8 Best Transcription Software Options for Audio and Video in 2024
January 2024
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5 min read
With audiovisual content dominating all digital platforms, transcription has become an essential tool for professionals.
Transcription (the conversion of audio and video into text) makes content more accessible, searchable, and shareable. Working with transcripts brings a wealth of benefits to professionals from lawyers to researchers, filmmakers to content creators, and educators to meeting hosts.
However, it can be challenging to find the audio and video transcription software that best fits your needs. Below we’ll showcase eight you might consider for your next project.
1. Reduct.Video
Reduct transcribes all audio and video footage. With 96% accurate AI transcription in 90+ languages, and the option for 99% accurate human transcription, it offers the most accurate transcripts in this list.
Reduct offers unlimited storage and can handle large volumes of recordings. It is built for teams, with features for collaborative searching, highlighting, tagging, and editing. You can also edit any video or audio by just editing its transcript, an easy interface to the paper edits pioneered by documentary filmmakers.
Best for:
-
Accurate transcripts with a fast turnaround time.
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Researchers, lawyers, filmmakers and marketers with large volumes of audio or video content who need to find crucial moments, put together snippets to tell compelling stories, or create captions.
- Free trial (2 hours of free transcription)
- Paid plans:
- Standard ($24/month per editor paid annually)
- Advanced ($40/month per editor paid annually)
- Enterprise (customizable)
2. Sonix
Sonix offers automated transcription software in 38+ languages. It also includes automated subtitling/captioning for audio and video files, which is particularly useful for anyone who wants to transcribe and translate their audio/video files.
Unlike most of the options in this list, Sonix offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model for transcription.
Best for:
Anyone who needs transcriptions for translation infrequently (pay-as-you-go option) in multiple languages for captioning/subtitling.
- Free trial (30 minutes of transcription)
- Paid plans:
- Pay-as-you-go transcription for $10 an hour
- Paid subscription for $5 per hour plus $22 per user/month
- Enterprise subscription (customizable)
3. Trint
Trint is an automatic transcription software that uses speech recognition software to convert audio/video files — including Zoom recordings, podcasts, interviews, and recorded phone calls — to text.
Trint provides transcription services in 40+ 'global' languages (including English) and claims to be up to 99% accurate, depending on audio quality. It includes transcription tools that make videos and audio files searchable, editable, and shareable. Trint also offers automatic translation of English files to other languages.
Although transcripts are interactive to the extent that they match and follow along with the corresponding audio, Trint’s editing features are focused on editing the transcript instead of video editing.
Best for:
Journalists, bloggers, and content marketers who need to pull text from transcriptions to create written content, like articles or case studies.
- Free trial (7 days)
- Paid plans
- Starter ($52/month per user)
- Advanced ($60/month per user)
- Enterprise (customizable)
4. Descript
Descript provides automatic transcription of all video or audio files uploaded onto its platform. It is not a typical "transcription software" — it's mainly a text-based video editing platform that provides users with an automatic transcript of uploaded files so that they can use it for video editing.
It was built initially for podcast editing, and is mostly advertised for YouTube videos and podcast editing, and has some advanced features for these content creation needs.
Note that unlike most of the other software on this list, Descript has to be installed locally to access all of its features, you can only access limited viewing and transcription submission features when logged in via a web browser.
Best for:
Podcast editors and content creators transcribing or editing one video file at a time, as it has limited features to work with multiple recordings at once.
- Free plan (1 hours of transcription per month)
- Paid plans
- Creator ($12/month per editor)
- Pro ($24/month per editor)
- Enterprise (customizable)
5. Otter
Otter is an industry-standard meeting assistant that writes and summarizes meeting notes in Zoom and Google Meet. Moreover, it also provides computer transcription of a wide range of audio/video files and is popular with individuals and small businesses.
It currently only transcribes files in English. It has recently added live transcription and captioning capabilities for Google Meet.
Best for:
Live notes and transcription for online meetings, webinars, and interviews with very clear audio.
- Free plan (300min/month, 30min max per transcription)
- Paid plans
- Pro ($10/month per editor)
- Business ($20/month per editor)
- Enterprise (customizable)
6. Happy Scribe
Happy Scribe offers both automatic transcription and human transcription services. It allows you to edit your transcripts and subtitles on their platform. Happy Scribe also claims to offer a 24-hour turnaround on professional transcription.
Additionally, Happy Scribe supports audio and video transcription in over 120 languages.
Best for:
Users who need professional transcription of 'less common' world languages, transcription and/or subtitles.
- Free plan (Some free trial minutes per month)
- Paid plans:
- Basic ($10 per month billed annually)
- Pro ($17 per month billed annually)
- Business ($29 per month billed annually)
- Human transcription (Starting from $1.75 per minute)
7. Rev
Rev offers both computer and human transcription, captioning, and subtitling services (providing SRT files) and charges separately for each of them. Its website mentions a 12-hour turnaround time for transcription, but this is limited to files of less than 30 minutes.
It offers plans for individuals and companies of all sizes, and transcriptions come with additional tools to edit and share transcripts, or use them for video editing.
Additionally, Rev offers transcription in 37 languages to its Rev Max subscribers.
Best for:
Users who need to transcribe and add foreign subtitles.
- Free trial (14 days)
- Paid plans:
- Automated Transcription ($0.25 per minute)
- Human Transcription ($1.50 per minute)
- English Closed Captions ($1.50 per minute)
- Global Translated subtitles ($5-$12 per minute)
8. Riverside.fm
Riverside.fm is primarily a recording platform for interview videos and podcasts. It allows podcasters to conduct remote interviews with guests, ensuring optimal audio and video quality is captured.
It also serves all your AI transcription needs. You receive automatic audio and video transcripts right after you finish recording. Or you can upload your existing video or audio files and generate transcripts in over 100 languages, complete with speaker identification and different export options.
Best for:
Podcasters who also need a recording and editing solution.
- Free trial (2 hours of separate audio & video tracks)
- Paid plans:
- Standard ($15 per month billed annually)
- Pro ($24 per month billed annually)
- Business (customizable)
Making the right choice
When choosing transcription software for audio and video, make sure it fits your needs for accuracy, pricing, and turnaround time.
We think Reduct provides quick and accurate human and AI transcription at affordable prices. Our support team is always available to help with specific questions. for a customized demo.
