German transcription
German speech to text that respects German orthography. Upload a recording and Hilite returns a German transcript with the umlauts, the capitalised nouns, and the compound words written as single words instead of broken apart. Standard German plus Austrian and Swiss speakers.
Upload a file and download the transcript.
How to transcribe German audio to text
- 1
Upload the German audio
MP3, M4A, WAV, or an MP4 video file. Lectures, interviews, and full episodes are all fine.
- 2
Set the language to German
Naming the language gives a cleaner result, particularly for technical recordings where English loanwords appear.
- 3
Check the compounds and the names
Long compound nouns and separable verbs are where German transcripts most often break. Click a line to hear it and correct it in place.
- 4
Export the transcript
Download as text, Word, or an SRT subtitle file, or carry on in Hilite to edit the recording from the transcript.
Keep working inside the Hilite editor
Your uploaded files open directly in a focused editor view. Arrange your clips, preview the timeline, adjust transitions, and export when the track sounds perfectly right.
- Review the transcript in context
- Keep timestamps with the words
- Copy, export, or keep editing
Input formats
Output formats
Built for every kind of audio
Whatever you are making, this tool helps you get to a cleaner, more useful result, then hand off to Hilite to enhance and polish.
- German spelling, not approximatedUmlauts and the ß are written properly rather than flattened to ae, oe, ue and ss, and nouns come back capitalised as German requires.
- Compounds stay wholeGerman builds long single words that many transcribers split into fragments. Keeping them intact is the difference between a searchable transcript and a confusing one.
- Austrian and Swiss speakers tooStandard German is the baseline, and Austrian and Swiss Standard German speakers transcribe well. Strong regional dialect is harder, as it is for any engine.
Made for podcasters and their teams
Trim the dead air off the top and tail, and every recording is ready to edit, enhance, and publish.
FAQ
Common questions
If you do not see your question here, the support team replies within one business day.
- Yes, it is free to start. Longer files, saved projects, and some export formats may need a free Hilite account.
- No. This transcribes German audio into German text. If you need it in English, transcribe here and translate the text afterwards.
- Yes. You get ä, ö, ü and ß rather than ae, oe, ue and ss.
- Austrian and Swiss Standard German transcribe well. Broad Swiss German dialect is genuinely difficult and the transcript will need more correction.
- Plain text, Word, and SRT subtitle files, with timestamps and speaker labels where the recording supports them.
Turn German audio into German text
Upload the recording, read the transcript, and carry on in Hilite when it needs editing or publishing.