Simon Says

Simon Says is an audio and video transcription service with translation and dubbing, built around transcripts that can feed into editing and caption workflows. It suits people working across languages and production tools; its broad export range is a stronger draw than a simple, low-cost transcription allowance.

Overview

Speech recognition handles audio and video, with transcription and translation in 100 languages. Users can edit, bookmark, annotate, and share transcripts, identify speakers, and work with timestamps. They can also arrange video by ordering transcript text and edit subtitles visually.

The service supports common production media formats and codecs, with website files up to four hours long. Online import limits range from 5GB to 40GB across plans. For organizations that cannot send material to the cloud, on-premises Standard and Enhanced options run offline.

Key features

• Transcript editing: Speaker labels and timestamps provide structure, while bookmarking, annotation, and sharing help teams work with the resulting text rather than treating transcription as a one-off conversion.
• Production handoff: Exports cover Microsoft Word and text documents, subtitle formats including SRT, WebVTT and SAMI, and tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve, Grass Valley EDIUS and Avid Pro Tools. This breadth is useful for production workflows; casual users may not need most of it.
• Video and captions: Text ordering can assemble video, and the visual subtitle editor supports caption work. Dubbing is also part of the offering, alongside translation.
• Data control: Users retain ownership of data sent to their accounts and can delete it. Offline on-premises operation goes further for organizations requiring air-gapped processing.

Pricing

The online options trade price against included transcription time and upload capacity. The free offer gives new users 15 minutes of credit, while the account allowance is also described as 120 included minutes and two hours of monthly transcription. That is enough for a small trial, not a dependable recurring workload.

• Pay as you go — $15 a month: The base is billed at $0, with usage charged at $15/hour or $0.25 per minute based on file duration. It includes advanced transcription AI, translation to 100+ languages, transcript editing, exports to video editing apps and Word, and a visual subtitle editor. This suits irregular jobs, though costs rise directly with each file.
• Starter — $15 a year: Billed annually with 24 hours of credit per year. It is the lowest-cost annual option for light use, but its allowance is modest and no maximum file size is given for this plan.
• Pro — $33 a year: Billed annually, with 48 hours of credit and a 20GB maximum file size. It doubles Starter's annual time and is a better fit for larger projects, but still leaves heavier users to manage a finite quota.
• Pro+ — $125 a year: Billed annually, with 360 hours of credit, a 40GB maximum file size, and priority support. This is the practical online tier for sustained production volume or large uploads.
• Standard: Custom pricing for air-gapped offline operation, Mac installation, and audio and video transcription and captioning.
• Enhanced: Custom pricing for air-gapped offline use with Mac and PC support and priority support. It is aimed at enterprises, studios, and governments with enhanced security needs.
• On-premises credit licenses: A 5-hour trial costs $100, paid once; the 100-hour license costs $2,500, paid once. Both expire one year after activation, so unused credit does not remain indefinitely.

Subscribers can cancel anytime from their profile page; cancellation prevents renewal. Annual plans are billed annually, so readers should choose a quota with their year-round workload in mind.

Platforms

Simon Says is available as an extension and on iOS, macOS, Windows, the web, and self-hosted deployment. Its Mac app supports Apple silicon M1, M2, and M3 as well as Intel Macs.

Who it's for

Simon Says makes the most sense for editors, producers, and teams that need multilingual transcripts to move into subtitle, document, or post-production workflows. Pro+ better fits regular high-volume work; the offline plans address organizations for which cloud processing is unsuitable. People who need only occasional short transcripts may find the annual credit allowances excessive, while those with unpredictable use can avoid a fixed annual quota through pay as you go.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Support for 100 languages, speaker identification, timestamps, editing tools, and dubbing make it a broader workflow than transcription alone.
• Pro: Exports span documents, subtitles, and major audio and video production applications, reducing friction when transcripts need to enter an existing edit.
• Pro: Offline on-premises options provide a path for air-gapped workflows, with Enhanced adding PC support and priority support.
• Con: Online credit is finite, and even the annual plans require users to match an allowance to their likely volume.
• Con: Pay as you go charges by file duration, making recurring or high-volume use potentially less predictable than a fixed annual allowance.
• Con: On-premises pricing is custom for the main Standard and Enhanced options, while the stated credit licenses expire after one year.

Alternatives

For podcast-focused comparisons, start with the Podcast Transcription Software category; for a wider field, see Transcription Software.

• Happy Scribe is worth considering for its free plan, which includes unlimited meeting recordings, 45 minutes per recording, and a 10-minute AI trial.
• OpenWhispr suits readers seeking an always-free allowance of 2,000 transcription words per week and five hours of meeting recordings per month, with unlimited local AI models and cloud transcription.
• Speechmatics offers free credits of $100, no credit card requirement, and support for API and self-hosted deployments; it may suit readers prioritizing those options.
• Transkriptor has a Lite plan at $9.99 a month with 300 minutes monthly, a clearer fit for individuals starting out with a defined smaller quota.
• mercuryScribe is a free and open-source option under the MIT license for personal, academic, or commercial use.
• Rev offers a free plan with English-only transcription, 45 AI transcription and caption minutes monthly, five files at once, and one user.
• AssemblyAI may suit API-focused use: its free credits include $50 in audio credits and support for streaming connections and concurrent pre-recorded transcriptions.
• Pepys offers 60 free minutes at signup, files up to 1GB, and one active transcription.

Verdict

Choose Simon Says if multilingual transcription needs to feed directly into a document, subtitle, or video-editing workflow, or if offline on-premises processing is essential. The breadth of editing and export options is its clearest advantage. Look elsewhere if a small, predictable free allowance is enough: Simon Says is strongest when its workflow breadth matters enough to justify managing credits or custom-priced deployment.