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Interview transcription

Transcribe interviews with speakers and timecodes

To transcribe an interview, upload the recording to IronMemo - audio or video up to 2 GB, enough for multi-hour sessions. The AI separates every speaker, stamps each line with a clickable timecode and works in 30+ languages. You also get a summary, plus TXT, DOCX and SRT exports for quoting and coding.

Updated July 20, 2026

Upload an interview freeWho it's for
  • Files up to 2 GB
  • 2+ speakers separated
  • 30+ languages

Who transcribes interviews with IronMemo

Journalists, recruiters and researchers run on the same pipeline: upload the recording, get speaker-labeled text, quote with confidence.

Journalists

A two-hour source interview becomes quotable text - every line timecoded, so any quote can be checked against the tape before you publish.

Recruiters & HR

Hiring debriefs built on what was actually said: who answered what, with timestamps - not what the panel remembers a day later.

Researchers

Qualitative interviews become analyzable data: export TXT or DOCX straight into NVivo or ATLAS.ti - both accept these formats.

Transcribing an interview by hand vs with IronMemo

The math is against manual work: about four hours of typing for every recorded hour.

You type it out

  • An average person spends about 4 hours per audio hour - trained professionals still need 2-3.
  • Voices overlap and attribution slips - the classic way interview quotes end up misassigned.
  • No timecodes unless you add them by hand, so verifying a quote later means scrubbing the recording.
  • After all that you still have raw text - coding, summarizing and pull-quotes are extra passes.

You upload it to IronMemo

  • A multi-hour interview comes back in minutes, and transcription minutes are not metered on the free plan.
  • Speakers are separated automatically - interviewer and interviewee labeled line by line.
  • Every line carries a clickable timecode: check any quote against the audio in seconds.
  • The summary and key points arrive together with the transcript, in 30+ languages.

To be fair: for court-grade strict verbatim records or certified transcripts you may still want a human pass at the end. For research coding, articles and hiring notes, AI transcription is the pragmatic default.

Interview to transcript in three steps

No bot on the call - you upload a file you already have.

  1. Upload the recording

    Drag in audio or video up to 2 GB - a phone recording, a dictaphone file or a video-call export. MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4 and OPUS all work.

  2. AI separates the speakers

    The language is detected among 30+ supported ones; every line is attributed to its speaker and stamped with a timecode.

  3. Quote, code or share

    Copy quotes with timestamps, export TXT, DOCX or SRT, or ask the AI questions about the interview instead of re-reading it.

Four ways to get an interview transcribed

The same one-hour interview, four very different costs:

MethodTime to transcript
Typing it yourselfAbout 4 hours per recorded hour
Human transcription serviceUsually days - rush tiers cost extra
AI tools on free plansMinutes - while the cap lasts
IronMemoMinutes, even for multi-hour files

Manual-typing estimate per Rev's transcription time guide; competitor free-tier caps (Rev, Otter, Sonix, Trint) verified July 2026 on their pricing pages. Plans change - check current vendor terms.

What you get from an interview

A source you can quote, code and search - not a wall of text.

1

Speaker-separated transcript

Interviewer and interviewee labeled line by line, with timecodes that link every answer back to the recording.

2

Summary with key quotes

Decisions, themes and quotable moments surface automatically - useful before you ever read the full text.

3

Exports for your workflow

TXT and DOCX drop straight into NVivo, ATLAS.ti or your CMS - and SRT covers subtitled clips.

Exports: TXT, DOCX, SRT

Built for long-form interviews

The limits that matter when a session runs long.

2 GB

per file - multi-hour interviews in one upload

No splitting a three-hour session into parts.

2+

speakers separated automatically

Interviewer, interviewee, focus-group voices - each line attributed.

30+

languages with automatic detection

Interviews that switch language mid-answer included.

Interview transcription - common questions

Create a free IronMemo account and upload the recording - audio or video up to 2 GB. A typical one-hour interview is processed in minutes, and transcription minutes are not metered on the free plan, so a two-hour session fits without caps.

Yes - speaker diarization separates two or more voices automatically and labels every line. It also handles panel interviews and focus groups with several voices.

Yes. Export TXT or DOCX and import directly: ATLAS.ti officially supports TXT, DOCX and SRT transcript imports, and NVivo accepts Word and text files. Timecoded lines keep every quote traceable to the audio.

Verbatim transcription keeps every filler and false start - courts and some research methods require it. Intelligent verbatim cleans those artifacts for readability. IronMemo keeps every line timecoded, so whichever style your write-up needs, each statement stays verifiable against the recording.

Uploaded recordings are not used to train AI models, and the original file is deleted right after processing - only the transcript stays in your workspace. Storage runs in the EU or US region of your choice; see the security page for details.

Explore more

All transcription tools

The full hub: any recording to text with speakers and timecodes.

IronMemo for HR teams

How HR teams run interviews, debriefs and hiring decisions on IronMemo.

Transcribe voice memos

Dictaphone and voice recorder files - iPhone, Android, Olympus, Zoom.

Audio to text converter

The general converter page - any audio or video format up to 2 GB.

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