German
Deutsch
Transcribe German Audio to Text
Upload a German recording or paste a public link and get a written transcript with umlauts, ß and capitalised nouns. Standard German works best; Austrian and Swiss speakers are handled too. 120 free minutes every week.
See It In Action
A German sentence from a team meeting, as the transcript shows it and translated into English.
"Können wir die Quartalsplanung auf nächsten Dienstag verschieben? Die Geschäftsführung braucht noch die Zahlen aus Österreich."
"Können wir die Quartalsplanung auf nächsten Dienstag verschieben? Die Geschäftsführung braucht noch die Zahlen aus Österreich."
Translation: "Can we move the quarterly planning to next Tuesday? Management still needs the figures from Austria."
Accurate German text, written properly
On clear audio, German transcripts are up to 99% accurate, and 95–99% is the realistic range. The text uses proper German orthography: capitalised nouns, umlauts, ß and punctuation. Background noise, music under speech, people talking over each other and distant microphones lower accuracy, as do fast or mumbled speech. Every segment has a timestamp you can click to hear the original and check a word.
Try Free NowSpeakers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland
German is detected automatically, so you never pick a language or a region. A meeting with colleagues from Hamburg, Vienna and Basel speaking standard German comes out as one readable transcript. Regional accents are usually fine; broad dialect is where accuracy drops, and the transcript then tends to normalise words to standard spelling. If a speaker switches into English for a sentence or a term, short switches often come through, but the language is detected once per recording, so long English passages may be transcribed poorly.
Try Free NowTranslate German into English and 60+ languages
On the paid plans you can translate a finished German transcript into English or any of more than 60 languages. That is useful for sharing a German interview with an international team or reading a lecture you only half follow. Translation is part of the paid plans; the free plan gives you the German transcript as TXT.
Try Free NowGerman as it is spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
There are no separate dialect models. The model is strongest on standard German; the further speech moves from it, the more you should expect to correct.
Standard German (Hochdeutsch)
Germany
The variety the model handles best: news, lectures, business meetings and podcasts in standard German come out cleanest, up to 99% accurate on clear audio.
Austrian German
Austria
Austrian standard German usually transcribes well. Austrian words such as Jänner or Paradeiser are sometimes misheard or misspelled, so check vocabulary that matters.
Swiss German
Switzerland
Swiss standard German works well. Spoken Schweizerdeutsch dialects are hard: the transcript often comes out as a standard German approximation, not a word-for-word record.
Bavarian
Bavaria and Austria
Light regional colour is fine. Broad Bavarian dialect is often rendered as standard German or partly misheard, so plan to edit.
Low German (Plattdeutsch)
Northern Germany
Northern accents in standard German are no problem. Plattdeutsch itself is close to a separate language and transcribes poorly.
Luxembourgish
Luxembourg
Luxembourgish is its own language, not a German dialect, and results vary widely. Standard German spoken by Luxembourgers transcribes normally.
How to transcribe German audio
Upload a file or paste a link, let German be detected automatically, then correct and export the transcript.
Upload or paste a link
Upload a German audio or video file up to 500 MB, record in the browser or app, or paste a public YouTube, Vimeo or podcast link.
German is detected
The language is recognised automatically and the recording is transcribed in minutes, with a timestamp on every segment.
Review and correct
Click a timestamp to replay a passage, then fix names, dialect words or split compounds directly in the browser.
Export or translate
Download TXT on the free plan; SRT, VTT, Word, PDF and translation into English and other languages are on the paid plans.
Who transcribes German with Hear2Text
Teams, creators, students and researchers who work with German recordings and need readable text they can search, edit and share.
German YouTubers and podcasters
Paste a public YouTube link or upload a podcast episode and get German text you can turn into show notes, blog posts or SRT subtitles on the paid plans.
DACH business teams
Record a Teams or Zoom meeting between offices in Munich, Vienna and Zurich, then upload it afterwards and get it back labelled by speaker. Paid plans add AI summaries and Word or PDF export for the minutes.
Researchers and journalists
Transcribe German interviews, expert calls and focus groups up to 6 hours long, then search the text for quotes. Recordings stay private to your account unless you share them.
People learning German
Transcribe a Tagesschau clip, a podcast or a lecture, follow along with clickable timestamps, and on the paid plans translate the text into English to check your understanding.
What you get with a German transcript
Up to 99% on clear audio
Clean standard German reaches up to 99%. Noise, crosstalk and strong dialect lower it.
Compound words
Everyday compounds are written as one word. Rare technical compounds may need a quick fix in the editor.
Umlauts, ß and capital nouns
Transcripts use normal German spelling with ä, ö, ü and ß, and exports keep the characters intact.
Speaker labels
Voices are labelled Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on, on every plan — useful for German interviews and meetings. On the paid plans you can rename them.
Names and specialist terms
There is no custom vocabulary, so check company names and jargon. Search inside the transcript to find each one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which German dialects does it understand?
How does it handle long German compound words?
Does the transcript include umlauts and ß?
Can it transcribe Swiss German?
Can I translate a German transcript into English?
What files and links can I use for German audio?
Transcribe your first German recording free
Create an account, upload a German file or paste a public link, and read the transcript with umlauts and ß in place — 120 free minutes every week.
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