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How to Translate Any Audio on Your PC in Real Time

Updated November 1, 2026

Short answer: to translate any audio on your PC in real time, use an app that listens to the computer's sound instead of a single website or meeting app. Live Subtitles does this on Windows 10 and 11: it captures the sound the PC plays (or your microphone), recognizes the speech and shows the original and a translation together in a floating window, less than a second behind the speaker, in 50 languages and any language pair. On Windows, Live Voice can also read the translation aloud.

Why "any audio" is the hard part

Most translation tools are tied to one place. A browser feature only hears the browser. A meeting app's translated captions work only inside that meeting app, and only when your plan and your organization's settings allow them. A phone translator held up to the speaker picks up room noise and leaves your hands busy. If your day mixes a Teams call, a YouTube lecture and a podcast, you would need a different tool for each, and some of them (a desktop video player, a WhatsApp or Discord call) have nothing at all.

A system-wide app avoids the problem: whatever the PC plays, it can subtitle and translate.

How to translate audio on a Windows PC in real time

1. Install Live Subtitles from the Microsoft Store (Windows 10 or 11). It is free to try; no plugin or browser extension is needed.
2. Select the PC's sound as the source to translate calls, videos, streams and podcasts. Switch to the microphone when the speaker is in the room with you.
3. Set the languages: the one being spoken and the one you want to read. Any pair of the 50 supported languages works.
4. Play the audio and start the subtitles. The original and the translation appear together in a window you can move over the video or next to the call.
5. Prefer to listen? On Windows, turn on Live Voice to hear the translation spoken while the original keeps playing underneath.

Ways to translate audio on a PC compared

Approach	What it can hear	How you get the translation	Main limit
System-wide app (Live Subtitles)	Any sound on the PC, or the microphone	Original and translation on screen together; read aloud with Live Voice on Windows	Needs internet; free to try, then minute packs or a subscription
Translated captions in a meeting app	Only calls in that app	Captions inside the meeting window	Depends on the app, your plan and admin settings
Browser captions or extensions	Only audio in the browser	Inside the browser	Desktop apps and calls outside the browser are not covered
Phone translator held to the speaker	Whatever the phone microphone picks up	On the phone screen	Room noise, hands busy, not suited to long sessions
Windows 11 Live Captions	Any sound on the PC	Captions bar	Windows 11 only; translation only on Copilot+ PCs

What people translate with it

• Calls with colleagues, clients or family in Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Skype, WhatsApp, Telegram or Discord. Your subtitles are visible only to you, nothing is installed into the call app, and no bot joins.
• Videos without subtitles in your language: YouTube, Netflix, news streams, Twitch, webinars and local video files.
• Podcasts, courses and lectures in a language you are still learning. Keeping the original next to the translation helps you learn words in context, and the word list lets you save new words and export them to CSV or TXT.
• Talks and in-person conversations through the microphone.
• Language practice: watching a series or a vlog in the language you are learning with the translation underneath, so you can follow the story without pausing every few seconds to look things up.

For the most common apps there are step-by-step guides: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, YouTube and Netflix.

Tips for better real-time translation

• Feed it clean sound. Capturing the PC's sound directly is clearer than a microphone picking up speakers; keep the volume of the call or video at a normal level.
• Set the spoken language correctly before you start, especially when a speaker switches between languages.
• Keep a stable connection. Recognition and translation run online, so a weak Wi-Fi signal shows up as delays.
• Place the window where your eyes already are: under the video, or next to the speaker's camera in a call.

Mac, phone and Windows 10

Live Subtitles is also available for macOS, iOS and Android (Live Voice is Windows-only). If you are on Windows 10 specifically, read live translated subtitles on Windows 10, which explains what the operating system lacks and how to set it up. And if you need captions in the spoken language without translation, the sister app Live Captions & Transcribe is made for that.

Download Live Subtitles — Try It Free

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