The pay-once Microsoft Word Transcribe alternative
The same speaker-labeled transcripts, without a Microsoft 365 subscription or a 300-minute monthly cap. Pay once for the minutes you use, and your credits never expire.
60 min free · no card required · we never train on your audio
Is Pepys a good Microsoft Word alternative?
Pepys is a pay-once alternative to Microsoft Word's Transcribe: instead of a Microsoft 365 subscription capped at 300 minutes of uploaded audio a month, you buy credits once and they never expire. You still get speaker labels, 99+ languages, AI summaries, and SRT/VTT exports. Your first 60 minutes are free, no card.
Microsoft Word's Transcribe pane is handy if you live in Microsoft 365: upload a recording, and it drops a speaker-labeled transcript straight into your document. But it's tied to a subscription, it caps uploaded audio at 300 minutes a month, and what you get out is a Word document – no SRT or VTT captions, and no summary unless you add a separate Copilot license.
Pepys works the other way. Buy credits once, spend them whenever, and they never expire – no subscription, no monthly cap to watch. You get speaker labels, timestamps, 99+ auto-detected languages, AI summaries and chapters, and exports from TXT to SRT, VTT, and JSON. Paste a link or upload from any device, and we never train on your audio. Start with 60 minutes free, no card.
Pepys vs Microsoft Word, side by side
Microsoft Word vs Pepys, head to head
Public, verifiable facts only. Where something isn't publicly stated, we leave it blank rather than guess.
| Feature | Pepys | Microsoft Word |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay-as-you-go – buy credits once, no subscription | Requires a Microsoft 365 subscription |
| Free tier | 60 minutes free, no card | No free quota – needs a paid Microsoft 365 subscription |
| Monthly transcription cap | None – the minutes you buy are yours | 300 min/month of uploaded audio (Microsoft 365); 30,000 min/month with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license |
| Do minutes / credits expire? | Never – credits don't expire | Monthly allowance resets; doesn't roll over |
| Per-file length or size limit | Long files chunked and stitched automatically | – |
| Languages | 99+, auto-detected | 80+ locales, selected manually (not auto-detected) |
| Speaker labels | Yes – on every transcript | Yes – auto-labels Speaker 1, Speaker 2 (editable) |
| Built-in AI summary, chapters & chat | Yes – summaries, chapters, and chat with the transcript | Not in Transcribe – summaries need a separate Microsoft 365 Copilot license |
| Exports | TXT, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, JSON | Add to the Word document, insert snippets, or save as a Word doc – no SRT/VTT caption export |
| Paste a link to transcribe | Yes – YouTube, podcasts, social | – |
| Platforms / devices | Any device in the browser – no install, not OS-locked | Word for the web + Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows (Commercial Tenants); browser needs Edge or Chrome |
| Trains AI on your data? | Never – we don't train on your audio or text | – |
Why people switch to Pepys
No Microsoft 365 subscription required – buy credits once for the minutes you use, and they never expire.
No 300-minute monthly cap. Run a long batch this month, nothing the next, and only pay for what you transcribe.
More than a Word document out: export TXT, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT, or JSON, with AI summaries, chapters, and chat built in.
Paste a YouTube, podcast, or social link, or upload from any device in the browser – no Windows or Edge/Chrome requirement, and we never train on your audio.
Any language – 99+ detected automatically
- English
- 中文
- Español
- العربية
- हिन्दी
- Français
- 日本語
- Português
- Русский
- Deutsch
- 한국어
- Italiano
- বাংলা
- Türkçe
- فارسی
- Tiếng Việt
- தமிழ்
- Polski
- ไทย
- Українська
- Nederlands
- עברית
- Ελληνικά
- తెలుగు
- Bahasa Indonesia
- اردو
- Svenska
- मराठी
- Română
- Magyar
- Čeština
- ગુજરાતી
- Kiswahili
- ქართული
- Tagalog
- አማርኛ
Common questions about Microsoft Word and Pepys
Is Pepys better than Microsoft Word?
If you already pay for Microsoft 365 and stay under 300 minutes of uploaded audio a month, Transcribe is genuinely convenient – it's included, and the text lands straight in your document. Pepys wins when you outgrow that cap, want SRT/VTT exports and built-in AI summaries, or would rather pay once than subscribe.
Do I need a Microsoft 365 subscription to use Pepys?
No. Pepys is a standalone web app with no subscription of any kind. You buy credits once and use them whenever – no Microsoft 365, no Copilot license, no monthly renewal. Your first 60 minutes are free with no card, and any credits you buy never expire.
Is there a monthly limit on how much I can transcribe?
No monthly cap. Word's Transcribe limits Microsoft 365 subscribers to 300 minutes of uploaded audio per month. With Pepys you buy the minutes you want up front, run a big batch in one week or spread it across a year, and unused credits stay in your account.
Can Pepys export subtitles or captions like SRT and VTT?
Yes. Pepys exports SRT and VTT captions alongside TXT, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, and JSON. Word's Transcribe only adds text to your document or saves a Word file, with no SRT/VTT caption export, so Pepys fits better if you subtitle videos or need timed transcripts.
Does Pepys work outside Windows and Word?
Yes. Pepys runs in the browser on any device with no install, and isn't tied to Windows, Edge, Chrome, or a Word app. It's a full transcription tool, not a feature inside a document, so you also get AI summaries, chapters, chat, and paste-a-link ingestion built in.
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Try Pepys free – no card
Pay as you go – credits never expire, nothing to cancel. Compare the transcript against Microsoft Word with 60 free minutes.