✦ Free tools, compared

The Best Free Ways to Transcribe a Loom Video (2026)

Last updated: July 12, 2026

The fastest free option is a no-signup web tool: paste your Loom share link into a transcript generator like Loomscribe's Loom transcription tool and you'll have the full text — with timestamps and speaker labels — in a few seconds, no account required.

The trade-off: that only works for public or unlisted videos that have captions. If your video has no captions, Loomscribe can still transcribe it with AI speech-to-text inside a free notebook. If you own a private recording, Loom's own built-in transcript (on qualifying plans) is the native route. If nothing can read the video at all, download the MP4 and run it through a general transcription service. Copying the captions by hand is the last-resort free baseline.

We build Loomscribe, so treat this as an honest map rather than a sales pitch. The right pick depends on three things: whether the video is public, whether you have access to the Loom account, and how much you care about clean timestamps and speaker labels.

✦ The lineup

The free options, ranked by how fast they are

Four honest ways to get a transcript — including the ones that aren't us.

01
Our pick

Loomscribe free Loom transcript generator

A no-signup web tool: paste a Loom share link and get the full transcript with timestamps and speaker labels. Copy it to your clipboard or download it as a TXT file — no account or Loom subscription needed. It works with public and unlisted videos that have captions.

Full disclosure: Loomscribe is our product, so we're listing it first — but honestly, not as a catch-all. The no-signup tool only reads public and unlisted Loom videos that have captions. If your video has no captions, Loomscribe can still transcribe it with AI speech-to-text inside a free notebook (1 free video, unlimited on Pro). Private or password-protected recordings are not supported either way — for those you'll want one of the options below.

How to use it for a Loom video: Open the Loom video, copy its share URL, paste it into the tool, and click Transcribe. The transcript appears within a few seconds, ready to copy or download.

Pros

  • No Loom account or paid plan required
  • Timestamps and speaker labels included
  • One-click copy or TXT download
  • Works from just a public or unlisted share link

Cons

  • Private or password-protected videos are not supported
  • The no-signup tool needs captions — caption-less videos take the AI speech-to-text route below instead

Cost: Free.

Open the free tool
02

Loom's built-in transcript

Loom itself generates transcripts and captions on supported plans. If you own the recording and your plan includes transcripts, this is the zero-extra-tools answer — the text lives right next to the video inside Loom, and you can edit it there.

How to use it for a Loom video: Open your video in Loom while signed in, open the transcript or captions panel, and copy the text. Availability and the exact steps depend on your Loom plan.

Pros

  • Native — nothing extra to install or paste
  • Editable directly inside Loom
  • Convenient when you already own the recording

Cons

  • Depends on your Loom plan (may require a paid tier)
  • Requires account access to the video
  • Bulk-copying the text with timestamps can be awkward

Cost: Included with qualifying Loom plans (varies by plan).

03

Download the MP4, then use a general transcription service

A two-step workflow for videos a share-link tool can't read directly. First download the video file, then upload it to a general-purpose transcription service that turns any audio or video into text.

How to use it for a Loom video: Download the MP4 first — with Loomscribe's free Loom downloader or Loom's own download button — then upload the file to a transcription service such as Notta, Descript, or an open-source model like Whisper.

Pros

  • Works for virtually any video or audio, not just Loom
  • More control over language and accuracy
  • Open-source models like Whisper can run locally and offline

Cons

  • Multi-step and slower than a single paste
  • You usually upload your file to a third party (unless self-hosting)
  • Free tiers on hosted services often cap minutes or features

Cost: Free tiers are common; paid for higher volume or accuracy.

04

Manual: copy the on-screen captions

The free-but-painful baseline, listed only to be complete: turn on captions in the player and copy the text by hand into a document as the video plays.

How to use it for a Loom video: Enable captions or subtitles in the Loom player, play the video, and transcribe or paste the caption text into a document as it appears on screen.

Pros

  • No tools, sign-ups, or uploads at all
  • Works whenever captions display in the player

Cons

  • Slow and tedious for anything but the shortest clips
  • No reliable timestamps or speaker labels
  • Error-prone and easy to miss lines on long videos

Cost: Free.

✦ At a glance

Loom transcription tools compared

At a glance: which options work from a share link alone, and what they preserve.

ToolWorks from share link onlyTimestampsSpeaker labelsAccount requiredCost
Loomscribe transcript toolYesYesYesNoFree
Loom built-inNoVariesLimitedYesLoom plan
Download + transcription serviceNoDepends on serviceDepends on serviceUsuallyFree–paid
Manual caption copyNoNoNoNoFree

✦ Decide

Which should you pick?

If your Loom is public or unlisted and has captions, the fastest free route is a no-signup web tool — paste the share link into the Loom transcript generator and copy or download the text in seconds.

If your Loom has no captions at all, a caption-reading tool can't help — but the audio is still there. Loomscribe's app transcribes caption-less Looms with AI speech-to-text, timestamps and speaker labels included; the first video is free.

If you own the recording and pay for Loom, Loom's built-in transcript is the native option — the text sits right next to the video, with nothing extra to paste.

If the video is private, or you need a specific language or file format, download the MP4 with the free Loom downloader and run it through a transcription service. For subtitle files specifically, convert captions with the Loom-to-SRT tool or localize them with the Loom subtitle translator.

If you only need a quick quote and have nothing installed, turn on captions in the player and copy the text by hand — slow, but genuinely free.

✦ FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

✦ Get started

Start with the fastest free option

Paste a Loom share link into the free transcript generator, or create a Loomscribe notebook to turn recordings into AI summaries, action items, and chat.

Transcribe a Loom videoTry Loomscribe Free