Private Transcriber Pro
A downloadable tool for Windows and macOS
Fast, private, and easy audio transcription, now with GPU acceleration!
Just drag and drop your audio or video files. Private Transcriber Pro will automatically transcribe them with no internet connection required.
Why You’ll Love It
- One-time payment: no subscriptions, no hidden fees
- Free lifetime updates: including all future versions
- Fully offline: your files stay private, nothing is uploaded
- GPU acceleration on compatible systems (optional)
- Works on most laptops: no GPU required
- Unlimited installs: use it on any computer you personally own
Multilingual & Powerful
- Transcribes dozens of languages
- Optional automatic translation to English
- Choose from five transcription models, from lightning-fast to ultra-accurate
- Built-in search and quick edit tools
- Export as .srt subtitles or .txt text files
- Use your generated subtitles with compatible with video players like VLC

You can search the transcription and make quick edits to the text before saving it
Save the transcription as a subtitles file (.srt) or as a simple text file (.txt). You can then play the original video with VLC or other video players using these subtitles.
3rd party licenses:
This software uses code of FFmpeg licensed under the LGPLv2.1 and its source can be downloaded from here (3rdparty_src.zip).
This software uses code of Qt licensed under the LGPLv3.0 and its source can be downloaded from here (3rdparty_src.zip).
This software uses code of whisper.cpp licensed under the MIT and its source can be downloaded from here (3rdparty_src.zip). This software uses code of Vulkan licensed under the Apache2.0
What Users Are Saying:
"The demo showed that it worked so I bought the app. I like that it is not subscription based. The interface was simple and easy to understand. It too an hour running in the background to process my 8gb file. I had been searching off and on for months trying to find an app to translate to text and had pretty much given up, so many thanks so for developing this and making it available. Well worth the $29." — Eden_Ahbez
Updated | 24 days ago |
Status | Released |
Category | Tool |
Platforms | Windows, macOS |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 total ratings) |
Author | samontab |
Tags | Audio, Graphical User Interface (GUI), offline, speech, speech2text, subtitles, text, transcription, video, whisper |
Purchase
In order to download this tool you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $29 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Private Transcriber Pro v2.4.1: Now Blazing Fast⚡️with GPU Acceleration!24 days ago
- v2.1.4 is out now with a live preview of the transcription and some bug fixes32 days ago
- PrivateTranscriberPro now has a macOS version!57 days ago
- More models included for more accurate transcriptionsJul 30, 2024
- Introducing Private Transcriber ProJun 30, 2024
Comments
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Does this app support rtx 5000 series gpus (mainly rtx 5090)?
Hi Knightchampion,
I haven't tested it with that particular card, but it should work with most modern ones. The easiest way to check would be to run the demo with the GPU option set.
I can't deny that the program is excellent. However, I'm experiencing an issue. After doing 2–3 transcriptions, the program shuts down by itself. I'm working with .mp4 files, but the problem doesn't seem to be with a specific file, because the same files that cause the program to crash work fine when I open them again
Hi abadhernan,
Thanks for your kind words, and for taking the time to report this bug. I will have a look at it and get it fixed for the next release!
Great app! it would be great if you could add a queue of files to transcribe
Hi abadhernan,
Thanks for that great suggestion, that would be very useful indeed.
Hello! I bought the software a couple of days ago, but I am just testing it today (I replied to you on reddit!). The file that I am trying to transcribe was a DVD that I converted to mp4 with HandBrake, and clocks at about 1 hour, 20 minutes approx. 389mb.
The file is recognized by the software, and it says in the bottom "Transcribing filename.mp4". However, it doesn't go past 0%. And after 5 minutes or so, the text that says "Transcribing ..." disappears. But the progress bar still shows 0% as if there was a file loaded.
I then tried without GPU acceleration on options, and the text with the file name remains, but it still doesn't show any progress. Is that to be expected with a file of that size?
My notebooks is kind of old, a 2015 ThinkPad with an intel i7-5600U. Maybe it is expected to be that slow? It has been running for 1 hour now, and it still shows it at 0%. Maybe a way to know if it is running, or stopped and should be loaded again.
Thank you for any help! And please tell me what else should I report. Cheers!
Hi AlejoOdgers,
Thanks for your purchase!
The first thing that I would do in your case is to test with a smaller video or audio, one that is one minute for example. Just drag and drop it and see how long it takes your system to transcribe it. Most probably it will take longer than that one minute since the CPU is from 2015, so it will be much slower than a more modern machine.
Now that you know how long it roughly takes (for example double the time, or ten times, whatever it is), you will be able to get a rough idea of how long it would take on your machine to transcribe that file of 1 hour 20 minutes.
Usually I would recommend using the GPU option, but for a machine that old, probably it will cause more problems than what's worth. That's one of the reason why I added this option, to be able to skip the GPU if there are any issues. So, try it without the GPU, that's the most reliable way.
Now, after you have an idea of how long it would take, run it, and leave it there doing its thing. You can check that the application is working properly by opening up the Task Manager. You will see the name of the application and the CPU usage. You can open the Task Manager in Windows by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
I would leave it overnight running, because my guess is that it would need a few hours to process a file that is 1 hour and 20 minutes. Modern machines need about the same amount as the input, so a decade old machine would need quite a bit more.
Looks like very usefull tool.
Thanks Adeptus7!, glad you found it useful.
I found a bug (i think) in the new 241 version.

When selecting the most accurate (biggest) model, it outputs random garbage text for quite a while, then after a few minutes into the video it starts picking up the correct language, and translates it correctly.
On the default middle setting it translates the video fast and correct!
PS: on the most accurate setting it also often crashes the app at the very end of loading the video, before it begins transcribing it (.mp4 720p vids).
The video file itself is not the issue, since the middle setting does the whole video correctly without crashing.
The program has no error-log when it crashes, so I cant be helpful in providing that info, so maybe an idea to implement such a log in the future? (see image below for results)
Thanks for the detailed message.
This is something that comes from the model itself, so I will have a proper look at it. Maybe I will need to expose some extra settings that will be available as "Advanced settings" to make it work properly.
Hey! Great work!

The new GPU version (v241) is waaay faster than the older (v214)
(PS: important question below the picture, so view the rest of this post)
Is it possible to have it translate to other languages than "English" ?
I assume the AI is first transcribing the audio to text in original language, then the AI translates the sentence to English also using the AI, right?
If that is the case then a dropdown list of languages the AI supports would make it possible to translate a german video into norwegian subtitles, or as now getting the german video into an english subtitle.
Can you possibly add this? Or would it be more complicated than I think?
Hi AlexData-Hawkhill,
Yeah, the GPU enabled version is much faster. Glad you got this update.
In terms of the translation, it actually doesn't work exactly like that. The model itself basically only does transcription to the same language. The model just has a "bonus" feature that allows direct translation from audio to English, no intermediary text to translate.
Having a full translation from any language to any other language is outside the scope for this app. If there's interest, I could publish an independent app that does full translation of subtitles and text from any language to any other one, which would complement this app.
An independent app that does full translation of subtitles and text from any language to any other one, is indeed very interesting!
It should of course have GPU support as well as CPU support.
It would be truly awesome if it could also have the support for converting .SRT into .VTT (WebVTT). That format has a header (3 lines) and all dots in the time-stamp unlike .SRT that has one comma in their timestamp. It also has the ability to place text at different positions on the screen, but the normal/default captions/subs position we're all used to is: align:middle size:95% line:95
The incrementing block-numbering before each block of "timestamp+position+text" as one has in .SRT, is optional in .VTT
Example (WebVTT) .VTT Subtitle/Captions File:
WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.380 align:middle size:95% line:95
So how do you make a web page that looks like this where you have a video and it shows a
00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:14.680 align:middle size:95% line:95
nice picture where you can put the title of the video or information about what the video
00:00:14.680 --> 00:00:23.560 align:middle size:95% line:95
is about and it has obviously this video player which has this hamburger menu over here
So as you see, very similar to the .SRT format, but the benefit of this format is that it can be used with HTML5 players, so you can upload it directly to youtube (or other services supporting sub/caption) and on your own homepage, if you need video with subtitles.
PS: I've made a python script doing this .SRT to .VTT conversion, that i can share it with you, if need be. (not C++ code, but just as easy to read, he he)
Could you please add the following features: translation of SRT subtitles into other languages, an option to adjust the number of words displayed per line, and the ability to keep complete sentences on a single line if desired? Additionally, it would be great to include an AI-powered summarization function. Thank you.
Thanks firefox66 for those great suggestions!
Very nice app! Love the idea of a fast offline transcriber/translator!
I am currently testing the demo, and after doing so I paid and bought this software!
I have two questions I'd like to ask: Do you have an approx. e.t.a (month/year) for when the GPU / CPU switching possibility will arrive in an updated version?
And also I wonder if the app is temporarily writing the text it translates from speech to txt, to a txt file, like every minute or so, just in case the app might crash for unforeseen reasons. So that you may read some of it, if you have to restart the procedure due to a random app-crash?
Hi AlexData-Hawkhill,
Thanks for the kind words.
I will integrate GPU support in the next update, so it shouldn't be too long.
The app keeps the transcription in memory. In theory I could add an "autosave" of the transcription if the app is interrupted for any reason, before exiting. I could add this as well for the next update.
Nice! Looking forward to your next update!
v2.4.1 just released, which includes GPU acceleration.
Hello, i downloaded the demo, and when i import the audio file, the software shutdown unexpectedly.
Hi tok-ai, can you describe the environment, such as your OS (Windows, macOS, Linux), and the type of audio file you are using? If it's possible to share with me an audio file that is causing you this issue I could try to replicate the problem. You can msg me directly on reddit (/u/samontab)
Hi tok-ai,
This issue should now be resolved in v2.1.4 which I just released
Hi thanks for the fix! Now i can import my wav files. I also bought the transcriber and ready to begin to work.
Glad it's working for you now, all the best!
Hey Samontab ! PrivateTranscriber looks quite awesome. However, I find it very hard to evaluate with the demo version whether the app provides an accurante transcription of the audio I've submitted. Could it be possible to either A/ change the demo version to gather one every two minutes, rather than by segments of 10 secs ; or B/ to send you ONE audio file to get the full transcription ? I do have the feeling that would be more helpful to evaluate. Many thanks ! All best.
Hi LotekDotItch,
Sure!, just comment here with a link to download the audio file, or if you prefer you can send me a PM at reddit (/u/samontab)
Great, thanks !
It works! Oh wow!!!! Used it on a video from Youtube-it transcribed it correctly (saved to SRT file). THANK YOU!
I'm glad it worked for you, wtinjalanugraha :)
hi there, i just purchased, & have a question: do i load the v1.4.2 (583 MB) file in addition to the v1.5.2 file (4.6 GB)?
thanks!
Hi pityadd,
They are both completely independent versions so you only need one, v1.5.2 has more models so that's why it's larger. It includes everything you need to run it.
Enjoy your transcriptions!
thank you, it is working quite well!
why is it translating English to welsh? and copying the same thing over and over after hours of waiting for it? "Mae'n gwaith unrhyw." and other welsh phrases/sentences over and over? how do i fix this? some of the other transcripts have been fine..
Hi 19sofia99,
Since it is an AI transcription, it might not get it right all the time, and sometimes you might see what you describe.
You can try fixing it by using a different model, either a more accurate one or a faster one. You can select this in Edit->Settings under Transcription Model
Love the app, works fast and remarkably well for the processing speed! I normally use whisperx with pyannote for segmentation and diarization but that process is not well suited to rapidly transcribing video in low latency distribution! My primary use case is to scan video for obscene language prior to general distribution. The drag and drop pipeline with post processing cleanup grid has cut my worktime in half! Quick question, Is there any way to inject into the translation pipeline so I could add Speaker Diarization?
Hi tbruinsma, thanks for the nice comments!
Speaker Diarization is a frequently requested feature, and I will add it in the next update of the application. Hope that helps!
hello, i wanted to ask if this software is able to transcribe live audio- or does it only transcribe from a video file? thank you for your time!
edit: my bad, i saw that you answered this question below!
Hi,
This is fantastic, thank you for providing this. I'm deaf, tryibng to study from videos and it's driving me cray-cray!
Is there way to hook this into system sound so that I can get a rolling transcription of videos that i can'f download or get the URL of? As a student I use Learning Mangement Systems that embed videos but lock out pretty much everything except PLAY!
Google translate (Engish - to - English) is what I'm using now, but i have to pause, screen capture, Google Lens or Snagit to get text, dump in Notepad to clean out non-text, copy to asy Word or OneNote and aaarrrrgh! There has to be a simpler way!
So, can it? Or anything in the pipleine?
Hi Wad Mabbit Society, happy to hear you liked this software.
At the moment, it can only transcribe media files, not directly in real time from the microphone.
One option you can do is to record the sounds coming from your system, and then feed that recording into the software. This will get you the best quality, as real time transcription requires a simpler model, and is also not currently planned for the short term at least.
Hello, there is free trial ? Thank you
Hi rebork5555, you can download a demo of the program to see how it works. Just click on the Download button next to PrivateTranscriberPro DEMO v1.5.2.
Sorry, I didn't see the demo. I've used the demo with a spanish sound archive, but it auto translates to english. Thank you.
Hi Rebork5555, you can keep the transcription in Spanish by selecting "Keep original language" in the Settings menu.. You can see that option by going to the Edit menu, then clicking on Settings. You'll see something like this:

Sorry, I didn't see the language options. Thank you very much. I'm be able to see the original language now. Very nice software.
Am I correct to understand that the application only uses the CPU and not the GPU? Is there a way to switch between?
You are absolutely correct Kijkeenolifant, the current version only uses CPU. In a future version there will be an option to accelerate it with your GPU.
The point was to first make it available to everyone, and then making it better over time with new releases. Anyone that buys it will have access to future versions anyway, forever!
Hey Kijkeenolifant, version 2.4.1 is just released, which includes GPU acceleration for much faster transcriptions. Check it out!
Nice work on the application. Great all in one lightweight package. Would it be possible to include the larger models in the application as well? That's the only downside for me at the moment compared to installing the normal way.
Thanks Kijkeenolifant, great to hear you liked it.
What you say is a valid point. I originally planned to include all the models in the application, but ended up with a file that is way larger than itch.io's maximum allowed download file size (1GB), so I ended up including only a subset of them to make the application pass this constraint.
Having said that, it looks like I can manually request itch.io for a larger maximum file size, so I will update this tool if they increase this limit.
I ended up discovering a different way of uploading files (butler) which is much nicer and doesn't have the 1GB restriction. So, as promised, I just updated the app to include five different model sizes, which are now available in v1.5.2.
I didn't want to include all the 3 versions of the large model as the download is already at about 5GB so I only added large-v1 which seems to be the one with least amount of issues in general, but if you want to use any of the other 2 large models (v2 or v3), you can simply copy the model you want to use to the models folder and change its name to large-v1 and it will use that model instead when you select the most accurate setting.
That is amazing! Thanks for the quick turn around. I will definitely buy a copy :).