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WAmazon Transcribe vs Descript
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
A
Choose Amazon Transcribe if…
- you're in its core audience: developers building on aws, contact center teams
D
Choose Descript if…
- you're in its core audience: podcasters, youtube creators
Side by side
Feature Amazon Transcribe Descript
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starting price—$16/mo
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Data retention—Personal data kept as long as necessary for collection purposes
Security and compliance—SOC 2 Type II, GDPR
Updates, last 90 days—2
Speaker labels—
File upload—
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CategoryTranscriptionVideo Editing
CompanyAmazon Web Services, Inc.Descript, Inc.
Based inUnited StatesUnited States
Founded——
Part ofAmazon.com, Inc.—
Key features
A Amazon Transcribe
- Batch and real-time streaming transcription
- Speaker diarization and automatic language identification
- Custom vocabularies and custom language models
- Automatic redaction of sensitive information
- Call Analytics with sentiment and generative summaries
- Toxicity detection and content moderation
- HIPAA-eligible medical transcription
- Features available in 100+ languages
D Descript
- Edit video and audio by editing the transcript
- Transcription in 25 languages with speaker detection
- Studio Sound noise removal and voice enhancement
- One-click filler word and retake removal
- Underlord AI co-editor driven by prompts
- Voice clones, stock AI voices and speech regeneration
- Automatic clips, captions and video translation
- API and MCP server for programmatic editing
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
Amazon Transcribe
Free TierFree
Standard Batch$0.006/min (US East example)
Standard Streaming$0.01/min (US East example)
Call Analytics (post-call)$0.03/min first 250K min; $0.0186 next 750K; $0.0138 next 4M
Generative call summarization$0.0024/min (Tier 1)
Content redaction$0.0024/min (Tier 1)
Descript
Free$0
Hobbyist$16/mo billed annually ($24 monthly)
Creator$24/mo billed annually ($35 monthly)
Business$50/mo billed annually ($65 monthly)
EnterpriseCustom
Strengths and limitations
Amazon Transcribe
- Free tier with 60 minutes a month for 12 months
- Billed per second with no minimum charge
- Volume tiers lower the per-minute cost at scale
- Features available in more than 100 languages
- Prices vary by region and the page gives some only as examples
- Redaction and custom language models are not in the free tier
- Requires an AWS account and some developer setup
Descript
- Free plan with no credit card required
- Text-based editing removes the need to scrub a timeline
- Recording, editing, captions and publishing in a single tool
- SOC 2 Type II, SAML SSO, SCIM and GDPR compliance for business use
- Free plan includes only 60 media minutes a month and 100 one-time AI credits
- 4K export requires the Creator plan or higher
- Translation and dubbing only on Business plan and above
- Paid plans are priced per person
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Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy