Transcription Rates

With our pricing method you know in advance exactly how much your transcript will cost: we charge based on how many minutes your recording is.

*Rate per minute assumes good audio and speaking quality, everyday language, and non-rapid speech. Recordings involving several frequent speakers, such as meetings and focus groups, take longer to transcribe due to overlapping voices, poor enunciators, low-volume speakers, etc., and thus entail a higher rate. If the voices are easily distinguishable, we will try to label the speakers.

In cases of 3 or more principal speakers, if they are speaking one at a time, with no interruptions or overlapping voices, then a lower rate may apply. Conversely in cases of 2 speakers with frequent interruptions/overlappings, a higher rate may apply.

**Transcript is checked against the audio and proofread by a second transcriptionist. Please allow an extra day for this service.

Other Factors Affecting Price

Factors such as poor audio, non-clear speakers, hard-to-understand accents, frequent use of technical and/or esoteric terms and names, or frequent overlapping voices increases the rate - typically in increments of 30 cents per minute per factor. To listen to an example of what we consider to be good audio, click here. For a good phone-quality sample, click here.

See below for pricing regarding tapes.

(Note: 1 hour of good-quality audio with 1 or 2 speakers generally takes 4-5 hours to transcribe. Recordings involving multiple speakers, frequent technical terms, foreign accents, and/or poor audio typically take much longer.)

Rush Service

A one-day turnaround time is an additional 60 cents per minute. If we go beyond that time, normal rates go into effect. For an additional fee, same-day service may be available as well, depending on our workload at the time.

Tapes, DVDs, CDs, and Video

• You also can mail us cassette tapes, microcassettes, reel-to-reel tapes, videotapes, DVDs, or audio CDs, but this entails a surcharge to cover the cost of converting them to a more transcribable format.

• For standard cassettes and microcassettes, the surcharge is $15 for the first tape and $5 for each additional tape.

• DVDs and audio CDs that require us to "rip" or extract the media off of the disc and onto our hard drives entail a $5 surcharge per disc. For DVDs that cannot be ripped, the surcharge is $10 as this entails extra effort in order to transfer the audio to a new format. Or if it is copy-protected and cannot be transferred, the rate per minute of audio is double.

• Data discs, where the audio file is simply copied onto the CD or DVD disc, entail no surcharge.

• Webcasts, which require us to convert the audio to a more workable format, entail a $5 surcharge.

• Transcription projects that require us to view the video in addition to listening to the audio entail an additional 30 or 60 cents per minute, depending on the degree to which the video must be viewed. If you plan to upload video files, we recommend that they are in wmv or mp4 format.
  

Reel-to-reel is $30 for the first tape and $20 for each additional tape, up to a maximum of three hours of audio for each tape. For tapes greater than three hours in length, there is a $5 surcharge for each additional hour. (Most stereo 7-inch tapes are three hours total. "Four-track mono" 7-inch tapes can hold as much as eight hours of audio.) This assumes the tape is in good shape - i.e., not brittle and/or easily breakable.

Note again that in addition to returning your tapes, along with your transcript(s) we will provide you with downloadable digital (mp3) audio files of your items as well. These are highly useful when taking advantage of the timestamps in the transcripts, and/or if you want to make the audio files available to others along with the transcripts. This also results in multiple backups of each recording.

If you have several tapes containing several different items to be transcribed (e.g. interviews or conference presentations), and the beginning/end of each item does not correspond to the beginning/end of each tape, then we add a surcharge for isolating each item in order to produce a unique transcript for that item (which can be time-consuming). Similarly, if you only want certain portions of the tape or tapes transcribed, there is a surcharge. Alternatively, we can have each transcript correspond to each tape, in which case there would be no surcharge.

Certified Transcripts for Legal or Other Uses

For certified (notarized) transcripts, add $1 to the per-minute rate. In addition, please describe the nature of the case and/or recording in the "notes" portion of our submission form.

Transcript Editing Services

Consider having us turn your raw transcript(s) into clean, edited documents. Our editors will do such things as correct speakers' grammar errors, eliminate unnecessary words and phrases, look up the exact spellings of names and other words, and add tables of contents, headings and subheadings where appropriate. For example, perhaps you want to turn a raw transcript of a conference into something that looks like a slick, easy-to-read conference report, which you can then publish or post on your website. We will do that for you. Contact us for more information including pricing.

Other Information

Minimum charge (for new customers): $25.