Is the AI transcription tool market growing or shrinking?
Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude
The answer▼ Shrinkingbut name searches are up 3.7% since October 2025
- Visits, year on year
- -54%
- Visits, last six months
- -49%
- Name searches vs October 2025
- +3.7%
Every month I add up the Google visits to the 40 AI transcription tool sites I track (DataForSEO estimates) and how often people in the US search for them by name (Google Ads). In October 2026 they got about 12 million visits.
The total hides very different stories: one site grew 66% in a year while another lost 99.8% of its visits. See who grew and who shrank, the visits month by month and the name searches, plus what I expect for November 2026.
AI transcription tool market demand: key numbers, October 2026
Four numbers for October 2026. Visits mean visits from Google search to the 40 tracked sites. Tap one for the detail below.
- Visits from Google12Mvisits-54% vs a year ago
- Name searches, US1.9Msearches+4% vs October 2025
- Top five sites80%of visitsfastest grower: Maestra AI
- Expected in November11Mvisitslikely 9.1M to 12M
- The AI transcription tool market is shrinking as of October 2026, but name searches are up 3.7% since October 2025.
- The 40 AI transcription tool sites RankDude tracks got 11,655,832 visits from Google search in October 2026, 54% fewer visits than in October 2025.
- People in the US searched Google for these sites by name 1,923,720 times in September 2026, 4% more searches than in October 2025.
- The five most-visited AI transcription tool sites get 80% of all visits.
- Fastest-growing AI transcription tool site over the year: Maestra AI, +66% (1.6M to 2.7M visits a month).
- Steepest fall over the year: Riverside, -99.8% (226K to 352 visits a month).
- Forecast for November 2026: about 11M visits, likely between 9.1M and 12M.
Source: DataForSEO visit estimates and Google Ads search data, published 2 November 2026 by RankDude.
1.Are more people visiting AI transcription tool sites than a year ago?
Down 54% on a year ago; down 17% on September 2026
No. The 40 tracked AI transcription tool sites got 11,655,832 visits from Google search in October 2026. That is 54% fewer visits than in October 2025, and 17% fewer visits than in September 2026.
The highest month of the last two years was December 2024, with 33,599,066 visits; October 2026 is 65% below it. In the US, visits were 1,100,679, down 67% on a year ago.
WorldVisits a month to AI transcription tool sites, worldwide, two years
Source: DataForSEO, Google search visits, all tracked sites.
Worldwide, this month
12M
-54.0% on a year ago
United States, this month
1.1M
-66.8% on a year ago
Two-year high
34M
December 2024
US share of visits
9.4%
of worldwide visits
Miles explains
Visits are lower than a year ago and lower than in September 2026, so the fall is still going. Google Trends interest in the term fell (-71%), but name searches did not, so some interest has cooled.
2.Are people searching for AI transcription tool sites by name?
Up 4% on October 2025; 1.9M name searches a month in the US
Yes, more than before. People in the US searched Google for the names of the counted AI transcription tool sites 1,923,720 times in September 2026, 4% more searches than in October 2025. Someone who searches a site’s name already knows it, so this is the clearest sign of people coming back on purpose. The term “ai transcription” itself gets about 4,400 US searches a month (Google Ads, 12-month average).
USName searches a month for AI transcription tool sites, US
Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO, to September 2026.
USMost searched AI transcription tool sites by name, searches a month
Miles explains
Name searches are up while visits are down, so people still know where to go. Google Trends interest in the term fell (-71%), so part of the drop may be lower interest too.
3.Which AI transcription tool sites grew, and which shrank?
The five most-visited sites hold 80% of all visits; the ten most-visited hold 90.4%
The five most-visited AI transcription tool sites get 80% of all visits, so one of them winning or losing a big Google ranking moves the whole total. Fastest grower over the year: Maestra AI, from 1,614,286 to 2,670,874 visits (+66%). Steepest fall: Riverside, from 226,435 to 352 visits (-99.8%).
Growing fastest, year on year
Maestra AI2.7M visits+66%
Trint41.0K visits+56%
Podsqueeze7.8K visits+46%
RecCloud167K visits+45%
Castmagic49.7K visits+42%
Falling fastest, year on year
Riverside352 visits-99.8%
Transkriptor60.9K visits-98%
Riverside229K visits-87%
Speak31.7K visits-80%
Notta333K visits-80%
Source: DataForSEO. Sites with 5,000+ visits a year ago.