How big is a 10-hour WAV? About 6.3 GB, before you upload it.
A 10-hour WAV at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo is about 6.3 GB (1,411,200 bits a second for 36,000 seconds), which is over the 5 GB per-file line. Record or convert it to MP3, where 10 hours at 128 kbps is about 576 MB, or save it as mono WAV at about 3.2 GB, and the whole day transcribes in about 20 minutes.
10 hours, worked out
Uncompressed audio grows by the second. Here is exactly how fast.
The formula
WAV size is sample rate × bit depth × channels × seconds ÷ 8. For CD quality: 44,100 × 16 × 2 = 1,411,200 bits a second, or 176,400 bytes. Times 36,000 seconds is 6,350,400,000 bytes, about 6.35 GB, or 5.9 GiB as some computers show it.
Other rates, same 10 hours
48 kHz 16-bit stereo: about 6.9 GB. 48 kHz 24-bit stereo: about 10.4 GB. 44.1 kHz 16-bit mono: about 3.2 GB. 16 kHz 16-bit mono, a common voice setting: about 1.15 GB. Only the mono and voice settings fit under 5 GB.
Where 5 GB is reached
At CD-quality stereo, 5 GB arrives after about 7 hours 52 minutes; at 48 kHz 24-bit stereo, after about 4 hours 50 minutes. Files over 2 GB start once a pack is on the account, so a 4-hour CD-quality WAV (about 2.5 GB) waits for one.
Fitting 10 hours in one file
Convert to MP3 (about 576 MB at 128 kbps) or mixed-down mono WAV, then drop it on the upload page. If you are still recording, set the recorder to MP3 or mono for long sessions and the problem never appears.
What happens to a 10-hour WAV
Too big for most upload boxes, and just over this one.
✗ Uploading the 6.3 GB as is
A 10-hour CD-quality WAV is about 250 times the OpenAI Whisper API's documented 25 MB upload limit.
- Refused for size at 6.3 GB
- An upload measured in hours
- Splitting into many small parts
- A timeline that restarts each part
- Ten hours with no overview
- Converting at random settings
✓ Converted, then one upload
A 576 MB MP3 or 3.2 GB mono WAV carries the full 10 hours in one file.
- 128 kbps MP3: about 576 MB
- Mono WAV: about 3.2 GB
- About 20 minutes to transcribe
- One timeline across the day
- $12 pack: 2,000 minutes
- TXT and DOCX, SRT and VTT, JSON
Sample
A full-day hearing recorded to WAV, hour nine.
This sample is illustrative and invented for this page, not a real proceeding. The timestamps run through a single 10-hour file.
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
10-hour WAV files, answered.
How long does a 10-hour recording take to transcribe?
About 20 minutes once the file is up. The public proof shows a 9.31-hour recording finished in 1,033 seconds, a little over 17 minutes.
What does a 10-hour WAV cost to transcribe?
Ten hours is 600 minutes, more than the $6 pack's 500, so the $12 pack (2,000 minutes) is the one to buy; it leaves 1,400 minutes for later recordings. A new visitor gets the first 20 minutes free.
Can I upload the 6.3 GB WAV anyway?
No, one file is limited to 5 GB. Convert it to MP3, mix it to mono, or split it into two WAVs of about 3.2 GB each; each part then starts its timestamps at zero.
Which MP3 setting should I use?
128 kbps stereo or 64 kbps mono both keep speech clear. ffmpeg -i day.wav -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 128k day.mp3 gives about 576 MB for 10 hours; with -ac 1 -b:a 64k it is about 288 MB.
What if the day runs past 10 hours?
Ten hours is the most one file can be, whatever its size. An 11-hour day goes up as two files, split at a break.
Languages, exports and privacy?
99 languages, detected automatically, with speakers named in the summary, key quotes and chapters. The full day downloads as TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT or JSON. Day-long recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Related pages
Upload the converted day. Nothing to pay for the first 20 minutes.
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