Speech to text · తెలుగు
Upload a voice note, a call recording or a video and get Telugu text back. It is free for files up to 2 minutes without an account (3 files a day); longer files need a free account. Download the result as text, Word or subtitles. Check the script on your own audio: in our test the same clip came back in Telugu script once and in English letters three times.
Upload a voice note, call recording or video in Telugu, or record yourself. Free up to 2 minutes a file, 3 files a day, no account.
Upload MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, FLAC, AMR, a WhatsApp voice note (.opus or .ogg) or an MP4 or MOV video, or record up to 2 minutes from your microphone. Switch between Telugu script, Roman script and an English translation (made by Vyas, our language model, when you open the tab), then copy the text or download TXT or DOCX, plus SRT subtitles for uploaded files. No account needed for files up to 2 minutes, 3 a day.
Drop in an audio or video file and get Telugu text back in Telugu script. It reads MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, FLAC and AMR audio, WhatsApp voice notes (.opus and .ogg) and MP4 or MOV video, and the file is decoded on our server, so it works the same on an iPhone. You can also record from your microphone. There is no language menu: Valmiki STT, the speech recognition model behind it, works out that the speech is Telugu, including English words in the middle of a sentence.
Copy the transcript, or download it as a TXT file or a Word document. For an uploaded file you also get an SRT subtitle file to load into YouTube Studio or a video editor. Long recordings after sign-up cost $0.00525 per minute of audio, billed by the second, the same for every language.
Real transcripts
Each clip was rendered by Pāṇini TTS and streamed to Valmiki STT twice: as a clean recording and as an 8 kHz phone-quality copy. The transcripts are shown exactly as they came back, errors included. Tested 24 October 2026. These are synthetic clips, not recorded calls.
One of two clean runs. It dropped EMI and heard నా (my) as నేను (I). The other clean run came back in Latin letters.
Both phone-quality runs came back in Latin letters, and both misheard the date (పదిహేనో తారీఖు, the 15th).
No public benchmark includes Valmiki STT, so we do not publish a table comparing it with other services. Judge it on audio like yours instead. Play each clip above and compare what was said with what came back, word by word. Then upload a recording of your own that is close to what you will really transcribe: the same kind of phone line or microphone, the same speakers, the same mix of Telugu and English. Count the words that changed meaning, not the spelling variants, and try the 8 kHz case if your audio comes from calls.
About Telugu
Telugu calls mix English freely: EMI, late, fine, payment. In the clean-recording run shown here, Valmiki STT wrote the date as digits (15వ తారీకు) and kept the English words in Telugu script (లేట్, ఫైన్).
The script of the transcript is not fixed. In three of four runs of the same clip, including both 8 kHz phone-quality runs, Valmiki returned Telugu in Latin letters instead of Telugu script, and the phone-quality runs misheard the date. There is no setting to force Telugu script yet, so if you need it, test with your own recordings first.
Dialects and mixing
Telugu sounds different in Hyderabad, in coastal Andhra and in Rayalaseema, and Hyderabad speech also borrows from Dakhini Urdu (for example, the everyday nakko for no). Our test sentence is neutral, so it says nothing about how well each region's speech comes out. If your callers are mostly from one region, test a few of their recordings.
Telugu with English, sometimes called Tenglish, is the normal way people talk about money, phones and work. Valmiki STT kept EMI, late and fine in every run, in Telugu script or in Latin letters depending on the run. That instability is the thing to plan around: if you need Telugu script every time, check each transcript or convert it afterwards.
Use cases
Voice notes from family in the US or the Gulf, from a landlord, or from a customer explaining a problem. Upload the .opus file, read the Telugu, and switch to English if someone else needs it.
Telugu film reviews, farming channels, devotional talks and tech explainers. For your own channel, download the MP4 from YouTube Studio and use the SRT file as a start on captions.
Interviews and meetings in Hyderabad and Vijayawada offices, where Telugu and English mix. Upload parts of up to 10 minutes after a free sign-up and download a Word file.
Payment and EMI reminder follow-ups, where the customer says back a date. Lenders and utilities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana read what was promised instead of replaying each call.
Voice typing
Voice typing is a different job from transcribing a file: you speak and the words appear as you go. Sonex Labs has no voice-typing keyboard or app, so for that, use the tools already on your phone or computer.
1. Android phone (Gboard)
Install Gboard, add Telugu (తెలుగు) under Languages in its settings, then tap the microphone on the keyboard and speak.
2. iPhone
Add the Telugu keyboard in Settings, then General, Keyboard, Keyboards. If your iPhone offers dictation for Telugu, a microphone key appears on that keyboard.
3. WhatsApp
To type a message by voice, tap the microphone on your keyboard, not the voice-note button in WhatsApp; the keyboard writes the words into the chat box. WhatsApp can also show a transcript under a received voice message in some languages (Settings, then Chats, then Voice message transcripts). If Telugu is not offered there, save the voice note and upload it above.
4. Microsoft Word
Word's Dictate lists Telugu (India) as a preview language, which Microsoft says may be less accurate and add less punctuation.
5. Windows
Windows 11 voice typing lists Telugu. Switch the keyboard input to Telugu (Windows key + Space), press Windows key + H in a text box and speak.
For recordings longer than a minute, use the uploader above.
API
Send a recording to POST /v1/transcribe and read the Telugu text from the reply. There is no language parameter. $0.00525 per minute of audio, billed by the second.
1# pip install requests2import requests34with open("telugu-call.wav", "rb") as audio:5 r = requests.post(6 "https://api.sonexlabs.com/v1/transcribe",7 headers={8 "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",9 "Content-Type": "audio/wav", # audio/mpeg, audio/ogg (WhatsApp notes), audio/mp4 ...10 },11 data=audio,12 )13r.raise_for_status()14result = r.json()15print(result["text"]) # హలో నేను నెల 15వ తారీకు కట్టాలి కదా ... (or Telugu in Latin letters; see above)16print(result["duration_seconds"], "seconds of audio")About ₹0.50 a minute (₹29.93 an hour of audio), at exchange rates from open.er-api.com, 25 October 2026. Live streaming, limits and error codes are on the speech to text API page, and plans are on pricing.
FAQ
Yes, for short files. The uploader on this page turns Telugu audio into text with no account for files up to 2 minutes, 3 files a day. For longer files, sign up free and transcribe files of up to 10 minutes and 10 MB each in the dashboard or through the API; that costs $0.00525 a minute, billed by the second, so a 10-minute recording costs about 5.25 US cents.
There is no app to install. The uploader works in the browser on a phone too: open this page on Android or iPhone, pick a voice note, recording or video from your files, and read the Telugu text. For typing by voice as you speak, use your phone keyboard's microphone, as described in the voice-typing steps above.
Yes. It runs in a current browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari on a Windows PC or a Mac, and Safari or Chrome on an iPhone or Android phone. Files are decoded on our server, so an iPhone voice memo, a WhatsApp .opus note or a MOV video works the same as on a PC. There is nothing to install.
Long-press the voice note in WhatsApp and share or export it to your files; on Android, received voice notes are also kept as .opus files in WhatsApp's media folder. Upload the .opus or .ogg file here and the Telugu text appears. Notes up to 2 minutes need no account.
Upload the audio, then open the English tab above the transcript. Vyas, our language model, translates the Telugu transcript when you open the tab, and you can copy it or download it like the transcript. Check names, amounts and dates against the Telugu text, because a word misheard in Telugu carries into the English.
Yes, in the uploader's Roman script tab. Valmiki itself sometimes returns Telugu in English letters without being asked: three of four runs of our test clip did. If you need Telugu script every time, use the Telugu tab and check it, because there is no setting to force it.
Mixed. The clean run shown here kept the meaning but dropped EMI and wrote నేను for నా; both phone-quality runs misheard the date. Telugu was the weakest of the six languages we tested first, so test a few recordings like yours before you depend on it.
Without an account, 2 minutes per file and 3 files a day. With a free account, up to 10 minutes and 10 MB per audio file in the dashboard or the API, billed by the second. For anything longer, split the recording into parts of 10 minutes or less and send each one; the API takes the same limit.
Not always. In our test, one of four runs came back in Telugu script and three in Latin letters. There is no setting to force Telugu script yet. Test with your own recordings before you build on it.
Related
Need the reverse? Turn Telugu text into speech with Pāṇini TTS, free to try without an account.
Answering Telugu phone calls rather than transcribing them? See Telugu voice agents.
Free for files up to 2 minutes without an account. Longer files, with a free account: $0.00525 per minute of audio, billed by the second.