Is there a paid version of SubExtractor?

No. The Chrome extension has no paid plan, no in-app purchases and no features held back.

Are there ads, or is my data the product?

Neither. There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and your audio and transcripts are not uploaded.

Do I need to sign up?

No. There is no account of any kind.

Is there a limit on minutes or transcripts?

No. There is no quota and no trial period.

Why would anyone give this away?

Because it costs almost nothing to run. The transcription happens on your computer, so there are no servers to pay for as usage grows.

Is SubExtractor Really Free? Cost, Limits and How It Compares

Yes. SubExtractor has no paid plan, no account, no ads and no limit on minutes or transcripts. It can be free because the transcription runs on your own computer: there are no transcription servers to pay for.

What "free" covers

Every feature. Caption extraction, live transcription, live captions, speaker labels, translation, read aloud and every export format.
Any amount of use. No monthly minutes, no cap on recording length, no count of transcripts.
No sign-up. Nothing asks for an email address.

Why it can cost nothing

Most transcription products send your audio to their servers, and servers that run speech models are expensive. That cost is why those products meter free use and charge for more. SubExtractor runs the speech model inside your browser instead. I have no per-minute cost to recover, so there is nothing to meter.

What you pay instead

On-device has a price too, and it is worth knowing before you install:

A download. Live transcription needs a language pack of 32 to 305 MB, once per language. Read aloud needs a voice of about 80 MB.
Your computer's effort. Transcription uses your processor while it runs. An older machine may need the lighter pack.
Real time only. A recording takes as long as the video. Cloud services can process an uploaded file faster.
Eight spoken languages for live transcription. Cloud services cover many more.
Desktop Chrome. The extension does not run on phones.

Extracting captions a video already has costs none of this: it is instant and needs no download.

How metered tools compare

These are the free plans of three well-known transcription tools, as their own pricing pages described them on 8 October 2026. Plans change, so check the linked page before relying on a figure.

Tool	Free plan	Paid plans
SubExtractor	No limits. No account.	None
Otter	300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 file imports in total	from $8.33 a month, billed yearly
Notta	120 minutes a month, 3 minutes per recording	from $8.17 a month, billed yearly
Tactiq	10 transcripts a month, 5 AI credits a month	from $8 a month, billed yearly

When a paid tool is the better choice

Those tools charge because they do things SubExtractor does not. Choose one of them if you need a bot that joins your meetings for you, transcripts of uploaded files in minutes, shared workspaces for a team, a wide range of languages, or a phone app that records in the room. Choose SubExtractor if you want the words out of a video or a browser tab, privately, without a meter running.

Start with a video that already has captions, or one that does not.

Common questions

Is there a paid version of SubExtractor?: No. The Chrome extension has no paid plan, no in-app purchases and no features held back.
Are there ads, or is my data the product?: Neither. There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and your audio and transcripts are not uploaded.
Do I need to sign up?: No. There is no account of any kind.
Is there a limit on minutes or transcripts?: No. There is no quota and no trial period.
Why would anyone give this away?: Because it costs almost nothing to run. The transcription happens on your computer, so there are no servers to pay for as usage grows.