Live transcription,
right inside Chrome.
LiteScribe is a Chrome extension that transcribes your meeting in real time. Words land in the browser side panel as they are spoken, split by speaker, while the call carries on. No bot joins the meeting and there is nothing to install beyond the extension itself.
Free 120 min / monthNo credit cardChrome and Microsoft Edge
What real-time transcription actually gives you
Most transcription tools hand you a file after everyone has left. A live transcript is a different thing entirely: you can read back the sentence you half-heard, quote a number correctly, catch the commitment somebody just made, and leave the call with the write-up already mostly done.
A transcript that keeps pace
Audio streams out of the tab continuously, so finished sentences drop into the side panel while the current one is still being spoken. Scroll back mid-call, copy a quote into chat, and keep recording.
Speaker labels as it happens
Turns are separated by speaker live, not stitched together afterwards. Click a label to rename it and every line from that person updates at once, so you finish with names instead of Speaker A.
Ask the meeting while it runs
An ask bar sits under the transcript and answers from the conversation so far. One tap gives you a summary, the action items, the decisions made, or the questions still open.
Notes beside the transcript
A proper editor lives in the panel next to the live text, so your own thinking and the record of what was said end up on the same screen and in the same saved meeting.
Topic coverage in the margin
A topic rail tracks the subjects the conversation has actually touched, which is the fastest way to spot the agenda item nobody has raised yet while there is still time to raise it.
Screenshots pinned to the timeline
Grab the slide, the shared spreadsheet, the whiteboard. Draw a region once and repeat that exact crop with a shortcut. Each capture is timestamped against the transcript.
Two ways to record from the browser
Pick one when you open the panel. Both end up in the same transcript library.
Live transcribe
The streaming mode. The transcript writes itself as the conversation happens and the AI tools work off it immediately, so you can ask questions and take notes against text that already exists. This is the mode people mean when they search for a live transcription Chrome extension.
- Transcript appears while people are talking
- Speaker labels applied live
- In-meeting AI chat and topic rail
- Notes and screenshots in the same panel
Record video and process
Captures your screen and audio to a video file, then runs the full transcription and AI pass once the recording stops. Slower to the first word, better at pulling apart a room full of voices, and it leaves you with the video as well as the text.
- Screen plus audio recorded together
- Cleaner speaker separation on busy calls
- Deeper AI analysis on the finished file
- Best for demos, presentations and walkthroughs
Either mode records your microphone, the audio coming out of the tab, or both mixed together. Capturing both is what turns a one-sided recording of yourself into an actual record of the conversation, and it is a single toggle before you press Start.
Where the Chrome extension works
If the sound comes out of your browser, LiteScribe can transcribe it.
Meetings it recognises on sight
Open a call on one of these and the extension knows it is a meeting, so starting a live transcript is one click rather than a hunt through menus.
Guides for the big three: transcribing a Zoom meeting, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
And everything else in a tab
Nothing is hard-wired to a meeting platform. You choose which tab, window or screen to capture, which means the same live transcript works on anything playing audio.
- Webinars and product demos
- Recorded interviews playing in a tab
- YouTube, podcasts and any browser audio
- Training sessions and internal all-hands
- Customer calls run through a web dialler
- Anything you can share from the browser picker
No bot turns up in the attendee list
LiteScribe records the audio already playing on your own machine, so there is no recording assistant to admit from the waiting room and no extra name for anyone to ask about. That also means it works on calls where meeting bots are blocked outright by policy.
Install the extension in under a minute
Four steps, no download, no admin rights, no meeting link to paste anywhere.
Add it to your browser
Open the LiteScribe listing on the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome, or install from Microsoft Edge Add-ons if you are on Edge.
Pin the icon and open the side panel
Pin LiteScribe to your toolbar so it is one click away, then click the icon to open the side panel next to your meeting.
Sign in and pick Live transcribe
Sign in with your LiteScribe account, choose the Live transcribe mode, then pick your language and whether to capture your microphone, the tab audio, or both.
Press Start and watch it write
Share the tab or window when the browser asks, then press Start. The transcript begins filling in immediately and everything uploads to your account when you stop.
Default bindings, swap them for anything you like on the Chrome shortcuts page. Mac uses Cmd.
Live transcription in 37 languages
Set the language per recording or pick a default once and forget about it. There is also a multilingual mode that works the language out for you, which is the setting you want for calls that switch between two of them halfway through.
Uploading a file rather than recording one? The wider LiteScribe library covers well over a hundred languages - browse the full language list.
What happens after you hit stop
The live transcript is not a throwaway. It becomes the record.
Summarised and pulled apart
An AI pass writes the summary, lifts out the action items with who owns them, and tags the topics, so the follow-up email is a copy and paste rather than an evening job.
Searchable forever
Every recording joins one library you can search across. Ask questions spanning several meetings at once and get answers with the actual quotes attached.
Waiting on every device
The same transcript is on the web app, the desktop app and your phone, drawing on one shared pool of minutes. Start in the browser, finish the edit anywhere.
If the browser falls over mid-meeting
Audio and transcript are written to durable local storage as the recording runs, and the upload is resumed rather than restarted. A crashed tab, a closed window or a laptop that went to sleep does not cost you the meeting - reopen the panel and the recording finishes its trip to your account.
Do you need a paid plan?
No. The extension is free to install and every LiteScribe account starts with 120 transcription minutes a month, refreshed monthly, with no limit on how many separate recordings you make. Nothing here is locked behind a trial and there is no card to enter to find that out.
Paid plans buy you more minutes rather than more features - the live transcript, speaker labels, AI chat, notes and screenshots are all in the free tier. Minutes are shared across the extension, the web app, desktop and mobile, so recording an hour in Chrome draws from the same balance as uploading an hour of audio.
Chrome extension or desktop app?
Same account, same minutes, different reach. Most people end up running both.
| Browser extension | Desktop app | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the audio comes from | Any browser tab, window or screen you share | Anything on the machine, including native apps |
| Live transcript while recording | Yes, in the side panel | Yes, in the meeting notes window |
| Install | One click from the store, nothing to download | A native installer for Windows, macOS or Linux |
| Where transcription runs | Streamed to LiteScribe in the cloud | Cloud, or on-device with Local Mode on Pro and Business |
| Best when | Your meetings already live in the browser | You use the native Zoom or Teams client, or want on-device |
Worth being straight about the one real difference: the browser extension streams your audio to LiteScribe to transcribe it, so it needs a connection and the audio does leave your machine. If that is a problem for the conversations you record, the LiteScribe desktop app has Local Mode on Pro and Business, which runs transcription and the AI notes on your own hardware instead. You can also read the full browser extension feature breakdown or see how speaker identification works across the product.
Live transcription Chrome extension questions
Q.Is there a Chrome extension that transcribes live?
Yes. LiteScribe is a live transcription Chrome extension. It opens in the browser side panel and streams the audio for transcription while the conversation is still running, so the text builds up as people speak instead of arriving after the call. The same extension installs on Microsoft Edge from the Edge Add-ons store.
Q.Does the live transcript really update in real time?
Yes. Audio is streamed continuously and each finished turn is written into the side panel as it lands, with a partial line for the words still being spoken. You can scroll back through everything said so far, copy a quote, or rename a speaker without stopping the recording.
Q.Which meeting platforms does the extension work with?
Any call that plays through a browser tab. LiteScribe recognises Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoToMeeting automatically, and because you choose which tab, window or screen to capture, it also handles webinars, training sessions, interviews and any other audio playing in the browser.
Q.Does a bot join my meeting?
No. Nothing joins the call as a participant and no one sees an extra name in the attendee list. The extension captures the audio already playing on your own machine, which is why it works on platforms that would never let a recording bot in.
Q.How do I install the Chrome extension?
Open the LiteScribe listing on the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome, then pin the icon and open the side panel. Sign in with your LiteScribe account, choose Live transcribe, pick your audio source and press Start. On Microsoft Edge, install from Edge Add-ons instead. It takes under a minute either way.
Q.Do I need a paid plan to use the Chrome extension?
No. The extension is free to install and every LiteScribe account includes 120 transcription minutes a month, with no cap on how many recordings you make. Paid plans add more minutes and longer video retention; they do not unlock the extension itself.
Q.Can it tell speakers apart during a live transcript?
Yes. Speaker labels are applied as the conversation runs, so the live transcript is already split into turns. Click any label to rename it and every turn from that speaker updates at once, which means the transcript reads with real names by the time the meeting ends rather than Speaker A and Speaker B.
Q.Which languages can it transcribe live?
37 languages, plus a multilingual mode that detects the language for you. That covers English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, the Nordic languages and more, all selectable per recording or set once as your default.
Q.Can I take notes and ask AI questions while the meeting is running?
Yes. The side panel has a notes editor next to the live transcript and an ask bar that answers from the conversation so far. One-tap prompts cover summarise so far, action items, key decisions and open questions, and a topic rail tracks which subjects have actually been covered.
Q.Does the extension capture screenshots?
Yes. Press the camera button in the panel or the screenshot shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+S by default, Cmd+Shift+S on Mac) to grab the current tab mid-recording. Draw a region once and you can repeat that exact crop with a single shortcut. Every capture is timestamped against the transcript.
Q.What happens to the recording after the call ends?
It uploads to your LiteScribe account and joins your transcript library, where it is searchable, editable and exportable, with an AI summary and action items generated for you. The same transcript is there on the web app, the desktop app and mobile, drawing on one shared pool of minutes.
Q.How accurate is the transcription?
Our transcription engine measures 94.1% word accuracy on real-world English audio, a number we publish rather than the inflated 99% figure the category likes to quote. Accuracy moves with microphone quality, crosstalk and accents, and every transcript is fully editable afterwards.
Q.Does the Chrome extension work offline?
No. The browser extension streams audio to LiteScribe for transcription, so it needs a connection and the audio does leave your machine. On-device transcription is a desktop feature: Local Mode in the LiteScribe desktop app runs the whole pipeline on your own hardware on Pro and Business plans.
Q.Should I use the Chrome extension or the desktop app?
Use the extension when your calls happen in the browser and you want nothing to install. Use the desktop app when you need to capture audio from outside the browser, such as the native Zoom or Teams client, or when you want on-device Local Mode. Both feed the same account, so you can switch freely.
Start your next call with a transcript
Install the extension, open the side panel, press Start. Your next meeting writes itself down while you are still in it - and 120 minutes a month costs nothing.