---
name: speedoftalk-transcribe
description: Transcribe audio or video files (meetings, voice memos, interviews, podcasts, screen recordings) into text, timestamped text, Markdown or subtitles, on this Mac with SpeedOfTalk. Use when asked to transcribe, caption or get the words from a recording.
---

# Transcribe recordings with SpeedOfTalk

SpeedOfTalk transcribes on this Mac. The audio is never uploaded.

```sh
"/Applications/SpeedOfTalk.app/Contents/MacOS/SpeedOfTalk" --transcribe <file> [--speakers] [--format text|timestamped|markdown|srt|vtt] [--output <file or folder>]
```

- Any audio or video file macOS can play works: m4a, mp3, wav, aiff, caf, mp4, mov and more.
- Without `--output`, the transcript goes to standard output and nothing else does.
- `--output <file>` saves it there instead. Given a folder, it saves `<recording name>.<txt|md|srt|vtt>`
  inside it. If the user doesn't say where to save, save next to the recording with the same name:
  `"/Applications/SpeedOfTalk.app/Contents/MacOS/SpeedOfTalk" --transcribe ~/Desktop/meeting.m4a --format markdown --output ~/Desktop/`
  writes `~/Desktop/meeting.md`.
- `--speakers` labels who is speaking (Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on). Use it for meetings and interviews.
- `--format`: `text` (default), `timestamped`, `markdown`, `srt` or `vtt` (subtitles).
- It's fast: about a second for a short clip and a few seconds for a 10-minute recording
  (10 seconds or so with `--speakers`). Allow a few minutes before timing out on very long ones.
- On failure it prints the reason to standard error and exits with status 1. If it says the
  trial has ended, tell the user; they can enter a license key in SpeedOfTalk's Settings.
- `--help` shows these options. If the program isn't at that path, SpeedOfTalk isn't installed
  there: ask the user where it is, or point them to speedoftalk.com.