How do I transcribe a council meeting video? Paste the link, read the agenda.
Paste the council's YouTube or Vimeo link, or upload the downloaded video: a meeting can run up to 10 hours or 5 GB in one file (2 GB before the first pack), and it is transcribed at about 2 minutes per audio hour. A 4-hour meeting is 240 minutes, ready in about 8 minutes; the first 20 minutes are free and the $6 pack of 500 minutes covers two such meetings.
From the council's channel to your notes
Every agenda item, findable in a long meeting.
Where the video lives
Many councils publish meetings on a YouTube channel or Vimeo, and those links paste straight in. Some use a dedicated meeting video portal; if it offers a download, save the file and upload it, and if it only streams, ask the clerk's office for a copy or a shareable Drive link.
Chapters follow the agenda
Chapters with timestamps mark each item as discussion moves on, from the consent agenda to public comment to the long debate at the end. The names, numbers and dates said, from budget lines to hearing dates, are gathered in one list.
Who spoke, in the summary
Members, staff and residents at public comment are named in the summary, key quotes and chapters, using the names the chair calls out. That makes it quick to see where each member stood on an item before reading the full text.
Not the official minutes
The transcript is a working copy for reporters, residents, staff and campaigners. The official minutes remain whatever the council adopts. Very long budget sessions can go through the upload page.
Meetings on video
Why a four-hour meeting video is hard to use.
✗ Scrubbing the stream
The video is public, but finding the twelve minutes on one agenda item can take an evening.
- Four hours to find one vote
- Minutes published weeks later
- Auto-captions with no structure
- Figures misheard and unchecked
- No way to search across meetings
- Long budget nights cut short by tools
✓ The meeting as a document
Each meeting becomes text with chapters by item, minutes after you paste the link.
- Four hours of debate in about 8 minutes
- YouTube and Vimeo links accepted
- $6 covers two 4-hour meetings
- Members named in the summary
- Figures and dates gathered
- TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT, JSON
Sample output
A long council meeting, item by item.
Illustrative lines only; no real council or member is quoted. Times run from the start of the video.
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
- AI chat over the whole 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
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Council meeting videos, answered.
How long does a council meeting take to transcribe?
About 2 minutes per audio hour once the file is in. A 2-hour meeting takes around 4 minutes, a 4-hour one around 8, and a 7-hour budget session around 14. Links skip your upload.
What does it cost to follow a council all year?
Twenty-four meetings of 3 hours are 4,320 minutes, inside the $24 pack of 5,000 minutes. A single long meeting fits the $6 pack of 500 minutes, and a season of committee meetings under 2,000 minutes fits the $12 pack of 2,000 minutes. A first visit includes 20 minutes free.
The meeting video is very long or very large.
One file can hold up to 10 hours or 5 GB. Above 2 GB, the upload starts once a pack is on the account. Livestream replays longer than 6 hours also start once a pack is on the account, and a session over 10 hours needs two files.
Is the transcript an official record?
No. It is a working transcript for reading and searching. The council's adopted minutes remain the official record of what was decided.
Can I compare what was said across several meetings?
Each meeting becomes its own transcript in your Library, with its own brief and chapters. Export TXT or DOCX to keep a running file on one issue across the year, and use the chat on each meeting to find the passage you need.
What happens to the video?
Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. Nothing is posted or shared by us; the transcript stays in your account until you export or delete it.
Related
More about public meetings.
Last night's council meeting. Readable by agenda item.
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