Amazon Transcribe Pricing Calculator & Complete Cost Guide
Interactive Amazon Transcribe pricing calculator. Compare batch vs streaming rates, understand tiered pricing, and optimize your speech-to-text costs.
Pricing TLDR
- • Standard Batch: $0.024/minute ($1.44/hour) for speech-to-text transcription
- • Medical Transcription: $0.030/minute for healthcare-specific speech recognition
- • Free Tier: 60 minutes/month of batch or streaming transcription for 12 months
- • Regional pricing: Tier 1 identical across regions, higher tiers vary (São Paulo/N. California +40-100%)
- • 60-second minimum charge per file - batch short clips together
Official pricing:
AWSAmazon Transcribe Pricing Calculator
Quick Examples:
Hours of Audio / Month
Minutes of Audio / Month
Service Type
Estimated Monthly Cost
$24.00
Annual Cost
$288.00
About Amazon Transcribe
What is Amazon Transcribe?
Amazon Transcribe is AWS's automatic speech recognition (ASR) service that converts speech to text. It supports over 100 languages and dialects, offering features like speaker identification, custom vocabulary, content redaction, and domain-specific models for medical and call center applications.
- 100+ Languages: Support for major global languages and dialects with automatic language identification
- Speaker Diarization: Identify and separate individual speakers in multi-person conversations
- Custom Vocabulary: Train custom language models for domain-specific terminology and brand names
- Medical Transcription: HIPAA-eligible transcription with specialized medical vocabulary and clinical terms
- PII Redaction: Automatically identify and redact personally identifiable information in transcripts
- Batch & Streaming: Process pre-recorded audio files or transcribe real-time audio streams
When to Use Amazon Transcribe
Amazon Transcribe is ideal for converting speech to text at scale with high accuracy. It's particularly valuable when you need automated transcription with domain-specific features like medical terminology or call analytics.
Ideal for
- Podcast and video content transcription
- Medical dictation and clinical documentation
- Customer service call analytics and quality assurance
- Legal deposition and court proceedings transcription
- Meeting notes and conference call documentation
- Accessibility features for video platforms
Amazon Transcribe Pricing Breakdown
Standard Transcription Pricing
Volume Tier
Tier 1: 0 - 250K min
Price per Second
$0.00040
Price per Minute
$0.024
Price per Hour
$1.44
Savings vs Tier 1
-
Volume Tier
Tier 2: 250K - 1M min
Price per Second
$0.00025
Price per Minute
$0.015
Price per Hour
$0.90
Savings vs Tier 1
37.5%
Volume Tier
Tier 3: 1M - 5M min
Price per Second
$0.00017
Price per Minute
$0.0102
Price per Hour
$0.61
Savings vs Tier 1
57.5%
Volume Tier
Tier 4: 5M+ min
Price per Second
$0.00013
Price per Minute
$0.0078
Price per Hour
$0.47
Savings vs Tier 1
67.5%
Volume tiers apply across all standard transcription requests (batch and streaming combined). Prices shown for US East (N. Virginia).
Specialized Service Pricing
Service Type
Standard Transcription
Price per Minute (Tier 1)
$0.024
vs Standard
1.0x
Use Case
General speech-to-text
Service Type
Call Analytics
Price per Minute (Tier 1)
$0.030
vs Standard
1.25x
Use Case
Sentiment analysis, categorization
Service Type
Medical Transcription
Price per Minute (Tier 1)
$0.075
vs Standard
3.125x
Use Case
HIPAA-eligible clinical documentation
Service Type
Custom Language Model
Price per Minute (Tier 1)
$0.006
vs Standard
0.25x
Use Case
Domain-specific vocabulary (add-on)
Medical and Call Analytics pricing includes volume-based tiered discounts. Custom Language Model pricing is in addition to base transcription cost.
Free Tier Details
Free Tier Allowance
60 minutes/month
Duration
12 months
Applies To
Batch or Streaming
Free Tier Allowance
None
Duration
-
Applies To
-
Free Tier Allowance
None
Duration
-
Applies To
-
Free tier is available to new AWS customers for 12 months starting from first Transcribe request. Free minutes apply to standard batch and streaming only.
Real-World Amazon Transcribe Cost Examples
Podcast Production
$60/month
• 50 episodes × 50 minutes = 2,500 minutes/month
• Standard batch transcription at Tier 1
• ~42 hours of audio content monthly
• Consider custom vocabulary for host names and recurring topics
Independent podcast network transcribing 50 episodes per month
Customer Service Call Center
$1,500/month
• 10,000 calls/month × 5 minutes avg = 50,000 minutes
• Call Analytics with sentiment detection
• ~833 hours of calls monthly
• Reaches Tier 2 pricing for volume discounts
Mid-size contact center analyzing customer calls for quality assurance
Medical Practice
$225/month
• 200 consultations/month × 15 minutes = 3,000 minutes
• Medical transcription with clinical vocabulary
• HIPAA-eligible processing required
• Costs 3.125x standard but includes HIPAA compliance
Healthcare clinic transcribing patient consultations and clinical notes
6 Amazon Transcribe Cost Optimization Tips
Choose the Right Service Type
Use standard transcription for general content. Only upgrade to Medical or Call Analytics when you need specialized features. Medical costs 3.125x more, so verify HIPAA requirements before enabling.
Consolidate Volume for Tier Discounts
Transcribe pricing drops 67.5% at highest tier. Centralize transcription workloads in one AWS account to reach higher tiers faster and maximize volume-based savings.
Batch Short Audio Files Together
Amazon Transcribe has a 60-second minimum charge per request. For short clips under 1 minute, concatenate multiple files to avoid paying for unused time.
Use Custom Language Models Strategically
CLM pricing is 75% cheaper than standard transcription. If you have domain-specific vocabulary (brand names, technical terms), CLM can improve accuracy AND reduce costs at scale.
Optimize Regional Selection
Choose us-east-1, us-east-2, or us-west-2 for best pricing. Avoid São Paulo (+68%) and Northern California (+69%) regions unless data residency requirements mandate them.
Monitor Transcribe Usage in Real-Time
Track Amazon Transcribe spending across all operations and regions with CostGoat. Get instant alerts when transcription costs spike unexpectedly or when you're approaching volume tier thresholds for better planning.
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