From pulpit recording to printed word
Most churches already record every service, whether through the soundboard, a camcorder at the back of the sanctuary, or a phone on the front pew. That archive is full of teaching your congregation would love to revisit, but it stays locked in audio until someone types it out.
A transcript turns one sermon into many things: pull quotes for the weekly newsletter, a discussion outline for small groups, a study guide with the pastor's key points, or a searchable archive so you can find the message on a passage you preached three years ago. Export plain TXT for newsletters and study material, and upgrade to Pro when you want DOCX files ready to hand to a volunteer editor.
Accessible captions for members who cannot hear the sermon
If you post service videos for homebound members or your online congregation, captions make them accessible to people who are hard of hearing or watching quietly. FastScribe exports SRT and VTT caption files with timestamps that line up with your video, ready to attach when you upload the recording to your video platform.
FastScribe works from uploaded files only. If your sermon video already lives on a video platform, download the original file from your account first, then upload it here. We never connect to outside accounts or fetch from links, which is part of how your congregation's recordings stay private.
Privacy for what is said in your sanctuary
Services often include things a congregation would not want circulating: prayer requests, testimonies, names of members going through illness or grief. Transcription runs entirely on our own servers rather than being passed to a third-party AI service, and the audio itself is deleted immediately. Only the text remains, so you can revisit and export it whenever the newsletter deadline arrives.
Frequently asked questions
Can FastScribe transcribe a full-length sermon or an entire service?
Yes, with the right plan. Your free first file covers up to ten minutes and fifty megabytes, a free account raises that to thirty minutes and one hundred megabytes, and Pro at twelve dollars a month handles files up to two gigabytes and five hours, enough for a complete service including worship and announcements.
What happens to the sermon audio after it is transcribed?
The audio file is deleted the moment your transcript is ready. Only the text is kept so you can revisit and export it, which means prayer requests and members' names spoken during the service are not sitting in someone else's audio archive.
Can we get captions for the service videos we post online?
Yes. Export SRT or VTT caption files and attach them when you publish the video. If the recording is already on a video platform, download the original file from your account first, then upload it to FastScribe.
Which export should we use for the newsletter and study guides?
Plain TXT is the easiest to paste into a newsletter or study guide draft, and every transcript includes timestamps so you can cite the moment a point was made. Pro accounts add DOCX export for a formatted document, plus batch uploads if you are working through a backlog of past sermons.