Speech Notes

Anyone who needs to dictate notes into a browser without installing software.

Speechnotes is a Chrome dictation pad that has been free and useful since 2015. It rides on the browser's Web Speech API, so accuracy follows whatever Chrome's underlying model is doing. There is no audio upload — only live dictation — but for that single job nothing on the web is faster to open.

Speechnotes is a stripped-down dictation pad that has quietly outlived a thousand fancier competitors. Open the page in Chrome, click the microphone, and start talking — there is no account, no install, no setup wizard. The app uses Chrome's built-in Web Speech API for recognition, which means accuracy varies with whatever Google's underlying model is doing on any given day, and the same audio will transcribe differently in Edge or Safari (where the API behaves differently or not at all). For drafting blog posts, capturing voice memos, or banging out an interview question list while walking the dog, it is the path of least resistance. What it is not: a podcast transcription tool. There is no upload-and-transcribe flow, no SRT export, no speaker labelling, no API. The premium upgrade unlocks SRT export and a few quality-of-life additions for a one-time fee that has stayed under ten dollars for years. For anyone needing actual production transcripts, look at Whisper, YouTube, or a hosted service. For drafting, Speechnotes remains a useful free utility that does one thing without trying to upsell you into a workflow you do not want. The fact that it has stayed essentially unchanged in form since 2015 is a feature, not a bug — most of its 2026 competitors will be gone before it is.