo
Parrot AI
Capture, transcribe, and summarize your meetings with AI.
freemium
AutoSubtitles 2.0 logo
AutoSubtitles 2.0
Generate AI subtitles and captions for videos with viral templates and full customization.
freemium· Web
gpt-realtime-1.5 by OpenAI logo
gpt-realtime-1.5 by OpenAI
Enable low-latency, multimodal AI interactions for voice agents and real-time audio transcription.
paid· Web

Showing the top 60 of 109. Filter to narrow down.

In-depth: why these tools made the cut

Ask Fellow logo

Fellow combines meeting transcription with structured meeting agendas, action items, and 1:1 templates. For engineering managers and team leads who run frequent 1:1s and recurring meetings, Fellow provides more workflow than pure transcription tools.

For sales call analysis or general transcription needs, Fellow is over-specialized. Use Fathom or Fireflies for general transcription; use Fellow when meeting management is the bigger problem.

How to choose transcription software

  1. Identify primary source

    Recurring meetings (Zoom/Meet/Teams): Otter, Fathom, Granola, Fireflies. One-off audio files (podcasts, interviews): Descript, Rev, Happy Scribe. Both: Descript covers it but feels heavier than meeting-specific tools.

  2. Audit accuracy on your accent/domain

    Transcription accuracy varies by speaker accent, jargon density, and audio quality. Run a 5-minute sample through any tool you're considering before subscribing — quality differs more than marketing claims suggest.

  3. Plan for AI features beyond transcription

    Summaries, action items, speaker labels, and integrations to CRM/notes are increasingly standard. Fathom's free tier has been aggressive on AI-summary quality; Otter's been investing in real-time experience. Test the features you'd actually use.

Honorable mentions

Tools that didn't crack the headline list but deserve a look depending on what you optimize for.

  • Fellow logo
    FellowSame as Ask Fellow above — first-class entry

    Both DB slugs point to Fellow. Treat as one product.

Best Transcription for

How we ranked these transcription tools

We rank by real-world signal: verified user ratings aggregated from G2, Capterra, and our own community, the volume and recency of media coverage, and hands-on editorial review for the tools we cover in depth. Pricing is re-checked and the ranking refreshed monthly. We do not sell placement in this list.

Tools reviewed
109
With free tier
70%
Last updated
May 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best transcription tool in 2026?

Based on our analysis of 109 transcription tools, Granola ranks #1 on Toolradar's assessment. The runners-up are Microsoft Teams Phone, Fathom, Ask Fellow. Our rankings are based on features, pricing, user reviews, and real-world testing across 109 products.

What are the top 3 transcription tools?

The top 3 transcription tools in 2026, ranked by Toolradar, are: 1) Granola, The AI notepad that transforms raw meeting notes into actionable insights.. 2) Microsoft Teams Phone, Cloud calling in Microsoft Teams. 3) Fathom, AI notetaker that summarizes your meetings so you can focus on the conversation..

Are there free transcription tools?

Yes: 9 out of our top 10 transcription tools offer free or freemium plans. The top free options are Granola, Fathom, Ask Fellow. Free plans typically include core features with usage limits.

How do I choose the right transcription tool?

Start by defining your team size, budget, and must-have features. Granola is the top-rated option overall. For budget-conscious teams, Granola offers strong value. Compare all 109 options side-by-side on Toolradar, where we evaluate features, pricing, ease of use, and user reviews.

For transcription vendors

Selling a transcription product? Reach 550K+ buyers through Toolradar & Dupple.

Newsletter ads and directory listings: the same surfaces buyers use to shortlist. Max 2 sponsors per issue, done-for-you creative.