Transcription cost calculator

Transcription is priced per audio minute: the length of the recording, not the time it takes to type. Rates differ by the kind of work because some recordings take far longer to get right.

• General ($0.80/min) — interviews, podcasts and everyday recordings with clear speakers.
• Business ($0.90/min) — meetings and earnings calls with several speakers and company names.
• Academic ($0.95/min) — research interviews and focus groups, where every participant must be labelled consistently.
• Medical ($1.25/min) — clinical dictation and research with specialist terminology.
• Legal ($1.40/min) — depositions, hearings and statements, transcribed verbatim with objections.
• Captions ($1.50/min) — SRT and VTT files timed to your video.

Three things move a quote: length, turnaround and audio difficulty. Length and turnaround are in the calculator. Difficult audio — heavy background noise, strong accents, many overlapping speakers or a language other than English — can raise the rate; when it does, our team confirms the quote by email before you pay.

To keep costs down, record close to the speakers, use one microphone per person where you can, and trim long silences or music before uploading.

Automatic transcripts are cheap but miss speaker changes, names, numbers and jargon, and need careful checking before you can quote or file them. Every Soundtoscript transcript passes three stages: a first-pass draft, a professional editor who corrects names, terms and speakers, and a separate quality check before delivery.