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WhipScribe turns a YouTube link or an uploaded MP4, MOV, MKV or MXF file into a timestamped transcript plus SRT and VTT subtitles for $0.48 per hour of video (packs from $4 for 500 minutes). Processing takes about 2 minutes per hour of video, and the summary is free to read before you pay.
The short version
Most people looking for a video transcription service want one of three things: subtitles for a video they are publishing, searchable text from footage they have shot, or notes from a long recording they do not have time to rewatch. The deciding factors are the same each time: what it costs per hour of video, how long you wait, which files and links it accepts, and whether the subtitle files drop straight into your editor or player.
WhipScribe is a machine (AI) transcription service. A speech recognition model running on our own servers writes every transcript; no person types or checks it. That is why it costs cents rather than dollars per hour and comes back in minutes rather than hours. It is also why, for some jobs, you should pay a human service instead, and this page says which ones.
How it works
Nothing to install, and no need to pull the audio out of the video first.
A public YouTube link, or a Google Drive, Twitch or Kick link. Or upload the video itself: MP4, MOV, MKV, MXF, AVI, WEBM, MTS and more, up to 10 hours or 5 GB per file.
About 2 minutes of processing per hour of video. The summary of the recording is free to read, so you can see the transcript is the one you want before you spend anything.
A pack from $4 opens the full transcript. Download SRT or VTT subtitles, a DOCX or TXT document, or JSON with word-level timestamps.
What it costs
One-time packs, no subscription needed. Minutes are deducted by the length of each recording, and credits never expire.
| Pack | Minutes | Hours of video | Cost per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| $4 | 500 | 8 h 20 min | $0.48 |
| $8 | 1,000 | 16 h 40 min | $0.48 |
| $12 | 2,000 | 33 h 20 min | $0.36 |
| $24 | 5,000 | 83 h 20 min | $0.29 |
Workspace is $19 a month for teams that transcribe every day (fair use 700 hours a month). No per-seat fee. Prices in US dollars; full details on the pricing page. Worked example: a 45-minute lecture video costs $0.36 on the $4 pack; a 90-minute film cut costs $0.72.
What you get
SRT and VTT files are timed from word-level timestamps, so each line appears when it is spoken. Upload the SRT to YouTube, import it into Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, or attach the VTT to your own web player. Not sure which? See SRT vs VTT.
Besides MP4 and MOV, the uploader takes MKV, MXF from broadcast cameras, MTS and M2TS from camcorders, VOB from DVDs, and older AVI, WMV and FLV files. You upload the video as it is.
Up to 10 hours or 5 GB in a single file: a full conference day, a multi-hour stream replay, a day of camera rushes. No splitting into chunks. More on transcribing long videos.
TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON are all included. Search the transcript and click a line to jump to that moment in the video.
The spoken language is detected automatically, and the transcript and subtitles come out in that language.
Each recording also gets a brief with the takeaways, chapters with timestamps, the names, numbers and dates that were said, and a chat over the transcript.
Turnaround
Processing takes about 2 minutes per hour of video, and most files finish in under a minute. A one-hour interview is usually ready about two minutes after the upload completes; a 10-hour stream replay takes around 20 minutes.
The part you control is the upload. A video file is mostly picture, so a 1 GB MP4 takes as long as your connection needs to send 1 GB. If the video is already online, paste the link instead: the video is fetched from there, so nothing has to leave your computer. Files over 500 MB continue on the upload page, which handles large files.
Compare that with human services, which quote turnaround in hours or days because a person listens to every minute. That is a fair trade when the result has to be checked word by word; it is a slow one when you need subtitles on a video today.
Samples
Public recordings only: our own demos and public videos that WhipScribe users transcribed.
Compared honestly
Four different kinds of product. Prices are from each company’s own pricing page, checked 3 October 2026.
| WhipScribe | Rev | Otter | Descript | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Machine transcription of files and links | Machine plans plus human transcription, captions and subtitles | Meeting notes assistant | Video and podcast editor that edits by text |
| How you pay | One-time packs, $4 to $24 | AI plans per seat per month; human work per minute | Plans per user per month | Plans per person per month |
| Entry paid price | $4 for 500 minutes | Essentials $29.99 per seat/month ($25.49 billed annually) | Pro $16.99/user/month ($8.33 billed annually) | Hobbyist $24/month ($16 billed annually) |
| Machine minutes on that tier | 500, never expire | 5,000 per user per month | 1,200 per user per month | 10 media hours per month |
| Human transcription | Not offered | $1.99/min, delivered in 12 hours or less | Not on the pricing page | Not on the pricing page |
| One-hour video, one-off | $0.48 | $119.40 human; machine needs a plan | Needs a plan | Needs a plan |
| Subtitle export | SRT, VTT | Captions and subtitles offered | SRT on Pro and above | Captions on all paid plans |
| Length per file | 10 h / 5 GB | Not stated on the pricing page | 90 min per meeting on Pro, 4 h on Business | Bounded by monthly media hours |
More detail in our Rev, Otter and Descript comparisons, and the round-up of the best transcription services.
Be sure it fits
Machine transcription is very good on clear speech and much cheaper, but it is not the right tool for every job. Pay a human transcription or captioning service when:
For everything else (YouTube subtitles, course videos, interviews you will quote from, webinar and conference recordings, footage you need to search) a machine transcript you read through once is usually all you need, at a small fraction of the price. Our guide to human transcription services covers the human options in more depth.
FAQ
Packs are $4 for 500 minutes, $8 for 1,000, $12 for 2,000 and $24 for 5,000. A one-hour video uses 60 minutes, which is $0.48 on the $4 or $8 pack and $0.29 on the $24 pack. Credits never expire, and the summary of any recording is free to read before you pay.
About 2 minutes of processing per hour of video, and most files finish in under a minute. Add the time your upload takes, or the time to fetch the video from a link.
MP4, MOV, MKV, MXF, AVI, WEBM, M4V, WMV, MTS, M2TS, VOB, FLV, 3GP, MPG and more. You upload the video as it is; there is no need to extract the audio first. One file can be up to 10 hours or 5 GB.
Yes. Paste the link of a public YouTube video, or a Google Drive, Twitch or Kick link. If YouTube blocks automated access to a video, download it and upload the file instead. A live stream is transcribed once it has ended.
Yes. Every transcript downloads as SRT and VTT subtitle files, timed from word-level timestamps, as well as TXT, DOCX and JSON. There is no extra charge for any format.
Machine transcription. A speech recognition model writes every transcript; no person types or checks it. For court records, broadcast captions that must meet a contract standard, or audio that is very hard to hear, a human service is the better choice.
99+ languages, detected automatically. The transcript and subtitles come out in the language that is spoken in the video.
Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. You can delete a recording and its transcript at any time.
Related
Sources for competitor details, each checked 3 October 2026: Rev, rev.com/pricing; Otter, otter.ai/pricing; Descript, descript.com/pricing. Prices change; check their pages before you buy. Rev, Otter and Descript are trademarks of their owners; WhipScribe is not affiliated with them. The $119.40 figure is Rev’s $1.99 per minute times 60.
The summary is free to read. A pack from $4 opens the full transcript and the SRT and VTT subtitles.