TurboScribe Unlimited Price and Free Plan Limits (2026)

TurboScribe's free plan is the reason it comes up in every "free transcription" conversation. This post states the exact limits, what they mean in practice, and what to use when they block you. We build a competing tool (ConvertAudioToText), so where the honest answer is "stay on TurboScribe" or "use a different free tool", we say that.

The Exact Free Plan Limits

• 3 transcriptions per day. The counter resets daily. Unused slots do not roll over.
• 30 minutes per file. A 31-minute file is rejected on the free plan; a 29-minute file is fine.
• No watermarks. Free exports are clean TXT, DOCX, SRT and PDF.
• Whisper-based accuracy. The free plan runs the same engine family as paid; the difference is caps and speed, not transcript quality.

Used every day, that is up to 90 minutes daily, roughly 45 hours a month. Few hosted tools give that much with free export files. Otter's free plan caps at 300 monthly minutes with only 3 file imports ever. Rev's free tier is 45 minutes a month, English only. ConvertAudioToText's free account allows up to 30 files a day, up to 30 minutes each, but charges for downloads other than TXT after your first file. TurboScribe's free allowance is the biggest that includes free DOCX, SRT and PDF export files, and any comparison that hides that is selling you something.

What the Limits Feel Like in Practice

The two caps bite differently:

The 30-minute cap bites podcasters and interviewers. Most podcast episodes, lectures and user interviews run 40 to 90 minutes. On the free plan every one of them needs splitting first.

The 3-file cap bites batch workers. Transcribing a backlog of 30 recordings takes 10 days minimum, at 3 per day.

If neither describes you, and your files are short and occasional, the free plan is simply enough. Stop reading and use it.

The Split Workaround

A 90-minute recording is three free transcriptions:

ffmpeg -i long.mp3 -f segment -segment_time 1800 -c copy part_%03d.mp3

That uses one full day of quota on one recording and you stitch the text back together yourself. It works, it is genuinely free, and it gets old fast if you do it weekly.

TurboScribe Unlimited: The Paid Math

• $10/mo billed annually ($120 up front), or $20 month to month
• Unlimited transcriptions, files up to 10 hours / 5GB
• Bulk exports, translation, priority processing

If you transcribe long files regularly and just want raw transcripts, this is the cheapest unlimited plan on the market and it is hard to argue against. ConvertAudioToText's Pro plan is in the same price range ($14.99/mo month-to-month, or $99.99/yr billed annually), so price doesn't separate them. The choice is whether you want extras (speaker labels, AI summaries, templates, URL input, meeting bots) or the lowest-friction raw transcript pipeline TurboScribe does well.

Honest Alternatives When the Caps Block You

Riverside's free transcription tool advertises unlimited free transcription, no signup, with TXT and SRT downloads. The catch: it does not separate speakers, so a two-person interview comes back as one undifferentiated block. For single-voice audio in volume, it is the strongest free option on this table.

Self-hosted Whisper is unlimited and private. pip install openai-whisper, then whisper audio.mp3 --model large-v3. If a terminal does not scare you, nothing beats free and unlimited on your own hardware.

Otter is built around live meetings, not file transcription. The 3-lifetime-file-import limit makes it a non-answer for transcribing existing recordings.

ConvertAudioToText has a different free plan from TurboScribe: a free account runs your first file on the premium engine with speaker labels and an AI summary (up to an hour), then transcribes up to 30 files a day, up to 30 minutes each. You read, edit, copy and download every transcript as TXT free, but DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT and JSON downloads after your first file need the Weekly Pass, a minutes top-up or a paid plan. It also transcribes the first 30 minutes of any file or YouTube/podcast URL with no account and no install, which nothing else on this table does. It is the right tool for a fast one-off with speakers or lots of short files you only need as text, and the wrong tool if you need free DOCX, SRT or PDF files.

Which One, By Situation

Short files, a few a day: stay on TurboScribe Free. The exports are free and there is no reason to leave.

Long single-voice files in volume, no budget: Riverside's free tool, or self-hosted Whisper if you want privacy too.

One-off file or a podcast/YouTube link, need speakers, want it now: ConvertAudioToText, with speaker labels on every paid file and on up to 2 hours a month on a free account (the first 30 minutes of any file need no signup).

Hours every week, raw transcripts, willing to pay: TurboScribe Unlimited at $10/mo annual is the value pick. If you also want summaries, templates and speaker labels included, compare CATT's Pro plan at the same annual price.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly are TurboScribe's free plan limits?

3 transcriptions per day, with each file capped at 30 minutes. The daily counter resets every day, so the practical ceiling is about 90 minutes per day or roughly 45 hours per month if you use every slot. Exports are clean with no watermark.

How much is TurboScribe Unlimited?

$10 per month billed annually ($120/yr), or $20 billed month to month. Unlimited removes the daily file count and raises the per-file cap to 10 hours / 5GB.

Can I get around the 30-minute file cap for free?

Yes, by splitting. A 90-minute file split into three 30-minute chunks uses exactly one day's free quota. The cost is your time and re-joining the transcripts.

Is there a free tool with no daily limit at all?

Riverside's free transcription tool advertises unlimited free transcription with TXT and SRT downloads and no signup. The catch is that it does not separate speakers on the free tool. Self-hosted Whisper is also unlimited if you can run Python.

Is ConvertAudioToText's free tier bigger than TurboScribe's?

It depends what you count. CATT runs your first file on the premium engine, then transcribes up to 30 files a day, up to 30 minutes each, versus TurboScribe's 3 x 30 minutes a day with free export files. On CATT, TXT downloads are free and other formats after your first file are paid. Pick CATT for volume you copy as text, URL input and zero setup; pick TurboScribe if you need free DOCX, SRT or PDF files.

Sources

• TurboScribe pricing - official -- free plan 3 files/day at 30 min each; Unlimited $10/mo annual, $20 monthly, 10 hr / 5GB per file. On October 2, 2026 the page refused our automated check, so we matched these figures against two independent 2026 summaries: toolfi.ai and vook.ai
• Riverside free transcription tool - official -- "Unlimited transcriptions for free. No sign up required"; single-speaker output on the free tool. Checked October 2, 2026
• Otter pricing - official -- Basic: 300 monthly minutes, 30 min per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports. Checked October 2, 2026
• Rev pricing - official -- free tier: 45 AI minutes/month (checked October 2, 2026), English only
• ConvertAudioToText pricing -- free tier and Pro plan terms stated in this post