Happy Scribe alternative
Happy Scribe is generous where it matters to a student and expensive where it matters to a business: Basic costs $8.50 a month. That is about 7.1 cents a minute over 1,440 minutes a year, while Transcrib Si starts at $10 a month for 1,500 minutes, about 0.7 cents a minute.
Short answer: the yearly allowance is the thing to read, not the monthly price. Happy Scribe Basic at $8.50 a month buys 1,440 minutes a year, and the yearly Pro plan here at $10 a month buys 1,500 minutes every calendar month. If you use more than a couple of hours a week, the difference in how fast the allowance disappears is what you will actually feel. Every figure was read off HappyScribe's pricing page on 2026-10-25.
What Happy Scribe charges
| Plan | Price | What you get | Length of one recording |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | A 10-minute trial of transcription, a limit of 45 minutes per recording, limited history of past recordings | 45 minutes |
| Basic | $8.50 a month | 1,440 minutes of AI transcription, subtitling and translation a year | 90 minutes |
| Pro | $19 a month | 7,200 minutes a year and AI chat | Unlimited |
| Business | $59 a month | 72,000 minutes a year, style guides and glossaries | Unlimited |
| Extra credits | $0.20 a minute | Bought whenever the plan runs out | Same as the plan |
Two extras are worth knowing about, because they are the parts of the price that are easy to miss on a pricing page. A human proofreading pass is $2.00 a minute, or $1.90 a minute on Business. An extra seat on a plan that has seats is $29. Neither is hidden, but neither is in the headline either.
What this service charges
A monthly allowance of your audio, with the same limits on the free plan and the paid one.
| Plan | Price | Limits | Worked out per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 3 files a day, up to 30 minutes per file, 64 MB per file | Free |
| Pro, billed yearly | $10 per month ($120 for the year) | 1,500 minutes of audio a month, files up to 64 MB and 120 minutes | About 0.7 cents |
| Pro, billed monthly | $20 per month | The same 1,500 minutes a month, cancel any time | About 1.3 cents |
Put the two side by side. Happy Scribe Basic gives 1,440 minutes for the whole year. The yearly plan here gives 1,500 minutes every month, which is 18,000 minutes over the same twelve months, for $10 a month instead of $8.50. If you transcribe a podcast episode, two meetings and a few voice memos in a week, the yearly allowance on Happy Scribe is gone by the summer and everything after that costs $0.20 a minute.
That $0.20 a minute is not an unfair price for what it is. It is just a different shape: you pay for the heavy months out of pocket, and the bill arrives when you are least able to predict it.
Where the two services differ
| Question | Happy Scribe | Here |
|---|---|---|
| How the allowance counts | Minutes a year, shared across the plan | Minutes a month, and it comes back every month |
| Free plan | A 10-minute trial, 45 minutes per recording | 3 files a day of up to 30 minutes each, no trial clock |
| Longest single file | 90 minutes on Basic, unlimited on Pro and Business | 120 minutes on every plan |
| Size of one file | Not published on the pricing page | 64 MB per file |
| Running out | Extra credits at $0.20 a minute | The allowance resets at the start of the month |
| Human proofreading | $2.00 a minute, $1.90 on Business | Not offered; the transcript is edited by you |
| Extra seat | $29 | One account, no seat pricing |
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Questions this page answers.
Is Happy Scribe cheaper than this service?
On the headline price, yes, by a little: $8.50 a month against $10. On the allowance, no. Happy Scribe Basic gives 1,440 minutes for the whole year, and the yearly plan here gives 1,500 minutes every month. Two hours of audio a week is 120 minutes a week, which is more than a year of Basic in eleven weeks.
What happens when I run out of minutes on Happy Scribe?
You buy extra credits at $0.20 a minute, and the credits are charged as you go. That is the published price and it is reasonable for a one-off. It is simply a different contract from a plan that hands you the same allowance every month, where a busy month costs the same as a quiet one.
Can I try Happy Scribe's free plan before paying anywhere?
You can, and you can try this one as well. The free plan here gives 3 files a day of up to 30 minutes each, with no card and no time limit, and the transcription is the same one the paid plan uses. The difference is that here the allowance comes back every day instead of running out for the year.
Does Happy Scribe do human proofreading, and does this service?
Happy Scribe sells human proofreading at $2.00 a minute, and $1.90 a minute on Business. This service does not offer that; the transcript arrives as text that you correct yourself in the editor, where a wrong word is one click to fix and costs nothing extra. If you would rather pay someone to retype it, that is a service you buy from a person, not from a transcription engine.
What about long recordings on both services?
Happy Scribe allows 90 minutes per recording on Basic and has no limit on Pro and Business. Here the limit is 120 minutes per file on every plan, free and paid, and 64 MB per file on top of that. A recording that goes past two hours has to be split, and the guide to long recordings shows how to split it so the pieces join back together cleanly.
Where the numbers on this page come from
Each line names the page the figure was read on and the day it was read.
- HappyScribe: Free $0 with a 10-minute trial and a limit of 45 minutes per recording, Basic $8.50 a month with 90 minutes per recording and 1,440 minutes a year, Pro $19 a month with 7,200 minutes a year, Business $59 a month with 72,000 minutes a year — https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing — checked 2026-10-25
- Extra credits $0.20 a minute, human proofreading $2.00 a minute and $1.90 a minute on Business, an extra seat $29 — https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing — checked 2026-10-25
- Worked out per minute: HappyScribe Basic about 7.1 cents ($8.50 a month over 120 minutes a month, that is 1,440 minutes a year), the yearly Pro plan here about 0.7 cents ($10 a month over 1,500 minutes) and the monthly Pro plan about 1.3 cents ($20 a month over 1,500 minutes) — calculated from the figures above — https://www.happyscribe.com/pricing and https://transcrib.si/pricing.html — checked 2026-10-25
- Free $0, 3 files a day, 30 minutes per file, 64 MB; Pro $10 per month ($120 for the year), $20 per month, 1,500 minutes per calendar month, 18,000 minutes over the same twelve months, 120 minutes per file — https://transcrib.si/pricing.html — checked 2026-10-25
- Pro worked out per minute: about 0.7 cents — calculated from $10 a month over 1,500 minutes — checked 2026-10-25
Where to go next
What an hour of audio costs
The price per minute at a dozen services, checked on one day.
Free transcription limits
What each service lets you send before you pay.
Sonix alternative
The service that sells hours of transcription time.
TurboScribe alternative
The service with unlimited transcription on the paid plan.
Plans and prices
Every plan, every limit, in one table with no small print.
Transcribe voice memos
Short recordings from a phone, and the habits that keep them readable.
Also worth a look: the general guide, M4A to text, OGG to text and the app.
Mark Burmistrov, Founder.
Every number on this page comes from the pricing page, the service contract or the upload form itself. The author of the page and the publisher of the site are the same person. Questions and corrections: support@transcrib.si.