TL;DR: Real-time transcription is for moments when people need words on screen during the conversation. Batch transcription is for the version you actually save, search, quote, subtitle, and share later. If the audio already exists as a recording, batch is usually the better call. Most teams think they need live transcription. Usually they need a clean transcript 20 minutes later. This confusion shows up all the time because vendors lump very different products under the same label. A meeting app promises live captions. A transcription platform promises speaker labels, summaries, subtitles, and exports. Both turn speech into text, but they solve different problems. One helps people follow along in the moment. The other creates a record you can work with afterward. The easiest rule is blunt: if someone must read the text while a person is still talking, you need real-time transcription. If the goal is accuracy, searchable notes, content repurposing, or a transcript worth keeping, use batch.…