Legal professionals, journalists, health care workers, and plenty of others record audio of people speaking and need to have it typed up and put into a document. Doing that work yourself is tedious, especially since transcription services can do it for you. Transcription services come in two varieties: automated and human-made.

Automated transcriptions, also sometimes called machine-generated or AI transcriptions, are cheap and fast to make. They're usually also riddled with mistaken words, a lack of punctuation, and other errors that you need to correct. Human-generated transcriptions are typically extremely accurate but cost more and take longer to produce. Both types of transcription have pros and cons, and some companies offer both, letting you choose what you need based on the audio file you have.

Here, we list the best transcription services based on our hands-on testing. We evaluate services based on accuracy, ease of use, and price. Read on after the product summaries to find more information on what to look for in a transcription service and some details on how they work.

Automated vs. Human Transcriptions: What's the Difference?

Automated transcription services use automatic speech recognition to transcribe an audio file into text. Two primary benefits of using automation are that it's fast and it's cheap.

Services that offer automated transcription sometimes include extra features that may not be free in a human-generated transcript, such as time stamps and basic speaker identification (for example, Speaker 1, Speaker 2). The downside of automated transcription is that it's far less accurate than when a human does the job.

Automated transcription services often include access to document-editing software that lets you clean up the text. If you see an error in the document, click on the time-stamped section to listen to the words and transcribe that portion on your own.

Rev, Otter, GoTranscript, Scribie, TranscribeMe, Trint, and Temi (which didn't score high enough to be included in this list of the best transcription services) all offer automated transcription services. Rev, GoTranscript, Scribie, and TranscribeMe also offer human-powered services.

Transcriptions made by humans are highly accurate, but they're also pricier and typically require a longer turnaround time, though you can pay extra if you need a rush order.

Human-generated transcription services use trained transcriptionists—often more than one—to complete the work. When a transcription job is given to more than one transcriptionist, it means no one person has access to your entire audio recording, which is usually seen as being good for privacy. Employees and contractors sometimes sign non-disclosure agreements to become transcriptionists as well. When you choose human-generated transcripts, you can sometimes pay to get transcriptionists who are educated in a particular industry's jargon, such as legal or medical terms. 

Using human-powered transcription may introduce privacy concerns. In testing and reviewing transcription services, we look at the conditions under which a company says it will comply with law enforcement and hand over any user data. You can read the details in the review of each service. All services that made this list of the best transcription services operate under strict nondisclosure policies and let you remove your files from their servers at any time.

How Much Do Transcription Services Cost?

Many transcription services charge on a per-minute basis. For example, a 30-minute transcription at $1 per minute would cost $30. Costs can add up quickly, and some services bill extra for a faster turnaround time, verbatim files (meaning they include all the "ums" and "ahs"), or if the audio is of poor quality. If you find yourself transcribing audio and video files often, a subscription-based service, such as those offered by Otter and Trint, might be the best value for you. Increasingly, video editing software now has automated captioning, too, so if you use one you might want to first check if it's included.

As you might guess, the amount of time it takes to turn around a file usually depends on its length. Automated services can typically process a file in a matter of minutes. Human-powered services take quite a bit longer, and you may have to pay for faster delivery speeds. Rev is simple in that it promises to return your file (in most cases) in a 12-hour timeframe. GoTranscript's slowest option (five days) is also its cheapest.

How to Get the Most Accurate Transcription

One of the most important things you can do to ensure an accurate transcription is to capture a high-quality recording of a conversation or interview in the first place. It is vital that your subjects are close to the recording device and speak in loud, clear voices. When you have multiple speakers, participants should speak one at a time to avoid interference. Most services have a note in their documentation saying that speakers with heavy accents can pose some issues, though there's not much you can do to avoid it. Audio editing software such as the free Audacity can clear up some issues, but it can't perform miracles. In-person recordings also produce better results than recordings of phone calls.

In general, automated services are useful only if the audio recording is on the simple side and you don't need perfectly accurate results. They're fine for personal voice memos and similar applications but not for a professional setting.

How to Edit a Transcription

Most people need to correct some parts of their transcript once they receive it. When you log into your transcription service, you get an editing program where you can listen to the audio recording again while looking at the typed transcript so that you can make changes easily. The setup of having audio playback right in the editing program is convenient.

Some editing interfaces include tools for highlighting selected parts of a transcript or editing the start time of the recording. Playback speeds and quick rewind buttons (all controllable via keyboard shortcuts) are also fairly standard. GoTranscript is notably the only service that does not offer an online editor. Your only option is to edit the exported transcript after GoTranscript completes a job.

The Best Transcription Apps

Many of the transcription services we reviewed, including GoTranscript, Otter, and Rev, also offer mobile apps in addition to their web dashboards. Most offer both Android apps and iPhone apps. For the most part, these apps function as digital voice recorders, though you can also order transcripts of your recordings directly from your mobile device. The drawback is that you can't import audio files or links the way that you can via their websites. Many let you view the completed transcript directly on your device. Otter goes one step further than the others by giving you excellent organizational features and the ability to edit transcripts on the go.

Human vs. Automated Transcription

There are alternatives if you want to avoid transcription services entirely—for privacy reasons or to save on costs. For doing your own manual transcription, Transcribe is a great option at only $20 per year. It lets you listen to an audio recording while you type, with built-in keyboard shortcuts and useful playback modes that reduce the number of times you need to pause and rewind. Another option is oTranscribe. It works similarly to Transcribe, but it's free.

If you're a paying Microsoft 365 subscriber, you can use Word's Transcribe feature from the Home > Dictate dropdown menu. You can record in real-time inside Word or upload audio files to its online automated transcription service. Transcribe for Word doesn't cost any extra.

Google Docs may be the best solution for those who don't want to spend any money. With Google Docs, you can use the voice typing feature, which is nothing more than a speech-to-text tool, to put words down on the page. It's often quicker than typing everything out. Some people listen to a prerecorded audio file on headphones and then speak the same lines aloud to a speech-to-text tool, which works better than playing the audio directly into a microphone, but it's still cumbersome and takes time.

Ultimately, any transcription method or service you choose is better than simply letting your recordings go to waste. Yes, transcribing can be a hassle, and some services are costly, but the value of accurate and usable transcripts far outweighs these annoyances. At least one of the services named above should suit your needs. Make sure to read our full reviews for help picking the right one.