The questions
Four questions live here. Two checked so far.
- Is there an app that can transcribe audio to text?yes
- Is there an app that reads text to you?yes
- Is there an app that will read a pdf to me?being checked
- Is there an app that can listen to a song and tell you the chords?being checked
The things
Every thing we've checked here. From 2 checked questions.
Vendors measure free use differently, so we show their own units.
The built-in iPhone recorder, which can show a transcript while you record or afterwards.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Apple page; the app is part of iOS.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Transcribing speech on the phone you already have, with the ability to view, copy and search the transcript.
- The catch
- Apple says audio transcription needs iPhone 12 or later, covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, and is not available in all countries or regions.
- ios
The recorder app on Google Pixel phones, with transcription of what it records.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Google page; the app comes with Pixel phones.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Transcribing what it records, built into Pixel phones.
- The catch
- It is for Pixel phones (Pixel 3 and later per Google). Re-transcribe may process audio on Google servers, and Google says some languages may need internet access for summaries.
- android
Transcribe in Word and OneNote for Microsoft 365: record or upload audio and get a timestamped transcript.
- Free
- No free tier; included with a Microsoft 365 subscription (300 minutes of uploads a month).
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Turning an uploaded .wav, .mp4, .m4a or .mp3 file into a Word-editable transcript in 80+ locales.
- The catch
- Needs a Microsoft 365 subscription, an internet connection, and is capped at 300 minutes of uploaded audio a month on a Microsoft 365 plan.
- windows
- web
AI meeting and conversation transcriber with apps and a Chrome extension.
- Free
- Basic: 300 monthly transcription minutes, up to 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports (Otter pricing page).
- Paid
- from $8.33 per user per month (Pro, billed annually)
- Best at
- Live transcription of meetings with speaker recognition, plus summaries, on web, desktop and mobile.
- The catch
- The free Basic plan has 300 monthly transcription minutes, 30 minutes per conversation and only 3 lifetime file imports; Pro allows 10 monthly imports.
- web
- ios
- android
- mac
- windows
- chrome
Open-source speech recognition model from OpenAI, released under the MIT licence.
- Free
- Free: code and model weights are MIT licensed.
- Paid
- from Free (MIT licence)
- Best at
- Free, local transcription for people comfortable with the command line, in many languages.
- The catch
- You install it with pip and need FFmpeg (and sometimes Rust); OpenAI says performance varies significantly by language.
- linux
- mac
- windows
- api
A Mac app that transcribes files, meetings and system audio using Whisper and other models.
- Free
- Free version: basic transcription, recording and dictation (MacWhisper site).
- Paid
- from €64 one-time (Pro)
- Best at
- Private transcription on a Mac: the site says it uses local models so files do not leave the Mac.
- The catch
- Mac only. Speaker recognition and batch transcription are Pro features.
- mac
Built-in iPhone accessibility settings that read the screen or selected text aloud.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Apple page; it is a setting in iOS.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Reading everything on screen aloud with Speak Screen, or just chosen text with Speak Selection.
- The catch
- You turn it on first in Settings, Accessibility, Read & Speak. Apple also lists Accessibility Reader for a full-screen reading view.
- ios
Built-in Android accessibility feature that reads selected items on screen aloud.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Google page; it is an accessibility setting.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Hearing text or items you tap or drag across, and reading text from a camera view, per Google's help page.
- The catch
- Some steps only work on Android 11 and up. If you cannot see it in Accessibility settings, Google says to install the Android Accessibility Suite from Google Play.
- android
Read aloud in Edge's Reading mode, which strips a web page back to its text and reads it out.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Microsoft page; it is a browser feature.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Reading web pages aloud in the browser with no extra app.
- The catch
- It works on webpages in Edge, so it will not read text in other apps.
- web
A text-to-speech reader for web pages, PDFs and documents, with apps and browser extensions.
- Free
- Free: listen at speeds up to 1.5x with 10 robotic-sounding voices, text to speech features only (Speechify pricing page).
- Paid
- from $29 per month (Premium, monthly view)
- Best at
- Reading documents and pages aloud in many voices, with scan-and-listen on Premium.
- The catch
- The free plan listens at up to 1.5x with 10 robotic-sounding voices; Premium is $29 a month on the monthly view of the pricing page.
- web
- ios
- android
- mac
- windows
- chrome
Text-to-speech for documents, PDFs, ePub and web pages, with apps and a Chrome extension.
- Free
- The site says it has a free forever plan with no credit card needed; what it includes was not detailed on the page we read.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Listening to PDFs, Word docs, ePub and web pages, and scanning physical text with the camera.
- The catch
- Paid plan prices did not appear on the page we read, so we cannot quote one.
- web
- ios
- android
- chrome
ElevenLabs' reader app that voices ePubs, PDFs, articles and pasted text.
- Free
- The app is completely free to download and use today, per ElevenLabs.
- Paid
- from Free
- Best at
- Voicing your own files, links and pasted text in 32 languages for free, per the app's FAQ.
- The catch
- You cannot export audio from the app; ElevenLabs says that is only on its web platform. It also says a premium version may arrive later.
- ios
- android
The answer key
Three honest answers.
yes
yesReal things do this today. Here's the shortlist.
partly
partlyThings exist, but they only do some of it, or not well.
not really
not reallyNothing does this properly. We say so, and point to the nearest fix.