If you're thinking about starting to make some extra money online, perhaps the idea of becoming a transcriptionist is something you've been considering lately.
Knowing how much they earn might be that final push you need to commit to transcribing audio to text.
In this article, we tell you everything about transcriptionist salaries, what you can expect as a beginner, which variables determine hourly pay, and where to start.
Below is everything about how much you can earn transcribing.
Let’s begin.
To answer the question of how much you can earn as a transcriptionist, let's get to the facts and look at the salaries that transcriptionists are currently making.
For this, I rely on several reputable sources you might already know.
But before diving into the numbers, it’s important to make some preliminary clarifications.
If you want to get straight to the point, here are the best-paying transcription companies.
The information you’re about to see may surprise you since transcriptionist salaries vary widely.
Whether you work for a company, freelance, or are a beginner or experienced transcriptionist with specialized knowledge, you’ll be paid differently for obvious reasons.
The same applies if you have training courses or transcription certifications, if you do transcription as a full-time job or in your spare time.
The good news is that transcription is a highly flexible job or profession, offering opportunities to people around the world to work and earn income based on their education, skills, and time commitment.
Also, working in the U.S.—where there’s a true transcription industry—is different from working in countries where the demand for transcriptionists is lower and the salary scale isn’t as high.
Now that you’re in context, let’s begin with one of the most well-known and important transcription companies in the world.
Before continuing, you might also want to read our article on the best websites to find beginner transcription jobs.
Rev has a community of more than twelve thousand transcriptionists serving major companies like NBC, Google, Amazon, and Buzzfeed.
Its transcriptionists work from all over and the money they earn helps them achieve various personal goals, from covering living costs to fulfilling dreams.
To work, all you need is a computer, good quality and stable internet, and fluency in English.
Rev provides all the training and technology needed to deliver accurate and fast transcriptions to clients.
It’s true that sometimes they close applications for certain regions or countries, so we recommend that you check their website to see if it’s open for you when reading this.
To the question of how much you can earn with Rev, the most honest answer is it depends.
The highest earners are experienced transcriptionists, earning around $1,495 per month, and 5% of transcriptionists make over $900 per month.
An average transcriptionist completes 15 jobs and earns about $156 per month. This includes beginners; as you can see, earnings at Rev vary widely.
That’s because it’s a very flexible place where you can work as much as you decide. For some, it’s their main source of income; for others, it’s just extra money.
Among the people working for this company are stay-at-home parents, college students, and independent retirees, for whom Rev has been the perfect way to work on their own terms.
Read the full Rev article on how much their transcriptionists earn here.
According to Indeed, a job search platform, $20.37 is the average hourly rate for a transcriptionist in the United States.
They list the best companies to work for as a transcriptionist in the country:
They also report the cities with the highest-paid transcriptionists:
According to the Transcription Certification Institute, transcription offers many opportunities and is a well-paid career.
A transcriptionist’s salary is around $19.02 per hour, and an experienced transcriptionist can earn between $25 to $30 per hour.
At this rate, transcription pay averages $1,141 per month, assuming 2.5 hours of work per day over 24 days.
According to PayScale, a U.S. data and software company, the average transcriptionist hourly wage is $16.59. In addition to these earnings, transcriptionists enjoy the freedom to set their own schedules and choose their weekly workload.
To the question of how much online transcriptionists earn, The Wary Worker states that a beginner transcriptionist can earn between $3 and $11 per hour, while an experienced one can earn more than $20 per hour.
They encourage realistic expectations and emphasize that earnings depend on two factors: How much is paid per audio minute? And how long does it take to transcribe that minute?
All transcription companies pay per audio minute, not per hour worked. Some companies pay between $0.40 to $0.50 per audio minute.
The reality, according to The Wary Worker, is that you never know how long it’ll take to transcribe one minute of audio.
It depends on sound quality, speaker accent and dialect, inaudible or unclear words requiring replay, and transcription correction time.
Based on personal experience, and considering a typing speed of 60 words per minute and review time, The Wary Worker estimates the time it may take for both new and experienced transcriptionists to transcribe content.
Their findings are as follows:
| Audio length | Experienced transcriptionist | Beginner transcriptionist |
| 15 minutes | 1 hour | 1.5 hours |
| 30 minutes | 2 hours | 3 hours |
| 45 minutes | 3 hours | 4.5 hours |
| 60 minutes | 4 hours | 6 hours |
Based on this, they state that an experienced transcriptionist can earn between $7.50 and $20 per hour, depending on whether they work for an online company or freelance.
A beginner, meanwhile, can earn between $3 and $11 per hour, with an average salary of $5 per hour. That’s because it takes them longer to transcribe a file, and they tend to be paid lower rates.
The Wary Worker concludes that working as a transcriptionist is worth it because you can make decent income, especially if you’re good at transcribing.
To be productive, they recommend getting trained and working for companies that pay more than $0.50 per audio minute, or freelancing for bloggers and other businesses.
As we’ve shown, transcriptionist salary scales vary. Income depends on the company you work for, whether you work from home, or have your own business.
Earnings also depend on the number of hours worked—full-time transcriptionists make much more than those doing it as a side hustle with limited hours.
Other important factors for productivity include typing speed, listening skills, education, and transcription experience.
All of these variables explain how much transcriptionists earn, especially in the U.S.
We recommend this article again to find work as a beginner.
As we’ve shown, transcriptionist income varies a lot. Some do great; others not so much, because it can be hard to find a stable job with good hourly pay.
We suggest accepting and appreciating opportunities even if they don’t meet your expectations. That way, you’ll gain experience, connect with others, learn, and specialize to become more productive each day.
Currently, services like ScriptMe’s automatic transcription are gaining significant market share.
They use artificial intelligence and advanced technology to offer fast, accurate transcriptions at very competitive prices.
However, the work of human transcriptionists will never disappear, because there’s a level of meaning and interpretation in transcription that AI will always struggle to reach.
To answer how much transcriptionists earn, we’ve consulted reliable sources. As you’ve seen, transcription pay is highly variable.
It depends partly on the transcriptionist’s skills, knowledge, experience, and hours worked. On the other hand, it depends on company pay rates, whether you work from home or run a personal business.
Context is also key—we’ve seen that even within the U.S., hourly pay varies by state.
Being productive in this—and any—field is hard but not impossible. Transcription work can help you reach your dreams and achieve the life you want, because success doesn’t lie in a job… but in an efficient personality that strives for success.
We hope this article has been helpful to you.
If you want more information about ScriptMe, contact us and we’ll gladly tell you about our transcription, translation, and subtitling services.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hi Kharen.
Thank you very much for your message.
At this time we do not offer manual transcription jobs, however you can search for jobs in the following article: https://scriptme.io/online-transcription-jobs-for-beginners/.
Good Luck.