AI has disrupted the transcription industry. Accurate transcriptions are now available at significantly lower prices. However, AI transcription is not yet fully on par with human transcription.
For example, sensitive areas where every word counts, such as medicine, law, science, etc., use transcription services that employ humans and enable near-perfect transcripts.
However, for those who want to transcribe podcast episodes and do not have the budget for the higher per-minute prices of traditional transcription services using humans, automatic speech-to-text tools of accurate quality are quite often the best fit.
AI transcription can also often used for rough transcription and then after the transcript is generated it’s listened to and corrected simultaneously by humans.
The following table compares automatic transcription with speech recognition using AI.
Compare transcription tools
| Tool Name | Description (Transcription) | Free Plan/Trial included | Primary Target Audiences | Speaker Diarization | Max. accuracy (as per tool website) | Transcribed Languages | GDPR Ready | SRT Export | AI-made ($/minute) | Human-made ($/minute) | Fixed Price ($/hour) | Fixed Price ($/month) | One time fee in $ | Company Country | On Market Since |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud Speech-to-Text | Converts audio into text transcriptions | yes ⓘNew customers receive up to $300 voucher for transcription | App developers, enterprise IT teams, voice assistant creators, IoT system integrators | yes | 97% | 125+ | it dependsyes, but only if properly configured | yes | $0.024/minuteEach request is rounded up to the nearest increment of 15 seconds, charged in 15-second increments | USA | 2016 | ||||
| Otter.ai | AI meeting agent transcribing meetings in real time | yes | Business teams, meeting participants, HR, product managers, educators | yes | 90% | 1 EN | yes | yes | $10+ | USA | 2016 | ||||
| Whisper (OpenAI) | Machine learning model for speech recognition and transcription | yes | Developers, data scientists, researchers, AI projects, open-source community | no | 57+ | it dependsNot GDPR compliant when used via OpenAI API. Self-hosted use may be compliant. | no | Free (local) | Open Source | 2022 | |||||
| Riverside.fm | HD content creation studio, record video podcasts in high quality, transcription tool included | yes | Podcasters, interviewers, journalists, remote video creators | yes | 99% | 100+ | unknown | yes | Netherlands | 2020 | |||||
| Sonix | Automatic transcription software | no | Content creators, digital marketers, media producers | yes | 97% | 53+ | yes | yes | $10/h | USA | 2017 | ||||
| Temi | Speech to text transcription | yes | Budget-conscious users, interviewers, students | yes | 95% | 1 EN | unknown | yes | $0.25/min | USA | 2017 | ||||
| Trint | Automated video & audio transcription | yes | Newsrooms, media teams, marketing departments, video journalists | yes | 99% | 40+ | yes | yes | $48+ | UK | 2016 | ||||
| Descript | Instant transcripts | yes | Podcasters, YouTubers, video editors, marketing/content teams | yes | 95% | 25: EN, FR, DE | yes | yes | $16+ | USA | 2017 | ||||
| Scribie | Human & budget-friendly transcription | no | Freelancers, interviewers, students, journalists | yes | 99% | 1 EN | unknown | no | $0.10/min | USA | 2008 | ||||
| Fireflies.ai | Meeting AI transcription, notetaker, AI meeting assistant | yes | Business teams, sales, remote collaboration, project management | yes | 95% | 100+ EN, ES, FR | unknown | yes | $10+ | USA | 2019 | ||||
| Rev AI | Realtime streaming transcription, machine generated or human audio & video transcription | yes | Podcasters, media companies, journalists, legal professionals, video producers | yes | 90% | 58+ (Machine), 9 (Streaming), 1 EN (Human) | unknown | no | $0.035/min | USA | 2018 | ||||
| Simon Says | Video AI transcription, subtitles | no | Video editors, filmmakers, media producers | yes | 100+ | unknown | yes | $0.25 | $15+ | USA | 2016 | ||||
| Verbit | AI transcription & captioning | yes | Higher education, legal institutions | yes | 99% | 1 EN (support in 50+ languages) | yes | no | custom | Israel | 2015 | ||||
| Deepgram | Speech to text transcription | yes | Developers, voice analytics platforms, contact centers, speech researchers | yes | 90%+ | 36+ | unknown | no | $0.006/min | USA | 2015 | ||||
| Fathom | Not primarily a transcription service, but rather a meeting assistant | yes | Business professionals, sales teams, internal meeting workflows | yes | 1 EN (translates in 28 languages) | unknown | no | Free | USA | 2021 | |||||
| Nuance Dragon | Dragon Professional dictation software with speech recognition, transcription | no | Doctors, legal professionals, enterprise dictation users, government | yes | 99% | 3: EN, DE, FR | unknown | no | $55 | $699 | USA | 1997 | |||
| Maestra | AI transcription, especially for interviews, podcasts, memos, auto-captioning and voiceovers for video | yes | Content creators, YouTubers, online educators | yes | 125+ | unknown | yes | $29+ | USA | 2019 | |||||
| Happy Scribe | Automatic (AI) and human transcription, subtitles | yes | Journalists, video creators, YouTubers, researchers, translators | yes | 85%+ | 120+ | yes | yes | $0.20/min | France | 2017 | ||||
| MeetGeek | Meeting transcription, meeting summaries & insights | yes | Agile teams, HR, product managers, business meetings | yes | 30+ | yes | yes | Free / $15+ | Romania | 2021 | |||||
| Speechnotes | AI speech to text - voice typing & Transcriptions, timestamps, video captioning | no | Bloggers, writers, dictation-heavy users, solo professionals | yes | 95% | 1+ | unknown | no | $0.1/min | Israel | 2015 | ||||
| AssemblyAI | AI speech-to-text, transcription | yes | Developers (API-first), startups, SaaS platforms, transcription-based analytics tools | yes | 99+ | unknown | yes | $0.15/h | USA | 2017 | |||||
| Speechmatics | Live AI transcription | yes | Global enterprises, speech researchers, call centers, multilingual media companies | yes | 55+ | unknown | yes | $0.004/min | UK | 2012 | |||||
| Notta | AI transcription of live-speech or pre-recorded audio, for podcasts: transcripts, captions of podcast media | yes | Individual users, remote workers, small teams, meeting documentation | yes | 58: EN, JA, ZH | unknown | yes | $8+ | Japan | 2020 | |||||
| TranscribeMe | AI & human made transcriptions | no | Legal and medical professionals, academic researchers, journalists, government contractors | yes | 1: EN | unknown | no | $0.07+ | $0.79 | USA | 2011 | ||||
| Voxtab | Transcription services, closed captioning & subtitling, offers manual transcription too | no | Researchers, academics, marketing teams, corporations | yes | 100+ EN, JP, ES, IT, DE, FR | yes | yes | $1.25 | |||||||
| Spext | Create searchable media archive for podcast content, transcribe-edit-publish audio content | yes | Podcasters, audio editors, video creators | yes | 1: EN | unknown | no | $8+ | New Zealand | 2020 | |||||
| Beey | Automatic transcription & subtitles for audio & video content | yes | Journalists, editors, public sector (popular in Central Europe, especially Czech market) | yes | 30+ | unknown | yes | $12+ | Czech Republic | 2019 | |||||
| Leexi | AI meeting & call notetaker, in compliance with GDPR and ISO 27001, conversation intelligence | yes | Sales teams, revenue operations, CRM integrations | yes | 150+ FR, EN, ES | unknown | no | $15+ | Belgium | 2020 | |||||
| Amberscript | AI transcription of interviews, subtitles, automated & manual transcription with legal compliance | no | Universities, governments, media agencies | yes | 90+ | yes | yes | $10/h | Netherlands | 2018 | |||||
| Voicenotes | Meeting, notes transcription | yes | Individuals, journalists, writers, dictation-heavy professions | yes | 100+ | unknown | no | Free | USA | 2021 | |||||
| Smartling | Audio/Video Transcription, Subtitling; focused on translation, transcription is secondary | no | Global enterprises, localization teams | yes | 2: EN, ES | unknown | no | custom | USA | 2013 | |||||
| Veritone | AI transcription, AI media indexing & transcription | no | Broadcasters, law enforcement, media archivists | yes | 70 | unknown | no | custom | USA | 2014 | |||||
| Turboscribe | Audio & video transcription (powered by Whisper), affordable AI transcription, UI-focused | no | Solo podcasters, educators, journalists | 0 | 98+ | unknown | no | USA | 2016 | ||||||
| Tactiq | Live, in-meeting AI transcriptions, real-time meeting notes | yes | Teams using Google Meet, educators, students | yes | 1: EN | unknown | no | $8+ | Poland | 2021 | |||||
| MacWhisper | App for MacOS based on Whisper by OpenAI, offline transcription | yes | Mac users, developers, solo creators, Whisper power users | yes | 100+ | unknown | yes | Free | USA | 2023 | |||||
| Beulr | Transcribing online meetings, auto-attend & record meetings | yes | Students, remote workers, people skipping Zoom calls | yes | 1: EN | unknown | no | USA | 2020 | ||||||
| Streamlabs podcast editor | Editing tool for podcasts publishing with automatic transcription & subtitles | yes | Podcasters, streamers, content creators | yes | 30+ | unknown | yes | $12+ | Germany | 2020 | |||||
| Alice | Transcribing & analyzing voice data (single speech, interview or meeting) | no | Sales teams, call recording analysis, conversation insights | yes | 1: EN | unknown | no | $9.99- (gets cheaper >20 hours | USA | 2022 | |||||
| Castmagic | Repurposing podcast audio into content | no | Podcasters, solo creators, marketers | yes | 1: EN | unknown | no | $39+ | Canada | 2023 | |||||
| Transcript LOL | Minimalist free transcription tool | no | Creators, students, journalists | yes | 60+ | unknown | no | $12+ | UK | 2023 | |||||
| Veed.io | AI video Editor, auto subtitle generator, repurposing | yes | Social media marketers, YouTubers, educators | yes | 3: EN, FR, ES | unknown | yes | $12+ | UK | 2020 | |||||
| Kapwing | Video creation platform, produces subtitles, all-in-one editor with transcription | yes | Short-form creators, TikTok/IG video editors, educators | yes | 1: EN | unknown | yes | $24+ | USA | 2018 | |||||
| Limecraft | Video transcription, speech-to-text, AI subtitling | no | Broadcasters, TV production teams, multilingual postproduction workflows | yes | 2: EN, NL | unknown | yes | custom | €15 transcription & subtitling | Belgium | 2010 | ||||
| Transkriptor | Transcribes meetings, interviews, calls, and lectures, affordable multilingual transcription | yes | Students, academics, small businesses | yes | 100+ | unknown | yes | $19.99+ | Turkey | 2020 | |||||
| Avoma | AI meeting assistant, real time transcription, with action item extraction | yes | Sales, product, and customer success teams | yes | EN | unknown | no | $29+ | USA | 2017 | |||||
| Gglot | AI transcription of audio & video, captions, affordable automated STT | yes | Budget-conscious creators, freelancers, multilingual users | yes | 60+ | unknown | yes | $14.99 | USA | 2020 | |||||
| Transcribe by Wreally | Privacy-focused AI transcription speech to text software, manual & semi-automatic audio transcription | no | Writers, academics, journalists | yes | 80+ | unknown | no | $6 | $20 | USA | 2014 | ||||
| Dubverse | Transcription of audio & video, AI dubbing + subtitling + transcription for global content | yes | Video creators, brands, educators | yes | 30+ | unknown | yes | $18+ | India | 2022 | |||||
| Vocalmatic | Automatically transcribe audio, (basic ASR transcription platform | yes | Indie creators, budget users, students | yes | 2: EN, FR | unknown | no | $39 | Canada | 2017 | |||||
| Vatis Tech | AI transcription & caption software | yes | Developers, government, call centers (Romania-based STT API with strong European language support) | yes | 43+ | unknown | yes | €20 | Romania | 2021 |