Choosing a Transcription Service: Otter.ai vs. Trint

If you are planning to transcribe interviews for your oral history project, you will probably opt to use an AI transcription service. These services make the transcription process easier and faster by producing a rough transcription from your audio files, which the transcriber then manually corrects. In this blog post, we will compare two common AI transcriptions services: Otter.ai and Trint. This comparison can help you choose between the two, but it is also designed to help you consider what you are looking for in a transcription.

What to consider

  • Pricing: What are your budget constraints? Free options do exist, though their functions are very limited.
  • Number of transcriptions: How many transcriptions do you need to do? A small-scale project, such as a couple of family histories, would allow you to choose a cheaper option.
  • Length of project: What will the time scale of your project be, and do you expect to conduct regular or frequent interviews? This will determine whether a discounted annual rate or a short-term monthly subscription would be the better deal for you.
  • Preferred export format: What format do you find more visually appealing and easy to read? Do you expect to edit your transcript after export, and if so, do you have the tools to do so? The answers to these questions may also be affected by the platform to which you will upload your transcripts.
  • Language needs: Do you need to transcribe in languages other than English?
  • Other considerations: How do you work as the project planner? For example, Trint’s Story Builder feature excerpts quotes to assist journalists in writing articles; or, Otter.ai’s virtual meeting transcription feature could be useful to those who work entirely online.

Otter.ai

Trint

  • Pricing (Annual plan):
    • Free
      • 300 transcription minutes/month
      • 30 minutes/conversation
      • Import & transcribe 3 files/lifetime
    • Pro: $10 per user/month
      • 1200 transcription minutes/month
      • 90 minutes/conversation
      • Import & transcribe 10 files/month
    • Business: $20 per user/month
      • 6000 transcription minutes/month
      • 240 minutes/conversation
      • Import & transcribe unlimited files
  • Features:
    • Virtual meeting (Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet) transcription and summary
  • Exports:
    • PDF file
      • Header includes title, date & time, tags, names of speakers
      • Body includes paragraphs marked with names, time stamps, and circular icons containing speaker initials or images
  • Considerations:
    • Otter.ai can be fussy. The page can jump around during editing, and the service struggles more with longer transcriptions.
    • Can experience time stamp mix ups, which are harder to fix post-export due to the PDF format.
    • You will need a PDF editor to make changes to the exported document, and major changes can make the PDF appear awkward.
  • Pricing (Annual plan):
    • Free Trial:
      • 7 day access
      • 180 minutes or 3GB/conversation
      • Import & transcribe 3 files
    • Starter: $48 per user/month
      • 180 minutes or 3GB/conversation
      • Import & transcribe 7 files/month
    • Advanced: $60 per user/month
      • 180 minutes or 3GB/conversation
      • Import & transcribe unlimited files
  • Features:
    • Story Builder feature organizes quotes into a written piece
    • Multilingual transcription and translation
  • Exports:
    • Word document
      • Header includes title
      • Body includes paragraphs marked with names and time stamps
    • CSV file
  • Considerations:
    • We cannot speak to the effectiveness of the language options, because our archive is primarily in English. If you want to do transcription in a language other than English, we recommend testing the Trint free trial before committing.

Takeaways

Generally, we recommend Otter.ai to those who have less transcriptions or shorter term ongoing transcription needs, and/or those who have limited budgets. Otter.ai’s free plan may also be useful for those conducting interviews over a virtual meeting platform. We recommend Trint to those who have more transcriptions or longer term ongoing transcriptions needs. In addition, Trint is useful for those who have a one-time need for just a couple transcriptions, as the free trial allows brief access to Trint’s more polished features and more accessible export style. Trint is also the likely choice for those conducting non-English interviews.

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