Why is my transcript cut off after an hour? and how to get the rest of it.
When a transcript stops near the one-hour mark, the cause is nearly always a limit that came before the transcript: a tool or free tier that caps length, a recorder that began a new file at the hour, or a preview that ended where the free budget did. Here one file runs up to 10 hours or 5 GB at about 2 minutes per audio hour, the first 20 minutes are free, and a pack transcribes the rest from where a preview stopped; a 3-hour file needs 180 minutes of the $6 pack of 500.
Finding the missing hours
Four places the second hour usually goes missing.
Check the file before the transcript
Open the recording in any player and look at its length in the file information. If it says 1:00:00, the recording itself ends there and no transcription tool can find more. Look in the same folder for a second file with a similar name and a later time stamp.
Recorders that start a new file
Many cameras close a file and open another as it nears 4 GB, and some voice recorders and apps split long sessions into parts on their own. The second part is usually sitting beside the first. Join them in an editor, or upload each part and read the transcripts in order.
A preview, not a failure
On a first visit the first 20 minutes are free: a recording that fits is transcribed in full, and a longer one is previewed. Adding a pack transcribes the rest from where it ended, so the same recording finishes without being uploaded again.
Tools with an hour ceiling
Plenty of transcription tools stop at 30 or 60 minutes on a free tier, and the OpenAI Whisper API turns down files above 25 MB, about 26 minutes of 128 kbps MP3. If your transcript came from one of those, the cut is the tool's rule, not a fault in your audio.
Cut off, or complete
A transcript that ends at an hour leaves the decisions out.
✗ A transcript cut at an hour
What is lost when the second half never arrives.
- The last hour of a meeting missing
- Votes and actions near the end lost
- A lecture without its summing-up
- Timestamps that stop at 59:59
- Parts to stitch together by hand
- A second paid run somewhere else
✓ One file to the end
What comes back for a recording of any length up to 10 hours.
- Every hour of the recording in one text
- Closing decisions and actions included
- One clock from start to finish
- Chapters across the whole session
- A brief that reads the full recording
- Exports in TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON
Sample output
The part that used to be missing.
Illustrative lines invented for this page, not from a real recording, from the second hour of a long committee meeting.
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 cut-off transcripts.
Why does my transcript stop after exactly one hour?
Either the recording itself ends at an hour, often because the recorder split it into a second file, or the tool that made the transcript caps length at 60 minutes. Check the length of the audio file first; that tells you which of the two happened.
I uploaded a 2-hour file and only part came back. Why?
On a first visit the first 20 minutes are free, so a longer recording is previewed rather than finished. Add a pack, from the $6 pack of 500 minutes, and the rest is transcribed from where the preview ended, with no new upload.
Does WhipScribe cut long recordings?
No. One file runs up to 10 hours or 5 GB, whichever comes first, and the transcript covers all of it. A public run of 9.31 hours finished in 1,033 seconds, listed on /proof/long-files.
My recorder saved two files. Can I get one transcript?
Join the files in an audio editor and upload the result, and the timestamps run on one clock. Uploading the two parts separately also works; the second transcript simply starts again at 00:00:00.
What does a long recording cost?
Minutes follow the running time. A 2.5-hour meeting uses 150 minutes, a 9-hour hearing day 540 minutes; the first fits the $6 pack of 500, and the second the $12 pack of 2,000, which leaves room for more.
What comes back with the full transcript?
A brief, chapters with timestamps, speakers named in the summary, key quotes and chapters, and exports in TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. Your recordings are transcribed on our own servers and never used for training.
Related
Related pages.
Missing the second hour? Send the whole recording here.
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