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Calcimator

Captioning Cost Calculator

Estimate captioning costs for real-time, post-production, and AI-assisted methods with turnaround times.

About this calculator

This calculator prices captioning from a per-minute industry rate that depends entirely on the method you choose -- Type 1 (Real-time CART) at $3.50/minute, Type 2 (Post-production) at $1.50/minute, or Type 3 (AI-assisted with human review) starting at $0.50/minute. Cost Per Minute never responds to Duration at all -- it is set purely by which method and, for AI captioning, what accuracy you target -- while Total Cost is simply Duration multiplied by that fixed rate, so it always rises in step with how much content you have. Target Accuracy only matters for Type 3 (AI): above 95% accuracy, the AI rate gets a 5% surcharge for every point above 95, reflecting the added human-review time needed to push machine transcription toward broadcast-grade accuracy; for the other two methods, accuracy has no effect on price because a live captioner or a human editor is already producing near-verbatim text regardless of the target you set.

Turnaround Hours also branches by method: real-time captioning has zero turnaround (it happens live), post-production estimates about a day per hour of content, and AI-assisted estimates about four hours per hour of content. These are 2024 industry averages meant for budgeting, not a quote from a specific vendor.

Inputs

Results

Total Cost

$210.00

≈ 14 movie tickets

Cost Per Minute$3.50
Turnaround (hours)0
How to Use This Calculator
  1. Enter Duration (minutes) — the total length of content to be captioned.
  2. Select Type: 1=Real-time CART (most expensive, live events), 2=Post-production (highest accuracy), or 3=AI-assisted (lowest cost, needs review).
  3. Set Target Accuracy (%) — FCC mandates 99%+ for broadcast; set lower only for internal/informal use.
  4. Review Cost Per Minute and Total Cost to compare captioning vendors.
  5. Use Turnaround (hours) to check if the delivery timeline meets your production schedule.

How the result changes with Duration (minutes)

Duration (minutes)Total Cost
30$105.00
45$157.50
90$315.00
150$525.00

What each input means

Duration (minutes)
Total duration of content to caption in minutes
Type (1=Real-time, 2=Post-Prod, 3=AI)
Real-time CART is most expensive; AI is cheapest but less accurate
Target Accuracy (%)
FCC requires 99%+ for broadcast; higher accuracy costs more for AI methods

How this is calculated

Worked example, using the default values

  1. Identify Input Parameters
    Duration (minutes) = 60, Type (1=Real-time, 2=Post-Prod, 3=AI) = 1, Target Accuracy (%) = 99 = 3 input(s) provided
  2. Calculate Total Cost
    Total Cost
    210 = $210
  3. Calculate Cost Per Minute
    3.5 = $3.5
  4. Calculate Turnaround
    Turnaround
    0 = 0

Engine last updated . Checked against 2 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't Duration change my Cost Per Minute?

Cost Per Minute is set entirely by which captioning Type you select and, for AI captioning, your Target Accuracy -- it is a rate, not a total. Duration only comes into play when that rate gets multiplied out to produce Total Cost, so a longer video costs more in total without changing the per-minute price you're quoted.

Why does raising Target Accuracy only affect the price for AI captioning?

Real-time CART and post-production captioning are already performed or reviewed by a human, so they're assumed to be near-verbatim regardless of the accuracy target you set. Only the AI-assisted method (Type 3) applies a surcharge -- 5% more per accuracy point above 95% -- because pushing machine transcription past that threshold requires additional human review time.

Why is Real-time CART turnaround always zero?

Real-time CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is delivered live by a stenographer as the event happens, so there is no post-event delivery delay to estimate -- Turnaround Hours is fixed at 0 for that method regardless of how long the event runs.

How is Total Cost related to Duration?

Total Cost is Duration in minutes multiplied directly by Cost Per Minute, so it increases in exact proportion to how much content you need captioned -- doubling the duration doubles the total cost for any given method and accuracy setting.

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