Free ・ MIT open source ・ Windows 10/11 only

TIO Voice Genie

Six jobs done with Google Gemini: live meeting captions, recordings turned into transcripts (with speakers and timestamps), live bilingual captions, transcripts turned into bilingual documents, transcript re-formatting, and live voice translation — you hear the interpretation in your headphones.
Installed on your own PC, double-click to run, no coding.

US$0subscription
~US$0.63per hour of transcript (estimate)
~US$2.21per hour of live voice translation
6functions in one menu
Free download → Read the user guide

Developer: CY KUO ・ Fees go straight to Google; this tool handles no payments and charges nothing

01 ─ What it does

Six functions, numbered as in the menu

Each card shows the model it uses and roughly what Google charges per hour.

1

Live meeting captions

Follow the meeting as it happens

~US$0.54 per hour

gemini-3.5-transcribe-live

2

Recording to Traditional Chinese transcript

With speakers and timestamps

~US$0.63 per hour (estimate)

gemini-3.5-transcribe (two passes) + gemini-3.5-flash alignment

3

Live bilingual captions

Captions in your language during a foreign-language talk; Accurate or Fast

~US$0.56 Accurate; Fast mode ~US$2.21 per hour

Accurate: transcribe-live + flash-lite translation / Fast: live-translate-preview

4

Transcript to bilingual document

Bilingual documents for overseas guests; fixed translations for names

~US$0.50 measured per hour

gemini-3.5-flash

5

Re-format a transcript

Rename speakers or change the layout without re-recognising

US$0 per hour

Runs locally; calls no model

6

Live voice translation

Hear the translated voice in your headphones (interpreter mode)

~US$2.21 measured per hour

gemini-3.5-live-translate-preview

How to connect headphones and use it →

Prices come from Google's official pricing page (checked 2026-09-19 and re-checked 2026-10-03: unchanged). Fast mode of function 3 and function 6 use the same connection; the model outputs speech and is billed as audio, so it costs about 4 times as much as Accurate mode — if you only need captions, choose Accurate. The function 4 figure was measured on 2026-09-19 with a 60-minute transcript (about 70% of it was the model's thinking tokens, which Google bills at the output price).

02 ─ Why use it

Six reasons, each one checkable

Pay for what you use

No monthly fee, no annual contract. You pay for Google API usage, charged directly to your own Google account. Turning on the paid tier needs a prepayment of at least US$5, and credit not used within 12 months is forfeited — if you use less than that in a year, that minimum prepayment is what it actually costs. How prepayment, expiry and caps work →

Six jobs in one menu

Live captions, recording-to-transcript, live bilingual captions, bilingual documents, re-formatting and interpretation in your headphones are all in one menu; install once and you have them all. Estimate your cost →

Any sound source

In-room microphones, online meetings playing on your PC, existing recordings or video files — the same tool handles them all.

Traditional Chinese, worked out by testing

Gemini's official language list has no Taiwan Traditional Chinese, and turning on speaker separation forces Simplified output. TIO tested 24 combinations to find a way around this; the price is running the same audio twice.

No powerful PC needed

Recognition runs on Google's servers, not on your computer, so accuracy does not depend on your PC's specifications.

Open, shareable, inspectable

MIT-licensed: copy the whole package to colleagues and read every line of code yourself. The software is not tied to an account or a device (each person still needs their own Google API key).

We do not quote accuracy figures; this is the developer's measured coverage

Most Gemini word-error rates found online are for English material or are Google's own figures. As of 2026-09-19 we found no citable accuracy figure for Taiwan Traditional Chinese. The table below is the developer's own coverage measurement on Chinese material — not an accuracy rate — to give you a rough idea. Before using it for anything formal, try it with a recording of your own.

Google engineFunctionCoverage
transcribe-liveFunction 1 live meeting captions98.1%
transcribe-liveFunction 3 "Accurate", source text97.9%
transcribeFunction 2 recording to transcript99.9%
live-translate-previewFunction 3 "Fast", source text (function 6 uses the same model; not measured separately)98.4%
flashFunction 4 bilingual document (translation)100%
flash-liteFunction 3 "Accurate" (translation)100%

Developer's measurements, 2026-09-26, real Google service. Functions 1 and 3: the same 9-minute Chinese presentation recording (synthesised speech with 6 English sentences), fed to the program in real time without speakers or microphones; function 2: a 35.5-minute three-person mock meeting (synthesised speech). The first four rows count only missing characters in the text, with numbers checked separately (function 1 14/16, 3 "Accurate" 16/16, 3 "Fast" 15/16); the last two rows check whether each segment was translated (function 4 21/21 segments, 3 "Accurate" 76/76 sentences). The material is synthesised speech, cleaner than real meetings, and each function was measured once, so do not use this to rank them. A real person reading to the laptop microphone (function 1): 96.7% at 50 cm, 92.5% at 2 m.

03 ─ Cost

Roughly what you will pay Google each month

TIO itself is free. Tick the functions you will use and drag the monthly hours to see roughly what Google will charge.

10 hours / month
US$6.3per month (conservative)
7.9 hwhat the minimum US$5 prepayment covers

Each meeting hour uses one function, so hours are shared out, not charged twice; here every hour is priced at the most expensive function you ticked, so the real cost is usually lower. Function 2 is an estimate and function 4 a single measurement; function 5 runs locally and costs nothing, so it is not listed. Based on Google's official prices; your Google bill is what counts.

How Google's paid tier charges: prepayment, expiry and caps, one at a time

1. Prepayment: turning on the paid tier means linking a credit card and prepaying at least US$5 (accounts with a Taiwan billing address are billed in TWD; the settings screen shows the actual amount). Each meeting's cost is then deducted from that balance; nothing is deducted if you do not use it, and there is no recurring charge. When the balance reaches zero, every key under that billing account stops working at once and does not fall back to the free tier; you can turn on automatic top-ups and set a monthly top-up limit.

2. Expiry: prepaid credit is valid for 12 months from purchase; unused credit is forfeited and not refunded. So do not prepay too much at once — at TIO's rates, US$5 covers roughly: live captions about 9 hours, recording-to-transcript about 8 hours, live voice translation about 2.3 hours (estimated from the hourly rates on this page; actual use varies).

3. Monthly spend cap of US$250 (Tier 1): a fuse Google sets for you — when a billing account's spending for the month reaches US$250, service pauses automatically and resumes on the 1st of the next month. It is not a fee, not money you prepay, and unrelated to how much you prepay. At the most expensive mode on this page (function 3 Fast, about US$2.21/hour) you would need more than about 113 hours in a month to reach it. After US$100 in cumulative payments and 3 days since the first successful payment, the account moves up to Tier 2 automatically (cap US$2,000). There is also a rate limit of "at most US$10 per 10 minutes", which may or may not apply depending on the account.

4. Data handling and contracting entity: the paid-tier terms promise not to use your content to improve Google's products, to process it under the data processing addendum, and to keep short-term logs to detect abuse; data may be stored temporarily in any country where Google has facilities, and the terms do not explicitly promise "no human review". For billing addresses in Taiwan the contracting entity is Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), whose parent group is Google LLC / Alphabet (USA). If your organisation has rules about overseas cloud services, check them yourself; this page draws no conclusion.

Check each point: 13 official sources (expand each for the original text)
  • New accounts default to prepay; turning on the paid tier = linking a billing account + prepaying at least US$5 (or local equivalent); prepaid balance capped at US$5,000; effective 2026-03-23. During the transition a new account may first be put on postpay and later switched (Google's wording: "might be required"); your account settings screen is what counts official
    Original textUpgrading from the Free Tier to the Paid Tier means linking a billing account and prepaying to add a minimum of $5 (or equivalent in other currencies) of credits to your account. … The minimum purchase is $5. The maximum amount of credits you can prepay for is $5,000. … New users default to the Prepay billing plan.
  • Prepaid credit expires 12 months after purchase, forfeited and non-refundable; the same page says "except after switching to a Postpay account", but the FAQ says switching from prepay to postpay is not supported — the two contradict each other, so in practice treat it as non-refundable official
    Original textAfter credits are purchased, unused credits expire after 12 months and are non-refundable, except after switching to a Postpay account. … Purchased credits expire after 1 year. After expiration, credits are forfeited and can't be retrieved. … Can I switch from Prepay to Postpay billing? No, switching from a Prepay billing plan to a Postpay billing plan is not supported.
  • Tier 1's US$250 a month is a spend cap: the month's spending across all projects on the billing account is added up, and when it is reached every project on that account pauses until the 1st of the next month; you can apply for a higher cap. It is not a fee, not a prepayment, and unrelated to your balance official
    Original textEach tier has a maximum monthly spend limit: … Tier 1 | $250 … Monthly usage caps are enforced for the Gemini API at the billing account level. … Total spend is aggregated across all linked projects that have the Gemini API service enabled. After the cumulative account total reaches the tier limit, service is paused for all projects linked to that billing account until the start of the next billing cycle (the 1st of each month).
  • There is also a spend-rate limit over a rolling 10-minute window: Tier 1 US$10 per 10 minutes, beyond which requests get 429; whether it applies depends on the account's payment history and standing, so not every account is affected official
    Original textThese limits are evaluated on a rolling 10-minute window. … Whether these limits apply to your account depends on your billing history and account standing. … Tier 1 | $10
  • Tier upgrades are automatic: Tier 1 = an active billing account linked (cap US$250); Tier 2 = US$100 paid + 3 days since the first successful payment (US$2,000); Tier 3 = US$1,000 + 30 days (US$20,000–100,000+). Cumulative spending counts all Google Cloud services on that billing account; Free → Tier 1 is usually instant, later upgrades within about 10 minutes; Google may refuse an upgrade in a few cases official
    Original textTier 1 | Set up and link an active billing account | $250 ／ Tier 2 | Paid $100 + 3 days from first successful payment | $2,000 ／ Tier 3 | Paid $1,000 + 30 days from first successful payment | $20,000 - $100,000+ … The qualifications for Tiers 2 and 3 are based on the total cumulative spending on Google Cloud services (including, but not limited to, the Gemini API) … Tier upgrades from the Free to Tier 1 will typically take effect instantly, and subsequent tier upgrades will take effect within 10 minutes.
  • When the prepaid balance hits zero, every key in every project on that billing account stops at once; no automatic fallback to the free tier; billing runs about 10 minutes behind, so the balance can go negative and be taken from the next purchase; automatic top-ups and a monthly top-up limit are available; unpaid bills for other Google Cloud services or an invalid card on the same account also stop the Gemini API official
    Original textWhen your Prepay credit balance on the billing account hits $0, all API keys in all projects linked to that billing account will stop working simultaneously. … Your projects aren't automatically downgraded to the Free Tier. … Prepay billing is subject to overages during the approximately 10 minute billing pipeline latency.
  • No monthly or annual fee: everything is usage-based (input / output / cached tokens, cache storage time, plus usage items such as Grounding); the pricing page calls it "prepaid then pay-as-you-go"; failed 400/500 requests are not charged. The threshold is a minimum US$5 per prepayment, forfeited if unused within 12 months official
    Original textWhat am I billed for? Gemini API pricing is based on the following: - Input token count - Output token count - Cached token count - Cached token storage duration ／ Start building free of charge with generous limits, then scale up with prepaid then pay-as-you-go pricing ／ If your request fails with a 400 or 500 error, you won't be charged for the tokens used.
  • Taiwan can use the paid tier (age 18+); Taiwan accounts are billed in TWD and can only pay by credit or debit card (no bank account option); the settings screen shows the minimum prepayment for your region official
    Original textTaiwan | TWD | credit/debit card ／ the UI will provide the minimum pre-purchase amount that is required for your region and tier level
  • "Invoiced (offline)" accounts are monthly-invoiced accounts approved by Google and paid by cheque or wire transfer; they cannot use prepay and have no spend cap. Ordinary self-serve (online) accounts opened with a card can prepay, have spend caps, and receive statements, payment receipts and tax invoices official
    Original textThe documents generated for self-serve accounts include statements, payment receipts, and tax invoices. ／ Payment instrument can be check or wire transfer… You must be eligible for invoiced billing ／ Note that Prepay is not available for Invoiced (or Offline) accounts. … spend caps are not available for Invoiced (or Offline) accounts.
  • For accounts opened after 2026-03-02, the Google Cloud US$300 welcome credit cannot be used for the Gemini API / AI Studio; once you have a prepaid balance, other eligible Google Cloud promotional credits (not the US$300) are used before the prepaid balance official
    Original textIf you opened your account after March 2, 2026, you can't use these credits to pay for Gemini API and AI Studio usage … starting March 2026, Gemini API usage costs are specifically excluded from the $300 Google Cloud Free Trial program.
  • Paid-tier data handling (neutral summary): prompts and responses are not used to improve products; processed under the DPA where Google is a data processor; logged for a limited period to detect abuse; may be stored temporarily or cached in any country where Google or its agents have facilities. The terms mention possible human reviewers only for the free tier, and do not explicitly promise "no human review" for the paid tier official
    Original textWhen you use Paid Services, including, for example, the paid quota of the Gemini API, Google doesn't use your prompts … or responses to improve our products, and will process your prompts and responses in accordance with the Data Processing Addendum for Products Where Google is a Data Processor. For Paid Services, Google logs prompts and responses for a limited period of time, solely for detecting and preventing violations of the Prohibited Use Policy … This data may be stored transiently or cached in any country in which Google or its agents maintain facilities.
  • For paid Gemini API services with a Taiwan billing address, the contracting entity is Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Singapore); for where data may be stored, see the terms in the previous point official
    Original textAPAC except Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea … Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.
  • Google's blended estimates: Gemini 3.5 Transcribe ≈ US$0.005/min (≈ US$0.30/hour); Transcribe Live ≈ US$0.009/min (≈ US$0.54/hour), assuming 25 audio tokens per second and 175 text tokens per minute. TIO's recording-to-transcript runs Transcribe twice (Traditional Chinese + speaker separation) plus a gemini-3.5-flash alignment call, so this page uses about US$0.63 per hour (estimate) official
    Original textGemini 3.5 Transcribe … Input price | $2.00 or $0.003/min (audio) | Output price | $12.00 or $0.002/min (text) … effective blended rate of ~$0.005 per min for Transcribe. ／ Gemini 3.5 Transcribe Live … $3.50 or $0.005/min (audio) … $21.00 or $0.004/min (text) … effective blended rate of ~$0.009 per min for Live Transcribe.

Versions cited (all UTC): billing 2026-09-03, rate-limits 2026-09-02, pricing 2026-09-16, terms 2026-04-28 (effective 2026-03-23), available-regions 2026-04-28, Cloud Billing currency 2026-09-16; checked 2026-09-19 (UTC+8). All taken from the raw markdown version of the official docs (add .md.txt to the URL). The pricing page was re-checked on 2026-10-03: the prices of the models used here have not changed.

04 ─ Limits and trade-offs

What it cannot do, up front

All the caveats are in this one section, not scattered around the page.

General limits

  • Windows 10/11 only
  • You need your own Google API key with a payment method; fees go straight to Google
  • Audio goes through Google's cloud: the paid-tier terms promise not to use your content to improve products but keep short-term logs to detect abuse; the free tier is used to improve products and human reviewers may read it — real meetings need the paid tier first
  • Live modes cannot tell speakers apart (Live API diarization did not work in tests)
  • With speaker separation Google's single-request limit is 30 minutes, so the program cuts recordings into 28-minute parts; speaker numbers cannot be matched across parts
  • Long recordings can hit two problems that raise no error: a stretch in the middle of a part is not recognised, or the text is filled with the same sentences repeated; zero-cost detectors catch these and note them in the file header, but some edge cases can still slip through
  • Google's own model card says the model may hallucinate; transcripts are drafts, and official records need human review
  • Whether the Chinese voice of function 6 has a Taiwanese accent: Google does not say, and we have not tested it

Function 6 live voice translation

  • Capturing computer audio needs two output devices (one for the original sound, one for the interpretation) and will not start with only one; plugging in wired headphones usually adds one (tested on one laptop; Bluetooth not tested yet)
  • Always wear headphones when using a microphone, or the sound feeds back
  • About 1–2 seconds of delay
  • Google notes that the voice may change after long pauses and may get the speaker's gender wrong
  • A preview model: Google may retire it with at least two weeks' notice

Target languages: Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Japanese, English.

🔴 Before real meetings: turn on the paid tier

The free-tier terms state that content is used to improve Google's products and that human reviewers may read it. The paid-tier terms promise not to use your content to improve products, but the data still goes through an overseas cloud, short-term logs are kept to detect abuse, and the terms do not explicitly promise no human review (see point 4 under "Cost"). If your rules say recordings may not leave for any overseas cloud at all (personnel reviews, complaint cases), use a tool that runs completely offline instead of TIO. A transcript is a draft, not minutes — review official records by hand before sending them out.

05 ─ Is it right for you?

Read from the top; the first one that fits is your answer

① Recordings may not leave for any overseas cloud

Use a tool that runs completely offline. TIO's recognition always goes through Google's cloud; there is no way around that.

② All meetings are on one meeting platform and you only need a transcript

Check whether your meeting platform has built-in captions or transcripts first; if they are enough, you do not need to install anything.

③ You use a Mac

TIO is Windows-only.

④ Formal international events with hundreds of people, or legally binding settings

Book human interpreters. Nobody answers for AI translation mistakes, and it cannot read the room.

⑤ Many hours every month and you want a polished interface

Subscription services may also be worth comparing; TIO suits usage that varies and people who do not want a monthly fee.

⑥ None of the above — use TIO

  • Usage varies and you do not want an annual contract
  • You need to handle in-room meetings, existing recordings and foreign-language videos
  • You want interpretation in your headphones and accept usage-based billing and a preview model
  • You want control over proper nouns and want files kept on your own computer

Many organisations mix tools: built-in captions for online meetings, TIO for in-room meetings, recordings and foreign-language videos, and an offline tool for confidential recordings.

06 ─ Getting started

Three steps

Download TIO Voice Genie V1.41 free

The download page is on GitHub. Scroll down to "Assets": there are two zip files, the English edition (file name ending in _en.zip) and the Traditional Chinese edition (_zh-TW.zip); download the one you need. Don't click "Source code": that is the developers' source snapshot, not the install package.

About 1.5 MB (32 files); no GitHub account needed. Do not unzip right away: right-click the zip → Properties → tick "Unblock" → OK, then unzip.

Go to download →

Get a Gemini API key and turn on the paid tier

Create a key in Google AI Studio and link a payment method. Fees go straight to Google. We recommend each person uses their own key. After installing, menu item 9 "API key settings" lets you set, change or clear the key at any time; it is masked when pasted and checked with Google.

Download and double-click to install

Download it from the page above, unblock and unzip it, then follow "1_Install_Guide_READ_FIRST.md" and double-click 3_Install.bat. The installer first explains what it will do and starts only when you agree. Function 6 needs headphones or a second sound output.

Double-click to start

A simple menu: pick a function and go. See the user guide for details.

Full user guide →

The user guide is also available in 繁體中文 ・ 日本語 ・ 简体中文.

FAQ

You might ask

Does it cost anything?

TIO itself is free and MIT-licensed. The Google Gemini API it calls is paid, and you pay Google directly: about US$0.63 per hour for transcripts (estimate), about US$2.21 per hour for live voice translation, about US$0.50 per hour of transcript for bilingual documents (measured). The paid tier needs a prepayment of at least US$5, forfeited if unused within 12 months; see "Cost".

How many languages can it translate into?

Recognition: Google's documentation says it automatically detects more than 85 language locales (official, checked 2026-09-19). Translation targets (functions 3, 4, 6): the menu offers Traditional Chinese, English and Japanese, all three tested with the real API; other language codes can be given on the command line but are untested.

Can it tell who is speaking when a room shares one microphone?

In recording mode, yes (by voice, not by account); in live modes, no.

Why does function 6 need two sound outputs?

When capturing the sound your computer plays, if the interpretation also plays through the same speakers it is recorded again and translated again — a feedback loop that keeps costing money. So the original sound goes one way (for example an unused output) and the interpretation another (your headphones). With a microphone, always wear headphones.

Our meeting platform already has captions. Do we still need this?

If you only need a transcript and all meetings are on that one platform, the built-in captions are fine. TIO covers what the platform cannot reach: in-room meetings, existing recordings, foreign-language videos, bilingual documents for the record, and your own proper nouns.

Windows blocks it after downloading?

Windows marks zip files downloaded from the internet as "from the internet", and after unzipping the .bat files inside carry the same mark, which some computers block outright. Before unzipping, right-click the zip → Properties → tick "Unblock" → OK. See "Installing" in the user guide for details.

Terms

Terms of use and disclaimer

  1. This tool is developed independently by CY KUO as an individual and provided free of charge under the MIT License. It does not represent any institution or organisation. The full licence is in the LICENSE file in the zip.
  2. Speech recognition and translation are produced by Google Gemini and may mishear, miss words or mistranslate. Transcripts are drafts; review them before using them as official records.
  3. When you use the tool, audio is sent to Google's servers for processing (these may be outside your country), and the data is handled under Google's terms of service. For meetings involving personal or confidential information, turn on the paid tier first.
  4. Usage fees are calculated by Google based on usage and charged to your own Google account; this tool does not handle any payments. We recommend setting a monthly spend cap in Google AI Studio.
  5. Before recording or transcribing, make sure you comply with the applicable laws and your organisation's rules, and tell the participants in advance.
  6. The developer provides this tool under the MIT License without any warranty. Use it at your own discretion and risk; the developer is not liable for any damages.
  7. Google, Gemini, Windows and other names are trademarks of their respective owners. This tool is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by these companies.
  8. This website is for reference only: costs are based on Google's official prices (check dates are given throughout), and Google's announcements and your own bill are what count; measured figures are the developer's results under specific conditions and may not match your situation.
Sources

Where the figures on this page come from

Costs and rules come from Google's official documents; TIO's own costs and behaviour are the developer's measurements, with the conditions stated where they appear.

SourceOfficial URLChecked
Google Gemini API pricingai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing2026-09-19 (re-checked 2026-10-03)
Google Gemini API billing (prepay / expiry / caps)ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing2026-09-19
Google Gemini API rate limits and tiersai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits2026-09-19
Google Gemini API terms of serviceai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms2026-09-19
Gemini 3.5 Transcribe (supported languages)ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/transcribe2026-09-19
Google Cloud contracting entitycloud.google.com/terms/google-entity2026-09-19
Cloud Billing currencies and payment methodsdocs.cloud.google.com/billing/docs/resources/currency2026-09-19
Cloud Billing account typesdocs.cloud.google.com/billing/docs/concepts2026-09-19