Transcribe a Church Service — Sunday Recording to Searchable Text
You already have the recording. Upload it and get a timestamped transcript back in about five minutes — welcome, scripture, message and all. Your first full service is free, up to 90 minutes, with no credit card.
Turnaround
~5 min / 45-min message
Accuracy
99% on clear audio
First service
Free, 90 min
Which recording should you use?
Most churches are already sitting on three or four possible files by Sunday afternoon, and the one you pick matters more than any setting on our end. In descending order of quality:
| Source | Typical file | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Soundboard / mixer recording | .wav or .mp3 | The mic signal itself — no room reverb at all. Best possible input. |
| Livestream export | .mp4 | Usually carries the board mix too. Download from your streaming platform. |
| Camera on a tripod | .mp4 or .mov | Camera mic picks up the room; fine if the camera is near the front. |
| Phone on the front pew | .m4a | Works, but distance and HVAC noise cost accuracy. Keep it close. |
| Podcast episode already published | .mp3 | Already edited and level-matched. Download and upload it as-is. |
If two of these exist, use the higher one on the list. Re-recording a service with a phone when a soundboard file already exists is the most common avoidable accuracy loss.
Step by step
- 1
Find the recording you already have
Check the soundboard first — most boards record a clean mix to a USB stick or SD card. Otherwise use the livestream export (YouTube, Facebook, Boxcast, Resi all let you download the file), or the camera card, or a phone recording. The cleanest feed you can get is the one to use.
- 2
Trim it if you only need the message
Optional, but it speeds things up and keeps a long service inside the free tier. Audacity (free, Windows/Mac/Linux) and QuickTime (Mac) both trim in under a minute. Export as MP3 or M4A — no need to re-encode into anything exotic.
- 3
Drop the file into the upload zone
Open /transcribe and drag the file in. Uploads are accepted up to 150MB. Audio and video both work — MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, MOV, MPEG, AAC, OGG, FLAC and WebM are all read directly, with no conversion step.
- 4
Enter an email address
One field, no password to create. The transcript appears on the page and a copy is emailed to you, which matters when a 90-minute service takes a few minutes to finish and you would rather not sit and watch a progress bar.
- 5
Download in the format you need
.txt for writing and pasting, .srt or .vtt for captioning the livestream replay, .docx with timestamps every 30 seconds for archiving and for anyone reading along.
What churches do with the transcript
- A searchable archive. Ten years of services on a hard drive are unsearchable. Ten years of transcripts are one Ctrl-F away from “what did we say about Psalm 23 in 2019?”
- Captions for the replay. Download the .srt and upload it alongside the video so the people watching later — and everyone watching with the sound off — can follow.
- Accessibility. Members who are deaf or hard of hearing get the message in full rather than a summary written from memory on Tuesday.
- Written content without writing it twice. The blog post, the newsletter piece and the small-group questions all start from the words that were actually preached.
Church service transcription FAQ
Do I have to transcribe the whole service, or just the sermon?+
Either. Upload the full service file and you get the whole thing back — welcome, announcements, scripture reading, sermon, benediction — with timestamps so you can jump to the part you want. If you only need the message, trim the file first in any free editor (Audacity, QuickTime, the Voice Memos app) and upload just that section. Trimming also keeps you inside the free tier's 90-minute allowance.
What kind of recording works?+
Whatever your church already produces. A soundboard MP3, a phone recording from the front row, the MP4 from the livestream camera, a MOV from an iPhone on a tripod, a WAV from a field recorder. You upload the file you have — there is nothing to install and no particular recording setup required.
How long does a full service take to transcribe?+
About five minutes for a typical 45-minute message. A full 90-minute service takes longer but still finishes in minutes, not hours. You get the transcript on the page and a copy by email, so you can close the tab and come back to it.
How accurate is it on a room with poor acoustics?+
99% on clear audio. The single biggest factor is the source: a soundboard or lapel-mic feed is close to perfect, because it is the same signal going to the speakers. A phone sitting on a pew twenty feet back picks up room reverb, HVAC and congregational noise, and accuracy drops accordingly. If your church already records for a podcast or livestream, use that file rather than a new phone recording.
What if multiple people speak during the service?+
A service usually has several voices — a worship leader, someone reading scripture, the preacher. The transcript captures all of them in order with timestamps, so the sequence of the service is preserved and you can find any segment by time.
What does it cost?+
Your first full service is free, up to 90 minutes, with no credit card. After that the Church Plan is $5 first month, then $19/month for unlimited services, or $48 every 3 months if you would rather pay quarterly. It is one account for the whole church, not a per-seat licence.
What can we do with the transcript once we have it?+
The common uses are a searchable service archive, captions for the livestream replay, a blog post or newsletter from the message, small-group discussion notes, and accessibility for members who are deaf or hard of hearing. Downloads include .txt for writing, .srt and .vtt for captions, and .docx with timestamps.
Start with last Sunday
First full service free, up to 90 minutes, no card. After that the Church Plan is $5 first month, then $19/month for unlimited services.
Upload the recording