Transcribe an FGD with every voice in the room.
A two-hour focus group discussion in English or Taglish comes back as text in about 4 minutes, with participants named in the summary and key quotes. The first 20 minutes are free, and the $6 pack of 500 minutes covers four FGDs.
What an FGD turns into
Two hours of a crowded room, organised before you start coding.
Built for crowded rooms
Research and NGO FGDs often seat eight to ten participants around one recorder. The transcript keeps every audible turn with its time, and the summary and key quotes identify and name the people speaking.
Taglish as people speak it
Participants answer in whichever language comes first, often both in one sentence. English and Tagalog switches inside one recording are handled, and there is no language setting to choose.
Themes ready for the report
The brief states the takeaways and the questions the discussion answered, and the chapters follow the facilitator's guide. Use them to draft the themes, then confirm each against the transcript. A theme that rests on one loud participant shows up quickly when you check whose quotes support it.
A study on one or two packs
Four FGDs of two hours use 480 minutes, inside the $6 pack. Six FGDs use 720 minutes, which sits on the $12 pack of 2,000, at $0.36 per audio hour. Credits do not expire between fieldwork rounds.
Why FGD transcripts arrive late
Many voices and two languages make an FGD the slowest recording to type.
✗ Typing a crowded room
Overlapping answers, Taglish and long sessions make manual transcription slow and expensive.
- A week of typing per FGD
- Transcribers paid per audio hour
- Tools that refuse 2-hour files
- Captions that skip Filipino words
- Quotes without times for the report
- Fieldwork finished, transcripts still pending
✓ Text the same afternoon
Each FGD returns as one document with chapters and quotes.
- About 4 minutes per 2-hour FGD
- Taglish kept as spoken
- Each participant named in the summary and quotes
- Chapters per guide question
- Timestamps for every quote
- Exports ready for coding
Sample
An FGD excerpt.
Illustrative: written for this page to show the format, and not taken from any real FGD, organisation or community.
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
FGD transcription in the Philippines, answered.
How long does a 2-hour FGD take to transcribe?
About 4 minutes, at roughly 2 minutes per audio hour. You can leave the page; the transcript stays in your Library.
What do several FGDs cost?
An FGD of two hours takes 120 minutes from a pack. Four fit the $6 pack of 500, and six use 720 minutes on the $12 pack of 2,000. The first 20 minutes free applies to your first recording, so you can check the Taglish before buying.
Is there a size limit, and should I split the file?
Keep it whole. One file can run up to 10 hours or 5 GB; before the first pack, uploads up to 2 GB go through. A video recording of the room is larger than audio, so record audio when you can. Place the recorder in the middle of the table rather than near the facilitator, because quiet participants are the ones a transcript most often loses.
What if some participants speak Bisaya or Ilocano?
Regional Philippine languages are supported, but their accuracy trails English and Tagalog. Treat those passages as a fast first draft and plan one review pass with a speaker of the language.
Which exports are there, and what happens to the recording?
The FGD exports as DOCX for coding software, plus TXT, SRT, VTT and JSON. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. You can delete the recording and transcript when your protocol says so.
Can it tell participants apart in a crowded room?
The summary, key quotes and chapters name the participants who spoke. The transcript lines carry timestamps rather than speaker tags, so a place-card sheet or seating chart helps when you add participant codes.
Related
Related recordings
Send the FGD. Start coding this week.
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