The free plan includes 10 manual file transcriptions in total. Pro unlocks unlimited transcriptions, speaker identification, multi-file batches, watch folders, deletion and export.
Beyond live dictation, Vowen transcribes pre-recorded audio and video: interviews, podcasts, recorded meetings, voice memos, lecture recordings.Everything lives on the Transcribe page in the left sidebar.
The Transcribe button sits at the top right of the window. The gear beside it opens Transcribe settings.
Click the Transcribe button at the top right of the window. A dialog opens with the upload options.
2
Pick a model
Choose any configured local or cloud model from the Transcription Model dropdown. The choice is per-file, so you can push one recording through a higher-accuracy model without changing your dictation default.
3
Set language and speaker options
Pick a Language or leave it on Auto-detect. If the model supports it, toggle Identify Speakers to label who said what. Leave Add Timestamps on to get clickable per-segment times, or turn it off for a clean transcript. (Timestamps are hidden when Identify Speakers is on, since diarized output carries its own segment structure.)
4
Add your file
Drag and drop an audio or video file into the drop zone, or click to browse.
5
Click Transcribe
Vowen handles compression and chunking automatically. The result appears with [MM:SS] badges where the model provides them, and you can edit, copy, regenerate or export it.
The gear icon in the Transcribe toolbar opens a settings modal with three tabs.
Defaults
Pre-fills the Transcribe dialog so you are not re-picking the same options every time. Per-run changes in the dialog stay one-off and are never written back here.
Transcription Model, or leave it on “Same as dictation”, which follows whatever your dictation model is.
Language
Identify Speakers, plus Merge speaker segments and Number of speakers once it is on
Add Timestamps
Notify me when complete, which shows a banner when a transcription finishes
The Defaults tab pre-fills the Transcribe dialog. Per-run changes never write back here.
Auto-export
Automatically save each finished transcription to a folder on disk, in addition to keeping it in the app. Tick any combination of Plain Text (.txt), SubRip (.srt) and WebVTT (.vtt), and choose an export location (your Downloads folder by default).This applies to every job, including watch-folder ones.
Auto-export writes every finished transcription to a folder as well as keeping it in the app.
Watch folders
Drop a recording into a watched folder and Vowen transcribes it automatically. Each folder can carry its own model, language, speaker and tag rules, or inherit the Defaults tab.Files already sitting in the folder when you add it are skipped; only new arrivals are picked up. See Watch folders.
Each watched folder carries its own rules. Add Folder appends another.
Local Parakeet (V2, V3 and Japanese) and Whisper produce per-segment timestamps, shown as time badges you can click to jump the audio. Most cloud models do too.Two exceptions: Parakeet Mandarin returns plain text with no timings, and Nemotron streams the file through its live engine, which also produces no timings. Neither can offer subtitle export.
Vowen compresses and chunks large files for you. What it does depends on the provider.
Provider
Trigger
What Vowen does
Groq Whisper
Over 24 MB
Compresses WAV to 96 kbps MP3. If still over, splits into chunks of about 30 minutes
OpenAI
Over 23 minutes, or over 24 MB
Splits into 23-minute chunks. Compresses WAV to MP3 first when it is only the size that is over
Google Gemini
Base64-encoded audio over 18 MB
Compresses WAV to MP3; if still over, uploads through the Gemini Files API instead of inlining. In practice 96 kbps MP3 crosses this at roughly 26 minutes, so most meeting recordings take the Files API path
ElevenLabs Scribe v2
Over 50 MB
Splits into 20-minute chunks and merges the results
Mistral Voxtral
Over 170 minutes, or over 950 MB
Splits into 170-minute chunks
Sarvam Saaras v3
Over 28 seconds
Splits into 28-second chunks (Sarvam enforces a hard 30-second limit)
Audio is sent as-is; the provider’s own limits apply
You never need to split a file by hand.
OpenAI enforces a hard 25 MB per-request limit. If a recording is still over 24 MB after compression and short enough that chunking by duration would not help, Vowen reports that the file is too large rather than failing silently.
Open a completed transcription and the sidebar shows a Regenerate Transcript panel listing every model you have configured, grouped by Local and Cloud.
Open the transcription detail page.
Pick any model from the panel.
For diarization-capable models, toggle Identify Speakers.
Click Regenerate Transcript.
The original is preserved as a version, so regeneration adds a new one rather than overwriting. Useful for comparing models on the same audio, or for a higher-accuracy pass after a quick first run.
A transcription's page: the text with timestamps on the left, the Regenerate Transcript panel on the right, and Ask AI along the bottom.
Open a transcription and click Export. The dialog shows a live preview and lets you choose:
Format
Extension
Best for
PDF
.pdf
Shareable formatted document
Plain Text
.txt
Notes, copy-paste, archival
Markdown
.md
Docs, wikis, note apps
SubRip
.srt
Video editor subtitles
WebVTT
.vtt
Web video captions
Include title & date adds a header to document exports. Speaker labels and timestamps come along automatically when the transcript has them.
Subtitle formats only appear when the transcript has per-segment timing. Captions are timed straight from those segments, one cue per spoken segment, with speaker names where available. A transcript with no segment timing will not offer subtitles; use PDF, Text or Markdown.
A transcription’s title defaults to the file’s name. Open it and edit the title field at the top of the detail page; changes save automatically and the list updates.
Manual transcriptions have their own tag system, separate from meeting-note tags.
Add tags to any card with add tag. Create a new coloured tag or reuse an existing one.
Use the tag filter bar above the list, with a Match: Any / All toggle when two or more tags are selected, plus sorting by Newest, Oldest or Recently tagged.
Use the search box to find a transcription by name.
The tag filter bar above the list. Match Any / All appears once two tags are selected, and the sort control sits at the right.
The Export action exports everything you selected in one go. Pick Markdown, Plain Text or PDF, plus SubRip and WebVTT when every selected transcript carries segment timing. Batch export is Pro.
Open any completed transcription (or meeting note) to edit it segment by segment:
Edit text. Click into a segment and type. Undo and redo with Cmd/Ctrl+Z and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z.
Split a segment. Open the segment’s ⋯ menu, place your cursor at the cut point, and choose Split at caret. The split snaps to the nearest word boundary and timestamps are interpolated.
Delete a segment. From the same menu.
Reassign a line to a speaker. On diarized transcripts, move a single line to a different or new speaker. To fold two speakers together entirely, use Merge Speakers.
Press Cmd+F (macOS) or Ctrl+F (Windows) inside a transcript to open the find bar. It searches case-insensitively across the whole transcript, highlights every match, and shows a current/total counter. Enter goes to the next match, Shift+Enter the previous (both wrap), Esc closes.
Once a transcription is complete you can ask AI questions about it from the chat panel: pull out action items, summarize a section, find a quote. See Chat with Transcriptions.
