How long recordings really are
The median recording is 25 minutes, yet 72% of all audio comes from files of an hour or more. 3,469 recordings, 90 days of production.
The short answer
The median recording people transcribe on WhipScribe is 25 minutes long, but recordings of an hour or more are 27% of files and 72% of all the audio.
Production record, 28 July 2026 to 25 October 2026. Quote with the date.
Most recordings are short; most audio is long
Share of recordings
Share of all audio hours
| Recording length | Recordings | Share of recordings | Audio hours | Share of audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| under 5 min | 782 | 22% | 32 | 1% |
| 5–15 min | 624 | 18% | 97 | 3% |
| 15–30 min | 472 | 14% | 174 | 6% |
| 30–60 min | 667 | 19% | 487 | 17% |
| 1–2 h | 561 | 16% | 768 | 27% |
| 2–4 h | 261 | 8% | 703 | 25% |
| 4 h or more | 102 | 3% | 584 | 20% |
3,469 finished recordings, 2,845 hours of audio. Median 25 min, 75th percentile 63 min, 90th percentile 2.0 h, mean 49 min.
Links run longer than uploads
A pasted link (a YouTube video, a Drive file, a podcast episode) had a median of 35 minutes; an uploaded file 18 minutes. One link in 3 was an hour or longer.
| How it arrived | Recordings | Median length | 90th percentile | An hour or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| file upload | 1,934 | 18 min | 88 min | 21% |
| link | 1,532 | 35 min | 2.9 h | 34% |
By uploaded format
| Uploaded format | Recordings | Median length | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| M4A | 679 | 31 min | 1.5 h |
| MP3 | 642 | 14 min | 79 min |
| MP4 | 351 | 11 min | 1.8 h |
| WAV | 89 | 8 min | 63 min |
| OGG | 41 | 2 min | 30 min |
| MOV | 37 | 2 min | 17 min |
| AAC | 20 | 33 min | 2.2 h |
AAC files had the longest median (33 min) and MOV the shortest (2 min). Formats with fewer than 20 recordings are not shown.
Method
Source: the WhipScribe production job record, every job created from 28 July 2026 to 25 October 2026 (90 days, UTC). 7,417 jobs were created; 1,856 were removed as internal, test or direct API traffic (a few integrations submit in batches and would weigh one account like hundreds), and each account counts for at most its first 20 jobs (262 jobs over that cap left out). That leaves 5,299 jobs from 4,107 accounts, 3,469 of them finished recordings of a minute or more. Length is the measured audio duration of each finished recording.
Privacy: aggregates only. Every row shown stands on at least 20 jobs from at least 5 different accounts; smaller groups are folded into "other" or left out. No name, e-mail, file name, link or transcript text was read into the figures. Computed by scripts/research_production.py, measured 26 October 2026.
Questions
How long is the average recording people transcribe?
On WhipScribe's production record from 28 July 2026 to 25 October 2026, the median was 25 minutes and the mean 49 minutes, over 3,469 finished recordings.
What share of transcribed audio comes from long recordings?
Recordings of an hour or more were 27% of files but 72% of the 2,845 audio hours.
Does this include very short clips?
Recordings under one minute are left out: they are mostly tests and accidental taps, and they would pull the median down without telling you anything.
Cite this
WhipScribe, "How long are the recordings people transcribe?", production data 28 July 2026 to 25 October 2026, measured 26 October 2026. https://whipscribe.com/proof/recording-lengths
Free to quote and chart with that line (CC BY 4.0). Raw figures: /proof/recording-lengths.json.
More from the production record: languages people transcribe · how much of a recording is speech · when people transcribe · formats, links and devices · how fast it transcribes · all proof pages · fact sheet.
See also: Transcription services · Turnaround time · Evidence log · Pricing · Privacy · Terms