Prices and features on this page come from each company’s own pages as read on October 7, 2026. They change, so check the company’s page before you buy.
Quick comparison
| Tool | How you pay | Free tier | SRT and VTT export | Speaker labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TurboScribe | Subscription, monthly or yearly | 3 files a day, up to 30 minutes each | SRT and VTT | Yes |
| UniScribe | Subscription, monthly or yearly, or one-time packages | 120 minutes a month, 3 files a day, up to 30 minutes each | SRT and VTT | Yes, on paid plans |
| Rev | Subscription per seat, or human-verified transcription by the minute | 45 AI transcription minutes a month | SRT and VTT, per Rev’s help pages | Yes, per Rev’s help pages |
| Otter | Subscription per user | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 file imports in total | SRT on paid plans; VTT not listed on the pricing page | Yes |
| Descript | Subscription per person | A free plan exists | SRT and VTT | Optional in subtitle export |
| Timecode Transcript | Minute packs paid once, no account | First 10 minutes of up to 3 files a day | SRT free; VTT with a pack | No, names are typed by hand |
TurboScribe
Built as a subscription transcription service.
- The free plan allows up to 3 files a day, each up to 30 minutes.
- The Unlimited plan costs $10 a month when billed yearly ($120 a year) and $20 a month when billed monthly.
- Unlimited accepts files up to 10 hours or 5 GB, and 50 files at a time.
- Speaker recognition is offered.
- Exports include DOCX, PDF, TXT, SRT and VTT. With Advanced Export you can also get JSON and CSV and add timestamps.
UniScribe
Built as a subscription transcription service that also sells one-time packages.
- The free plan has 120 minutes a month, files up to 30 minutes, and 3 files a day.
- Subscriptions billed yearly: Basic $6 a month ($72 a year) with 1,200 minutes a month, Standard $12 a month with 3,000 minutes, Pro $18 a month with 6,000 minutes. Paid plans accept files up to 5 hours or 5 GB.
- One-time packages: Lite $12.90 for 300 minutes (90 days), Plus $19.90 for 600 minutes (90 days), Max $49.90 for 3,000 minutes (180 days).
- Speaker identification is on paid plans.
- Exports include Word, CSV, PDF, TXT, SRT and VTT, and transcripts include timestamps.
Rev
Rev’s pricing page is written for legal and investigative work and prices per seat.
- The free plan has 45 AI transcription minutes a month.
- Essentials costs $25.49 per seat a month billed annually ($29.99 billed monthly), with 5,000 AI minutes per user a month, up to 3 seats, in English and Spanish.
- Pro costs $47.99 per seat a month billed annually ($59.99 billed monthly), with 10,000 minutes, up to 5 seats and 37+ languages.
- Human-verified transcription starts at $1.99 a minute.
- Rev’s help pages say AI transcripts include speaker labels and timestamps and can be exported as DOCX, PDF, TXT, SRT and VTT.
Otter
Built around meetings: it joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet and offers live transcription.
- Basic is free: 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 audio or video file imports in total, and TXT and MP3 export.
- Pro costs $8.33 per user a month billed annually, with 1,200 minutes, 90 minutes per conversation, 10 file imports a month, and MP3, TXT, PDF, DOCX and SRT export.
- Business costs $19.99 per user a month billed annually, with conversations up to 4 hours.
- Speaker identification is included.
- Otter’s help center says an SRT export can include or leave out speaker names and timestamps, and that SRT export is on paid plans.
Descript
Built as an audio and video editor in which you edit the recording by editing its transcript.
- A free plan exists. Hobbyist costs $16 a month billed annually ($24 billed monthly) for 10 media hours a month.
- Creator costs $24 a month billed annually ($35 monthly) for 30 media hours and a team of up to 3.
- Business costs $50 a month billed annually ($65 monthly) for 40 media hours and a team of up to 5.
- Descript’s help center says subtitles export as SRT or VTT, with an option to include speaker labels.
- A text export can add timecodes at set intervals, at paragraph breaks and for speaker labels, and can offset the start time.
Timecode Transcript
Built for transcripts whose timecodes follow an edit: frame-based SMPTE timecodes, a start timecode and a choice of how often a timecode appears.
- Free: the first 10 minutes of up to 3 files a day, no sign-up, with a [HH:MM:SS] timecode on every sentence and TXT and SRT downloads.
- Minute packs are paid once: 2 hours for $4.99, 10 hours for $9.99, 30 hours for $24.99. A pack can be used for 12 months, and unused minutes are refunded within 14 days of purchase. There is no account and no subscription.
- Timecode formats: [HH:MM:SS], HH:MM:SS.mmm, and SMPTE HH:MM:SS:FF at 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97 (drop-frame or non-drop) and 30 frames per second.
- A timecode can appear on every sentence, every paragraph, or every 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds, and a start timecode can be added.
- Exports: TXT, SRT, VTT, CSV, DOCX and JSON.
What it does not have:
- Speaker identification. Speaker names are typed by hand.
- Team accounts or a shared workspace.
- Live transcription or joining online meetings.
- Translation.
- A cloud library of past files. Transcripts are kept in your browser only.
- Files longer than 3 hours.
How to choose
- Timecode Transcript is built for SMPTE frame timecodes at your edit’s frame rate, with a start timecode, paid once and without an account.
- If you need speaker labels in the transcript, TurboScribe, UniScribe, Rev, Otter and Descript each list them.
- If you need notes and live transcription for online meetings, Otter is built for that.
- If you want to edit audio or video by editing the text, Descript is built for that.
- If you want a person to check the transcript, Rev sells human-verified transcription.
Related
Read the time coded transcript examples to see the formats, SRT vs VTT for the subtitle files, or go to the time coded transcript generator.