Transcription Tool Pricing Compared: Free Tiers vs Pay Per Use
What SubGrab, Tactiq, Otter.ai, Happy Scribe and Rev cost in October 2026: free allowances, monthly plans, per-minute rates, and what an hour of video really costs.
Short answer
Video transcription is priced three ways: a free monthly allowance (Tactiq, Otter.ai, Rev), a monthly plan with included minutes (Happy Scribe, Otter.ai, Rev), or pay-per-use credits that never expire (SubGrab, from $3.99). If a free allowance covers your monthly use, it costs nothing. For occasional or uneven use, paying per use is usually cheaper.
Most transcription tools look free on the first screen and only show their real price at checkout. Here is what five of them actually charge, read from each company's own pricing page on 23 October 2026, and what that works out to per hour of video.
The Three Ways Transcription Is Priced
- A free monthly allowance. A few transcripts or minutes every month, forever. Tactiq, Otter.ai and Rev all have one.
- A monthly plan with included minutes. You pay every month whether you use it or not, and unused minutes don't carry over. Happy Scribe, Otter.ai and Rev sell these.
- Pay per use. You buy credits once and spend them when you need them. SubGrab works this way, and its credits never expire.
Prices Side by Side (23 October 2026)
| Tool | Free | Paid (list price) | How you pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| SubGrab | 2 credits once, plus your first AI summary | $3.99 for 3 credits, up to $44.99 for 200 | Credits that never expire |
| Tactiq | 10 transcripts and 5 AI credits a month | Pro A$11.42 per user a month, billed annually | Per-user subscription |
| Otter.ai | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation | Pro $16.99 a month, or $8.33 billed annually | Per-user subscription |
| Happy Scribe | A 10-minute trial | Basic $17 a month for 120 minutes, Pro $29 for 600, Business $89 for 6,000 | Monthly plan, extra minutes $0.20 each |
| Rev | 45 AI minutes a month | Essentials $29.99 per seat a month for 5,000 AI minutes | Per-seat subscription |
Two notes on those figures. Tactiq showed us its prices in Australian dollars and only with annual billing, so check its page for your currency. Otter.ai also advertised a lower Pro price limited to India-issued cards; the table uses its standard price.
Sources: SubGrab pricing, Tactiq, Otter.ai, Happy Scribe and Rev. Prices change, so treat these as a snapshot of that date.
What One Hour of Video Costs
The useful comparison is the cost of transcribing one hour of video.
- SubGrab: 1 credit per started hour of AI transcription. A credit costs $1.33 in the smallest pack and $0.22 in the largest. Extracting a video's existing captions costs 1 credit whatever its length.
- Happy Scribe: extra minutes are $0.20 each, which is $12 an hour. Inside a plan it is $8.50 an hour on Basic, $2.90 on Pro and $0.89 on Business, if you use every minute.
- Otter.ai: Pro includes 1,200 minutes a month, about $0.85 an hour if you use all of them.
- Rev: Essentials includes 5,000 AI minutes a month, about $0.36 an hour if you use all of them.
A subscription is only cheap per hour when you use most of it. Ten one-hour videos in a busy month and none the next makes a monthly plan expensive; the same ten hours cost 10 SubGrab credits whenever you need them.
Which Model Fits You
- A few short videos every month: start with a free allowance. If it covers you, nothing beats free.
- Bursts of work with quiet months in between: pay per use, because credits that never expire don't lose value in the quiet months.
- Hours of meetings every week, shared with a team: a subscription built for meetings, such as Otter.ai or Tactiq, is the better fit.
- Videos from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo or Twitch: check that the tool takes a link from that platform at all. SubGrab takes links from 30 platforms. Tactiq covers YouTube links and live meetings, and Otter.ai works from live meetings and uploaded files rather than pasted links.
Where SubGrab Isn't the Cheapest
- Recurring free use. Tactiq's 10 free transcripts every month beat SubGrab's 2 free credits once, if YouTube is all you need.
- Heavy, steady use. Someone who uses most of Rev's 5,000 minutes or Otter.ai's 1,200 every month pays less per hour than SubGrab's largest pack.
- Human transcription. SubGrab is AI only. Rev offers human transcription at $1.99 a minute when you need it verified by a person.
- Live meetings. SubGrab transcribes recordings and links, not calls as they happen.
Related Reading
Frequently asked
Which transcription tool is cheapest?
It depends on how often you transcribe. A recurring free allowance, such as Tactiq's 10 transcripts, Otter.ai's 300 minutes or Rev's 45 AI minutes a month, costs nothing if it covers you. For irregular use, SubGrab's credits work out at $0.22 to $1.33 per hour of AI transcription, and they never expire.
Do SubGrab credits expire?
No. Credits never expire and there is no subscription. If a transcription fails, its credits are refunded automatically.
Is a monthly plan cheaper per hour?
Only if you use most of the minutes. Happy Scribe Pro at $29 a month includes 600 minutes, which is $2.90 an hour when fully used and more when it isn't, because unused minutes don't carry over.
Can these tools transcribe a video from a link?
SubGrab takes links from 30 platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Tactiq covers YouTube links and live meetings. Otter.ai works from live meetings and uploaded files rather than pasted video links.