Transcribe a 3-hour video even when the file is huge.
Three hours of 1080p video is usually 3 to 6 GB, which is the size where uploads get difficult. If your file is under 5 GB, upload it; if it is larger or already online, paste the link. Either way it takes about 6 minutes, the first 20 minutes are free, and 180 minutes fits a $6 pack.
Three hours of video
The file size is the obstacle. Here is the way around it.
Under 5 GB: upload it
Most three-hour recordings from Zoom, a screen recorder or a phone land under 5 GB and upload whole. Because anything over 2 GB starts once a pack is on the account, buy the pack first for files in that range.
Over 5 GB: three options
Paste a link if the video is on YouTube, Vimeo or Google Drive. Or export just the audio track, which for three hours is around 200 MB. Or cut the video into two files at a break and transcribe both. Free tools such as Audacity or a video editor's export menu can save the audio track as MP3 in a few minutes.
Six minutes for three hours
Once the audio is in, processing runs at about 2 minutes per audio hour. A link is fetched on our side, so the speed of your upload connection does not matter.
Priced on the audio
180 minutes from the $6 pack of 500 leaves 320. A 6 GB file and a 600 MB file of the same three hours cost the same.
Usual experience
Three hours of video against an upload limit.
✗ Fighting the file
Large video files fail in ways that waste an afternoon. The longer the video, the more chances an upload has to fail partway.
- Uploads that stall at 80 percent
- Size limits measured in megabytes
- Re-encoding that takes longer than the video
- Splitting into thirds to fit
- Subtitles in three unaligned parts
- Being charged for file size
✓ Upload, link or audio track
Pick whichever is fastest for the file you have.
- Upload up to 5 GB
- Paste YouTube, Vimeo or Drive links
- About 6 minutes to process
- First 20 minutes free
- 180 minutes from a $6 pack
- Captions plus TXT, DOCX and JSON
Sample transcript
A three-hour recorded course session.
Illustrative text composed for this page. It shows a long recorded course session with timestamps that run past the second hour.
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
Three-hour videos, answered.
How long does it take to transcribe a 3-hour video?
About 6 minutes of processing. A large upload adds whatever time your connection needs, while a pasted link is fetched on our side. Speakers are identified and named in the brief, key quotes and chapters once it finishes.
How much does a 3-hour video cost?
180 minutes, the same as three hours of audio. The $6 pack of 500 minutes covers it and leaves 320. The first 20 minutes are free before you buy.
How big is a 3-hour video file?
At 1080p, usually 3 to 6 GB. At 720p it is often under 2 GB, and a 4K recording can be much larger. Long Zoom recordings saved locally tend to sit at the lower end, since a shared screen compresses well.
My 3-hour video is over 5 GB. What should I do?
Paste a link if the video is online, export only the audio track, or cut it into two files. Any of the three works, and the audio-only route is usually quickest.
Can I get captions for a 3-hour video?
Yes, as SRT or VTT timed from the start of the file, ready to load into a player or editor. The readable versions come out alongside them, and the spoken language is detected on its own from 99.
Is a long recorded stream handled differently?
A Twitch, Kick or YouTube Live recording over 6 hours starts once a pack is on the account, and three hours does not hit that. Streams and uploads are treated the same in one respect: recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Related pages.
Three hours of video. Upload, paste, or send the audio.
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