Human legal transcription costs $1.20 to $2.75 per audio minute at GoTranscript and $1.99 at Rev, delivered in 12 hours to 5 days. A WhipScribe AI transcript costs under $0.50 per audio hour and is ready in about 2 minutes per hour: use it to review depositions, hearings and client calls, and a certified human service for anything you file.
Published rates, checked 4 October 2026
Each number is from the company's own page on 4 October 2026. The last column prices a four-hour (240-minute) deposition recording.
| Service | Published rate | Turnaround | Legal formatting | 4-hour deposition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rev | Human transcription $1.99 per audio minute | 12 hours or less | Legal rough draft $2.25 per page (same day to 3 days); legal premium $2.50 per page (same day to 5 days) | $477.60 per minute rate |
| GoTranscript | English human transcription $1.20 (5 days), $1.40 (3 days), $1.60 (1 day), $2.75 (12 hours) per minute | 12 hours to 5 days | Custom legal formats offered; no separate legal rate published | $288 to $660 |
| TranscribeMe | Human-edited transcription from $0.79 per minute | 1 business day for human-edited; legal files of 90 minutes or less usually 2 to 3 business days | Legal work priced per page by custom quote | From $189.60 (general rate) |
| WhipScribe | AI transcription, packs from $4 for 500 minutes ($0.29 to $0.48 per audio hour) | About 8 minutes for 4 hours of audio | None: not certified, no court format | 240 of the 500 minutes in a $4 pack |
The three human services and WhipScribe are not selling the same thing. Rev, TranscribeMe and GoTranscript put a person on the audio, and their legal tiers format the transcript the way a firm or court expects. Rev's legal products are priced per page, not per minute, so they do not convert neatly into the deposition column; we priced Rev at its per-minute human rate instead. TranscribeMe publishes a general starting rate but quotes legal projects individually, so its real legal price will be higher than $0.79.
What the table does show is the size of the gap. Sending every recording in a matter to a human service costs hundreds of dollars per deposition. Most of those recordings are read once, by the legal team, to find the passages that matter. That reading does not need a certified transcript.
The honest split
Reading a deposition video the same day it is taken, before the certified copy arrives. Searching dozens of hours of recorded hearings, client calls, intake interviews or bodycam audio for one statement. Building examination outlines, chronologies and exhibit notes. Checking what a witness said last time against what they say now.
Anything filed with a court or relied on as the official record: certified deposition transcripts, hearing and trial transcripts, sworn or strict verbatim records, and transcripts where each line must carry a named speaker. Certification and the transcriber's attestation are the product there, and an AI transcript does not provide them.
The pattern that saves money is simple. Transcribe everything with AI, read it, mark the passages that matter, and order certified transcripts only for the recordings that go into the record. On a matter with thirty hours of recordings, that can be the difference between one $12 pack of 2,000 minutes and several thousand dollars of human transcription for material that never leaves the file.
Depositions and courtroom audio
If you searched for a deposition platform or a stenographer, you want a court reporting agency: someone who attends the deposition, in person or remotely, takes the record and certifies the transcript. WhipScribe is not that and does not replace it. Where we help is afterwards. Remote depositions are usually video-recorded, and the recording can be transcribed within minutes of the session ending, so the associate drafting the prep memo or the next outline is not waiting days for the certified copy. When the certified transcript arrives, it is the one you cite.
Many courts record hearings digitally instead of using a reporter. If you have obtained a copy of the recording, WhipScribe gives you a searchable transcript to review it. We do not open FTR's own .trm files; ask the clerk for the recording in a standard format such as MP3, WAV or MP4. Long hearings stay in one file: up to 10 hours or 5 GB. For a court-ready transcript of that recording, use an approved transcriber. Our page on transcribing a court hearing covers the review workflow in more detail.
Attorney dictation on Olympus DS2 or DSS recorders uploads as it is, with no conversion; see transcribe dictation. Replacing a per-user Dragon licence for letters and attendance notes? See the Dragon dictation alternative.
How it works
Drop the deposition video, hearing audio, dictation or call recording into the box at the top of this page, or paste a Google Drive link. One file can run up to 10 hours.
Every recording starts with a free preview of its opening minutes, so you can see what it covers before you pay. A pack from $4 opens the full transcript.
Search the text for names, dates and terms. Every line carries its timestamp, so you can play the audio at that moment and confirm the words before you rely on them.
Download DOCX for case notes and memos, TXT for review platforms, SRT or VTT to caption a deposition video, or JSON with timings for your own tools.
What you get
The full text with a timestamp on every line, readable and searchable in the browser, in 99+ languages detected automatically.
A brief with the main points, chapters with timestamps, and the names, numbers and dates that were said. Speakers are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters.
Ask where a witness mentioned a date or a document and jump to the moment. Treat the answer as a pointer to the audio, not as evidence.
Where to check. Machine transcription is strongest on clear speech. Look twice at proper names, case-specific terms, numbers and dates, people talking over each other, and distant or phone-line audio. Any quote you will rely on should be checked against the recording, which the timestamps make quick.
Confidentiality. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. No person listens to the file, and you can delete a recording and its transcript at any time. Follow your firm's policy and any protective order before uploading privileged or sealed material.
WhipScribe pricing
One-time packs with no seat fees. A matter that runs for two years uses the same credits.
| Pack | Minutes | Hours of audio | Per audio hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| $4 pack | 500 | 8 h 20 min | $0.48 |
| $12 pack | 2,000 | 33 h 20 min | $0.36 |
| $24 pack | 5,000 | 83 h 20 min | $0.29 |
| Workspace | $19 a month, fair use of 150 hours | — | |
A firm with recordings every week can take Workspace at $19 a month and keep every matter's recordings in one searchable library. Full details and yearly options are on the pricing page; our dated price-per-hour comparison sets WhipScribe against 14 AI transcription services.
FAQ
On their own pages, checked 4 October 2026: Rev charges $1.99 per audio minute for human transcription, or $2.25 per page for a legal rough draft and $2.50 per page for a legal premium transcript. GoTranscript lists English human transcription at $1.20 per minute (5 days), $1.40 (3 days), $1.60 (1 day) and $2.75 (12 hours). TranscribeMe starts at $0.79 per minute for human-edited transcription and quotes legal work per project.
No. WhipScribe is machine transcription and is not certified. Nobody signs or attests to it, so it is not the official record. Use it to review and prepare, and order a certified transcript from a court reporter or a human legal transcription service for anything you file.
At the published per-minute rates, 240 minutes costs $477.60 at Rev, $288 to $660 at GoTranscript depending on turnaround, and from $189.60 at TranscribeMe's general rate. As a WhipScribe review transcript it uses 240 of the 500 minutes in a $4 pack and takes about 8 minutes to process.
About 2 minutes of processing per hour of audio, and most files finish in under a minute. There is no rush fee.
Yes, in the summary, key quotes and chapters: speakers are identified and named there, and every line of the transcript carries its timestamp so you can check any attribution against the audio. A certified deposition or hearing transcript, with each line attributed to a named speaker, comes from a human service.
We do not open FTR's own .trm files. Ask the clerk or court for the recording in a standard format such as MP3, WAV or MP4 and upload that. Any standard audio or video file up to 10 hours or 5 GB works.
Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. No person listens to the file, and you can delete a recording and its transcript at any time. Follow your firm's policy and any protective order before uploading privileged or sealed material.
Packs are one-time purchases and credits never expire, so a matter that runs for a year uses the same credits. For steady volume, Workspace is $19 a month with fair use of 150 hours, and keeps every recording in one searchable library.
Related
About 2 minutes per audio hour. The opening minutes are a free preview; packs from $4 for 500 minutes, and credits never expire.
Sources for the comparison, checked 4 Oct 2026 on each company's own page: Rev, rev.com/pricing (human and legal per-page rates); GoTranscript, gotranscript.com/pricing and the detailed price list it links (English per-minute rates by turnaround), and gotranscript.com/legal-transcriptions; TranscribeMe, transcribeme.com/pricing and transcribeme.com/legal-transcription-services. The deposition column multiplies each published per-minute rate by 240 minutes; it excludes per-page legal products, rush or language surcharges and any discounts. Prices are in US dollars, change often and may differ by region; check the source before you buy. Rev, TranscribeMe, GoTranscript and FTR are trademarks of their owners and are named here only for comparison. WhipScribe prices are from our pricing page.
Upload a file or paste a link: see how our transcription services work and audio transcription services for interviews and calls.