Many things! The biggest influence is audio quality (or the quality of the audio track, if your file is a video).

Even if your file meets our minimum quality standards, more challenging audio still takes longer to transcribe than high quality recordings. Speakers with heavy accents, background noise, and/or highly obscure or technical content usually takes more time to transcribe and edit than crisp, clear audio.

Long files, of course, generally take more time than short ones. Turnaround slows dramatically once files reach or surpass the 90-minute mark.

If you need a file transcribed quickly, use our 1-Day or 1-Week services, and be sure to add the Difficult Audio upgrade if needed. Adding the upgrade does not reinstate the turnaround guarantee on challenging audio, but it does assure the smoothest possible turnaround in any given case, often to within the desired timeframe.

⬅ FAQ