Transcribe lectures and meetings live – free, with AI questions

Updated 9 October 2026

TranscriptBalance transcribes lectures, seminars and Teams or Zoom meetings live, right in your browser, and lets you ask an AI about what was just said. It’s free, needs no account, and the audio is never stored.

How to start: tab, screen or microphone

Open TranscriptBalance and switch to Live at the top. Then choose where the sound comes from:

• Screen audio: everything your computer plays, such as the Teams or Zoom app or a video.
• One tab: only the sound of a single browser tab, for example a lecture stream or Teams in the browser.
• Microphone: for the lecture hall, the seminar room or your phone.

Pick the language being spoken and click “Start live”. If you share a tab or the screen, your browser asks what to share; make sure the audio switch is on.

The first time, your browser downloads the speech model once: about 230 MB for German, about 80 MB for other languages. After that it loads from the browser’s storage. Before your first start, the app also suggests connecting Gemini; “Later” lets you go ahead without it.

Which browser can do what?

• Sharing audio from a tab or the screen only works in Chrome or Edge on a computer. Firefox and Safari share the picture, not the sound.
• Sound from the whole screen, such as the Teams desktop app, works most reliably on Windows. On a Mac, a browser tab is the safe choice.
• The microphone works in every current browser, including phones and tablets. Keep the page open and the screen on.

What you get during the lecture

• Live transcript: text appears after each short pause in speech, usually a few seconds after it’s said. If it falls behind, for example on a slow laptop, the app shows by how many seconds.
• Questions to the AI: type your own question or tap “Last 5 min”, “What was the question?”, “What did I miss?” or “Explain simpler”.
• Auto answers: when someone asks the room a question, the app spots it and puts an answer in your chat. Only you see it. It’s on by default, and you can switch it off under “AI”.
• Live summary: turn it on and a document builds up alongside, with a new section about every 5 minutes, plus an overview, key terms, tasks and dates.
• Floating window: “Pin over Teams” opens a small window with the latest line and the chat that stays on top of other windows (Chrome and Edge on a computer).

After the lecture: overview, dates, export

• When you click “End”, the AI writes an overview: a short summary, the appointments that came up and to-dos such as deadlines.
• Add appointments to Google Calendar or Outlook in one click. For Apple Calendar and other calendars there’s an .ics file.
• Download the transcript, the overview and the live summary as Word, TXT or Markdown.
• Every session is kept under Saved sessions, sorted by subject if you like, for example “Maths · Lesson 3”. Open it later and keep asking questions about it.

Which AI answers, and where does your data go?

The transcript itself is always created on your device. For the AI there are two options:

• Chrome AI (Gemini Nano): runs on your device with no setup. It’s only available in Google Chrome on a computer, and only if your device supports it. The first time, Chrome downloads the model once, about 4 GB. Your text stays on your device.
• Gemini with your own key: smarter answers and less load on your computer. You need a Google account; creating the key there takes about a minute. Your browser then sends excerpts of the transcript and your questions straight to Google, not to us. Google only allows this from age 18, and Google’s terms and limits apply. When your key’s limit is reached, Chrome AI takes over automatically if your device has it.

If no AI is available, you still get the transcript. Don’t send anything confidential through Gemini: the transcript contains other people’s words too. Calendar links to Google or Outlook only send an appointment there when you click them. The details are in the privacy policy, and transcription without upload explains how processing in the browser works.

Is it okay to transcribe a lecture?

Ask the lecturer first, and let everyone in a meeting know. Some universities have their own rules on recording classes. TranscriptBalance doesn’t record anything: the audio is only processed in memory and never stored, so all that remains is the text in your browser. Only share a transcript with the consent of the people in it. This is not legal advice.

For students who are hard of hearing

If you’re hard of hearing or find it hard to follow in a large lecture hall, you can read along with the live transcript on your laptop or phone. A lecture stream in a tab usually gives cleaner sound than a microphone in the back row.

Good to know: TranscriptBalance is a free tool, not a certified assistive device. The text lags slightly behind and contains mistakes, especially with technical terms, names and people talking over each other. It doesn’t replace professional live captioning. Your university’s disability or accessibility service can tell you what support it offers.

Limits of live transcription

• Live mode uses small models on the processor, so the graphics card stays free for the AI: a dedicated German model for German and Whisper base for other languages. That’s enough to follow along, but less accurate than the large models in file mode.
• There is no speaker detection in live mode.
• When you share a tab or the screen, your own voice is missing: only what your computer plays gets transcribed.
• Answers, summaries and dates are AI-generated. Check them before you rely on them.

For complete recordings, such as interviews, use file mode: transcribe interviews for free.