Quick Answer
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AWS Transcribe pricing varies by team size and features, ranging from $0 to $6.75 per minute in 2026. Your actual cost depends on the tier you choose, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: Yes
  • Billing: Monthly and annual (save 15-20%)
  • Hidden costs: Add ~35% for implementation, support, and training

AWS Transcribe offers 3 pricing tiers: Standard (Tier 1: 0-250K min/month), Volume Discounted (Tier 2-4: 250K+ min/month), Transcribe Medical. Standard paid plans include Standard (Tier 1: 0-250K min/month) at $0/minute, Volume Discounted (Tier 2-4: 250K+ min/month) at $0/minute, Transcribe Medical at $0/minute. The Volume Discounted (Tier 2-4: 250K+ min/month) plan is high-volume enterprises processing 250k+ minutes monthly who can centralize workloads to maximize volume tier discounts.

Compared to other ai transcription apis software, AWS Transcribe is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.

Last verified: February 2026 | Sources: 1 pricing pages and reviews

Amazon Transcribe is AWS's fully managed automatic speech recognition (ASR) service that converts audio to text at scale. It supports 100+ languages, both real-time streaming and batch processing, and integrates deeply with the broader AWS ecosystem including S3, Lambda, CloudWatch, and Comprehend. Specialized variants include Transcribe Medical for HIPAA-compliant healthcare transcription and Transcribe Call Analytics for contact center intelligence.

Standard pricing starts at $0.024 per minute ($1.44/hour) for up to 250,000 minutes per month, with aggressive volume discounts reducing costs to $0.015/min (Tier 2), $0.0102/min (Tier 3), and $0.0078/min (Tier 4: 5M+ minutes) -- a maximum 67.5% discount at scale. Medical transcription costs $0.075/min. New AWS accounts receive 60 free minutes per month for 12 months. Billing is per second with a 15-second minimum per request.

The primary consideration with AWS Transcribe is its position within the AWS ecosystem. While the base rate of $0.024/min is 4x more expensive than OpenAI Whisper ($0.006/min) and 50% more than Google Cloud Speech-to-Text ($0.016/min), AWS Transcribe offers unique advantages: volume discounts that can bring costs to $0.0078/min at scale, HIPAA-compliant medical transcription, custom vocabularies for domain-specific accuracy, and native integration with AWS services most enterprises already use. The hidden costs, however, include supporting AWS services (S3 storage, Lambda orchestration, CloudWatch monitoring) that add $50-$300/month to a production pipeline.

In this 2026 pricing guide, we break down AWS Transcribe's tiered pricing structure, calculate real-world costs across volume tiers, expose hidden costs from add-on features, regional pricing variations, and ecosystem dependencies, and compare AWS Transcribe to alternatives like OpenAI Whisper, Google Cloud Speech-to-Text, Deepgram, and AssemblyAI.

All AWS Transcribe Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
Standard (Tier 1: 0-250K min/month) Free tier: 60 min/month for 12 months (new accounts only)Max audio length: 4 hours per batch job Free Free 0 Small to mid-sized teams processing up to 250,000 minutes monthly on AWS infrastructure with standard transcription needs
Volume Discounted (Tier 2-4: 250K+ min/month) Minimum volume: 250,000 minutes/month for Tier 2Concurrent jobs: Increased limits available via support Free Free 0 High-volume enterprises processing 250K+ minutes monthly who can centralize workloads to maximize volume tier discounts
Transcribe Medical HIPAA eligibility: Requires AWS BAARegions: Limited to select AWS regions Free Free 0 Healthcare organizations needing HIPAA-compliant transcription with specialized medical vocabulary and terminology recognition
View all features by plan

Standard (Tier 1: 0-250K min/month)

  • Batch and streaming transcription at $0.024/min
  • Automatic language identification across 100+ languages
  • Custom vocabularies for domain-specific terms
  • Speaker diarization (identify up to 10 speakers)
  • Channel identification for multi-channel audio
  • Billed per second with 15-second minimum per request
  • 12-month free tier: 60 minutes/month for new AWS accounts

Volume Discounted (Tier 2-4: 250K+ min/month)

  • Tier 2 (250K-1M min): $0.015/min (37.5% discount)
  • Tier 3 (1M-5M min): $0.0102/min (57.5% discount)
  • Tier 4 (5M+ min): $0.0078/min (67.5% discount)
  • All standard features included at discounted rates
  • Automatic tier progression as volume increases
  • Volume discounts apply across all transcription types
  • Ideal for consolidating transcription workloads in one AWS account

Transcribe Medical

  • HIPAA-eligible medical transcription at $0.075/min
  • Specialized medical vocabulary and terminology recognition
  • Support for medical dictation and patient-clinician conversations
  • Drug name recognition and medical abbreviations
  • Integration with Amazon Comprehend Medical for entity extraction
  • Available in batch and streaming modes
  • Compliant with healthcare data regulations
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Hidden Costs to Budget For

Watch for 6 hidden costs
  • Speaker diarization and custom vocabulary add-ons increase costs 20-40% above the base $0.024/min rate: These features are priced as add-ons but AWS does not clearly disclose the exact per-minute surcharge on its pricing page -- budget an additional $0.005-$0.010/min when using speaker identification or custom language models
  • PII content redaction adds $0.0024/min on top of base transcription costs: At Tier 1 this increases effective pricing to $0.0264/min, and at higher tiers this flat add-on erodes volume discount savings -- for Tier 4 ($0.0078/min base), PII redaction adds 30% to total cost
  • Regional pricing variations can inflate costs by 68-69%: Deploying in South America (Sao Paulo) or US West (Northern California) regions costs significantly more than optimal regions (us-east-1, us-east-2, us-west-2) -- always check region-specific pricing before architecting your pipeline
  • 15-second minimum charge per request penalizes short audio clips: Every API call is billed for at least 15 seconds regardless of actual audio length -- processing thousands of 2-5 second audio snippets (like voice commands) can result in 3-5x higher effective per-second costs
  • Concurrency throttling at 100 simultaneous sessions forces architectural workarounds: Exceeding 100 concurrent transcription jobs requires AWS support tickets for limit increases or distributing workloads across multiple accounts/regions, adding operational complexity and potentially multiplying costs
  • AWS ecosystem lock-in costs are substantial: AWS Transcribe requires S3 for audio storage ($0.023/GB/month), CloudWatch for monitoring ($0.30/GB ingested), and Lambda for orchestration ($0.20/1M requests) -- a production pipeline adds $50-$300/month in supporting AWS service costs beyond the transcription fees
Tip

Ask your AWS Transcribe sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Frequently Asked Questions

01 How much does AWS Transcribe cost?

AWS Transcribe costs $0.024 per minute ($1.44/hour) at the base Tier 1 rate for up to 250,000 minutes per month. Volume discounts reduce pricing to $0.015/min (Tier 2: 250K-1M min), $0.0102/min (Tier 3: 1M-5M min), and $0.0078/min (Tier 4: 5M+ min), representing up to 67.5% savings. Medical transcription costs $0.075/min. New AWS accounts receive 60 free minutes per month for 12 months.

02 Is AWS Transcribe free?

AWS Transcribe offers a 12-month free tier for new AWS accounts with 60 minutes of standard transcription per month. This applies to batch and streaming transcription only and does not cover Transcribe Medical or add-on features. After 12 months or exceeding 60 minutes, you pay standard rates starting at $0.024/min. For ongoing free usage, consider alternatives like Speechmatics (480 min/month free ongoing) or Deepgram ($200 free credits with no expiration).

03 What is AWS Transcribe?

Amazon Transcribe is a fully managed automatic speech recognition (ASR) service from AWS that converts audio to text. It supports 100+ languages, real-time streaming and batch processing, speaker diarization, custom vocabularies, channel identification, and PII redaction. Transcribe integrates deeply with the AWS ecosystem including S3, Lambda, and Comprehend. Specialized variants include Transcribe Medical for HIPAA-compliant healthcare transcription and Transcribe Call Analytics for contact center intelligence.

04 AWS Transcribe vs OpenAI Whisper: which is cheaper?

OpenAI Whisper at $0.006/min is 75% cheaper than AWS Transcribe's base rate of $0.024/min. Even at AWS's highest volume discount tier ($0.0078/min for 5M+ minutes), Whisper remains 23% cheaper. However, AWS Transcribe includes built-in features like custom vocabularies, PII redaction, and HIPAA-compliant medical transcription that Whisper lacks. Choose Whisper for straightforward, cost-effective transcription; choose AWS Transcribe if you need deep AWS integration, custom vocabularies, or medical-grade compliance.

05 AWS Transcribe vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text: which should I choose?

AWS Transcribe costs $0.024/min at base tier vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text at $0.016/min for standard and $0.004/min for batch processing. Google is 33% cheaper at standard rates and 83% cheaper in batch mode. However, AWS Transcribe offers better volume discounts at scale (dropping to $0.0078/min at 5M+ minutes vs Google's less transparent volume pricing). Choose AWS if your infrastructure is on AWS; choose Google if you are on GCP or need the lowest batch processing rate.

06 Does AWS Transcribe have volume discounts?

Yes, AWS Transcribe offers four volume tiers with automatic progression. Tier 1 (0-250K min) costs $0.024/min, Tier 2 (250K-1M min) costs $0.015/min (37.5% discount), Tier 3 (1M-5M min) costs $0.0102/min (57.5% discount), and Tier 4 (5M+ min) costs $0.0078/min (67.5% discount). Discounts apply automatically as monthly usage increases. Centralizing transcription workloads in one AWS account is recommended to reach higher tiers faster.

07 Does AWS Transcribe support real-time streaming?

Yes, AWS Transcribe supports real-time streaming transcription via WebSocket connections with results delivered in near real-time. Streaming is billed at the same per-minute rates as batch processing ($0.024/min at Tier 1). Streaming supports automatic language detection, speaker diarization, and partial result stabilization. However, streaming has a default concurrency limit of 100 simultaneous sessions, which may require limit increase requests for large-scale real-time applications.

08 Is AWS Transcribe HIPAA compliant?

AWS Transcribe is HIPAA-eligible when used with an AWS Business Associate Agreement (BAA). Standard Transcribe can be used with PHI under a BAA, and Transcribe Medical is specifically designed for healthcare with specialized medical vocabulary at $0.075/min (3.125x the standard rate). AWS Transcribe is one of the few transcription APIs offering native HIPAA compliance, unlike OpenAI Whisper which does not offer a BAA. Healthcare organizations should use Transcribe Medical in BAA-covered AWS accounts for full regulatory compliance.