Same pay-as-you-go idea, longer files welcome, a free first transcript, and no sign-up to try the preview. See how Whipscribe and Brass Transcripts compare, feature by feature, in plain English.
Why people look for an alternative
Brass Transcripts is a straightforward, pay-per-file transcription service. It works, it's honest about pricing, and it doesn't push subscriptions. The moment a lot of people start looking for an alternative is simple: they have a file that's longer than two hours.
A two-and-a-half-hour interview. A half-day workshop recording. A full lecture block. An end-of-quarter town hall. Brass Transcripts caps each file at two hours (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23), so those recordings have to be split first — and the math for a weekly podcaster adds up quickly too. Whipscribe was built to take the whole file and give you back one transcript, at a price that stays predictable whether you transcribe one hour a month or a hundred.
Side-by-side
Everything below is factual and checkable on each site. If a detail changes on either service, write to us at contact@neugence.ai and we'll update the page.
| Feature | Whipscribe | Brass Transcripts | ChatGPT Realtime Audio OpenAI · launched 2026-05-08 |
|---|---|---|---|
| File-size limit | Up to 5 GB per file; the box on this page takes up to 500 MB, and larger files continue on the upload page | 250 MB per file (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23) | Streaming — billed per minute, no fixed file size |
| File-duration limit | Up to 10 hours per file (3 hours before you buy credits) — 3-hour lectures and half-day workshops go through in one upload | 2 hours per file (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23) | No fixed limit (pay per minute streamed) |
| Free tier | Your first transcript is free, at any length; instant preview with no signup | No free tier — all files are paid per brasstranscripts.com (checked 2026-04-23) | No free tier billed from minute zero |
| Pricing model | One-time packs: $8 = 1,000 min · $12 = 2,000 min · $24 = 5,000 min · credits never expire | Per-file flat fees: $2.50 for files up to 15 min; $6.00 for 16–120 min (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23) | API metering $0.017–$0.034/min ($1.02–$2.04/hr) + token billing on Realtime-2 |
| URL input (YouTube, Vimeo, direct links) | Paste a link — we pull the audio for you | Upload-only per brasstranscripts.com (checked 2026-04-23) | No raw audio stream only |
| Bulk uploads | Drop a folder; files process in parallel and land in one place | Per-file upload flow per brasstranscripts.com (checked 2026-04-23); bulk discount starts at 20+ files | No one stream per request |
| Speaker labels & timestamps | Speaker labels plus word-level timestamps | Speaker identification plus timestamps (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23) | Not built-in (token stream only) |
| Export formats | TXT, SRT, VTT, DOCX, JSON | TXT, SRT, VTT, JSON (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23) | Raw text / JSON via API bring your own formatter |
| Languages | 90+ languages via Whisper | 99+ languages via Whisper (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23) | Whisper-realtime · 99 Translate · 70 → 13 |
| Privacy | Private-cloud Whisper on private infrastructure; audio never sent to OpenAI, Google, or third-party transcription services; no training on your data | Auto-deletion policy; no training on user data (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23) | Audio sent to OpenAI servers (US) retention per OpenAI data policy not HIPAA-eligible by default |
| Sign-up required to try | No — drop a file for an instant preview; $0.99 opens your first transcript in full | Sign-up required per brasstranscripts.com (checked 2026-04-23) | Yes — OpenAI account + API key required |
Numbers above reflect public pricing and features on brasstranscripts.com on 2026-04-23. Both services use open-source Whisper under the hood, which is why language coverage and speaker-ID behaviour look similar — the differences are in limits, pricing, and the free-to-try surface.
What the price looks like in practice
On Brass Transcripts, a 90-minute file falls in the 16–120 minute tier at $6.00 per file (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23). On Whipscribe, a 90-minute episode uses 90 of the 1,000 minutes in an $8 one-time pack, and credits never expire. A year of weekly episodes is 4,680 minutes, which one $24 pack of 5,000 minutes covers — close to $300 less than per-file pricing.
If your typical file is 15 minutes or shorter, Brass's lowest rate is $2.50 per file; on Whipscribe the same file uses 15 minutes of a pack. The math tilts hardest in Whipscribe's favour on long files, long interviews, and anything over the 2-hour cap.
Who Whipscribe fits best
If any of these describe your workflow, Whipscribe will save you either time (no file-splitting) or money (long files, predictable rate).
Long-form interview shows, 2-host chat formats, and documentary episodes regularly run past 90 minutes. Whipscribe takes the raw recording in one piece — speaker labels, SRT captions, and show-notes-ready transcripts come back together.
Qualitative interviews, oral-history sessions, and field recordings are rarely under an hour, and often over two. Whipscribe handles the whole file and gives you timestamps you can cite down to the word.
Half-day workshops, all-hands recordings, and multi-episode drops at the end of a cycle. Bulk uploads run in parallel; credits don't expire between batches.
Questions people ask first
Whipscribe sells one-time credit packs — $8 for 1,000 minutes, $12 for 2,000, $24 for 5,000, credits never expire — while Brass Transcripts is $2.50 for files up to 15 minutes and $6.00 for files 16–120 minutes (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23). For a weekly 90-minute podcast, a year of episodes is 4,680 minutes — one $24 pack of 5,000 minutes on Whipscribe vs $312 in per-file fees on Brass.
Yes. Whipscribe takes files up to 10 hours or 5 GB each (up to 3 hours before you buy credits), so a three-hour interview or a half-day workshop goes through in one upload. Brass Transcripts caps each file at two hours (per brasstranscripts.com, checked 2026-04-23), so longer recordings have to be split first.
Yes. Your first transcript is free, at any length. Preview any transcript instantly with no signup; $0.99 opens your first one in full, no account needed. After that, credit packs start at $8 for 1,000 minutes. Credits never expire.
Yes. Paste a YouTube, Vimeo, or direct download URL and Whipscribe pulls the audio for you — no manual download step. Zoom meeting links are not accepted - export the recording from Zoom and upload the file instead.
Yes. We run open-source Whisper on private infrastructure — your audio is never sent to OpenAI, Google, or any third-party transcription service, and we never use it to train models. You can delete any file at any time.
MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, MP4, MOV, MKV, and most common audio/video containers. If you can record it, Whipscribe probably takes it.
Your first transcript is free, at any length. Preview any transcript instantly with no signup; $0.99 opens your first one in full, no account needed. After that, credit packs start at $8 for 1,000 minutes.
Try Whipscribe →