Transcribe a 3-hour seminar Every turn of the discussion, in order.
A 3-hour seminar is 180 minutes of audio: it is transcribed in about 6 minutes in one file and uses 180 of the 500 minutes in the $6 pack, leaving 320. Two seminars of that length fit in one pack, and a weekly 3-hour seminar over 12 weeks (2,160 minutes) fits the $24 pack, with the first 20 minutes free to judge the result.
Three hours of discussion
A seminar is harder than a lecture. Here is why it still works.
Many voices, one recording
A seminar is a discussion: a presenter, a respondent, and a room taking turns. Participants are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters, so you can follow which position each person argued without reading 180 minutes.
How it gets recorded
A recorder or phone in the middle of the table catches more voices than one at the presenter's seat. A hybrid seminar on Zoom can be saved as the audio-only M4A. Either file uploads as it is, and the room's background noise is left out of the text.
Three hours in bytes
A 128 kbps MP3 of 180 minutes is about 173 MB. A 16-bit stereo WAV at 44.1 kHz is about 1.9 GB, just under the 2 GB allowed before a pack; at 48 kHz it passes 2 GB and starts once a pack is on the account. Anything above 500 MB continues on the upload page.
What the seminar becomes
Chapters with timestamps follow the papers or questions discussed, the brief states the thesis and takeaways, and the names, works and dates cited are listed for the reading log. The chat answers what the respondent's main objection was.
The long seminar
Why three hours of discussion is hard to keep.
✗ Notes from one seat
Whoever takes notes is also trying to take part, and three hours of crossing arguments rarely survive as more than a page.
- Notes that favour the note-taker's side
- Tools capped well below three hours
- Cutting the file in two to fit a limit
- A WAV larger than an upload form allows
- Citations half-heard and lost
- No record of how the argument moved
✓ The whole seminar as text
One file, one clock, every contribution in sequence.
- 180 minutes in one upload
- About 6 minutes to text
- Discussants named in the summary and quotes
- Works cited, listed
- Chapters by paper or question
- 320 pack minutes left over
Sample output
An exchange two hours into a seminar.
Illustrative excerpt, not a real seminar. Roles stand in for names.
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
3-hour seminars, answered.
How long does a 3-hour seminar take to transcribe?
About 6 minutes of processing for 180 minutes of audio. A file around 2.48 hours on the public timing page finished in 200 seconds, so three hours lands in that neighbourhood.
What does a 3-hour seminar cost, and a whole course of them?
One seminar uses 180 minutes of the $6 pack (500 minutes), leaving 320, enough for a second seminar with 140 to spare. Twelve weekly seminars is 2,160 minutes, just over the $12 pack, so the $24 pack (5,000 minutes) is the fit, with 2,840 minutes left. For comparison, a 100-minute session uses 100 minutes and five fit in the $6 pack. On a first visit, the first 20 minutes of the seminar are free.
Is a 3-hour WAV too big?
It depends on the settings. At 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo, three hours is about 1.9 GB and uploads before a pack; at higher sample rates or bit depths it passes 2 GB and starts once a pack is on the account. The ceiling per file is 5 GB, and an MP3 of the same seminar is under 200 MB.
The seminar was recorded in parts across the break. What do I do?
Upload each part separately; each comes back with its own timestamps and chapters. Recording that stopped for the break and started again usually makes two files, which is fine.
Which languages can a seminar be in?
Any of 99, detected automatically, including Swedish, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. A seminar that switches between English and Tagalog is handled on its main language.
What exports come back, and is the recording private?
The seminar comes back as TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. Seminar recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
More for long academic sessions.
Three hours of seminar. About six minutes to text.
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