Transcribe a long MP4 without shrinking the video first.
A long MP4 is mostly picture, and the picture is what makes it big: 1080p video runs about 1 to 2 GB per hour. One MP4 can be up to 5 GB and 10 hours here, only its audio is transcribed and counted, and if the video already sits on YouTube, Vimeo or Google Drive you can paste the link instead of uploading.
The MP4 arithmetic
Gigabytes of video, minutes of audio.
How big an hour of MP4 is
A 1080p screen recording or camera file usually takes 1 to 2 GB for each hour. That puts a two-hour webinar between 2 and 4 GB and a three-hour recording anywhere from 3 to 6 GB. Under 5 GB it uploads as one file, and a file past the 2 GB mark starts once a pack is on your account.
You pay for the soundtrack
Transcription reads the audio track, so a 4 GB MP4 and a 200 MB audio file of the same length use exactly the same minutes. Resolution, frame rate and video bitrate change how long the upload takes and nothing about the price.
Above 5 GB
Export the audio alone from your editor or player, which turns several gigabytes into a few hundred megabytes, and upload that. If the video is on YouTube or Vimeo, paste its link and nothing leaves your computer. Large MP4s that are still under the ceiling go up best from the upload page.
Captions that line up
Because the timestamps come from the video's own audio track, the SRT and VTT files line up with the original MP4 in any player or editor. Chapters mark where the topic changes, so you can jump to the part of a long video you need.
Before / after
A long video should not need a video editor to transcribe.
✗ The usual MP4 workaround
When the file is bigger than the tool allows, the advice is always some mix of compressing, cropping and cutting.
- Re-encode to a lower resolution first
- Wait an hour for that export to finish
- Hit an upload cap anyway at two hours
- Cut the video into thirds
- Line three caption files back up by hand
- Pay by the gigabyte for footage nobody reads
✓ Upload or paste, then read
The MP4 stays exactly as recorded, or never leaves the place it is hosted.
- One MP4 up to 5 GB, or a link with no upload
- Billed on audio length, not on file size
- A two-hour video ready in about four minutes
- Captions timed to the original file
- Speakers named in the brief, quotes and chapters
- Before your first pack, files up to 2 GB start right away
Sample output
Timestamps you can scrub to in the video.
This sample is illustrative and not from a real MP4. The times match the position in the video, so you can type one into the player and land on the sentence.
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 MP4 questions.
How long does a two-hour MP4 take?
About four minutes of processing after the upload, since the work runs at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio. On a large MP4 the upload often takes longer than the transcription, so pasting a link is quicker when the video is already online.
What will a long MP4 cost?
It costs the minutes of its audio. A two-hour MP4 uses 120 minutes, which a $6 pack (500 minutes) covers with at least 380 minutes left. The first 20 minutes of your first recording are free, and credits never expire.
My MP4 is 3 GB. Can I upload it?
Yes, the ceiling is 5 GB. Because it is over 2 GB, it starts once a pack is on your account. A file of 2 GB or less can start before you buy anything and show the free preview first.
What if the MP4 is over 5 GB or longer than 10 hours?
For size, save the audio track alone and upload that, or paste a YouTube or Vimeo link. For length, a video longer than 10 hours goes in as two files, and the second transcript counts its time from zero.
Does it handle languages other than English?
Yes. 99 languages are detected automatically from the audio track, with no setting to choose before you upload.
Which formats come back, and is my video private?
TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON from one run. Your MP4 is transcribed on our own servers, and it is never used for training.
Related
Related pages.
Leave the MP4 at full size. Only the audio is counted.
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