Three hours is not near the limit
One file can be up to 5 GB and up to 12 hours, so a three-hour interview is well inside it. You do not split it, trim it, or convert it first.
Processing usually runs about two minutes of wall clock per hour of audio, so three hours is done in well under ten minutes. That is a measured average across real files, not a promise about yours.
What 'analyze' actually gets you
An overview of the whole interview. The takeaways as points. Chapters, which is what makes three hours navigable — you can see the shape of the conversation before reading a word of it.
Key quotes, each carrying the timestamp it sits at. On a long interview this is the part that earns its keep: a quote you can jump straight back to in the audio is a quote you can use.
The chat is where a long interview opens up
A generated summary answers general questions. Yours are specific — what did they say about the second funding round, where did they contradict themselves, which objection came up twice. Ask the chat over the transcript and it answers from the interview.
The transcript and everything built from it stay in a searchable Library, so a three-hour interview stays findable months later.
What it costs
The first transcript is free at any length — a three-hour interview included — with no card and no account needed to start. The second is $0.99, once per email address.
After that, 180 minutes fits inside the smallest pack: $8 / 1,000 minutes. Larger packs are $12 / 2,000 minutes and $24 / 5,000 minutes, one-time, no subscription, and the minutes do not expire. Workspace is $19/month for unlimited transcription on the web app.
What it will not do
It will not tell you who was speaking. WhipScribe does not label speakers or separate a two-person interview into two voices — you get what was said, not an attribution of each line to the interviewer or the subject. On an interview that is the honest limit to know about before you start.
There is also no live transcription and no human-review tier. WhipScribe works on the recording you already have.