Playground

Live transcription

Switch the Speech to Text page to Live, speak, and watch the text arrive after each pause. Learn what it costs, how long a session runs and where it is saved.

Live mode turns what you say into text as you say it. You speak, pause, and the sentence appears. Use it for dictation, a meeting you want to follow, or a quick check of how a dialect reads. For a recording you already have, use Transcribe a file.

What you need

Steps

Step 1: Switch to Live

Open Speech to Text and press Live in the switch at the top of the box. The status line reads Ready to listen. The box shows Press Start live and speak. The text arrives after each pause, in the dialect it was spoken. The button on the right reads Start live, with Charged per second of speech under it.

You cannot switch while a take is being recorded in File mode. The page says Stop the recording first.

Step 2: Set the language and your terms

Pick Language, العربية or English, before you start. It is off while a session runs. Numbers as digits and Identify speakers are for files and do not appear in Live.

The session uses your terms as they are when you press Start live. A change made while it runs applies to the next session. Press Edit in the Terminology row to change them. See Your terms.

Step 3: Start and speak

Press Start live. The first time, the browser asks for permission to use the microphone. The status line then follows the session:

Status line What it means
Connecting… The page is opening the session.
Listening Ready for you to speak.
Hearing you You are speaking.
Transcribing… Your last sentence is on its way.
Reconnecting… The connection dropped. The page is trying again. What you say now is not transcribed.
Finishing the last sentence… You pressed Stop. The last words are arriving.

A timer beside the status line counts the session. Pause between sentences. Each pause sends what you said, and the text appears as a new line with the time it arrived. Words your terms corrected, and close matches, are highlighted. To accept or dismiss a close match, open the saved transcript.

Press Stop to end the session. The words you already said still arrive.

If you open another page while a session runs, the page asks Stop live transcription? Press Stay to keep going, or Leave to stop. The text so far is saved. Closing or reloading the tab shows the browser's own warning.

Step 4: Copy or download the text

Under the lines are three buttons: Clear, Copy and TXT. Copy copies the text. TXT saves it as EchoNova_Live_ followed by today's date, for example EchoNova_Live_2026-11-03.txt. Both use your terms, so they hold the corrected text. Clear empties the box and is off while a session runs. It does not touch the copy that was saved to your transcripts.

Cost and limits

  • You are charged per second of speech. Long pauses are not sent and not charged. Each line is charged on its own, rounded to a whole credit, at least
  • A session stops at 25 minutes. The page says Live sessions stop at 25 minutes. Start a new one to continue.
  • A session also stops after 5 minutes without speech. The page says Live stopped after 5 minutes without speech. Start again when you are ready.
  • Only one live session can run at a time for your account.

Where it is saved

When the session ends, the recording and its text are saved to your transcripts. The line under the box reads Saving…, then Saved to your transcripts, followed by the name and an Open in Assets link. The row in the Transcripts table carries a Live tag. Open it like any other transcript. See Read a transcript.

If the page had to reconnect, the part before the drop is saved as its own transcript.

If you said nothing, the page says Nothing was said, so nothing was saved.

Troubleshooting

Allow the microphone in your browser, then start again.

The browser blocked the microphone. Allow it in the site settings, then press Start live.

This browser cannot use the microphone. Use Chrome, Edge or Safari.

Open the page in one of those browsers.

You are out of credits. Add credits to keep transcribing.

The balance ran out. Add credits from Subscription & billing in the user menu. What arrived so far is kept.

The connection dropped. What arrived so far is kept.

The page tried to reconnect and could not. Press Start live to begin a new session.

Live stopped after 5 minutes without speech. Start again when you are ready.

No speech was heard for 5 minutes. What arrived so far is saved. Press Start live to go on.

A live session is already running in another tab.

Stop the session in the other tab, then start again.

Not saved. Copy the text before you leave this page.

The session ended but could not be saved. Press Copy or TXT before you leave.

We could not confirm the save. Check Assets in a minute.

The page did not hear back in time. The session may still have been saved. Open Assets in a minute.

Other messages

  • Your session expired. Sign in again. Sign in, then start again.
  • The microphone stopped working. Check the microphone, then start again.
  • Live transcription is not enabled yet. Live is switched off for everyone for now. Use Record in File mode instead.
  • The transcription service is unavailable right now. Try again in a few minutes.
  • Live transcription stopped. Try again. The session ended for another reason. Start a new one.

FAQ

Why does the text wait until I pause?

The page sends each stretch of speech when you stop talking. A long run without a pause is cut after about 8 seconds, so the text keeps coming.

Can I use Live in Arabic and English?

Pick one language per session. Arabic covers every dialect, Fusha and mixed Arabic and English.

Is the audio kept?

Yes. The recording is saved with the transcript, so you can play it from the Transcripts table. It holds only the speech: long pauses are left out, so it is shorter than the session.