Thinking of splitting audio for transcription? Keep it in one piece.
If you were about to split a recording so a transcription tool would accept it, you can stop. One file up to 10 hours and 5 GB goes up whole here and returns as one transcript with one running clock. For uploads of 2 GB or less, the first 20 minutes cost nothing.
Why not split
Every cut you make is a seam you have to repair later.
What splitting costs
Each part starts its clock at zero, so a quote at 00:12:30 in part three of a recording cut into half-hour pieces is really at 01:12:30. Sentences get cut at the boundary, and a summary of each part misses the thread that runs between them. A question asked in the first hour and answered in the third ends up in two separate documents.
One file, one clock
The recording goes up as it came off the recorder, phone or meeting app, up to 10 hours or 5 GB. The timestamps count from the start of the file, so every line points to the real moment in the original audio.
Uploading the whole thing
The box on this page accepts files up to 500 MB, which covers several hours of MP3. A bigger file goes from the upload page; one over 2 GB starts once a pack is on the account.
Only past 10 hours
The one time to cut a recording is when it runs past 10 hours or 5 GB. Then two files are enough, cut at a natural pause, and each comes back with its own chapters. Two is still far fewer than the six or twelve that a short per-file cap would force on the same recording.
Split versus whole
The same three-hour recording, two ways.
✗ Split into six parts
Half-hour parts fit a small cap, but they leave you with six jobs and an editing session at the end.
- Six uploads and six waits
- Six transcripts named by hand
- Timestamps that reset in every part
- Words lost or doubled at each cut
- Six summaries instead of one
- An hour of copy-paste to merge them
✓ Sent whole
One upload of the original file, and one transcript with a brief and chapters that cover all three hours.
- One upload
- One transcript
- Timestamps from 00:00:00 to the end
- No missing words at a boundary
- One brief for the whole recording
- Ready in about six minutes
Sample output
A three-hour oral history interview, unsplit.
This sample is illustrative and not from a real interview. The transcript of a three-hour session reads straight through, and the clock never resets.
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
Splitting, answered.
Do I need to split my audio before transcribing it?
No, as long as one file is within 10 hours and 5 GB. Under those numbers you upload the original and get one transcript back. The habit of splitting comes from tools with small caps, and it is not needed here.
How long does an unsplit three-hour file take?
About six minutes, at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio. It is not slower than three one-hour parts; it is simply one job instead of three. The longer file also gives the brief more context, because it reads the whole conversation rather than a third of it.
What does an unsplit recording cost?
The same as its running time in minutes. A three-hour recording is 180 minutes, covered by the $6 pack of 500 minutes with 320 left, and the first 20 minutes are free for first-time visitors. Splitting never saves money, because six half-hour parts add up to the same 180 minutes.
I already split it. Can I join the parts first?
Yes, if you still have the original file, upload that instead. If not, join the parts in an audio editor and export one file, or transcribe each part separately. Joining is worth the few minutes it takes when you want a single brief and one set of chapters for the whole recording.
When should I split a recording?
Only when it runs past 10 hours or 5 GB. Cut it into two files at a natural pause, such as a lunch break or a change of speaker. A recorder that already saves a new file every few hours, as many field recorders do, can be uploaded file by file just as it is.
Which languages and exports are there, and is it private?
99 languages, recognised without a setting, and TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON exports. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Long recordings in one piece.
Don't split it. Send the whole recording.
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