How much does transcription cost?
From $120/hour humans to sub-$1 AI: where the money actually goes.
Free: 60 min per 30 days, files up to 30 min / 50 MB · Paid plans: 10 to 100 hrs, files up to 2 GB. Big video? Upload just its audio track: same transcript, much faster upload.
Encrypted in transit · audio & video auto-delete in 30 days · never used to train AI
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Last updated 21 July 2026
Human transcription services charge $1–$2 per audio minute, or $60 to $120 per hour of audio, with more for rush turnaround or difficult audio. AI transcription upended that: subscription tools now cost the equivalent of $0.20–$1.00 per audio hour, and most (Trustample included) offer a genuinely free tier for light use.
Trustample's math: Free is 60 minutes per 30 days at $0. Basic is $12/month for 10 hours (about $1.20 per audio hour). Pro is $19/month for 20 hours (about $0.95 per audio hour), including AI summaries, chat and translation. Business is $79/month for 100 hours (about $0.79 per audio hour). Prices include taxes; annual billing drops them further (Basic $9/mo, Pro $14/mo effective).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
When is expensive human transcription worth it?
Certified legal/court transcripts, broadcast-quality captions with strict formatting, and genuinely terrible audio that AI mangles. For everyday meetings, lectures, interviews and content work, AI plus a few minutes of your own editing wins on both cost and speed; the accuracy numbers explain why.
What's the catch with 'free' transcription tools?
Free transcription tools typically fund themselves one of three ways: hard limits designed as a paywall, advertising and data harvesting, or throttled processing. A capped free tier from a subscription company is the transparent version of the trade, because free users who hit a real wall become paying users. Trustample's is 60 minutes every 30 days with the same engine and editor paid users get; the free-routes guide compares the alternatives.
Are per-minute AI tools cheaper than subscriptions?
For occasional use, sometimes. Pay-as-you-go runs $0.10–$0.25 per audio minute ($6–$15/hour), which beats a subscription you barely use. Past a few hours a month, subscriptions win decisively.
What do AI features like summaries add to the cost?
In Trustample, nothing extra: Basic includes 100 AI actions a month and Pro 200 (summaries, chat questions, content drafts, translations) inside the subscription price. Tools that meter AI separately can surprise you; check before relying on one.
Related pages
Minutes, not days
Rev Alternativevs per-minute human transcription
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