Free online OPUS to RTF converter

An OPUS file contains compressed speech audio, while RTF stores formatted text, so this task requires speech recognition rather than a simple file-format rewrite. Convert it when a word processor, archive, or recipient needs an editable transcript instead of the original recording.

What the OPUS format is

OPUS is a lossy audio codec commonly stored in an .opus file, especially for speech and internet calling. Web browsers using WebRTC, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, voice recorders, and other messaging or conferencing software can create or export it. The file may contain one speaker, several speakers, background noise, or no speech at all.

What the RTF format is

RTF, or Rich Text Format, is a document format supported by Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, WordPad, and many document-management systems. It preserves basic formatting such as fonts, paragraphs, bold text, lists, and simple tables while remaining more portable than a proprietary word-processing file. RTF is useful when the recognized speech must be edited, reviewed, emailed, or archived as a readable document.

How to actually convert OPUS to RTF

Using 101convert online:

1. Open the OPUS-to-RTF converter on 101convert.com.
2. Upload the .opus recording.
3. Select the spoken language and enable transcription or audio-to-text conversion if those options are shown.
4. Choose RTF as the output format, start the conversion, and download the generated document.

This method requires no installed software. Review the transcript before distributing it because automatic recognition can mishear names, technical terms, accents, and overlapping speech.

Using desktop software:

1. Run Whisper or another speech-recognition engine that accepts OPUS. OpenAI Whisper's command-line tool requires FFmpeg and can be run with whisper recording.opus --model medium --output_format txt.
2. Open the resulting transcript in LibreOffice Writer using File → Open.
3. Correct recognition errors, add headings or speaker labels, then choose File → Save As, select Rich Text Format (.rtf), and save the document.

If the recognition tool cannot decode the recording, convert it first with ffmpeg -i recording.opus recording.wav, then submit recording.wav to the speech-recognition tool.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

Changing an OPUS filename to .rtf, or converting OPUS with an ordinary audio converter, does not create a transcript; RTF must be generated after speech recognition. Recognition quality depends on audio bitrate, microphone distance, background noise, language selection, accents, and overlapping speakers. An RTF file contains the recognized words and formatting, not the original audio, speaker separation, or guaranteed timestamps unless the conversion tool explicitly inserts them.

For long recordings, split the audio into logical sections before recognition and combine the reviewed results in Writer. Use Unicode-capable software when the transcript contains non-Latin characters, and keep the original OPUS file because transcription corrections cannot restore omitted or misrecognized speech.