skryba.ai
Log inTry for free

WMA to text

The format of voice recorders and older Windows audio — taken without conversion, though not every WMA is the same thing.

Upload a recording

You convert a WMA to text by uploading it without conversion — we take it exactly as we take an MP3. Worth knowing that one extension hides three different things. The voice-mode variant drops as low as 8 kHz in a recorder's economy profiles, and that one — alongside narrowband AMR-NB — is among the few cases where the recording itself genuinely lowers recognition accuracy.

Upload a recording. Create an account only after you see the result.

Drop a file here or choose one from your device. We will show you the beginning of the transcript first.

Encrypted upload · the file expires automatically · fully automated AI transcription

or

Which transcription model gets the fewest words wrong?

skryba.ai transcribes on Scribe v2, which gets 2.2% of words wrong in Artificial Analysis' independent index — the lowest of every model measured. Gemini 3.5 Transcribe gets 2.6% wrong, Whisper large-v3 4.1%. It is the same model that writes the transcript preview you see before paying.

Word Error Rate — words transcribed incorrectly — lower is better
ModelWER
skryba.ai (Scribe v2)the model we transcribe on2.2%
MAI-Transcribe-1.5Microsoft Azure2.4%
Gemini 3.5 TranscribeGoogle2.6%
Universal-3 ProAssemblyAI3.1%
GPT TranscribeOpenAI3.3%
Whisper large-v3OpenAI4.1%
Nova-3Deepgram5.2%

Source: Artificial Analysis, AA-WER v2 index, non-streaming mode — read 27 August 2026. Seven of the 40-plus models measured: the top of the table and the names you already know. The index is measured mostly on English audio; for other languages, Polish included, no comparable public ranking exists. That is why we show you the start of every transcript before we ask for anything.

Three different things under one extension

WMA is not one format but a family. The same .wma ending can mean a lossless file, an ordinary lossy one, or a very low-bitrate voice mode — and the difference between them is far larger than the one between 128 and 320 kbps in MP3.

VariantWhere it comes fromWhat to expect
WMA LosslessCD ripping, archivesa large file, flawless quality
WMA (lossy)older Windows audiolike MP3 — no effect on the result
WMA Voicea recorder in voice modenarrowband, more mistakes

Scroll the table sideways to see the remaining columns.

We take all three and will process all three. The distinction matters only for expectations: the first two behave like any other audio file, the third can be genuinely harder.

Why a recorder's voice mode hurts

Voice recorders have misleadingly named modes. “Voice”, “LP”, “long play” or “SP” usually mean low-bitrate mono, and in the most frugal profiles a sample rate of only 8 kHz — telephone bandwidth. The WMA voice codec itself covers 8 to 22 kHz, so the exact figure depends on the model and the chosen mode — 8 kHz belongs to the settings that promise the most hours on a card. Speech recognition works with whatever survives in that band, and what gets cut is exactly the high frequencies that separate sibilants — in Polish, “s”, “sz” and “ś”.

None of it can be recovered afterwards: converting to WAV or to 320 kbps MP3 adds no information that is not in the file. So with such a recording the one thing that genuinely helps is picking the language yourself instead of leaving detection on — narrowband audio makes language identification less certain.

  • For the next recording, switch the device to a higher-quality mode — “HQ”, “PCM” or 44.1 kHz, depending on the model.
  • A memory card today holds hundreds of hours even at top quality, so the economy mode solves a problem that no longer exists.
  • If the recorder lets you choose a format, WAV or MP3 are more convenient than WMA — not for us, but for you: they play on every system.

Upload a recorder file

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to convert WMA to MP3?

No. We take WMA without conversion, and transcoding it to MP3 improves nothing — a lossy file re-encoded into another lossy one can only come out worse.

WMA will not play on my Mac. Is the file broken?

No. It is a Microsoft format that Apple systems do not support natively — the file is fine, only the player is missing. Upload it as it is; we can read it.

The recorder file came out poorly. What can be done?

After the fact, little: a recorder's economy modes drop to 8 kHz, and the high frequencies they cut cannot be added back by converting. Picking the language instead of leaving detection on helps, and for future recordings, switching the device to a higher-quality mode.