Several services let you pay once for one recording instead of signing up for a monthly plan. Here is how each one charges and what a single file of 30 minutes, 1, 2, 3 or 10 hours costs at each, read from each vendor's own pricing page.
Only services that sell a single transcription, or a one-time licence, without a monthly plan. Each row links to the vendor page it was read from.
| Service | How you pay for one file | Longest file | Free part |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonix | Pay as you go: $10 per hour of audio source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | Not stated on their page source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | 30-minute free trial source · checked Oct 7, 2026 |
| FileToText | $3 per audio hour, $3 minimum and $12 maximum per file source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | 20 h per file source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | First 10 minutes free source · checked Oct 7, 2026 |
| AllNote | $0.10 per minute, $3 minimum per file, no account needed source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | 5 h per file source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | First 5 minutes free, no account source · checked Oct 7, 2026 |
| BrassTranscripts | $2.50 per file up to 15 minutes, $6 per file of 16 minutes or more source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | No duration limit; up to 450 MB per file source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | 30-word preview source · checked Oct 7, 2026 |
| Rev | $1.99 per minute, human transcription (a person types it) source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | Not stated on their page source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | 45 AI minutes a month source · checked Oct 7, 2026 |
| MacWhisper | €64 one-time app licence, Mac only; runs on your own computer source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | Not stated on their page source · checked Oct 7, 2026 | Free version (€0), without YouTube links source · checked Oct 7, 2026 |
| WhoScribe | $5 per file in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and other high-income countries, $3 in other countries R$16.90 in Brazil | 10 h per file; uploads up to 1 GB (5 GB on Unlimited) | First 5 minutes without an account; first 15 minutes of each file with a free account |
The price of a single file at each length, worked out from the rates in the table above. Free minutes are not subtracted, because the vendors' pages do not say the paid price excludes them.
MacWhisper is not in this table: it is a one-time app licence (€64) that runs on your Mac, so its cost per file depends on how many files you transcribe with it. In countries outside the high-income list, one WhoScribe file is $3 at every length up to 10 hours.
For a file of around half an hour or less, a per-minute or per-file service can cost the same as a flat payment or less. Compare the 30-minute column.
One flat payment per file wins, because the price does not grow with the length. At 2 h the lowest price in the table is $5 (WhoScribe).
If every word must be right (legal, medical, publishing), pay for human transcription: Rev charges $1.99 per minute, which is $119.40 for a 1-hour file.
Rev source · checked Oct 7, 2026If you transcribe several long files every month, a subscription costs less than paying per file.
WhoScribe Unlimited is $15 a month, or $90 a year ($7.50 a month), for files up to 10 hours each. At $5 per file, it costs less than single payments from about 4 files a month. Until October 31, Unlimited is 25% off.
TurboScribe has no pay-per-file option. Its Unlimited plan is $20 a month or $120 a year, and its free plan allows 3 transcriptions a day, each file up to 30 minutes, one file at a time, low priority. TurboScribe source · checked Oct 7, 2026
Upload a recording or paste a link, read the start free, and pay $5 once if you want the whole file. Nothing renews.
FAQ
Yes. Sonix (pay as you go), FileToText, AllNote, BrassTranscripts and WhoScribe all sell a single transcription without a monthly plan, and Rev sells human transcription per minute. On WhoScribe you paste the video link or upload the file and pay $5 once for the whole file, up to 10 hours. Nothing renews.
Among the services in the table (checked Oct 7, 2026), the lowest price for one 2-hour file is $5 (WhoScribe). Per-minute services cost more as the file gets longer; a flat price per file does not.
Partly. On WhoScribe the first 5 minutes of a file are free without an account, and a free account reads the first 15 minutes of each file (3 files a day, 90 minutes a month). If a YouTube video already has captions, YouTube's own "Show transcript" is free. For the whole of a long file, you pay once or subscribe.
On WhoScribe, yes: paste the link and the audio itself is transcribed, so the video does not need captions. FileToText's link box asks for a direct link to an audio or video file, and in MacWhisper YouTube links are a Pro feature.
When you transcribe several long files a month. WhoScribe Unlimited is $15 a month or $90 a year; at $5 per file it costs less than single payments from about 4 files a month.
Paste the link. The first 5 minutes are free without an account, 15 with a free account. The whole file is $5, a one-time payment.
Paste a YouTube linkFacts about other services come from each vendor's own page, checked on Oct 7, 2026. Prices change, so follow the source link to see their current page.
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