The best way to transcribe a 4-hour interview upload it whole, then check against the audio.
The best way to transcribe a 4-hour interview is to upload the original recording as one file: it is ready in about 8 minutes and uses 240 of the 500 minutes in the $6 pack. Your first recording gets the first 20 minutes free, files can run 10 hours or 5 GB, and every line carries a timestamp, so a quote can be checked against the audio in seconds.
A method that holds up
Four steps from recording to usable text.
Keep the original file
Upload the recorder's own file rather than a compressed copy. Four hours of WAV can approach 2.8 GB at CD quality, which still fits under 5 GB; an M4A or MP3 of the same interview is a small fraction of that. If the interview was recorded on two devices, upload the clearer one.
One file, one clock
Do not cut the interview into hour-long parts. A single file keeps the timestamps continuous, which matters when a quote in hour three refers back to something said in the first ten minutes.
Let the quotes come to you
The brief collects key quotes with timestamps, and speakers are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters. That gives you a shortlist before you read all four hours. For thematic analysis, that list is often where coding begins.
Review with the audio open
Play any line from its timestamp and correct names or terms in your own copy. For a thesis or an article, that one review pass is the step that makes the text safe to quote.
Two ways through four hours
Typing for days, or reviewing for an afternoon.
✗ Typing it yourself
Manual transcription is commonly put at about four hours of work for every hour of audio.
- Around 16 hours of typing for this interview
- Hours of pausing and rewinding
- Fatigue errors in the last hour
- Timestamps added only now and then
- Quotes found by memory
- The interview cut into parts to stay sane
✓ Upload, then review
The machine does the first pass; you check what you plan to quote.
- About 8 minutes of processing
- Every line with its timestamp
- Key quotes collected in the brief
- Both voices named in the brief and key quotes
- Chapters for each topic covered
- A chat to find where a subject came up
Sample output
A long interview, with the quote and its time.
Illustrative example, not a real interview, in the style of a long oral history session.
Export
One transcript. Five clean formats.
Every pack exports all five — no format is held back for a higher tier.
Plain text
De-ummed paragraphs. Ready to paste.
SRT captions
Timed to the speech. Every video editor reads this.
WebVTT
HTML5 player + YouTube uploads.
Show notes
Formatted with chapters and pull-quotes.
Machine-readable
Timestamped text for your own tools.
Pricing
Honest pricing, no surprises.
A pack from $6 (500 minutes) opens the full transcript. After that, no subscription and no auto-renew — every tier is a one-time minute pack, and credits never expire. Buy once, use the minutes whenever you need them.
Casual pack
$6/500 min
8 hours of audio — $0.72 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 500 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$12/2,000 min
33 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 2,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Questions about long interviews.
What is the best way to transcribe a 4-hour interview?
Upload the original recording as one file, let it finish in about 8 minutes, then review the passages you will quote with the audio playing from each timestamp.
How much does a 4-hour interview cost?
240 minutes from the $6 pack, leaving 260 for the next interview. A study with a dozen long interviews fits better on the $12 pack of 2,000 minutes.
Can I read part of it before paying?
Yes, the first 20 minutes are free on your first recording, so you can read the opening of the interview before buying a pack. The pack then transcribes the rest from where the preview ended.
My recorder made one huge WAV. Is that a problem?
Not if it is under 5 GB, and four hours of CD-quality WAV is about 2.8 GB. Over 2 GB, the file starts once a pack is on your account.
What about interviews in other languages?
99 languages are detected automatically, including Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese and Tagalog, and English and Tagalog switches in one recording are handled.
Can I export it for my analysis, and is it private?
Export DOCX or TXT for coding software or an appendix, and JSON if you work with the data directly. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training, which matters for participant consent.
Related
Related interview pages.
Four hours of interview. Eight minutes to the first draft.
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