Plan your monthly minutes
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The calculation, with every assumption visible
Monthly transcription minutes = weekly recorded hours × 60 × weeks in the month × the share you transcribe. Planning budget = that estimate × (1 + buffer ÷ 100), rounded up to a whole minute. Remaining quota = the allowance you enter minus the planning budget.
The default month uses 52 ÷ 12 weeks (about 4.33), an annual-average planning convention. Use 4 for a four-week period or 5 for a busy five-week period. A service’s billing month may differ. The default 20% buffer is an editable example, not a measured recommendation.
Three worked examples
These are invented workloads to demonstrate the arithmetic, not customer usage or product test results. None of the quotas below represents a named plan.
| Example | Inputs | Estimate | Budget | Entered quota and remaining minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All recordings | 5 h/week × 52/12 weeks; 100% transcribed; 20% buffer | 1,300 min | 1,560 min | 1,200 min quota → 360 min short |
| Selected conversations | 5 h/week × 4 weeks; 50% transcribed; 20% buffer | 600 min | 720 min | 720 min quota → 0 remaining |
| Light month | 1 h/week × 4 weeks; 100% transcribed; 0% buffer | 240 min | 240 min | No quota → no comparison |
What to check before buying a plan
HiDock publishes this tool. Check the official HiNotes membership table and the documentation of any alternative you are considering. Enter only the quota that applies to your account; a blank quota does not mean unlimited.
- Which recordings count toward the allowance: uploaded files, device recordings, retranscriptions or more than one of these?
- When does the allowance reset, and do unused minutes roll over? Read the current terms for your actual plan.
- Are speaker labels, summaries, templates and exports included separately from transcription? A minutes allowance does not answer those questions.
- Are there file-duration limits, rounding rules or per-file charges? This planner does not reproduce a service’s billing engine.
Use a real week to improve the estimate
Add the durations of all your recorded meetings, interviews and voice notes without counting a conversation twice. Divide by 60 for weekly hours, then enter the share you expect to transcribe. If you have already excluded recordings you will not transcribe, set the share to 100% so you do not discount the workload twice.
For a seasonal workload, calculate a typical month and a busy month separately. A positive remainder means only that the entered quota covers this estimate. It does not establish recording compatibility, audio quality, transcription accuracy or the best purchase.