Before you start
- Plan needed: the first upload is free as a preview; everything else needs the 7-day free trial or a subscription.
Galileo (dashboard uploads)
| What | Accepted | Limits and notes |
|---|---|---|
| Documents | PDF (.pdf), Word (.docx), plain text (.txt) | PDFs up to 2,000 pages. Must contain selectable text (not image-only scans). |
| Slides | Export to PDF first | PowerPoint (.pptx), Keynote and Google Slides aren’t accepted directly. |
| Audio | MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, OGG and other common formats | Must finish transcribing within 15 minutes, so split very long recordings. |
| Video | MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WebM | Only the sound is used. Upload just the audio if the file is very large. |
| YouTube | Watch, youtu.be, Shorts, live and embed links | Public or unlisted videos with speech or captions. One video at a time. |
| Web pages | Any public page address | Login-only and paywalled pages can’t be read. |
| Pasted text | Anything you can copy | Very long text takes longer. |
| Live recording | Your microphone | Needs a steady internet connection. |
Not accepted in Galileo: .doc, .pptx, .xlsx, images and ZIP files.
Canvas uploads
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| 50MB per file | |
| Excel | 50MB per file |
| Documents | 50MB per file |
| Audio and video (MP3, WAV, MP4, WebM) | 100MB per file |
| Images | 20MB per file |
Steps: convert an unsupported file
- Slides (PowerPoint): choose File, then Export or Save As, and pick PDF.
- Google Slides or Docs: choose File, Download, then PDF Document.
- Old Word (.doc): open it and choose Save As, then Word Document (.docx) or PDF.
- Scanned PDF: run it through a text recognition (OCR) tool, then upload the new PDF.
- Huge video: export or extract the audio track (for example as MP3) and upload that.
Tips
- Smaller, focused uploads (one chapter or lecture) give better summaries and flashcards.
- Good audio beats long audio. A clear 50-minute lecture transcribes better than a noisy three-hour one.
If something goes wrong
- “Unsupported file type”. Convert the file using the steps above.
- Stuck on “Uploading” or “Processing”. See upload stuck or failed.
- Canvas says the file is too large. Compress it, or split a long PDF into parts.
