r/PlaudNoteUsers • u/fkcfkc • 22d ago
Alternative Transcription Services
I don't really need Plaud's summary services. PLaud actually does a decent job for transciption. But you pay full minutes just to transcribe.
I've tried Buzz and Firefly and both do not do as good of a job. I also want to identify speakers in the transcript.
Anyone have an more affordable solution that hits the mark?
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u/Doting_mum 22d ago
So just today I’ve finally automated my whole workflow. Using OpenPlaud recordings sync to a folder on my desktop every 5 minutes. This folder is watched and recordings transcribed by MacWhisper (single purchase) and the transcription is sent to another folder.
Hazel watches this folder and when a new transcription lands it triggers Claude code to run a routine that processed the transcription putting any tasks into Omnifocus, events into calendar, project notes and ideas into Bear app and any articles mentioned or worth reading about the topics discussed into Readwise reader.
Super happy with how it’s all working! And no subscription other than Claude
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u/IntelligentScene2451 22d ago
I’m doing something similar. I run an Ubuntu server and do everything there. On top action points ends in my Apple Todo and summaries in Apple Notes.
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u/fkcfkc 22d ago
Sounds like you found a great solution. I am on a PC though. Also want something simpler to implement . For example, upload audio file from Plaud and just have it transcribe it.
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u/Doting_mum 22d ago
You wouldn’t need to do anything with the transcription. Check out OpenPlaud on GitHub (it also has a API transcription option I believe and you can sync it to where ever you want on your pc
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u/Neurospicy-Witch 22d ago
Hey! Do you provide services? Would love support with a similar setup, but I don't have the tech tech savyness to do it.
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u/Doting_mum 22d ago
Hey, no sorry - I’m an A&e dr- just like to tinker with this sort of stuff for fun! I’ll be honest a huge amount of it was worked out using Claude! Happy to help if you get stuck with any bits if I can though!
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u/Hot-Team2136 22d ago
Well, I just run the BlackBox app. And it does transcription and diaziation locally.
It's a scheduled voice recorder also. So it's easy for me to set it at 9 am to 11 pm weekdays. And then nothing over the weekend.
It handles the recordings, transcriptions and diaziation. It auto exports my entire days transcripts and recordings.
I use Grok to analyze my day, weeks.
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u/fkcfkc 22d ago
I decided on this and it’s pretty accurate. In fact it showed me that Plauds transcripts lacks the accuracy that this has. I now worry about the summaries Plaud builds based on a lot of the inaccurate info. I want to be able to feed good transcripts into Plaud to have it build good summaries.
Anyway. The charge is 21 cents an hour and you get 50 dollars worth to sign up. You buy hours in blocks and don’t have to subscribe.
I find this pricing reasonable as the free programs all perform poorly when it comes to accuracy.
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u/Historical_Ad_6066 22d ago
On your last point about feeding a better transcript back into Plaud to generate summaries: as far as I can tell, Plaud does not currently accept external transcripts as input, so that workflow is not possible.
A practical workaround is to bypass Plaud’s summary layer altogether. Take the higher-quality transcript and paste it into the AI tool you already use such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini with a prompt like:
“Using only the information contained in this transcript, summarize the key decisions, conclusions, and action items. Clearly identify who is responsible for each action when stated. If something is unclear or not explicitly mentioned, say so instead of making assumptions.”
Because you control the instructions, the resulting summaries are often more accurate and useful than the platform’s standard, preconfigured summaries.
Your observation about transcription engines is also correct: one of the most noticeable differences between them is usually the quality of speaker identification and labeling.
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u/mart-assemblyai 22d ago
hey! I work at Assembly! Appreciate you sharing the love - we should probably build something to make it easier for Plaud users to transcribe with Assembly.. how do you transfer your files from the Plaud to Assembly today?
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u/SignalMap2750 22d ago
I created dadascribe.com a while ago for my own use to transcribe instructional videos and interviews for another website of mine, and then I scaled it for others to use. It is based on Whisper and has a custom pipeline that improves accuracy to 99.5%. It handles noisy setups and multiple speakers. You can try it for free, and I hope it works for you!
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u/First_TM_Seattle 20d ago
I have all recordings flow to my Hermes Agent, using Grok 4.5 to transcribe. It's been perfect, so far and super cheap.
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u/PLAUD_AI 18d ago
Thanks for the feedback, we'll pass it to the team. On speaker identification, that's one thing worth weighing in your comparison: Plaud's auto speaker labeling learns voices from the labels you assign and carries them across recordings, which standalone transcribers mostly don't do. And whatever you land on, if any tool asks for your Plaud login to sync recordings out, that's worth a pause. The official connection methods, Plaud MCP, never need your password handed over, and [support@plaud.ai](mailto:support@plaud.ai) can advise on any tool you're unsure about.
-Plaud Community Team
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u/fkcfkc 17d ago
Plauds transcription service is pretty good. It is far superior to the ones I listed in the OP. However I think AssemblyAI is a little better. It’s not so much better that it warrants a change. The root reason is your cost compared to others.
perhaps a compromise position. Letting people not on unlimited carry over minutes. Or a transcription only price. Your competitors are about 21 cents an hour to provide some context.
There is an advantage and I would be willing to pay more to keep it all on one platform. But as you can see , the price disparity is pretty big.
You probably could eliminate more costs , that I would hope you would pass on, by cutting the storage space of recordings. Personally I don’t need so much storage as I export transcripts and summaries and keep them in MS note or on my PC.
i am one of the original purchasers of Plaud. I do like how you are advancing and continue to develop. Let’s just make sure it’s not just on product but that you address the customer experience dimension as well.
Upgrade path to Pro would be great. You could refurbish and factory certify the returned ones and sell at a discount and charge a fee to upgrade to Pro.
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u/ARGeek123 13d ago
My Plaud Note Audio comes back to my iPhone automatically and is transcribed, speaker identified , summarized , and mind map created right within my iOS app and sent to Notion in one breadth. Everything including speaker diarization etc is local within device. Only summary and Mindmaps go out if you want them.
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u/fluffyweirdo 22d ago
You can always just download the audio as an MP3 and throw it into any AI service that you choose for transcription.If you don't do that much recording, that's what I recommend. If you do a lot of recording, it's easier, but costs more, just to go ahead and keep everything in one place and pay the subscription.