Transcription pricing is opaque on purpose. Vendors quote in different units (per minute, per hour, per word, per page), bundle different scopes (verbatim vs. clean read, single vs. multi-speaker, with or without timestamps), and apply add-ons after the work starts. This guide is a practical reference for comparing quotes apples-to-apples — and a transparent breakdown of how Lessrec sets its hourly rates.
What “audio minute” means
An audio minute is one minute of source recording. If you submit a 47-minute interview, you pay for 47 audio minutes, regardless of how many words come out, how long the editor spent, or whether the file ships as a 12-page PDF or a one-page summary.
This is the unit nearly all professional services use because it’s the only variable the customer fully controls. You know how long the recording is before you send it — you don’t know how many words a transcriber will produce.
Why not per word or per page
Per-word pricing has two failure modes:
- Hidden smoothing. If the vendor charges per word, they have a soft incentive to delete “um”, “you know”, false starts, and side comments. For research and legal work, those are the parts you specifically need preserved.
- Silent speakers cost the same as fast speakers. A slow witness might generate 110 words per audio minute; a fast podcaster, 200. The audio minute is the same — the work isn’t.
Per-page pricing is a court-reporting tradition (25 lines x 10 words = 250-word page), useful only when the deliverable must follow court pagination. For everyone else, audio time is the honest unit.
Comparing vendor quotes apples-to-apples
When you collect quotes from multiple vendors, normalize them to per audio minute and ask the four questions below before signing.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Is timestamping included? | Some vendors charge $0.05–$0.10/min extra for timestamps. Timestamps every 30s or per speaker turn are the table stakes for research and legal work. |
| Is speaker identification included? | Same trap. Multi-speaker work without speaker IDs is unusable. Confirm tags are in the base price. |
| What is the surcharge for poor audio? | “Standard rate plus 50% for unclear audio” can double an invoice. Get a fixed cap or a sample-driven quote upfront. |
| Is verbatim or clean read included? | Verbatim (with disfluencies, false starts, crosstalk) takes longer to produce. Some vendors only quote clean-read and charge for verbatim. Clarify which you need. |
For a transparent breakdown across our tiers see transcription pricing.
Hidden multipliers to watch
Common surcharges that don’t appear in the headline rate:
- Multi-speaker premium. 2 speakers = base rate; 3+ = 25-50% premium at most vendors.
- Audio quality. Phone calls, on-site interviews with traffic, intercom audio — usually 50% upcharge.
- Rush. Same-day delivery is typically +50%, sub-12h up to +100%. Plan ahead.
- Verbatim mode. Some vendors treat “capture every ‘um’” as a premium service.
- Certification / notarization. Court-admissible certified transcripts run $30-$75 flat per file on top of the per-minute rate.
- File format conversion. SRT, VTT, line-numbered DOCX may cost $5-$15 per format extra at some vendors.
- Re-export / minor edits. A few vendors charge for post-delivery small fixes.
When a flat fee makes sense
Flat fees work well in three cases:
- Recurring identical work — weekly podcast episodes of similar length, monthly board meetings.
- Bundled deliverables — transcript + show notes + episode page in one fixed price (see our captions and cutting scripts bundle).
- Long-form research projects — 50+ hours of audio with predictable structure, where day rates beat per-minute math.
For one-off jobs, per audio hour stays simpler and cheaper: you don’t pre-pay for hours you might not need.
FAQ
Why is the transcript shorter than the recording?
You pay for the source audio length, not the text.
Is per-word pricing ever fair?
Rarely. It penalizes the customer for transcripts that include disfluencies and rewards vendors who silently smooth them out.
What about per-page legal pricing?
Common in court reporting, legacy from typewriter days. Useful only for paginated court formats.
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