Pricing
$2.00 per hour of audio.
That is the whole price list. A $2.00 minimum per file, billed per file, no subscription and nothing that expires. Prices include any sales tax or VAT due where you are — the price you see is the price you pay.
What a month costs
| A month like this | Audio | Files | You pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| One 30-minute interview | 30 min | 1 | $2.00 |
| Two half-hour calls | 1 h | 2 | $4.00 |
| A pair of long meetings | 2 h | 2 | $4.00 |
| A week of research interviews | 5 h | 5 | $10.00 |
| A podcast season | 10 h | 10 | $20.00 |
| Full-time transcription work | 40 h | 20 | $80.00 |
If it fails, you are not charged
When you upload a file we place an authorization on your card for the amount quoted. If the transcription fails, that authorization is cancelled rather than captured — so no money moves and there is nothing to claim back. You do not need to contact anyone, and there is no credit to spend.
This is unusual in a category where a failed job typically consumes an allowance you have already paid for, which is why it is on this page rather than in a footnote.
Where a subscription wins
Above about 8.5 hours of audio a month, a subscription starts to beat paying by the hour — Otter.ai is the first to cross over. If you transcribe that much every month, one of them is a better buy than we are, and the full comparison says which and by how much. We would rather tell you than have you work it out later.
Below that, a plan charges you in the months you upload nothing, and unused capacity does not roll over. Paying by the hour has no floor.
The limits
A single file can be up to 10 hours of audio. Longer than that, split it — each part is priced on its own and the $2.00 minimum applies to each.
Audio and transcripts are deleted 90 days after your last sign-in. Export what you need before then; exporting is free and unlimited.