Sofer.ai
Transcription built for Torah content in English, Hebrew, Yiddish and Aramaic; still the group's pick for shiurim that mix languages.
On this page
Sofer.ai turns recorded shiurim into text you can edit, search, print and summarize. It is built for Torah content: it transcribes English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic and "Yeshivish," including a class that switches between them every sentence. It also reads scanned seforim (OCR) and searches your own transcripts.
In the group it has been the standard answer for Jewish audio since 2025, and that had not changed by October 2026: "best for Yiddish and loshon kodesh" (July 2026), and "good specifically for Jewish stuff" (May 2026).
What it costs
Checked on sofer.ai on October 21, 2026.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5 transcripts and 3 hours a month, files up to 90 minutes, topic outlines, sharing |
| Pro (personal use) | $24/month | 18 hours a month (extra hours $1.50 each), files up to 3 hours, speaker labels, AI summaries, transformations and automations |
| Max (commercial use) | $72/month | 90 hours a month, custom AI transformations, commercial license, early access to new features |
A weekly hour-long shiur fits in the free plan's 3 hours a month only if you skip a week. Two classes a week needs Pro.
What else it does
- OCR for seforim. Upload a PDF or image and get editable Hebrew text, including Rashi script, with a side-by-side view for checking. In August 2026 a member called its OCR "fantastic."
- Maishiv. A search assistant over your own Sofer.ai transcripts and notes.
- Transformations. Ready-made and custom AI rewrites of a transcript (summary, outline and so on).
- WhatsApp. In late 2025 members said the paid plan had a number you could forward voice notes to. The Sofer.ai site does not mention it today, so ask Sofer.ai before paying for that reason.
What members use it for
- Shiurim with mixed languages. "It's really good at transcribing audio that has mixed English Hebrew Yiddish."
- English with Yiddish and Hebrew terms. A rabbi who had Claude build him a local Whisper transcription tool still said Sofer.ai is better for English full of Yiddishe words (August 2026). Another member said it "gets maamarei chazal."
- Yiddish audio into English. Recommended for an hour-long Yiddish video in February 2026.
- JLI and class prep from audio-only recordings (November 2025).
- Batches of short Hebrew voice notes on the free plan (November 2025).
The shiur to one-page summary pipeline
A member's version, repeated in the group since 2025:
"Uploaded a shiur I gave on פת הבאה בכסנין to sofer.ai. I took the transcript and asked Claude to summarize it and make it into a nice one-page PDF."
In May 2026 another member did the same after finding Sofer's own summary too thin. The steps:
- Record the shiur (a phone voice memo is fine).
- Upload it to Sofer.ai and fix any names or sources in the transcript.
- Paste the transcript into Claude with:
This is a transcript of a shiur I gave. Write a one-page summary for the people who attended: the main question, the sources in the order I brought them (with the exact reference), and the conclusion. Keep my wording where you quote me. Do not add sources I did not mention. Lay it out as a printable one-page PDF.
- Check every source against the sefer before you print. See AI and Torah Accuracy.
More in Shiur Prep.
Weak spots
- Yiddish is good, not perfect. A member rated a Yiddish sample 6 out of 10 in November 2025. Plan to edit.
- Outages happen. In July 2026 a member got "Transcription Failed" for several days.
- Not everyone agrees it is best. In August 2025 a power user argued that Whisper and NVIDIA's Parakeet models beat it and that Sofer probably builds on them. NVIDIA's own model cards list no Hebrew for Parakeet, so that comparison holds for English at most. The debate is laid out on Transcription.
Alternatives
| Tool | When to prefer it |
|---|---|
| transcribe.ivrit.ai | Free Hebrew transcription from the ivrit.ai project; sign in with Google, transcripts are saved to your Google Drive. "The best one in Hebrew, and still free" (December 2025). |
| TurboScribe | Mostly English audio in bulk; 3 free files a day. See TurboScribe and Whisper. |
| Yiddish Labs | Yiddish transcription and translation, mentioned in December 2025 without a review. |
| ElevenLabs Scribe | Developers and agents; $0.22 per hour through the API. |