Here are some frequently asked questions

How good is the automatic transcription?

This depends on the recording setting and the pronunciation of the speakers. For a “perfect” setting (e.g. a scripted TV interview), we can achieve as high as 95%-97% accuracy, whereas settings such as a spontaneous meeting, rapid speakers, accents, or noisy backgrounds like a busy café may result in 40%-50% mis-transcriptions or gaps.

How can I improve the transcription quality?

In general: the better the audio recording, the better the automatic transcript. A slow native speaker in a professional audio studio will be transcribed almost perfectly, whereas a meeting in a large restaurant that was recorded on an old smartphone will have lots of errors. If you can influence the recording setting, we highly recommend at least a good microphone and a quiet setting with as little background noise as possible.

How long does it take until my transcription result is ready?

For one hour of audio, it usually takes between 40-90 minutes. You will get an e-mail once it is ready. In comparison, a manual transcriber would take 4-6 hours.

Where is my data processed?

– “Normal”: Your data is stored on our local infrastructure in Switzerland. The audio files are processed by external services (e.g. Google), which have their servers inside of Switzerland. Our contracts with them ensure that your data is deleted once it was processed. 

– “Highly Confidential”: Your data never leaves our servers in Switzerland. (only on request)

Can I install Stenoris on my own server?

Yes. We can install and run Stenoris on your local infrastructure. Please get in touch with us at [email protected]

What happens if several speakers talk at the same time?

Parallel speech is hard to recognize for humans, and even more for machines. At the moment, we do not have a solution that produces reliable output for parallel speech. For this reason, we are working on an extension of our editor that significantly simplifies the process to transcribe parallel speech manually.

My audio file format is not supported, what can I do?

We support more than 25 audio and video formats, so this is very unlikely to happen. However, if you have your recording in an unsupported file format, we recommend converting it into Wave format (typical ending .wav). There are free online services for this task, e.g.

If you prefer to use a tool on your computer (e.g.if your audio contains sensitive data), you can use:

My language is not supported, what can I do?

We can easily add a new language to Stenoris. Just drop us an email.

Did not find the answer to your question? Don’t be shy and contact us directly.

[email protected]