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The TranscriptMagic API uses a simple credit model: every successful response (HTTP 200) deducts exactly 1 credit from your account balance. Length of the video doesn’t matter — a 30-second YouTube Short and a 4-hour livestream replay each cost 1 credit. The same goes for Twitch and Kick clips, even when a clip has no captions and is transcribed with AI. For the full price list, see Pricing.

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Free credits

Every account gets 3 free credits a month, on the API, MCP and n8n as well as the web app. No card required to sign up.

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Plans

Subscribe on the pricing page. Every plan is billed monthly or yearly (yearly saves up to 22%), and unused credits roll over up to 2× your monthly amount. The API, MCP server and n8n node work on every plan, free included. Podcast endpoints need Plus or Pro (see Spotify and Apple Podcasts). Existing subscribers on an earlier plan keep it, at its price.

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Credit packs

On any paid plan you can add credits without changing plans: 250 for $10, 1,000 for $35 or 5,000 for $99. Buy them in your dashboard under Account › Add credits.
  • One balance. Pack credits and plan credits form a single balance, usable on every endpoint, the MCP server and n8n.
  • Spend order. Plan credits are used first, then pack credits. Your monthly credits are never left unused while you spend pack credits.
  • They never expire. Pack credits don’t count toward the rollover cap, and you keep them if you change plans or cancel.
  • Buying needs a paid plan. Free accounts pick a plan first (Starter is $9 a month). A cancelled plan can still buy packs until the end of its paid period.
If you need more every month, a bigger plan is cheaper per credit. See Pricing.

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Checking your balance

Every authenticated API response includes a credits field showing your remaining balance after that call. It’s always the total: plan credits plus pack credits.
You don’t need a separate billing call — every transcript response is also a balance check. For an explicit read without consuming a credit (pre-flight checks, CI smoke tests, UI shells), call GET /api/balance. It also returns packCredits, the part of the total that came from packs.

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Cache hits don’t charge

If you request a URL that another user has already transcribed within the cache window, you get a 200 with cached: true in the body and no credit is deducted. Your credits value is unchanged on the response.

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What doesn’t cost credits

  • Failed requests (4xx/5xx responses) — you’re never charged for an error.
  • Auth errors, rate-limit errors, upstream-platform errors — none of them deduct.
  • Cache hits, as described above.
You only pay for transcripts you actually receive fresh.

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Running out

When your balance hits 0, the next request returns 403 Forbidden:
upgradeUrl is the next step for this account: Add credits on a paid plan, or the plans page on the free plan (the message then reads “You’ve used this month’s free credits. Pick a plan at https://transcriptmagic.com/credits/ to keep going.”). Show message or link to upgradeUrl in your own UI. Once you add credits or pick a plan, the next call goes through immediately, with no key change needed. Match on the error slug "no_credits", not the human-readable message.

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Need bulk pricing?

If you’re processing more than ~10k transcripts a month, email hello@transcriptmagic.com — we offer custom pricing and lifted rate limits for verified production accounts.