Transcribe a long CAF file the whole take, start to end.
An eight-hour CAF recording is 480 minutes, which the $6 pack (500 minutes) covers with 20 to spare, and it is transcribed in about sixteen minutes. One file can run up to 10 hours or 5 GB, the first 20 minutes are free, and if the upload refuses the file, convert it to MP3 first.
Core Audio Format
What sits inside the CAF decides how big it is.
A container with anything inside
CAF is Apple's Core Audio Format, used by Mac and iOS audio software. It is a wrapper, so the sound inside may be uncompressed PCM, AAC, Apple Lossless or another codec, and the codec, not the .caf extension, sets how big an hour is.
Built for long takes
Unlike WAV and AIFF, CAF has no 4 GB size ceiling of its own, which is one reason some apps choose it for long sessions. The 5 GB upload limit still applies, so a very long uncompressed CAF can outgrow it.
Size per hour
As uncompressed 16-bit, 48 kHz mono, a CAF runs about 345 MB an hour, so eight hours is near 2.8 GB. The same eight hours in stereo is about 5.5 GB, past the limit. With AAC inside, an hour is closer to the size of an M4A, often under 100 MB.
Converting on a Mac
If the upload refuses the file, convert it to MP3 first, or to M4A with the afconvert tool built into macOS. Any audio editor that opens CAF can do the same, and a compressed copy of eight hours is a few hundred megabytes, ready for the upload page.
Core Audio elsewhere
Why a long CAF is hard to send.
✗ Unknown outside Apple
Many web tools and Windows programs do not open CAF at all, and a long uncompressed one is too big for most of the tools that do.
- An extension the uploader does not know
- A codec inside that is not supported
- Multi-gigabyte files refused for size
- Splitting into parts to fit a cap
- Conversions pushed down to low quality
- A transcript for every fragment
✓ Opened for its speech
Whatever codec sits inside, the transcript comes from the speech and the bill comes from the running time.
- Up to 10 hours or 5 GB per file
- An MP3 or M4A copy when refused
- About sixteen minutes for eight hours
- Files up to 2 GB before the first pack
- Chapters across the whole take
- Minutes left over for later
Sample output
Late in an all-day recording session.
Illustrative, not a real recording. A full-day take kept as one CAF comes back on one timeline.
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 CAF files, answered.
How long does an eight-hour CAF take to transcribe?
Roughly sixteen minutes after the upload, at about 2 minutes per audio hour. The public proof page shows a 9.31-hour recording that finished in 1,033 seconds.
What does an eight-hour CAF cost?
Eight hours is 480 minutes, inside the $6 pack (500 minutes) with 20 left. Ten hours is 600 minutes and needs the $12 pack (2,000 minutes), which leaves 1,400 for later recordings.
Will the upload accept a .caf file?
It is an audio file, so many browsers offer it in the picker, but not every codec a CAF can hold is supported. If the upload refuses the file, convert it to MP3 first, and the transcript will read the same.
My CAF is over 5 GB or longer than 10 hours. What now?
For size, a compressed copy fixes it, since eight hours of AAC fits in a few hundred megabytes. For length, split the take into two files at a pause, and the second transcript counts its time from zero. A file above 2 GB starts once a pack is on the account.
Why did my app save CAF instead of M4A?
Some recording apps use CAF because it has no size ceiling of its own and can hold uncompressed sound during a long take. It is a sensible choice for recording; for sending, a compressed copy is lighter.
What languages and exports are supported, and where is my file processed?
Speech in 99 languages is detected automatically, with exports in TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. CAF recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Related Apple audio formats.
Eight hours in one CAF. About sixteen minutes to text.
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