local transcription.

What an hour of transcription really costs on Otter, Rev, Descript, the cloud APIs behind them, and a model running on your own laptop. Prices checked September 2026.

Free transcription tiers stop at 30, 45 or 60 minutes for a reason you can calculate. Here is what a free user costs, what an ad pays, and why moving the work onto your own computer changes the answer.