My phone saves voice memos as M4A. So does a lot of other stuff: the Voice Memos app on iPhone, many Android recorders, and plenty of audio you export from a video editor. Sooner or later you want the words out of that file.
The obvious move is to search "free M4A to text." You get a wall of tools that all say free. Then you click one, and it asks for an email. Or it gives you three minutes. Or it says free, but only three files, ever.
So I went to the pricing page of five tools and wrote down what the free plan really says. I checked all of them on October 28, 2026. Prices and limits change, so open the links before you trust my notes.
The short version
| Tool | Account needed for free use? | Free limit per file | Other free limits | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whisper Web (whisperweb.dev) | No | 20 minutes, 200 MB | No daily file limit | llms.txt |
| TurboScribe | Not checked | 30 minutes | 1 file at a time | pricing |
| Otter.ai Basic | Yes (plan sign-up) | 30 minutes per conversation | 3 lifetime file imports, 300 minutes a month | pricing |
| Notta Free | Yes (no credit card) | 3 minutes per conversation | 120 minutes a month | pricing |
| HappyScribe Free | Yes ("Sign up") | Not stated for files | 10-minute free trial of AI transcription | pricing |
"Not checked" means the pricing page did not say, and I did not want to guess.
What "free" means in each case
Notta: fine for a test, not for a lecture
Notta's free plan lists 120 transcription minutes a month and "up to 3 minutes per conversation." It also says no credit card is required. You still create an account.
Three minutes is short. A quick reminder you recorded while walking to the car? Fine. A 40-minute class recording? Not on the free plan. Notta's own page also says that if you drop back to Free, you "can only view the first 3 minutes" of older transcripts.
Otter.ai: good minutes, very few uploads
Otter's Basic plan is free. It lists 300 monthly transcription minutes and 30 minutes per conversation. The catch for M4A files is a different line: "3 lifetime audio/video file imports." Lifetime, not per month.
Otter is built around joining meetings live. If your audio already sits in a file, those three imports go fast. Example: you upload Monday's interview, Tuesday's lecture, and Wednesday's voice memo. That is it.
HappyScribe: a trial, then a plan
HappyScribe's Free column has a "Sign up" button and a "10-minute free trial of AI Transcription, Subtitling and Translation." Ten minutes total is enough to see the editor and the export options. It is not a way to transcribe a stack of recordings for free.
If you need human transcription or lots of languages, HappyScribe has paid plans for that. For this post I only care about the free part.
TurboScribe: long free files, one at a time
TurboScribe's pricing page says "Each file can be up to 30 minutes long. Upload 1 file at a time." That is generous for a single file. I could not confirm from the pricing page whether you need an account first, so I left that cell as "not checked." Open the page and see for yourself.
Whisper Web: no account, file stays in your browser
This is the tool my team makes, so read this part with that in mind.
On whisperweb.dev, the free local mode runs the Whisper model inside your browser. You do not sign up. Each file can be up to 20 minutes and 200 MB. There is no daily file limit, so ten short voice memos in a row is fine.
The paid plan is called Unlimited. It adds an optional cloud mode for files up to 10 hours or 5 GB each. That one does upload your file, because the work happens on a server. Free local mode does not.
If you want to try it with a real memo, you can transcribe an M4A right in your browser with no account. Pick the file, wait for the model to load the first time, and copy the text out.
One note, since people mix these up: the official site is whisperweb.dev. Sites at whisperweb.app, whisperweb.tech or whisperweb.net are not us.
Which one fits your file?
Here are a few real cases.
A 2-minute voice note. Almost anything works. Notta's 3-minute cap is fine. So is Whisper Web. Pick the one you already have open.
A 15-minute voice memo from a meeting. Notta's free plan is too short. Otter works, but it eats one of three lifetime imports. Whisper Web takes it without an account. TurboScribe's 30-minute cap also covers it.
A 45-minute lecture. None of the free per-file limits I listed fit it in one go. You can split the file into two parts under 20 minutes each for Whisper Web's free mode, or pay for a plan. Whisper Web Unlimited handles up to 10 hours per file in the cloud.
Something private, like a doctor's voicemail or a family recording. Think about where the file goes. The other four are cloud services, so the file goes to their servers. Whisper Web's free mode keeps it in the browser tab. That is not a legal promise about anything. It is just where the processing happens.
A few things that trip people up
- File size, not just length. Whisper Web's free cap is 20 minutes and 200 MB. A normal phone memo is small, but a high-bitrate export can be big.
- "Free" on the home page vs. the pricing page. The home page says free. The pricing table tells you how free. Always read the table.
- The first run takes longer in a browser tool. The model downloads once. After that, it is cached.
- Export format. Check that you can get plain text or subtitles out. A transcript stuck in an app is less useful than a TXT file on your desktop.
FAQ
Can I convert M4A to text without converting it to MP3 first?
With Whisper Web, yes: its M4A page takes the file as is. For the other tools, check their upload page for the formats they list before you convert anything.
Is there a tool with no minute cap at all for free?
Not among the five I checked. Whisper Web has no daily file limit, but each file still has the 20-minute, 200 MB cap.
Do I need an account?
Otter, Notta and HappyScribe ask you to sign up for the free plan. Whisper Web's free mode does not.
Sources (checked October 28, 2026)
- Whisper Web plan facts: https://whisperweb.dev/llms.txt and https://whisperweb.dev/m4a-to-text
- TurboScribe pricing: https://turboscribe.ai/pricing
- Otter.ai pricing: https://otter.ai/pricing
- Notta pricing: https://www.notta.ai/en/pricing
- HappyScribe pricing: https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing
Written by the people who build Whisper Web, the in-browser transcriber at whisperweb.dev. We tried to be fair to the other tools; if a limit changed, tell us in the comments.
Top comments (0)