Should I convert video to audio before transcribing? usually not, and here are the exceptions.
Usually not: a video file up to 10 hours or 5 GB transcribes as it is, and converting adds a step without changing a single word. Convert only when the video is over 2 GB before your first pack, over 5 GB, or slow to send on your connection, since the sound of a 4-hour video is about 230 MB at 128 kbps; either way it runs at about 2 minutes per audio hour, the first 20 minutes are free, and 240 minutes fits the $6 pack of 500.
Decide in ten seconds
Look at the size and your upload speed, then choose.
Under 2 GB: send the video
If the file is under 2 GB, or under 5 GB with a pack on the account, there is nothing to gain. Upload the video, the speech is read from its sound track, and the SRT and VTT captions come back on the same clock as the picture you will publish.
Over the line: keep the sound
Above 5 GB, or above 2 GB before a pack when you would rather not buy first, export the audio. A 4K camera file of three hours can pass 10 GB, while its sound alone at 128 kbps is roughly 175 MB, and the transcript is identical.
Slow connection: convert anyway
Upload time follows megabytes. At 5 Mbps up, a 2 GB video needs close to an hour to travel; its audio track takes about a minute. If you are on hotel Wi-Fi or mobile data, a quick audio export is the faster route even when the video is under every limit.
Convert without re-encoding
Most MP4 files carry their sound as AAC, which can be copied out untouched rather than encoded again. In a terminal, ffmpeg -i talk.mp4 -vn -c:a copy talk.m4a does it in seconds; any video editor's export audio option works too.
Video or audio
Convert for size and speed, never for quality.
✗ Converting when you do not need to
Extra work that leaves the transcript the same.
- Exporting every small video by habit
- Re-encoding audio at a lower quality
- Losing the link to the original clock
- Keeping two copies of each file
- Captions built from a trimmed copy
- Minutes spent waiting on an export
✓ Converting when it pays
The cases where an audio file is the smarter upload.
- Video over 5 GB
- Video over 2 GB before a first pack
- A slow or metered connection
- A 4K file with hours of footage
- Copying the AAC track without re-encoding
- Keeping the video for the captions later
Sample output
A 4K keynote, sent as its sound track.
Illustrative lines invented for this page, not from a real recording, from a long event video uploaded as an audio export.
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
Questions about converting video.
Should I convert video to audio before transcribing?
Only when the video is over 5 GB, over 2 GB before your first pack, or too slow to upload. Otherwise send the video as it is; the transcript comes from the same sound track either way.
Does an audio file transcribe better than the video?
No. The speech is identical, so the words come back the same. Converting saves upload time and space; it does not change the result, and re-encoding at a low bitrate can make it slightly worse.
How do I extract the audio from a video?
Use your editor's export audio option, or copy the track with ffmpeg so nothing is re-encoded. On a phone, a screen-recording or video app's share sheet often offers audio-only export as well.
Will the captions still match my video?
Yes, as long as the audio export is not trimmed. Timestamps start at the same zero as the video, so the SRT or VTT you get back lines up when you add it to the original file.
What does a long video cost?
The running time sets it, not the format. A 4-hour video uses 240 minutes of the $6 pack of 500; a month of fifteen 3-hour event videos, 2,700 minutes, needs the $24 pack of 5,000.
What comes back, and is the footage kept private?
A brief, chapters, the names and numbers said, a chat over the text and exports in TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. Video and audio alike are transcribed on our own servers and never used for training.
Related
Related video pages.
Video or audio, either one goes up whole.
Upload my fileOperated by Neugence Technology Pvt. Ltd. · contact@whipscribe.com · Security · Privacy · Terms