Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-08-29

By accessing or using OpenTranscription ("the Service"), operated by ReadychatAI LLC at Chicago, Illinois, United States, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. These Terms form a legally binding agreement between you and ReadychatAI LLC.

OpenTranscription is a speech-to-text transcription platform that allows you to upload audio files or stream live audio for transcription using various AI-powered models from multiple providers. The Service includes batch transcription, real-time streaming, model comparison tools, and a benchmarking ranker.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. You must provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date.

• Credits are purchased in advance. Within 24 hours of a charge — including an automatic top-up — you can ask us to refund any credits from that purchase that you have not used. Email support@opentranscription.io; refunds are processed by hand, as there is no refund button in the product. The deposit fee is not refundable. Outside that window credits are non-refundable, and nothing here limits any refund right you have under applicable law
• Unused credits expire 12 months after purchase (FIFO expiration)
• A deposit fee applies to all credit purchases: 5.5% of the credit amount or $0.80, whichever is greater. The $0.80 minimum is what applies on purchases up to about $14.55
• Each credit purchase is between $5.00 and $10,000.00 in credits. The deposit fee is charged on top of that amount
• 1 credit = $0.01 USD; transcription costs vary by model and are displayed before you start a job
• Free tier: 5 minutes/month of transcription on supported models, resets monthly
• BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) usage: 100 free minutes/month, then a 5% platform fee applies

Automatic top-up (optional)

Automatic top-up is off unless you turn it on, and turning it on takes two deliberate steps: you save a card, then you switch the feature on. Everything below applies only while it is switched on.

• You authorize us to store your card with Stripe, our payment processor, and to charge it without asking you again each time
• You set the terms, within limits: the balance that triggers a top-up, how many credits to add (up to $1,000.00 per top-up), and the most we may charge you in any calendar month (up to $10,000.00, counting the deposit fee). We never charge more than the monthly limit you set
• Each automatic top-up is charged at the credit amount plus the same deposit fee as any other credit purchase, listed above. The monthly limit applies to the total charged, fee included
• You can turn automatic top-up off at any time in your billing settings, and removing your saved card turns it off as well. Turning it off does not reverse a charge we have already made
• If a charge fails, we turn automatic top-up off and email the account owner. It stays off until you fix the payment method and turn it back on
• Credits added automatically are ordinary credits: the same 12-month expiry, and the same 24-hour refund window, counted from the automatic charge. We email the account owner as soon as a top-up is charged, so the window starts from something you were told about

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or to process illegal content
• Attempt to circumvent rate limits, billing controls, or security measures
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or extract source code from the Service
• Share your account or API keys with unauthorized third parties
• Use automated means to abuse the Service beyond normal API usage
• Upload or process Protected Health Information (PHI) as defined by HIPAA — the Service is not HIPAA-compliant, and we do not sign HIPAA Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) at this time

You retain full ownership of all audio files you upload and all transcripts generated from your content. We do not claim any intellectual property rights over your content. We do not use your audio files or transcripts to train AI models. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to process your content solely to deliver the transcription service you requested.

OpenTranscription is an aggregator providing access to third-party transcription models and services ("Model Providers"). We are not the Model Provider for any transcription model in our catalog. We make no representations or warranties regarding any Model Provider's data handling, retention, training practices, security controls, regulatory compliance, availability, or intellectual property practices. Each Model Provider operates under its own terms, which you should review independently. Performance benchmarks and operational metrics we publish (including Word Error Rate, latency, accuracy by category, success rate, and comparative badges) reflect our testing against curated reference datasets and our observations of recent production traffic. They are informational and not a warranty of performance on your audio, in your domain, or for your specific use case. You are responsible for evaluating model fitness for your workload. You are solely responsible for determining whether any Model Provider, model, or feature is appropriate for your business, legal, security, privacy, regulatory, and compliance requirements — including HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, and any sector-specific obligations. Compliance metadata in our catalog reflects Model Providers' own claims and is informational only. For commercial customers and customers subject to GDPR or equivalent laws, our Data Processing Agreement at /dpa forms part of these Terms and governs our processing of personal data on your behalf.

Transcripts produced by the Service are machine-generated and may contain errors. Accuracy varies by model, audio quality, language, accent, domain-specific vocabulary, and background noise. You must not rely on transcripts for medical, legal, financial, or other professional decisions without human review and verification. The Service does not provide professional advice of any kind.

When you use the Bring Your Own Key feature, you are responsible for complying with each provider's terms of service, managing your own quota and rate limits with that provider, paying any charges that provider bills directly to your account, and ensuring you have the rights to use the provider for your content. Your platform fee to us (5% beyond 100 free minutes/month) is separate from any charges the provider may bill to you.

The Service and all transcription models accessed through it are provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis. We do not warrant that the Service or any Model Provider will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or available at any given time. We do not warrant that any model's output will be accurate, complete, or suitable for any particular purpose. Model Provider availability, capabilities, pricing, and terms may change without notice. We may suspend, restrict, or remove access to any Model Provider or model at any time, including in response to a Model Provider's request, or in response to that Model Provider's own service changes, outages, or terms of service updates. Where a Model Provider experiences an outage, degradation, error, or change in service terms, we disclaim all liability for any resulting interruption, data loss, billing impact, or other consequence to your use of the Service.

We may modify, add, or remove features of the Service at any time. For material changes that adversely affect paid users, we will post a notice on the Service. If we discontinue the Service entirely, we will refund any unused credits purchased within the preceding 12 months, on a pro-rated basis.

We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms or engage in abusive behavior. You may delete your account at any time through your settings. Upon termination, your data will be handled according to our Privacy Policy. Unused credits are forfeited upon account termination for cause (Terms violations); credits are refunded pro-rata for terminations initiated by us without cause.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

IN NO EVENT SHALL ReadychatAI LLC'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE EXCEED THE GREATER OF (i) THE TOTAL FEES YOU PAID TO US IN THE 12 MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (ii) USD $100.

ReadychatAI LLC SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST DATA, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages; in such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, or death or personal injury caused by negligence.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ReadychatAI LLC from and against any claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from (i) your content, (ii) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms or applicable law, or (iii) your infringement of any third-party rights. We agree to indemnify you against claims that your use of the Service, in compliance with these Terms, infringes a third party's intellectual property rights, up to the liability cap in Section 13.

These Terms are governed by the the laws of the State of Illinois, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms shall be brought exclusively in the the state and federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. You and ReadychatAI LLC consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. Nothing in this section deprives you of any mandatory consumer protections available to you under the laws of your country of residence.

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will notify you by email or a notice on the Service and update the "last updated" date at the top. If you continue to use the Service after the effective date of the updated Terms, you accept those changes. If you do not accept the updated Terms, you may stop using the Service and request deletion of your account.

Questions about these Terms? Contact us: