How much does one hour of transcription cost in Poland (2026)
Michał Jaskólski, Creator of skryba.ai
Published · updated
In short
Transcribing one hour of audio in Poland costs from $3 with AI transcription up to PLN 150–400 (~$40–110) at a transcription agency. Freelancers usually price between those brackets, and doing it yourself is free but consumes 4–8 hours of work. The final price depends on audio quality, speaker count and the deadline.
Below we compare market rates by delivery method, explain what actually drives the price up, and work through three typical scenarios — from a single interview to a semester of lectures. All amounts are gross prices.
Market rates per hour of recording
Polish prices fall into four clear brackets. The agency and freelancer ranges reflect publicly available price lists for such services; the AI rates are skryba.ai's own pricing (as of September 2026).
| Method | Price per recording hour | Turnaround | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI transcription (skryba.ai) | $3.00–9.00 | a few minutes | $3 on the subscription, $9 for a single recording; proofread names and numbers yourself |
| Freelancer | typically PLN 80–150 (~$22–40) | 2–5 days | Typical market offers; the price climbs with difficult audio |
| Transcription agency | PLN 150–400 (~$40–110) | 1–3 business days | Full verbatim and proofreading included; express surcharges apply |
| Yourself, by hand | 0 | 4–8 hours of work | The real cost is your time — at PLN 50/h (~$14) that is PLN 200–400 (~$55–110) |
Scroll the table sideways to see the remaining columns.
What drives the price of transcription up
The brackets in the table are wide because two recordings of the same length can differ several-fold in effort. Whoever does the work, the same factors push the price up:
- Recording quality — noise, reverb and a quiet voice slow a human down and lower a model's accuracy.
- Speaker count and cross-talk — a panel discussion costs more than a monologue.
- Specialist vocabulary — legal or medical terminology needs extra verification.
- Verbatim vs edited text — a full record with fillers and repetitions carries a higher agency rate.
- Deadline — express delivery from a human usually adds a 50–100% surcharge.
- Timestamps and speaker labels — often billed separately by manual providers, included in AI transcription.
Three worked scenarios
A 45-minute press interview. skryba.ai bills every started minute of recording: as a single recording those 45 minutes cost $6.75 ($0.15 a minute), and on the subscription ($12 for 4 hours, i.e. $3.00 per hour) they use 45 minutes of your balance, worth $2.25. An agency would quote roughly PLN 112–300 (~$30–82) for the same file, and typing it yourself takes an afternoon.
A semester of lectures: 20 recordings of 1.5 hours, 30 hours in total. The subscription and extra hours cost the same, $12 for every 4 hours, so 30 hours is eight such blocks, or $96 — less than one recording hour at the top of the agency bracket. The same material outsourced would run around PLN 4,500–12,000 (~$1,200–3,300).
A three-hour hearing where every word matters. AI transcription costs $27 as a single recording, or fits inside one $12 month of the subscription, and yields timestamped text for your own careful verification. If you need full verbatim proofread by a human, an agency will charge about PLN 450–1,200 (~$120–330) — sometimes worth it when the record goes to court.
When paying a human is worth it
AI transcription is not the answer to everything. Honestly: some recordings and use cases justify a professional transcriber's rate.
- Very poor audio — a recorder in a pocket or across the room needs a human ear.
- Many people talking over one another — a heated panel is still the hardest case for models.
- A requirement for full verbatim with fillers and false starts, e.g. for qualitative speech analysis.
- Records with legal consequences, where the client requires the contractor to be accountable for fidelity.
Frequent questions about transcription cost
How much does AI transcription cost at skryba.ai?
From $3.00 per recording hour on the subscription: $12 a month for 4 hours, and unused hours stay on the account for 12 months. You can also pay for one recording on its own, with no subscription and no account: $0.15 per started minute, minimum $1.50. Recordings of up to 5 minutes are free.
Do I pay for a full hour if the recording is shorter?
No. Billing is per started minute of recording — a 20-minute file consumes exactly 20 minutes of your hour balance, not a full hour.
Do the quoted prices include VAT?
Yes, all skryba.ai prices are gross and include VAT. The invoice goes to the email address provided at payment.
See the full skryba.ai pricing
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