GoTranscript is a workhorse online transcription service that impresses with accurate, affordable human-made transcriptions, along with low-cost automated services. We especially like its intuitive web editing interface, which includes auto-saving and team collaboration features. Extensive language support and services for specific sectors, such as the education, legal, and medical fields, help it serve diverse needs. GoTranscript’s mobile apps are light on features, but the service earns our Editors’ Choice award thanks to its flexible pricing, ease of use, and reliable performance. If you need only automated transcription and want advanced AI meeting features, however, we recommend Otter, our other Editors’ Choice winner.
How Much Does GoTranscript Cost?
If you’re not in a rush, GoTranscript is among the most affordable options on the market for human-generated transcription. For a five-day turnaround, it charges $1.20 per minute. You can get a faster turnaround time by paying an additional fee. Discounts are available for bulk orders. For example, purchasing 5,250 minutes worth of transcripts with a five-day turnaround drops the price to $1.08 per minute. The company offers discounts for students, nonprofits, and green/sustainable organizations, too.
GoTranscript’s AI-based automatic service costs $35 per month for 35 hours of transcription. That’s a high starting cost, but the effective rate is reasonable. A subscription also gets you a 10% discount on human-based transcription orders. Alternatively, you can pay $0.20 per minute for individual automated transcription jobs. TranscribeMe undercuts that per-job price with rates starting at $0.07 per minute.
(Credit: GoTranscript/PCMag)
Compared with Rev’s human-generated transcription service, which costs $1.99 per minute, GoTranscript is much more affordable. That said, Rev returns your file in 12 hours or less. GoTranscript charges significantly more ($2.75 per minute) for human jobs with a similar turnaround time. If you don’t mind waiting, however, the savings you get with GoTranscript are worth it.
Rev’s automated transcription service is also pricier at 25 cents per minute. However, its VoiceHub subscription provides up to 45 minutes of AI-based transcription for free, and its Basic plan ($9.99 per month, billed annually) unlocks 1,200 minutes and various AI features. Otter provides 300 minutes of transcription for free and otherwise leans more into AI features for chats and meetings.
GoTranscript also offers AI-powered proofreading, which starts at $0.60 per minute. It can also translate audio, text, and video between 40-plus languages. That’s more than any other service I’ve tested. Pricing depends on the type of translation and the languages you need to work with. For more, check out the up-to-date list of languages and rate estimates.
Getting Started With GoTranscript
GoTranscript’s web interface makes it easy to sign up for an account and upload files. The website is functional, not flashy. Simple colors and a clean layout make it simple to find the options you need.
Before you submit a file for transcription, you specify the turnaround time and whether you need timestamps. A price quote on the page updates as you make changes. You can also download a PDF of the price quote in case you need to run it by someone for approval. An email alerts you when your transcript is ready.
The company maintains mobile apps for Android and iOS, but they can only upload audio files for transcription. To actually process the order, the app directs you to your phone’s web browser, where you have to log in. You can likely skip the apps, as such. Some mobile apps for other transcription services, like Otter, allow you to edit transcripts and much more.
(Credit: GoTranscript/PCMag)
Editing and Sharing Transcripts
Once your transcript is complete, you can edit the document directly on GoTranscript’s website or download a Microsoft Word file. GoTranscript’s editing dashboard is simple and functional. You move through the document by either scrolling through the text or advancing the audio playback with buttons at the top of the screen. It includes an auto-save feature, something it was missing at the time of our last review. An AI insights panel provides summaries of text and pulls out key points.
GoTranscript gains collaboration features, too. From the Workspaces section, team leads can add other members to a hub where they can edit, share, and upload documents. Team leads can keep track of each user’s spending total and set roles (viewer, user, and manager).
(Credit: GoTranscript/PCMag)
How Accurate Is GoTranscript?
To evaluate GoTranscript’s accuracy, I uploaded a file of an interview with my 10-year-old son. The transcript was, as advertised, almost completely accurate. Whereas automated transcription services either butchered my child’s last name or left a blank space as if the word were unintelligible, GoTranscript spelled the name correctly (it’s not very common!) and otherwise made few errors. Human-based transcription services are typically extremely accurate, so you aren’t likely to notice much of a difference with similar offerings from Rev, TranscribeMe, and others.
When I uploaded the same file to Rev’s AI service, the transcript had unnatural sentence breaks and irregular capitalization. I didn’t get a chance to fully test GoTranscript’s automated service, but it appears to work similarly to those I have based on a demo.
GoTranscript has a notable advantage over other services in that it specializes in academic, medical, and legal transcriptions. Because human transcribers can understand industry terminology, GoTranscript can ensure the output maintains a high level of accuracy despite any specialized language.
Is Your Data Safe With GoTranscript?
Another reason medical and legal professionals might prefer GoTranscript is its emphasis on privacy. All GoTranscript workers sign a blanket nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that covers any file they work on. The company will also sign additional NDAs at a customer’s request. As an additional layer of security, it cuts each audio file into small chunks—around five to 10 minutes—so that no transcriptionist has access to an entire conversation. Once a file is complete, they delete it.
Are there cases in which GoTranscript might share your information? The company said there are a few and wants to be transparent. GoTranscript doesn’t share or sell data itself and would only share submitted user data if legally required to do so, such as by law.
Verdict: The Best Human Transcription Service
GoTranscript’s high-volume discount pricing, excellent accuracy, and industry-specific services make it a go-to option for teams that regularly deal with large volumes of audio data. It also has a user-friendly web interface with updated tools and supports many languages for translation. The service could benefit from modernized mobile apps, but that doesn’t prevent the effective and dependable GoTranscript from easily earning our Editors’ Choice award for human-based transcription. If you are more interested in free automated transcription and AI meeting tools, however, you should try Otter, another Editors’ Choice winner.
The Bottom Line
If you frequently need high-quality, human-generated transcriptions for your professional work, GoTranscript is cost-effective, simple to use, and highly accurate.
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About Meg St-Esprit
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