# Transcription cost calculator: monthly cost of Otter, Rev, Descript, Riverside, Sonix, Happy Scribe, Trint and speech-to-text APIs

> Enter how many hours of audio you transcribe a month and the cheapest plan that fits for each vendor appears, from apps like Otter, Rev, Descript, Riverside, Sonix, Happy Scribe and Trint to the OpenAI, Deepgram, AssemblyAI, Google, AWS and Azure APIs and human transcription. Every price is read from the vendor's own page and dated; unknowns say "Check vendor".

By TranscribeBench. Updated 7 October 2026. Canonical URL: https://transcribebench.com/transcription-cost-calculator/

No paid links on this page: vendor links go straight to the vendor.

> **Interactive calculator.** Enter hours of audio per month, your longest recording and billing preference on the HTML version of this page (https://transcribebench.com/transcription-cost-calculator/) to get the cheapest plan that fits for each vendor. The prices it uses are below.

### Transcription apps (US list prices read 2026-10-07)

| Vendor | Plan | Monthly | Per month, billed yearly | Included each month | Extra minutes | Longest file | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otter.ai | Basic | $0 | Not listed | 5 hours | None listed | 30 min | https://otter.ai/pricing |
| Otter.ai | Pro | $16.99 | $8.33 | 20 hours | None listed | 90 min | https://otter.ai/pricing |
| Otter.ai | Business | $30 | $19.99 | 100 hours | None listed | 240 min | https://otter.ai/pricing |
| Descript | Free | $0 | Not listed | 1 hour | None listed | Not stated | https://www.descript.com/pricing |
| Descript | Hobbyist | $24 | $16 | 10 hours | None listed | Not stated | https://www.descript.com/pricing |
| Descript | Creator | $35 | $24 | 30 hours | Sold, price not published | Not stated | https://www.descript.com/pricing |
| Descript | Business | $65 | $50 | 40 hours | Sold, price not published | Not stated | https://www.descript.com/pricing |
| Riverside | Pro | $35 | $24 | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://riverside.com/pricing |
| Riverside | Grow | $45 | $34 | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://riverside.com/pricing |
| Riverside | Webinar | $99 | $79 | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://riverside.com/pricing |
| Riverside | Business | Check vendor | Not listed | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://riverside.com/pricing |
| Sonix | Pay As You Go | Pay as you go | n/a | $10.00 per hour | None listed | Not stated | https://sonix.ai/pricing |
| Sonix | Core | $25 | $22.92 | 5 hours | $10.00 per hour | Not stated | https://sonix.ai/pricing |
| Sonix | Advanced | $50 | $45.83 | 20 hours | $10.00 per hour | Not stated | https://sonix.ai/pricing |
| Sonix | Pro | $80 | $73.33 | 40 hours | $10.00 per hour | Not stated | https://sonix.ai/pricing |
| Sonix | Enterprise | Check vendor | Not listed | Check vendor | None listed | Not stated | https://sonix.ai/pricing |
| Happy Scribe | Free | $0 | Not listed | One-time trial only | None listed | Not stated | https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing |
| Happy Scribe | Basic | $17 | $8.50 | 2 hours | $12.00 per hour | Not stated | https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing |
| Happy Scribe | Pro | $29 | $19 | 10 hours | $12.00 per hour | Not stated | https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing |
| Happy Scribe | Business | $89 | $59 | 100 hours | $12.00 per hour | Not stated | https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing |
| Trint | Pro | $100 | $79 | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://app.trint.com/plans |
| Trint | Team | $90 | $69 | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://app.trint.com/plans |
| Trint | Business | Check vendor | Not listed | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://app.trint.com/plans |
| Rev | Free | $0 | Not listed | 0.75 hours | None listed | Not stated | https://www.rev.com/pricing |
| Rev | Essentials | $29.99 | $25.49 | 83.33 hours | None listed | Not stated | https://www.rev.com/pricing |
| Rev | Pro | $59.99 | $47.99 | 166.67 hours | None listed | Not stated | https://www.rev.com/pricing |
| Rev | Unlimited | Check vendor | Not listed | Unlimited (fair use) | n/a | Not stated | https://www.rev.com/pricing |

### Human transcription and speech-to-text APIs

| Vendor | Plan | Type | Per minute | Per hour | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Happy Scribe | Human transcription (English) | Human | $2.0 | $120.00 | https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing-professional-services |
| Rev | Human Transcription | Human | $1.99 | $119.40 | https://www.rev.com/pricing |
| OpenAI API | gpt-transcribe (default) | API | $0.0045 | $0.27 | https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing |
| OpenAI API | gpt-4o-transcribe | API | $0.006 | $0.36 | https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing |
| OpenAI API | gpt-4o-mini-transcribe | API | $0.003 | $0.18 | https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing |
| OpenAI API | whisper-1 | API | $0.006 | $0.36 | https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing |
| OpenAI API | gpt-live-transcribe (real-time) | API | $0.017 | $1.02 | https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing |
| Deepgram | Nova-3 Monolingual (pre-recorded, Pay As You Go) | API | $0.0043 | $0.26 | https://deepgram.com/pricing |
| Deepgram | Nova-3 Multilingual (pre-recorded, Pay As You Go) | API | $0.0052 | $0.31 | https://deepgram.com/pricing |
| AssemblyAI | Universal-3.5 Pro (pre-recorded) | API | $0.0035 | $0.21 | https://www.assemblyai.com/pricing |
| AssemblyAI | Universal-2 (pre-recorded) | API | $0.0025 | $0.15 | https://www.assemblyai.com/pricing |
| Google Cloud Speech-to-Text | V2 Standard recognition (0-500k min tier) | API | $0.016 | $0.96 | https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/pricing |
| Google Cloud Speech-to-Text | V2 Standard dynamic batch | API | $0.003 | $0.18 | https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/pricing |
| Amazon Transcribe | Standard batch (us-east-1) | API | $0.006 | $0.36 | https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/pricing/ |
| Amazon Transcribe | Standard streaming (us-east-1) | API | $0.01 | $0.60 | https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/pricing/ |
| Azure AI Speech | Standard batch transcription (East US) | API | $0.003 | $0.18 | https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/speech/ |
| Azure AI Speech | Standard real-time transcription (East US) | API | $0.0167 | $1.00 | https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/speech/ |
| Rev AI | Reverb transcription (English) | API | $0.003333 | $0.20 | https://www.rev.ai/pricing |
| Rev AI | Whisper Large transcription | API | $0.005 | $0.30 | https://www.rev.ai/pricing |
| Rev AI | Human transcription (API) | Human | $1.99 | $119.40 | https://www.rev.ai/pricing |

Raw data, with the quote behind every number: https://transcribebench.com/tools/transcription-cost-calculator/prices.json

## How the cost is worked out

```
Subscription plan  = monthly fee (or the yearly price / 12 with yearly billing) x seats required
                     + extra hours x the plan's overage rate, if you go past the included hours
                     (no overage rate published -> the plan does not fit, or "Check vendor" if top-ups are sold)
Pay as you go      = hours x 60 x price per minute
Per audio hour     = monthly cost / hours
```

For each vendor, the calculator evaluates every plan and keeps the cheapest one that fits. A plan does not fit when your hours exceed its allowance with no way to buy more, when your longest recording is longer than its per-file limit, when it caps imported files below what you need, when its free minutes are a one-time trial, or when it transcribes only live audio. A price the vendor does not publish ("contact sales") is shown as **Check vendor**, never estimated.

## What the numbers assume

- **One user, US list prices,** before sales tax, in US dollars, read on 7 October 2026. Introductory discounts are left out and mentioned in the notes. Otter's Business plan, for example, showed a "20% off for 3 months" offer for new subscribers; the calculator uses the regular price.
- **Uploaded recordings,** not live meetings. Several apps treat the two differently: Otter's Business plan has unlimited meeting transcription but caps imported files at 6,000 minutes a user per month, and Happy Scribe's plans include unlimited meeting recordings but a fixed number of minutes for uploaded files. The calculator uses the limits for uploaded files.
- **"Unlimited" means fair use.** Riverside lists unlimited transcription hours on every plan, and Trint unlimited transcription under a fair-use cap it does not publish.
- **What the minutes count.** Descript's allowance is "media minutes", which count every file you upload or record, transcribed or not. Sonix's extra hours cost $10 an hour on any plan, and its included hours belong to the workspace, not to each seat.
- **APIs bill the audio,** usually per second, at the standard rate for recorded (not streaming) audio. Speaker labels, PII redaction and other add-ons cost extra on several APIs and are not included. You also need a developer to call the API and something to read the output in.
- **Human transcription** is the per-minute starting price for English at the standard turnaround. Rush delivery, timestamps and difficult audio cost more.

## Apps, APIs or people

The three kinds of service are not substitutes for each other, which is why the calculator shows them in separate tables.

- **Transcription apps** (Otter, Descript, Riverside, Sonix, Happy Scribe, Trint, Rev's AI plans) include an editor, speaker labels, exports to Word and subtitle formats, and search. Descript and Riverside are video and podcast editors first: transcription is how you edit, so their prices buy much more than text. [Descript](https://www.descript.com/) and [Riverside](https://riverside.com/) are the two vendors here with affiliate programs.
- **Speech-to-text APIs** (OpenAI, Deepgram, AssemblyAI, Google Cloud, Amazon Transcribe, Azure, Rev AI) cost a fraction of a cent a minute and return text to your code. They make sense when you are building something, or when you transcribe hundreds of hours and can write a short script.
- **Human transcription** (Rev, Happy Scribe) costs around $2 a minute, roughly a hundred times an app's effective price, and is the choice when every word must be right: legal, medical, publication.

Price is half of the decision. How accurate each one is on audio like yours is the other half: the [benchmark](/whisper-baseline-benchmark/) measures that on openly licensed recordings, and the [WER calculator](/wer-calculator/) lets you measure it on your own. The [guide to choosing a transcription tool](/how-to-choose-a-transcription-tool/) puts the two together.

## Plan changes we noticed

Pricing pages change often, and several changed recently. On 7 October 2026: Sonix no longer lists Standard and Premium plans (now Pay As You Go, Core, Advanced, Pro and Enterprise); Trint lists Pro, Team and Business instead of Starter and Advanced; Riverside lists no free plan, only a 14-day trial; Rev's subscription page is now aimed at legal and investigative work; and OpenAI's speech-to-text guide recommends a new default model, gpt-transcribe. Where a vendor's own pages disagreed with each other, the note on that plan says which figure was used and why. The table below the calculator has every note.

## Keeping the prices current

Prices are re-read from each vendor's page monthly and whenever a vendor announces a change; the date on each row is the date it was read. If a price here is wrong, report it through the [about page](/about/) and it will be corrected with the date.