Simon Says

Simon Says turns audio and video into editable transcripts, with translation and dubbing for multilingual production workflows. It is best suited to editors and teams that need transcripts to move into captioning or post-production tools. Its export range and offline options are compelling, but online allowances and file-size caps make plan choice consequential.

Overview

Speech recognition supports transcription and translation in 100 languages. Users can edit, bookmark, annotate, and share transcripts, identify speakers, and work with timestamps. Text can also be reordered to assemble video, and a visual subtitle editor supports caption work.

Simon Says supports common production audio and video formats, with website uploads up to four hours long. Online import limits vary by plan, from 5GB to 40GB. Standard and Enhanced on-premises options run air-gapped and offline, a meaningful distinction for organizations that cannot send recordings to the cloud.

Key features

Structured transcripts: Speaker labels and timestamps make dialogue easier to navigate, while editing, bookmarks, annotations, and sharing support ongoing editorial work rather than a one-time conversion.

Production handoff: Exports include Word and text documents, subtitle formats such as SRT, WebVTT and SAMI, and tools including Premiere Pro, Audition, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve, EDIUS and Pro Tools. That breadth favors production teams with established editing pipelines over users who only need plain text.

Offline deployment: Standard offers air-gapped Mac installation; Enhanced adds Mac and PC support and priority support. This caters to security-sensitive organizations, though both options use custom pricing.

Data control: Users retain ownership of data sent to their account and can delete it. Subscribers can cancel from their profile at any time, stopping renewal.

Pricing

The free plan includes 120 minutes, and new users receive 15 minutes of free credit. A free allowance is useful for assessing the workflow, but it is modest for recurring production. Paid online plans and usage-based billing divide readers by predictability and volume:

Pay as you go: $15 a month, billed $0 base, then $15/hour or $0.25 per minute based on file duration. It includes advanced transcription AI, translation to 100+ languages, the transcript editor, exports to video editing apps and Word, and a visual subtitle editor. Choose it for occasional jobs; variable usage does not provide an annual credit pool.

Starter: $180 a year, equivalent to $15.00/month billed annually, with 24 hours of credit per year. It suits light but recurring use, though its annual credit ceiling requires planning.

Pro: $396 a year, equivalent to $33.00/month billed annually, with 48 hours of credit per year and a 20 GB maximum file size. The larger file allowance suits more demanding source material, but the annual quota remains limited for frequent production.

Pro+: $1,500 a year, equivalent to $125.00/month billed annually, with 360 hours of credit per year, a 40 GB maximum file size, and priority support. It fits high-volume work that can use the larger allowance; it is a substantial annual commitment.

Standard and Enhanced on-premises: custom pricing. Standard provides offline Mac installation and transcription and captioning; Enhanced supports Mac and PC and adds priority support.

On-premises credit licenses: Trial Simon Says on-prem with 5 hours credit costs $100, paid once; the license expires one year after activation. Simon Says on-prem with 100 hours credit costs $2,500, paid once and also expires one year after activation.

Annual subscribers can cancel anytime, with cancellation preventing renewal. Online import caps range across plans from 5GB to 40GB; check the applicable cap alongside the four-hour duration limit before committing large source files.

Platforms

Simon Says is available as an extension, on iOS, macOS, Windows, the web, and self-hosted. The Mac app has a universal build for Apple silicon M1, M2, and M3, as well as Intel Macs. The range spans browser-based work, desktop production, and offline deployment.

Who it's for

Editors, captioners, and teams handling multilingual audio or video are the strongest fit: transcripts can be refined, translated, and exported into a broad set of production tools. Organizations requiring air-gapped processing have a distinct reason to consider the on-premises editions. If the job is occasional, plain-text transcription, or volume is hard to predict, compare the credit limits and usage-based charge carefully before choosing an annual plan.

Pros and cons

Pro: Support for 100 languages, translation, and dubbing brings multilingual work into the same product as transcription.

Pro: Speaker labels, timestamps, transcript editing, and subtitle tools connect the text to practical editorial and caption workflows.

Pro: Exports cover major video and audio editors as well as document and subtitle formats, reducing friction when handing work to production tools.

Pro: Air-gapped on-premises options serve teams for whom cloud processing is unsuitable.

Con: Annual plans cap credits at 24, 48, or 360 hours, so buyers must match yearly usage to a fixed allowance.

Con: Online file-size ceilings vary by plan, and the larger 40 GB limit is reserved for Pro+.

Con: On-premises Standard and Enhanced require custom pricing, complicating budget comparisons.

Alternatives

Choose Happy Scribe if a free plan and mobile platforms such as Android matter more than Simon Says' production-export emphasis; its free offering includes meeting recordings up to 45 minutes per recording and a 10-minute AI trial. easytranscript is another freemium option for Linux users who want a desktop alternative across Linux, macOS, and Windows.

f4transkript offers paid and free-trial options across desktop and web platforms, including student licenses at €25 a month for three months and €33 a month for six months. Consider it when those time-limited student licenses better fit your needs. Gladia is worth comparing if API access or open-source GladiaFlow matters; its Starter asynchronous plan is $0.61 a month on flexible pay-as-you-go terms.

Notta may suit readers seeking a freemium service with Android support and a free allowance of 120 transcription minutes per month for one seat. Superwhisper is a freemium alternative for voice-to-text across apps and meeting transcription on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.

Express Scribe is a desktop alternative with a free version for common audio formats. Picovoice Leopard is a paid option with a seven-day free trial, no credit card required, and support spanning mobile, desktop, web, API, and self-hosted platforms.

Verdict

Choose Simon Says if multilingual transcription must feed directly into transcript editing, subtitles, and professional post-production exports, or if air-gapped processing is essential. The main reason to look elsewhere is the combination of annual credit ceilings, plan-dependent upload limits, and custom-priced on-premises editions; lighter or less predictable workloads may not justify that structure.