Updated August 2026 · Every plan limit below is quoted from the vendor's own pricing page and every rating from its own Play listing, read on 19 August 2026 · the Otter upload limit and the Notta free-tier description are corrected
On a Pixel, use the built-in Recorder, because it transcribes on the device with no minute cap. For a file you already have, use Otter, because it is the only free tier here that handles a half-hour recording, though it allows just three imports ever. Do not rely on Notta free, because it caps a conversation at three minutes. Record close to the speaker, because that changes accuracy more than the app does. Data checked: 19 August 2026.
You have a voice memo, an interview, or an hour of a lecture on your phone, and you want it as text you can read, search and edit. Most of this can be done without a computer. The honest part is that no app gets every word right, the free tiers are tighter than their marketing suggests, and how you record matters as much as which app you pick.
Which situation are you in
There are two situations, and they call for different tools. Either you are about to record something and want the text as you go, or you already have an audio file and want it turned into a transcript afterwards.
That second case is the one that catches people out. Most live-typing features, including keyboard dictation and the built-in Pixel transcript, only listen to a microphone in the moment. They will not open an MP3 or M4A saved last week. If you already have the file, you need one of the apps that accepts an upload, which is exactly the column the table above sorts on. Knowing which bucket you are in saves a lot of wasted taps.
Free and on-device, but Pixel only
3.3 stars from 15,667 reviews · free, no ads, no in-app purchases · by Google LLC · preinstalled on Pixel phones · Play listing updated 13 August 2026 · checked 19 August 2026 · Play listing
If you own a Pixel, the transcription tool is already there and costs nothing. It transcribes while it records, and Google states that this step runs on the phone rather than in the cloud.
Skip it if you need to transcribe a file you already recorded, or you do not own a Pixel. Use it over the installed apps whenever it is available and the recording is fresh, since nothing else here is free without a minute cap.
The most usable free tier for real recordings
4.7 stars from 41,314 reviews · 5M+ installs · free to install, in-app purchases $12.99 to $99.99 · no Contains ads label · by Otter.ai · Play listing updated 18 August 2026 · checked 19 August 2026 · Play listing
The stronger of the two installed options, mainly because its free tier is built around lengths that match real recordings rather than short memos.
Skip it if your recordings routinely run past half an hour, since the per-conversation cap will cut them. Use it over Notta for anything longer than a few minutes, because Notta caps a free conversation far more tightly.
Usable only for very short clips on the free plan
4.2 stars from 20,608 reviews · 1M+ installs · free to install, in-app purchases $0.99 to $344.99 · no Contains ads label · by NOTTA PTE. LTD. · Play listing updated 12 August 2026 · checked 19 August 2026 · Play listing
Often recommended alongside Otter as an equivalent free option. On the current numbers it is not equivalent, and the difference is large enough to decide which one you install.
Skip it if you need to transcribe anything longer than three minutes without paying. Choose it over Otter only if you transcribe many very short clips a month and value the higher file-upload count.
The free route with a catch
Google Docs has a voice typing feature, and people reach for it expecting it to transcribe a recording. On a phone it is narrower than the desktop version: inside the Docs app you are really using the microphone key on the Gboard keyboard, which dictates whatever you speak into the document as you speak it. It listens to live speech and does not open a saved audio file.
The usual workaround is to play a recording out loud through a speaker and let the phone listen. That can work in a quiet room with clear, single-speaker audio, but it is fragile: room echo, speaker volume and any background noise all pull accuracy down, and you are transcribing a recording of a recording. For a quick personal memo it is free and good enough. For anything that has to be accurate, one of the upload-capable apps above will do better.
The biggest accuracy gain
The largest improvements do not come from switching apps; they come from the recording itself. Speech-to-text engines are built for clear speech, so the job is to give them clear speech.
Put the phone close to whoever is talking, ideally within arm's reach. Pick a quiet room and turn off fans, music and televisions. Ask people not to talk over each other, since crosstalk is the single worst thing for accuracy and the thing every speaker-labelling feature handles worst. For a meeting, a small clip-on or USB-C microphone helps far more than any in-app setting. If what you are capturing is music or layered audio rather than speech, transcription is the wrong tool altogether, and our roundup of free multitrack recording apps is the better starting point. For comparing recording apps generally, our voice recorder apps roundup covers the non-Pixel choices.
Plan to clean the text up afterwards, because no transcript arrives perfect. Skim it while replaying the audio at the places that look garbled, usually the first few seconds and anywhere two people overlapped. Names and jargon are the usual casualties.
Where your audio actually goes
This matters most for anything sensitive: a medical appointment, a legal conversation, a confidential interview. The routes on this page differ fundamentally in where the audio is processed, and that difference is easy to miss because the apps look alike.
The split is on-device versus cloud. Pixel Recorder does its transcription on the phone, so for that step the audio does not need to leave the device. Otter and Notta are cloud services: they upload your audio to their servers to process it, and it may remain there under your account afterwards. Before transcribing anything private, read the app's privacy policy and check that you can delete the recording from their cloud when you are finished. In some places you also need consent from everyone in the conversation before recording at all, which is a legal question rather than a technical one, and our note on recording and legal compliance covers the shape of it.
If privacy is the deciding factor, the on-device Pixel route is the one that answers it cleanly. For longer spoken audio you want to keep and revisit, our guide to podcast apps for Android and the wider music and audio hub point to related tools.
Only with an app that accepts uploads. Otter and Notta both do, with very different limits: Otter allows three file imports for the lifetime of a free account, Notta 50 a month but only three minutes of each. Pixel Recorder transcribes only what it records live. Checked 19 August 2026.
No. The built-in live transcript is a Pixel feature, but on any Android phone you can install Otter or Notta to record and transcribe, or to upload a file. Gboard voice typing is available on any phone for live dictation.
Otter's, with one caveat. Its free Basic plan allows 300 transcription minutes a month and a 30-minute cap per conversation, so a short interview fits, but only three file imports for the life of the account. Notta's free plan caps a conversation at three minutes, which rules it out for interviews regardless of its monthly total. Checked 19 August 2026.
Accurate enough to be useful and never good enough to publish unread. None of these vendors publishes an accuracy figure, so treat any specific percentage you see quoted with suspicion. What is reliably true is that accuracy falls with background noise, strong accents and people talking over each other, so always read the output before relying on it.
It depends on the route. Pixel Recorder processes the transcript on the device, so that step stays local. Otter and Notta are cloud services that upload your audio to their servers to process it. For sensitive recordings, read the privacy policy, delete the cloud copy when finished, and make sure you have consent to record.
Otter and Notta both label different speakers automatically, which is what makes an interview transcript readable. The labelling still struggles when people talk over each other, so expect to correct some of it by hand.
On a Pixel, yes: the built-in Recorder is free with no minute cap and no in-app purchases. Elsewhere the free tiers are real but limited, and the limit that matters is per conversation rather than per month. Gboard voice typing is free for live dictation on any phone. Checked 19 August 2026.
Checked 19 August 2026: this page named four products and quoted specific free-tier limits without linking a single source, so every app now carries its own Play listing and every plan limit is quoted from the vendor's own pricing page. Two of those limits were wrong in ways that change which app a reader should install. Notta's free plan was described as "generous"; its own pricing page caps a free conversation at "Up to 3 minutes," allows 120 minutes a month, and lists transcript export as something the paid plan adds, none of which suits the interview or lecture this guide is about. Otter's other figures held up and are quoted directly: 300 monthly minutes, a 30-minute cap per conversation, and "3 lifetime audio/video file imports" on the free plan, which is the limit most likely to stop a reader mid-project. A first pass through this page briefly replaced that lifetime cap with a monthly minutes figure; the pricing table carries both, in separate rows, and the file-count row is the binding one, so it has been restored. Free exports are also thinner than this page implied: Otter's export row gives the free plan "mp3, txt" only, with PDF and DOCX starting on the paid tier. A claim that you can expect "roughly 90 to 95 percent accuracy" has been removed, since no vendor publishes an accuracy figure and none could be sourced. Pixel Recorder was called the strongest free tool on the phone without noting that its own listing shows 3.3 stars from 15,667 reviews, which is now included. Its on-device transcription is now quoted from Google's own page rather than asserted, and a claim that it therefore "keeps working with no signal" has gone, since Google documents no such thing. The AI summary carries two limits this page had missed, both from Google's own transcription page: it is "available for Pixel 8 and later" and it "runs in a secure, isolated environment in the cloud," so unlike the transcript it is not processed on the phone. A decision table sorted on the question that actually decides this choice, whether a route can open a file you already have, plus an "Our answer" capsule, a dated verification box and this changelog, are new.