Happy Scribe alternatives in 2026

Happy Scribe is a web service for transcripts, subtitles and translation. Its AI covers 150+ languages and dialects, human-reviewed transcripts cover 65+, and recordings are stored in the EU. It also has a calendar notetaker that joins Zoom, Meet and Teams, and a mobile app for recording in person; its desktop app for Mac is listed as coming soon.

From its pricing page:

• Free: a 10-minute trial of AI transcription, 45 minutes per recording, exports in TXT and SRT, MP4 with a watermark.
• Basic: $17 a month, or $8.50 a month billed yearly, for 120 minutes a month, recordings up to 90 minutes, TXT, SRT, PDF and DOCX.
• Pro: $29 a month, or $19 billed yearly, for 600 minutes, no length cap, all 15+ export formats, 3 seats.
• Business: $89 a month, or $59 billed yearly, for 6,000 minutes and 5 seats.
• Extra minutes are $0.20 each. Human proofreading starts at $2 a minute, $1.90 on Business.

The usual reasons to look elsewhere:

• 120 minutes a month on Basic is two lectures.
• Every file is uploaded, even if the EU storage is reassuring.
• Basic stops at 90 minutes per recording and doesn't include every export format.
• They want something on their Mac that works offline.

We make Koi, one of the apps below, so read this with that in mind. We didn't run accuracy tests, and Happy Scribe's own accuracy comparisons are its own. Facts about the others come from their sites, checked October 21, 2026.

In Happy Scribe you upload the file, pick the language (or let it detect one), choose AI or a human, and download the result from your workspace once it's done. In Koi:

1. Click Tools on Koi's dock and pick Transcribe a file, or choose File, Transcribe Audio or Video… in the menu bar. Dropping the file on the Documents window works too.
2. The page opens at once, named after the file, and fills in as it's heard.
3. Click any time to hear that line, fix words as you go, then open the page's menu, Export, for Subtitles (SRT) or (VTT), Word or PDF.

From each company's own site. “Not listed” means the site doesn't say.

Say you transcribe 10 hours a month, 600 minutes. On Happy Scribe that's Pro, $29 a month or $19 billed yearly, since Basic stops at 120 minutes and extra minutes are $0.20 each. On TurboScribe it's $20 a month, or $10 yearly, with room to spare. On Rev, Essentials covers it. MacWhisper and Aiko cost nothing after the one-time price. On Koi it's the plan you already have, Pro at $20 a month, with calls and dictation included.

Happy Scribe's privacy story is good for a cloud service: EU data residency, SOC 2 Type II, AI training off by default. It's still a copy of your audio on someone else's servers. A local app never makes that copy. Koi reads the file on your Mac, doesn't change or move it, and keeps the transcript in its documents there. Only a yes to a summary sends the words, never the sound, to Koi's AI. For more local options, see our list of Whisper apps for Mac.

A lot of Happy Scribe use is subtitles for video. On a Mac you can do the first-language part locally. In Koi, drop the video in, let it write the words down, fix them on the page, then Export, Subtitles (SRT) or (VTT): each timed line becomes a cue, with your edits. MacWhisper and Aiko export SRT too, and MacWhisper adds VTT.

Koi doesn't translate subtitles into other languages, and Aiko translates only into English. If you need Spanish and German subtitles from an English video, a cloud service like Happy Scribe or TurboScribe, which translates into 134+ languages, is still the tool.

Happy Scribe's free plan is a 10-minute trial. TurboScribe's free plan does 3 files a day of up to 30 minutes, in the cloud. For free and local, MacWhisper's free version transcribes files on your Mac, and Buzz Classic is free and open source. Koi isn't free: Pro starts with a 3-day trial that needs a card, and then files, calls and dictation have no limit.

• Download your transcripts and subtitles. Basic exports TXT, SRT, PDF and DOCX; Pro all 15+ formats.
• Check your languages. Happy Scribe lists 150+; Koi, MacWhisper and Aiko about 100, TurboScribe 98+.
• Check whether your team shares a workspace. Local apps keep files on one Mac, so sharing means sending an export.
• Check your file types. Koi reads m4a, mp3, wav, aiff, caf, mp4, mov, m4v and voice memos.

Happy Scribe's calendar notetaker joins Zoom, Meet and Teams calls as a participant. Its mobile app records in person without a bot, and its desktop app for bot-free calls is listed as coming soon. If you'd rather nobody sees a bot today, Koi records from your Mac: tap Fn + ⌃, pick Online call, and your microphone and the Mac's sound are written down as You and Them, with the audio or a video of the screen kept on your Mac. Koi can also offer to record when Zoom, Teams or a Meet call in your browser starts using the microphone. Our guide to recording a Teams meeting on a Mac covers the setup and the consent question.

Happy Scribe sells minutes: a monthly allowance, then $0.20 a minute. Rev sells minutes too, and its humans by the minute. TurboScribe is a flat rate with no cap. MacWhisper and Aiko are paid once. Koi is a plan, monthly, yearly or Lifetime from $59 paid once, with no limit on what you transcribe or record. If your volume swings from month to month, anything without a meter saves you from watching a counter.

• Unmetered transcripts on your Mac, plus calls and meetings recorded there? Koi.
• Unlimited cloud transcripts for a flat price? TurboScribe.
• Human transcripts with a guarantee? Rev.
• Local, with speakers told apart, paid once? MacWhisper.
• Simple and local, $24 once? Aiko.
• Edit the video itself? Descript.

See Koi's plans, or how to record a meeting on a Mac.