MP4 to Text: Transcribe Any MP4 File

Zoom and Teams recordings, screen recordings, phone videos, webinar downloads: most video ends up as an MP4. Upload one and Wave AI pulls the speech out of it and gives you a transcript with speakers and timestamps, plus a summary.

Drop an MP4 file here

Any .mp4 video, up to 200MB. Free, no account needed.

Where to find the MP4

MP4 is the default for most meeting and recording apps, so the file is usually one download away:

  • Zoom. Local recordings land in Documents → Zoom, in a folder named after the meeting; the video is the .mp4 there. Cloud recordings download as MP4 from Recordings in the Zoom web portal.
  • Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. Teams saves recordings to OneDrive or SharePoint and Meet saves them to Google Drive, both as MP4. Open the recording there and choose Download.
  • Screen recordings. iPhone screen recordings are MP4 in Photos, and Windows Snipping Tool saves MP4. OBS records MKV by default: use File → Remux Recordings to turn it into an MP4 first.

MP4 to text: common questions

My MP4 is over 200MB. How do I transcribe it?

Upload only the sound. On a Mac, open the MP4 in QuickTime Player and choose File → Export As → Audio Only; you get an .m4a a fraction of the size. Zoom local recordings already include a separate audio-only .m4a next to the MP4.

Does the picture quality matter?

No. Only the audio track is transcribed, so a 480p video and a 4K video of the same meeting give the same transcript. What matters is how clearly people can be heard.

Can I get subtitles for my MP4?

Yes. When the transcript has timing, Download .srt and Download .vtt buttons appear next to it. The subtitle generator page (linked below) shows how to add them in YouTube, Premiere Pro or CapCut.

Will it tell the speakers in a Zoom recording apart?

Yes. Each voice gets its own label (Speaker A, Speaker B…) with a timestamp, even when everyone is on the same audio track.

What if my MP4 has no sound?

Then there's nothing to transcribe, and the tool will tell you the file has no audio track. Check the video plays with sound on your computer first.

Related: Free Audio Transcription: Transcribe Audio to Text with AI · Free Subtitle Generator: SRT and VTT from Any Video · Free YouTube Transcript Generator · Transcribe Any Video to Text in Minutes

Wave app screenshot showing meeting transcription
Wave AI note taker background pattern