Transcription for qualitative research
Turn interviews and focus groups into accurate, GDPR-safe transcripts — with speaker labels, timestamps and clean exports ready for NVivo, MAXQDA and ATLAS.ti. Your first transcript is free.
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Built for ethics approval
Participant data stays in the EU and is never used to train AI models. We are fully GDPR compliant, work with partners that are GDPR, HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II compliant, and let you permanently delete your data at any time — so your tool passes IRB and ethics review instead of blocking it.
From recording to coded data
A workflow designed for interview-heavy research — fewer hours retyping, more time analysing.
1. Upload your interviews & focus groups
Drag in audio or video from any recorder — lectures, one-on-one interviews, or multi-speaker focus groups. Files up to 5GB and 5 hours, in any common format.
2. Get an accurate first draft
Our speech-to-text engine handles accents, non-native English and 99 languages, with automatic speaker separation so each turn is labelled and timestamped.
3. Edit with word-level audio sync
Click any word to jump to that exact moment in the recording. Fix names and jargon fast, switch verbatim formatting on or off, and rename speakers in one click.
4. Analyse with the built-in AI assistant
Ask questions across even very large files: pull themes, summarise, chapterise or extract quotes — every answer references the exact timecode so you can verify it.
5. Export ready for your CAQDAS tool
Download to Word, Google Docs, plain text or subtitle formats with speaker labels and timestamps intact — clean to import into NVivo, MAXQDA or ATLAS.ti.
See the full research workflow
Watch how to upload, transcribe, edit and export an interview in a few minutes.
Everything a researcher needs
Accurate on accents & local languages
Models tuned beyond standard American English, so non-native speakers and European languages stay reliable — where generic tools drop words.
Speaker diarization for focus groups
Automatic, editable speaker labels that hold up across multi-speaker recordings, with fast merge and split controls.
Custom vocabulary
Protect participant names, technical terms and study-specific jargon so spellings stay consistent across every transcript.
Verbatim or clean read
Toggle true verbatim (fillers, false starts, repetitions) for discourse analysis, or a clean read for reporting.
Timestamps & quotes
Word- and paragraph-level timestamps make it trivial to cite the exact moment behind every coded segment.
CAQDAS-ready exports
Word, Google Docs, TXT, SRT and VTT with the structure NVivo, MAXQDA and ATLAS.ti expect — no manual reformatting.
Exports that drop straight into your analysis
Reformatting AI output for CAQDAS tools can cost hours. Scribewave exports with correct speaker labels and timestamp formatting, so your transcripts import cleanly:
- Microsoft Word (.docx)
- Google Docs
- Plain text (.txt)
- NVivo-ready transcripts
- MAXQDA & ATLAS.ti compatible
- Subtitles (SRT, VTT)
“Outstanding transcription tool for interviews! Surpasses any other I have tried: transcribes Dutch and English audio extremely accurately. It is user-friendly and attractively priced.”
“Scribewave is my go-to tool to process qualitative interviews. The automatic transcription gives me more time to focus on data analysis, and actual research. Highly recommended!”
Frequently asked questions
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