Per-audio-minute rates, gear requirements, and payout terms for every verified transcription and captioning platform — the category where the billing unit decides your real wage.
Editor's pick · refreshed September 2026
Hand-picked on pay, transparency, and reliability — never paid placements.
Open applications and weekly payouts — the standard entry point for transcription.
29 platforms listed, including 5 that cover transcription & captioning as a secondary category.
GoTranscript (founded 2005, GoTranscript Limited, UK-registered with US Delaware presence) is a global 100%-human transcription…
Official page advertises 'Earn up to $1.75 per minute' with language examples 'From $0.65' per audio/video minute; pay varies by language demand, difficulty
per audio/video minute · min payout No minimum payout — GoTranscript's own guide states 'There's no minimum amount…
AI-plus-human transcription, captioning, and accessibility company (offices in the US, Canada, Israel, and Europe; UK arm 'Verbit Go') that…
Current postings describe industry-standard per-audio-minute or per-page pay without publishing figures
per audio/video minute · min payout No minimum payout threshold is published on current official pages
Global provider of secure, AI-driven digital voice/video capture and transcription technology and services (FirstCapture platform) serving…
Pay rates are not published on the recruiting pages — VIQ discloses them only in the Overview document sent to qualified applicants
per audio/video minute · min payout No payout threshold or schedule is published
Transcription work converts audio into text: interviews, meetings, podcasts, legal proceedings, medical dictation. The critical fact is the billing unit — you are paid per audio minute or hour, not per working hour. Beginners need four to six hours to transcribe one audio hour, so a "$60/audio-hour" headline is really $10–15/hr until speed develops.
Every transcription and captioning platform here comes with its advertised per-audio rates, gear requirements (foot pedal, headphones, transcription software), entry tests, and payout terms. Where platforms advertise an "up to" rate, we show it next to the realistic range so you can compare honestly.
Specializations pay more: legal and medical transcription command premium rates but require training and gear; general transcription is open to strong typists with a good pair of headphones.
Advertised rates cluster around $0.30–$0.60 per audio minute ($18–36/audio hour). At beginner speed (4–6× audio length), effective pay is roughly minimum wage; experienced transcribers reach 2–3× audio length and correspondingly higher wages.
For most general-transcription platforms, no — software playback controls suffice. Legal and high-volume work sometimes expects a pedal. Gear requirements are listed per platform.
Transcription produces a text document; captioning produces time-aligned text embedded in the video. Captioning pays more per minute and requires more precise timing work.
Almost all do — typically a grammar quiz plus a sample file. Application requirements, including the test format, are documented on each platform page.
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