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Healthcare workers, journalists, legal professionals, and plenty of others often need to type up audio recordings of conversations and meetings. Doing that work manually is tedious, especially since transcription services can do it for you. These companies provide two types of transcriptions. Automated (also called machine-generated or AI) transcriptions are cheap and fast to make but usually full of errors. Human-generated transcriptions are typically extremely accurate but cost more and take longer to produce. Some companies offer just one type, while others give you a choice between the two. PCMag has been evaluating the accuracy, ease of use, and price of top transcription services for more than six years, so we can help you choose the best one. GoTranscript, Otter, and Rev are our Editors' Choice winners, but you should still check out all our other picks and read our category buying advice below.
Our Top Tested Picks
GoTranscript
TranscribeMe
Best for Free Transcriptions
Otter
- Best live editing of any transcription service tested
- Integrates easily with video conferencing apps
- Generous free plan for live audio transcription
- Well-designed mobile apps
- AI-generated transcripts have more errors than human-made ones
- No option for human transcription
- Only works for English and struggles with accents
Otter is an automatic transcription service that has long been popular for its generous free plan. It's less enticing than it once was, but you still get a good amount for free: 300 live transcription minutes per month (with a maximum session length of 30 minutes) and three prerecorded audio or video file uploads for transcription per lifetime. Paid plans, starting at $16.99 per month, up those limits considerably. But Otter's best feature is its ability to integrate with popular video conferencing platforms to summarize and transcribe meetings.
You should use Otter if you need a quick turnaround on transcriptions and are willing to fix some errors manually. It's also very convenient if you frequently need to know what happened during meetings you couldn't attend.
Best for Low-Cost, Human-Generated Transcriptions
GoTranscript
- Incredibly accurate human transcriptions
- Low price
- Great website
- Many languages supported
- Industry-specific transcriptionists available
- Low-quality automated transcription service
- Mobile app has limited functionality
- No ability to integrate with video conferencing software
GoTranscript is among the best online transcription services for accurate, affordable, and human-made transcriptions. It also markets specifically to the education, legal, and medical fields, making it excellent for specialty transcription work. Recently, the company started offering machine-automated transcriptions, but these aren't as impressive as the work its human staff produces.
Choose GoTranscript if you need highly accurate human transcriptions at the lowest possible price.
Best for Human and Automated Transcriptions
Rev
- Options for human-made or AI-generated transcriptions, subtitles, and captions
- Fast turnaround
- Good collaboration tools for teams
- Well-designed web interface
- Clunky mobile apps
- High monthly fee
- Can't edit or add comments to live transcription
Rev stands out because it lets you choose between automatic and human transcription processing. It offers quick turnaround options and competitive rates. Rev also has a great collaborative web space for teams and can caption and subtitle videos.
Rev is best for professionals who want high-quality automated and human-based transcription from the same company. However, you might be better off with Rev's à la carte services rather than a subscription.
Best for Occasional Use
Scribie
- Nearly flawless transcriptions
- Competitive pricing
- Easy-to-use online editing software
- No mobile app
- Confusing web interface
- No longer offers AI transcription
Although Scribie doesn't have as many features as Rev, it does offer low prices for accurate, human-based transcriptions. Its editor works fine, but the web interface could still stand improvement.
Scribie is a decent and affordable option if you need quality transcriptions with a short turnaround time. However, it lacks a mobile app, so look to alternatives on this list if you tend to work with transcriptions on the go.
Best for Affordable Automated Transcription
TranscribeMe
- Inexpensive
- Can upgrade from machine to human transcription
- Works with several languages
- Specializes in multiple industries like legal and medical fields
- Human transcriptions can take up to five days to complete
- Lacks a team workspace
- Pricing isn't transparent, and order form needs improvement
TranscribeMe offers affordable, automated transcriptions with the option to pay more for human-based work. It also provides harder-to-find services, such as data annotation and translation.
TranscribeMe is best for customers who need low-cost automated transcription or any of its specialized services.
Best for Media Professionals
Trint
- Accurate
- Straightforward and easy to use
- Supports collaboration
- Can translate to multiple languages
- Can't record live audio from a laptop or desktop
- Expensive and requires a subscription
- No option for human transcriptions
- Doesn't support multi-factor authentication
Trint is an online transcription service for people who work in media, be it podcasting, print, or scripting. You upload audio or video files, and it sends you back either machine-generated text transcripts or captions. It also has a unique ability: Team members can clip and merge various audio files and collaboratively edit them.
Although pricey, Trint makes a lot of sense for editorial teams who want to speed up transcription work. It should also appeal if you are building a platform or business using mostly video or audio content.
Automated vs. Human Transcription: What's the Difference?
Automated services use automatic speech recognition to transcribe an audio file into text. As mentioned, the two primary benefits of this type are that it's fast and cheap. These services tend to include extra features that might not be free for human-generated transcripts, such as basic speaker identification (for example, Speaker 1, Speaker 2) and time stamps. The downside of this method is that accuracy tends to take a hit. As such, most of these options provide editing software that lets you clean up the text. If you see an error, click on the time-stamped section to listen to the words and transcribe that portion manually.
Transcriptions from humans are highly accurate but cost more and typically require a longer turnaround time. You can usually pay extra if you need a rush order, however. Companies with this type of service tend to assign the work to multiple trained transcriptionists so that no one person has access to your entire audio recording. That's good for privacy. Employees and contractors sometimes must also sign non-disclosure agreements. When you choose human-generated transcripts, you can sometimes pay to get transcriptionists who know a particular industry's jargon (think legal or medical terms).
Because human-powered transcription might introduce privacy concerns, we look at the conditions under which a company says it will comply with law enforcement and hand over user data. You can read such details in the review of each service. All the services here operate under strict nondisclosure policies and let you remove your files from their servers at any time.
GoTranscript, Otter, Rev, Scribie, TranscribeMe, Temi, and Trint all offer automated transcription services. If you need human-powered transcription, use GoTranscript, Rev, Scribie, or TranscribeMe.
How Much Do Transcription Services Cost?
Many transcription services charge on a per-minute basis. For example, a 30-minute transcription at $1 per minute would cost $30. Costs can add up quickly, and some services bill extra for a faster turnaround time or verbatim files (meaning they include all the "ums" and "ahs"). Prices can also increase if the audio is of poor quality. If you find yourself transcribing audio and video files often, a subscription-based service might be the best value. Just keep in mind that some video editing apps you already own now offer automated captioning, too.
As you might guess, the amount of time it takes to turn around a file usually depends on its length. Automated services can typically process a file in a matter of minutes. Human-powered services take quite a bit longer, and you might have to pay for faster delivery speeds. Rev is simple in that it promises to return your file (in most cases) within 12 hours. GoTranscript's slowest option (five days) is also its cheapest.
How to Get the Most Accurate Transcription
One of the most important things you can do to ensure an accurate transcription is to capture a high-quality recording of a conversation or interview in the first place. It's vital that your subjects are close to the recording device and speak in loud, clear voices. When you have multiple speakers, participants should speak one at a time to avoid interference. Most services have a note in their documentation saying that speakers with heavy accents can pose some issues, though there's not much you can do to avoid it. Audio editing software such as the free Audacity can clear up some issues, but it can't perform miracles. In-person recordings also produce better results than recordings of phone calls.
How to Edit a Transcription
Most people need to correct some parts of their transcript once they receive it. When you log into your transcription service, you get an editing program where you can listen to the audio recording again while looking at the typed transcript so that you can make changes easily. The setup of having audio playback right in the editing program is convenient.
Some editing interfaces include tools for highlighting selected parts of a transcript or editing the start time of the recording. Playback speeds and quick rewind buttons (all controllable via keyboard shortcuts) are also fairly standard.
What Are the Best Transcription Apps?
Many of the transcription services we reviewed, including GoTranscript, Otter, and Rev, offer mobile apps in addition to their web dashboards. For the most part, these apps function as digital voice recorders, though you can also order transcripts of your recordings directly from them. The drawback is that you typically can't import audio files or links the way that you can via their websites. Many let you view completed transcripts directly. Otter goes one step further than the others by giving you excellent organizational features and the ability to edit transcripts on the go.
Recommended by Our Editors
Are There Any Alternatives to Transcription Services?
You have options if you want to avoid transcription services entirely—for privacy reasons or to save on costs. For manual transcription, Transcribe is a great option at only $20 per year. It lets you listen to an audio recording while you type, with built-in keyboard shortcuts and useful playback modes that reduce the number of times you need to pause and rewind. Another option is oTranscribe. It works similarly to Transcribe, but it's free.
If you're a paying Microsoft 365 subscriber, you can use Word's Transcribe feature from the Home > Dictate drop-down menu. You can record in real-time inside Word or upload audio files to its online automated transcription service. Transcribe for Word doesn't cost any extra.
Google Docs might be the best solution for those who don't want to spend any money. With Google Docs, you can use the voice typing feature, which is nothing more than a speech-to-text tool, to put words down on the page. It's often quicker than typing everything out. Some people listen to a prerecorded audio file on headphones and then speak the same lines aloud to a speech-to-text tool. This works better than playing the audio directly into a microphone, but it's still cumbersome and takes time.
Ultimately, any transcription method or service you choose is better than simply letting your recordings go to waste. Yes, transcribing can be a hassle, and some services are costly, but the value of accurate and usable transcripts far outweighs these annoyances.
