Podcast transcription costs in Canada: per minute or subscription?

The cost of one episode

Talk to Text's official pricing page did not load when we rechecked it on October 12, 2026; its figures below are those of the same official page as published around October 9, 2026. These examples assume you pay for the full length of the audio, have no credit left over, and want an AI transcript rather than professional correction. Free allowances, taxes, card fees and exchange-rate margins are left out so the billing models are easy to compare.

Official sources: Talk to Text pricing · Descript pricing · Descript: billing currency · Voqia pricing · ECB euro reference rates

How the CA$ estimates were calculated

The European Central Bank's reference rates for October 9, 2026 were €1 = CA$1.5942 and €1 = US$1.1206 (read on October 12, 2026). So Voqia's €4.99 Starter pack is about CA$7.96, the €9.99 Pro pack about CA$15.93 and the €24.99 Business pack about CA$39.84; Descript's US$24 is about CA$34.14. The Descript row uses the monthly Hobbyist price, not the lower price shown for yearly billing. Descript lists its prices in US dollars, but outside the United States it can charge you in the currency you select.

These are reference rates, not what you will be charged. For Voqia, the rule is simple. Prices are in euros and you pay once. If your card uses another currency (dollars, pounds…), the payment page may show the amount in your currency; otherwise your bank converts it automatically. In both cases, the amount you see on the payment page is the one to trust.

Per minute: each episode is a separate job

Talk to Text is a Canadian service with a clear price in Canadian dollars: CA$0.05 per audio minute for AI only. A 30-minute Toronto interview costs CA$1.50, a 60-minute episode CA$3.00 and a 90-minute conversation CA$4.50, before any extras. These are worked examples, not an average Canadian price.

AI only means a draft you check yourself. If you want a person to correct it against the recording, Talk to Text lists human review at CA$1.45 per minute on top of the AI rate, so CA$45, CA$90 or CA$135 for the same three episodes. That is a different service from pressing "transcribe" in an app: compare it separately.

Official sources: Talk to Text pricing

Subscription: when you also need the editing tools

A subscription buys access for a period, usually with an allowance and other tools. Descript Hobbyist is US$24 per person per month on monthly billing, with 10 media hours a month. For a Vancouver producer who edits several recordings and video clips every month, that wider workflow can justify the cost. For one occasional transcript, the whole month is still due.

Talk to Text's membership is a subscription too: CA$19.99 a month plus CA$0.03 per audio minute. The lower minute rate does not remove the monthly fee, so add both parts using what you expect to transcribe over a whole month.

Official sources: Descript pricing · Talk to Text pricing

One-time packs: when you publish irregularly

Voqia's Starter pack costs €4.99 for 60 minutes, Pro €9.99 for 3 hours and Business €24.99 for 10 hours. You pay once, and purchased minutes never expire. A 30- or 60-minute episode fits in Starter; a 90-minute episode needs Pro if you start with no credit.

A pack is what you buy, not what one episode uses. If your 30-minute Halifax episode uses half a Starter pack, the other 30 minutes wait for the next recording. The same minutes also work for Voqia's live transcription and voice features, so check your balance before buying again. Talk to Text says its purchased package minutes do not expire either.

Official sources: Voqia pricing

What Voqia does with a podcast file, and what it does not

• File mode accepts MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG, FLAC and WebM audio, and MP4 or MOV video, up to 500 MB. If an edited video is bigger, export the audio as MP3 or M4A.
• You get a timestamped transcript. Turn on Speaker detection, then rename the speakers. Minutes are counted on the length of the recording.
• An AI summary of the main points helps you draft show notes; you copy it or download it.
• English and French are both supported, which matters for a Montréal show where guests switch languages. Test a short passage first: names, switches between languages, overlapping voices and music still need checking.
• You copy the transcript or download it as a Word (.docx) document.
• It does not import an episode from a link or RSS feed, does not export SRT or VTT subtitles, and does not offer human correction.

Official sources: Voqia: podcast to text

A practical way to choose before you pay

1. Measure the audio you will upload this month, intro and outro included, rather than pricing only the next episode.
2. Decide what you need at the end: a searchable transcript, a show-notes draft, a corrected quote or a subtitle file. They take different amounts of work.
3. Price each model: duration times rate for per-minute billing; monthly fee plus usage for a subscription; enough minutes for the whole file for a pack, keeping in mind what is left afterwards.
4. Test a short extract of your own recording, with the accents, names and microphone of a real episode.
5. Check the currency: Talk to Text prices in CA$, Descript lists US$ prices but lets you choose the billing currency, Voqia prices in euros. Look at the amount on the payment page before you confirm.

Two examples

An independent host in Ottawa releases one English interview this month, then pauses for a while. Per-minute billing avoids buying spare capacity, and a one-time pack keeps unused minutes for later. A weekly producer in Calgary who edits video, cuts clips and works with a team may get more from a subscription's tools than from cheap transcription alone. Run the numbers on your own schedule, not on the lowest figure in one column.

Frequently asked questions