Transcribe a long AIFF file uncompressed and all.
A three-hour AIFF at CD quality is about 1.9 GB, so it uploads as one file before any pack and is transcribed in roughly six minutes. AIFF is uncompressed like WAV, which means the 5 GB limit usually arrives before the 10-hour one; the first 20 minutes are free, and the $6 pack (500 minutes) covers the three hours with 320 left.
Mac audio, uncompressed
Big per hour, simple to work out.
Size per hour, by setting
At 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo, AIFF uses about 635 MB an hour. At 24-bit, 48 kHz stereo it is closer to 1.04 GB an hour, and a mono recording halves either figure. Multiply by the hours and you know which limit you will meet first.
Where the limits fall
At CD quality, 2 GB holds a little over three hours and 5 GB a little under eight. At 24-bit, 48 kHz stereo the 5 GB line comes at about four hours and fifty minutes. Past those points, a compressed copy keeps the speech and drops most of the weight.
Sending it
AIFF goes up as an ordinary audio file, and large ones carry on from the upload page. If the upload refuses the file, convert it to MP3 first. The Music app, GarageBand or any audio editor can export one, and 128 kbps is plenty for speech.
Six minutes for three hours
Processing takes about 2 minutes per audio hour however large the AIFF is. With a big uncompressed file the upload is the slow part, so a compressed copy often gets you to the text sooner.
Uncompressed audio
What a multi-gigabyte AIFF runs into.
✗ Too big for most boxes
Uncompressed Mac audio outgrows the small caps many tools set, and the OpenAI Whisper API documents a 25 MB upload limit, under three minutes of CD-quality AIFF.
- Upload limits measured in megabytes
- Studio audio forced down in quality to fit
- Uploads that stall past the first gigabyte
- Sessions chopped into parts by hand
- Markers lost in the split
- No word on where the limit sits
✓ Sized in the open
The limits are stated, the arithmetic is simple, and a compressed copy is always there as a fallback.
- Up to 5 GB or 10 hours per file
- About eight hours of CD-quality AIFF
- Up to 2 GB before the first pack
- MP3 copies with the same words
- Timestamps that match the session
- Exports for editors and captions
Sample output
Hour two of a recorded rehearsal.
An illustrative excerpt, not a real session. A long AIFF captured in a Mac recording app keeps one continuous clock in the transcript.
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
Long AIFF files, answered.
How long does a three-hour AIFF take?
About six minutes after it uploads. Sending almost 2 GB is usually the longer part of the wait, especially over a slow connection.
What does three hours of AIFF cost?
Three hours is 180 minutes, which the $6 pack (500 minutes) covers with 320 left. A seven-hour recording day is 420 minutes on the same pack. Fifteen hours spread across several files is 900 minutes and suits the $12 pack (2,000 minutes).
How big an AIFF can I upload?
Up to 5 GB. Before your first pack the limit is 2 GB, which is about three hours at CD quality, and a larger file starts once a pack is on the account.
What if my AIFF is over 5 GB or 10 hours?
Export a compressed copy, such as MP3 at 128 kbps, which holds an hour of speech in about 58 MB, or export the session in two halves. A recording longer than 10 hours always goes in as two files, each with its own clock from zero.
Does uncompressed audio make the transcript better?
Clean, uncompressed audio does no harm, but speech transcribes just as well from a decent MP3. What helps most is a close microphone and a quiet room, not the file format.
Which languages and exports, and what happens to the file?
99 languages are detected automatically, and the exports are TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. Your AIFF is transcribed on our own servers and is never used for training.
Related
Other uncompressed and Apple formats.
Gigabytes of AIFF. Read as text in minutes.
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