What is transcribing? Transcribing is **the process of converting spoken words from an audio or video file into a written text document**.
The reasons someone does this vary, but in general, it’s to turn the audio file into a readable document.
As you can imagine, some people do not enjoy the transcription services or simply don’t have the time for it.
In this case, Most people hire a transcriptionist, a career path with 5 core benefits: flexible hours, remote work, low startup cost, scalable income, and industry variety.
Throughout the rest of this article, we’re going to talk you through everything you need to know about hiring a transcriptionist, or becoming one if that’s something you’re interested in.
Why You May Need a Transcription
While the reasons someone may need a transcription varies, we’ve explained the most common reasons below.
Podcast – A transcription service converts podcast audio into blog-ready text for SEO reach, if you run a podcast and want to repurpose episodes into written content. It also helps more people understand your podcast, in case they have trouble understanding the audio files.
Professional Reasons – Legal, medical, financial, and academic professionals rely on transcription services because in-house transcription consumes 3-4 hours per hour of audio. Often, a transcription is needed to help professionals communicate, or to be an easily viewable resource.
Personal reasons – It’s also quite common for individuals to need a transcription for personal reasons. For example, if they have a large audio or video file that they want to use as notes as it can be frustrating to use audio for that purpose.
What does transcribing mean?
Transcribing means writing out the words spoken in an audio or video recording as text. The person who does this is a transcriber or transcriptionist, and the finished written document is called a transcript. In short, transcription turns a recording — an interview, a lecture, a podcast, or a meeting — into an accurate, readable text file that can be edited, searched, and shared.
What is the purpose of transcribing?
The purpose of transcribing is to make spoken content usable, searchable, and accessible as text. The most common transcription uses are:
- Accessibility — captions and subtitles for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing
- Searchability and SEO — search engines can index written text, but not the audio inside a recording
- Documentation — legal, medical, academic, and business records that need an exact written account
- Translation and localisation — a transcript is the first step to subtitling or translating a recording into another language
- Reference — turning interviews, meetings, and research into a written document you can quote and cite
Transcribing yourself or outsourcing?
If you need a transcript, you have the choice between transcribing yourself or hiring a transcriptionist to do it for you.
Time vs. Money
The main difference between transcribing yourself and hiring someone is obviously the time cost vs the monetary cost.
You’re either going to have to spend your time or money on this transcription.
As professional transcriptionists have processes in place, and experience to transcribe faster, it makes sense for many professionals to hire one as it’s less time-consuming.
If you don’t, it may take you a lot longer than a professional transcriptionist which may not be worth it. The DIY-versus-professional choice depends on three factors: audio length, industry sensitivity, and required accuracy level.
Quality
Transcription quality is the second factor to weigh when choosing between DIY and a professional transcriptionist. If you’re doing it yourself, it may not be to the same quality standard as if you were to hire a professional transcriptionist.
If you’re in an industry such as legal or medical, errors in documents can lead to significant consequences. To avoid them, it makes sense to hire a professional transcriptionist.
Becoming a Transcriptionist
A transcription career is a natural next step, if you enjoy transcribing yourself.
However, if you don’t, just skip this section, as we also have a transcription service that is a completely hands-off solution with an accuracy guarantee.
Becoming a transcriptionist offers 4 core benefits: flexible remote work, per-project earning potential, low equipment overhead, and cross-industry demand from legal, medical, and media clients.
- Work from home
- Earn $22+ per hour
- It’s quite an enjoyable job
What Skills Would I Need To Transcribe
The 5 main skills you need to transcribe are:
Good listening – As you are typing out audio files that you hear, you need good listening skills. If you don’t, it will take you a lot longer which will limit your earning potential.
Fast Typing – The same goes go fast typing. You need to be more than comfortable with a keyboard. If you are being paid per project, the faster you type, the more you can earn.
Good research abilities – Although you are just typing out words, it does pay off to research first. For example, if you are transcribing audio from a specialist industry like legal or medical, it makes sense to research the terminology first, so you don’t get stuck.
Great language skills – Transcription is also a field that has to do a lot with the language, so you need to be more than comfortable in the language that you are transcribing. In most transcription work, the source language is English.
Efficiency – Efficiency is also a core skill required to become a transcriptionist and that includes multi-tasking, as you have to type and listen. Don’t get us wrong, there are online transcription tools, so you don’t need three arms, but you have to be efficient.
What Equipment Do I Need?
What equipment you need usually depends on the job. However, we’re going to give you a basic idea below.
Word processing software
The first and most important thing that you will need is the word processing software. Most transcriptionists use Microsoft Word; some jobs require Google Docs, Express Scribe, or oTranscribe.
This will be where you type out the words from the audio you’re listening to.
Foot pedal
A foot pedal is a piece of equipment used by transcriptionists to manage the audio files, while they keep their hands on the keyboard.
This allows them to keep typing out the text while managing the audio. As you can imagine, this makes the process much more efficient.
Although you don’t necessarily need a foot pedal to become a transcriber, a foot pedal makes a transcriptionist more efficient and expands earning potential per project.
Other Software & Tools
There are also other software and tools for transcriptionists, such as Express Scribe, oTranscribe, Otter.ai, Descript, and Trint. Some for example allow you to manage the audio file from the same tab as you’re writing in. If you have a foot pedal, you of course won’t need that particular tool.
Other transcription aids, such as text-expander tools (TextExpander, PhraseExpress) and keyboard shortcuts, insert entire words, phrases, or sentences by typing a trigger.
Which ones you use, is usually up to you. You might need to test some different options out to see which one is best for you.
How To Become a Professional Transcriptionist
Becoming a professional transcriptionist happens through two paths: freelancing or applying for a transcription job. Well, you have the option between becoming a freelancer or looking for a job.
Three transcription certifications strengthen a job application: AHDI (medical), AAERT (legal), and GTS general transcription credentials.
In most cases, these won’t be officially accredited. However employers do often prefer if you have them, so it’s not bad to show off your knowledge.
In terms of gaining experience, you can apply to entry-level jobs, or offer your services on freelancing sites such as Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com.
We actually created a complete guide to How to Become a Professional Transcriptionist which you can check out too.
Types of Transcription
There are several core types of transcription, and the right one depends on how faithfully the text must reflect the original audio. The main types are verbatim, edited (clean-read), intelligent, and phonetic, plus the industry categories of general, legal, and medical transcription.
Verbatim transcription
Verbatim transcription captures every spoken word exactly as it is said, including fillers such as “um” and “uh”, false starts, pauses, and relevant non-verbal sounds like laughter. It is used where an exact record matters, such as legal proceedings, police interviews, and research studies.
Edited (clean-read) transcription
Edited transcription removes fillers, repetitions, and false starts to produce a clean, readable text while keeping the meaning intact. It is the most common choice for published interviews, articles, and business documents.
Intelligent transcription
Intelligent transcription paraphrases and lightly summarises spoken content into polished prose, removing anything that does not add meaning. It suits corporate meetings, podcasts, and content where readability matters more than a word-for-word record.
Phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription records the sounds of speech using the International Phonetic Alphabet rather than standard spelling. It is used in linguistics, language learning, and speech research.
General, legal, and medical transcription
General transcription covers everyday audio across most industries, from interviews and lectures to business calls. Legal and medical transcription are specialist fields: legal transcription demands exact terminology and formatting for courts and law firms, while medical transcription requires knowledge of clinical vocabulary and strict confidentiality. A general transcriptionist handles a wide range of work but does not replace a qualified legal or medical transcriptionist.
Audio Transcription vs Video Transcription
Audio transcription converts sound-only recordings such as podcasts, interviews, lectures, and phone calls into text. Video transcription does the same for video files but adds visual context, and it often feeds into captions and subtitles with timecodes. The Transcription Services is the same in both cases; video simply adds a timing layer so the text can be synchronised to the picture.
Manual vs Automatic Transcription (ASR)
Automatic transcription uses speech-recognition (ASR) software to produce a fast, low-cost draft, but its accuracy drops sharply with background noise, multiple speakers, accents, and specialist terminology. Manual transcription by a professional transcriptionist delivers the high accuracy that legal, medical, and official documents require. In practice, many workflows combine the two: an ASR draft reviewed and corrected by a human transcriptionist.
How Much Does Transcription Cost per Audio Minute?
Professional transcription is usually priced per audio minute rather than per word, because the length of the recording is what determines the work involved. The price per audio minute depends on several factors:
- Audio quality and background noise
- Number of speakers and whether they overlap
- Accents and speech clarity
- Subject matter and specialist terminology (general vs legal or medical)
- Turnaround time, with rush jobs costing more
A clear, single-speaker recording sits at the lower end, while a noisy multi-speaker file in a specialist field costs more per minute. For an exact price, send us the file and we return a quote based on its length and complexity.
Transcription for Translation and Localisation
Transcription is the first step in translating audio and video content. Before a recording can be translated, it has to be turned into text; that transcript then feeds subtitling, dubbing scripts, and full localisation. At Espresso Translations we transcribe and translate audio and video across 150+ language pairs, so a single recording can move from spoken word to accurate translated text in any language you need.
Our Transcription Services
If you need a transcript but don’t want to do it yourself, then our transcription service is the right option for you.
We’re an international transcription and translation agency that has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Forbes, The BBC, NHS, and IMDb.
Our pricing is affordable, and custom to your needs to provide you with the best possible solution.
We’re also able to provide turnarounds in as low as 12 hours if needed. And, after you request a quote we get back to you within just 1 hour.
All you need to do is tell us about your project, and sit back while we do the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The following FAQs cover transcription pricing, turnaround, tools, and types. However, if you are interested in our services and have further questions, you can also request a translation quote.
How much does your transcription service cost?
Our transcription service is priced per audio minute and varies by audio clarity, industry, and turnaround; most projects fall within a per-minute range quoted within 1 hour of your request. Transcription pricing varies by 5 factors: audio clarity, industry (legal, medical, financial), number of speakers, turnaround time, and language pair.
How long does it take to transcribe audio files?
Transcribing 1 hour of audio takes 3-4 hours of work for a professional transcriptionist, depending on audio clarity, number of speakers, and industry terminology. Again, this does depend on various factors similar to the pricing. But, if you would like to learn more about this, we covered in more detail in: how long it takes to transcribe 1 hour of audio
What Are The Best Transcription Tools?
The best transcription tools are Express Scribe, oTranscribe, Otter.ai, Descript, and Trint, alongside Microsoft Word shortcuts for formatting. However, a good place to start is using the shorteners that Word provides you with.
If you would like to see a full list of the best transcription tools, you can check out our blog post: Best Transcription Tools
What Types Of Transcriptions Are There
The 7 main types of transcription are verbatim, edited, phonetic, intelligent, general, legal, and medical transcription; alongside audio and video transcription, we also provide these advanced services:
