It’s important to think about accessibility to all, and transcribed copies of your sermons, podcasts, and speeches can help you reach more audiences. What you don’t know is the appropriate amount to pay for transcription services. This guide will help you understand what a quality transcriptionist costs and the risks of prioritizing a bargain option.
What Price Indicates About a Transcriptionist
In most buying decisions, consumers look for what they feel is the “best” price. Unfortunately, that can get you in trouble, especially when you’re purchasing a service. Transcription service costs are no exception!
Look out for transcription options that seem too good to be true. When rates are too low, it's indicative of low-quality transcription methods. Rates that fall anywhere under a $1.50 per minute should be a red flag! These low prices are often the result of using computer software or a workforce overseas, both of which tend to produce low-quality transcripts with spelling and grammar errors throughout.
For standard audio, you should expect to pay a professional, native English-speaking transcriptionist between $1.50 and $3 for every recorded audio minute. These prices typically rise with every challenge in the audio; things like poor recording quality, heavy accents, loud backgrounds, and multiple speakers will cost you.
How Transcription Pricing is Determined
There are a variety of ways that audio transcription can be priced and billed. These vary by provider and may vary between projects based on requirements and difficulty.
The most common way to price transcription is by the audio minute or audio hour. This fixed-price structure is consistent and easy for professional transcriptionists and their clients to understand. A reasonable price per audio minute is generally between $1.50 and $3.00 for straightforward transcripts.
Transcriptionists may also price their services by line. In this model, a certain number of characters is defined as a line and assigned a price. This most often happens in medical transcriptions, where transcriptionists are paid approximately 7 to 14 cents for each line.
Similar to per-line pricing, transcripts may sometimes be priced by typed page. A standard page will cost between $4 and $15, if priced appropriately.
The last common pricing model is the by-hour model. Like many traditional jobs, this model means that the service provider is compensated based on the time spent on the project. A reasonable hourly rate for standard transcriptions is between $25 and $50.
Challenges and Special Requirements Cost Extra
As mentioned before, some transcripts will cost more than the market rate. This is because audio with complexities and jobs with special requests simply take longer to complete.
If audio is problematic, it will increase the difficulty of the job. Quiet recordings, loud backgrounds, distortion, broken-up audio, and other audio issues will add to the cost of your transcription project.
The number of voices is another factor that will impact the complexity and value of a transcription gig. When speakers talk over each other or talk too quickly, you can expect to pay for it. More speakers means more challenge and more cost.
Requirements can have a heavy effect on your final bill as well. A quality transcriptionist will charge more when faced with tight deadlines. If you want timestamps, special formatting, or transcriber specialization, you should be ready to pay extra costs.
Why You Shouldn’t Skimp on Transcription Costs
Working with low-cost companies is often problematic. Quality transcriptionists will charge the amount required for them to focus and produce great work, rather than moving as quickly as possible to get to the next job.
Bargain transcribers often cut corners to ensure profit since their rates are so low. They save money by hiring non-native English speakers at reduced rates or using speech recognition software instead of a human transcriber. In both cases, the final product suffers and results in transcripts that need additional editing before use, if they are usable at all.
What You Can Do to Lower Costs
If price is an issue, you don’t have to divert to a questionable overseas service. There are steps you can take to produce higher quality audio, allowing you to avoid additional time spent transcribing and the associated costs.
Your equipment can make all the difference! Avoid making recordings over the phone; instead, make them in person with a professional recording device such as a handheld recorder.
Preparation is key. You can avoid challenging audio by ensuring participants know not to talk over each other and selecting a quiet setting to record in.
“You get what you pay for” is something you’ve heard all your life – and transcription services are no exception to the rule. By understanding what transcripts should cost and how those costs are determined, you can avoid fees and keep from partnering with questionable providers.
