Polish speech to text · 1 hour free
Transcribe Polish audio to text, with speakers and timestamps.
Upload a Polish interview as mp3, m4a, wav or mp4 and get a draft with speaker labels and a timestamp on every speaker turn, ready to correct and export to Word. Verify your email to start with 1 hour free.
1 hour free · No card needed
Anyone with a verified email can use Spirelight. New accounts can use 1 hour free; any earlier free usage counts toward that hour. Buy more hours when you need them.
Try an example
Interview about student life, in Polish
Polish · Two speakers · Fictional excerpt
Prowadząca 00:12
Jak zmieniła się twoja droga do pracy w ostatnim roku?
Rozmówczyni 00:18
Częściej jadę rowerem, bo na większości trasy mam oddzieloną drogę dla rowerów. Dzięki temu rzadziej stoję w korkach.
Prowadząca 00:31
Który fragment trasy nadal sprawia ci trudność?
How to do it
How to transcribe a Polish interview
1. Sign up and verify your email
Use an email address you can access and confirm it with the code we send you. No university address or payment card is needed to start with the one-time free audio hour.
2. Upload the recording and choose Polish
Upload the interview as mp3, m4a, wav or mp4 (up to 1 GB). Recordings longer than your free time need enough bought or plan hours in your account. Pick Polish, or let Spirelight detect it; picking it yourself is safer when a recording opens with English small talk.
3. Listen, correct and export to Word
Correct the draft in the built-in player, with extra care for names, word endings and words that sound alike. Rename the speakers across the whole document, for example to pseudonyms, then export to Word (.docx), plain text or SRT, or start coding in the same project.
Polish speech
What to check in a Polish transcript
Polish has pairs that sound the same and are spelled differently: “morze” (sea) and “może” (maybe) are the classic example, and the same goes for many words with ż and rz, ó and u, or h and ch. The sentence usually settles which one is meant, but a noisy recording can leave the wrong one in the draft, and it will still look like correct Polish.
Names need attention too. Polish nouns change with their case, so one surname can appear as “Kowalski”, “Kowalskiego” and “Kowalskim” in the same interview. Check that each form is spelled right, and that a name you later replace with a pseudonym is replaced in every form.
- Check every quote you plan to use against the recording.
- Note names, places and abbreviations during the interview so you can check them later.
- Record close to the speakers in a quiet room, and ask people not to talk over each other.
Conventions
Transcription conventions for Polish theses
Ask your supervisor which level of detail your thesis needs, and whether transcripts go in an appendix (aneks) or stay outside the thesis. If nothing is prescribed, choose how closely you follow speech, apply it to every interview and describe it in your methods chapter.
Spirelight’s draft gives you the words, speaker labels and a timestamp on every speaker turn. Neither “Word for word” nor “Cleaned up” guarantees a complete verbatim record. If your method needs pauses, overlaps, hesitations or regional forms, add them while you proofread, with the recording playing alongside. Our guide to verbatim transcription covers the levels of detail.
Writing in English
Polish interviews, English thesis
If your thesis is in English but the interviews were held in Polish, keep the Polish transcript as your analysis material. Spirelight transcribes the language that was spoken and does not translate. One possible way to work:
- Analyse and code the Polish transcript, so you work with what people actually said.
- Translate only the quotes you use, and say in your methods section that the translations are your own.
- Ask a native speaker to check key quotes, especially idioms and irony.
- Follow your supervisor on whether to show the original Polish next to each quote.
Questions about transcribing Polish audio
Can I transcribe Polish audio to text for free?
Yes. Anyone who verifies an email can start with 1 hour free. Earlier free usage counts toward that hour. When it runs out, buy hours at €2 per audio hour or choose Spirelight Plus at €14 per month with 20 hours included. Purchased hours never expire. Checkout shows the available price in your currency. See pricing.
How accurate is Polish speech to text?
It depends mostly on the recording. Clear audio with one person speaking at a time gives the best draft, while background noise, overlapping speech, strong regional accents and specialist terms cause more errors. Names and words that sound alike need a close look. Treat the transcript as a first draft, listen through it in the built-in player and check every quote you plan to use.
Can I get an English translation of my Polish audio?
No. Spirelight transcribes Polish speech into Polish text and does not translate. If you write your thesis in English, translate the quotes you use yourself, say that the translations are yours and keep the Polish transcript for your analysis.
Does Spirelight work with group interviews in Polish?
Yes, speaker labels work for several people, and you can rename each speaker once for the whole document. Overlapping speech is the hard part of any group recording, so allow extra time to listen and check who said what.
Where does my Polish audio go when I upload it?
Transcription runs on AssemblyAI’s servers in the EU. Your files, transcripts and account are stored with Google Firebase in the US, and if you use AI summaries or chat, the text is processed by OpenAI in the US. Standard accounts do not include a data processing agreement (DPA). Before uploading identifiable interviews, ask your university’s data protection officer to assess the lawful basis and whether this service may be used. Participant consent alone is not approval to use an external tool.
Other languages
Transcribing another language?
- Danish audio to text
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Each of these pages covers what to expect from that language’s recordings. Interview transcription covers file formats, proofreading and English recordings.
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Stop transcribing recordings by hand
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