🎙️ Transcribio

AI-powered audio transcription using Google's Gemini API. Runs locally on your machine with a beautiful CLI and web interface.

Features

• 🎯 High Accuracy - Powered by Gemini 2.0 Flash/Pro
• 🗣️ Speaker Detection - Identifies different speakers
• ⏱️ Timestamps - Navigation-friendly time markers
• 🌍 50+ Languages - Auto-detection or manual selection
• 📤 Multiple Exports - TXT, SRT, VTT, JSON
• 💻 CLI & Web UI - Use your preferred interface
• 🔒 Privacy First - Runs locally, audio goes directly to Gemini
• 💸 Free - Uses Gemini's generous free tier

Installation

npm install -g transcribio

Quick Start

1. Get API Key

Get your free Gemini API key at Google AI Studio

2. Configure

transcribio config --set-key

3. Transcribe

# Using CLI
transcribio audio.mp3

# Or launch Web UI
transcribio ui

CLI Usage

Basic Transcription

# Simple transcription
transcribio interview.mp3

# With specific options
transcribio podcast.wav --speakers --timestamps --output srt

# Save to file
transcribio meeting.m4a -f transcript.txt

# Different model
transcribio audio.mp3 --model pro

Options

| Option | Description | Default | | ----------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------- | | -s, --speakers | Enable speaker detection | true | | -t, --timestamps | Include timestamps | true | | -l, --language <code> | Audio language (or 'auto') | auto | | -o, --output <format> | Format: txt, srt, vtt, json | txt | | -f, --file <path> | Save output to file | - | | --model <name> | flash (fast) or pro (accurate) | flash | | --translate <lang> | Translate to language | - |

Configuration Commands

# Set API key interactively
transcribio config --set-key

# Show current configuration
transcribio config --show

# Reset all settings
transcribio config --reset

Web Interface

Launch the web UI for a more visual experience:

transcribio ui

This opens a browser at http://localhost:3456 with:

• Drag & drop file upload
• Real-time progress
• Multiple export formats
• Beautiful formatted output

Custom port:

transcribio ui --port 8080

Supported Formats

Input Audio

• MP3 (.mp3)
• WAV (.wav)
• M4A (.m4a)
• OGG (.ogg)
• FLAC (.flac)
• AAC (.aac)
• WebM (.webm)

Output Formats

TXT (Plain Text)

[00:00] Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to the podcast.
[00:05] Speaker 2: Thanks for having me!

SRT (SubRip Subtitle)

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
[Speaker 1] Hello, welcome to the podcast.

2
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,000
[Speaker 2] Thanks for having me!

VTT (WebVTT)

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000
<v Speaker 1>Hello, welcome to the podcast.

2
00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.000
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for having me!

JSON

{
  "success": true,
  "language": "English",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "duration": "05:30",
  "segments": [
    {
      "timestamp": "00:00",
      "speaker": "Speaker 1",
      "text": "Hello, welcome to the podcast."
    }
  ],
  "fullText": "Complete transcript...",
  "summary": "Brief summary of the content"
}

Examples

Transcribe Interview

transcribio interview.mp3 --speakers --timestamps -f interview.txt

Create Subtitles

transcribio video-audio.wav --output srt -f subtitles.srt

Translate Content

transcribio spanish-audio.mp3 --translate english

High Accuracy Mode

transcribio important-meeting.m4a --model pro --output json -f meeting.json

API Usage (Programmatic)

Use Transcribio in your Node.js projects:

import { GeminiService, exportTranscript } from "transcribio";

// Initialize with API key
const gemini = new GeminiService("your-api-key");

// Transcribe audio
const result = await gemini.transcribe("audio.mp3", {
  speakers: true,
  timestamps: true,
  language: "auto",
  model: "flash",
});

// Export to different formats
const txt = exportTranscript(result, "txt");
const srt = exportTranscript(result, "srt");
const vtt = exportTranscript(result, "vtt");
const json = exportTranscript(result, "json");

console.log(result);

Free Tier Limits

Gemini's free tier is generous:

| Model | Daily Requests | Speed | Accuracy | | ----- | -------------- | ------ | --------- | | Flash | ~1,000/day | Fast | Good | | Pro | ~50/day | Slower | Excellent |

Perfect for personal use, podcasts, interviews, and more!

Privacy & Security

• 🏠 Runs locally - No data stored on external servers
• 🔑 API key encrypted - Stored securely on your machine
• 🔒 Direct to Gemini - Audio sent only to Google's Gemini API
• 📝 No tracking - Zero analytics or telemetry

Troubleshooting

API Key Issues

# Check if key is configured
transcribio config --show

# Reset and reconfigure
transcribio config --reset
transcribio config --set-key

File Size Issues

• Files under 20MB: Sent inline (faster)
• Files over 20MB: Use File API (slower but handles larger files)
• Maximum: 100MB

Unsupported Format

Convert your audio file to a supported format:

# Using ffmpeg
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec libmp3lame output.mp3

Development

Clone & Install

git clone https://github.com/junaidh-junu/transcribio.git
cd transcribio
npm install

Run Locally

# CLI
node bin/transcribio.js audio.mp3

# Web UI
node bin/transcribio.js ui

Run Tests

npm test

Lint Code

npm run lint

Project Structure

transcribio/
├── bin/
│   └── transcribio.js           # CLI entry point
├── src/
│   ├── cli/                     # CLI implementation
│   ├── core/                    # Gemini service
│   ├── exporters/               # Format exporters
│   ├── web/                     # Web UI & server
│   └── config/                  # Configuration management
├── tests/                       # Test files
└── package.json

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Roadmap

v2.0.0

• [ ] Batch processing (transcribe multiple files)
• [ ] YouTube URL support
• [ ] Word-level timestamps
• [ ] Custom vocabulary support

v3.0.0

• [ ] Real-time transcription
• [ ] Desktop app (Electron)
• [ ] Offline mode with local Whisper

License

MIT © Junaidh Haneefa

Links

• GitHub Repository
• NPM Package
• Get Gemini API Key
• Report Issues

Acknowledgments

• Built with Google Gemini AI
• Inspired by the need for free, privacy-focused transcription tools

Made with ❤️ by developers, for developers