Notta vs Simon Says Comparison 2026
Notta transcribes and summarizes calls and interviews by the minute, with bilingual transcription built in and 120 minutes free a month, then Pro at $8.17 a month billed annually for 1,800 minutes. Simon Says transcribes too, but the point is what happens after: transcripts export straight into Premiere or Resolve, and an assembly mode builds a rough cut from selected lines, from $15 an hour with no subscription or $15 a month billed annually for regular cutting. One is a bulk transcript machine. The other is a transcript built to live inside an edit.
At a glance
- Notta starts cheaper, at $8.17.
- Only Notta has a free tier.
Side by side
Notta | Simon Says | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $8.17 | From $20 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
Notta
Transcription and AI summaries by the minute
Notta records or ingests audio, transcribes it in over a hundred languages, and produces a summary with action items attached. Bilingual transcription and translation are what it is picked for over the English-first tools. The free tier's 120 minutes a month is one long interview, and everything above that is measured in minutes rather than in files.
Simon Says
Transcription built to land in an edit
Simon Says transcribes and translates, then exports into the editing software the footage is already in rather than handing back a text file to retype. The transcript editor pairs with a visual subtitle editor for checking how captions sit on the picture. An assembly mode on the paid tiers lets a rough cut be built by selecting lines of the transcript, which is the feature documentary editors buy it for.
Our note
The break-even is a little over an hour a month, and below that the pay as you go tier is the right answer. Assembly mode is the feature worth paying the subscription for, and it is the one nothing else in this category does properly.
Why people weigh these two
- Simon Says instead of Notta
- Simon Says formats a transcript to drop straight into a video edit, aimed at editors rather than interviewers wanting a bilingual summary, and carries no free tier.
- Notta instead of Simon Says
- Notta bills transcription and summaries by the minute from $8 with a free tier.
Which one should you pick
Choose Notta if the job is turning interviews or calls into text and a summary, at volume: 120 minutes free a month, then 1,800 minutes for $8.17 a month billed annually, a fraction of a cent per minute. Bilingual transcription and translation are the reason to pick it over an English-first tool. It has no assembly mode and no export into an editing timeline, so an editor cutting picture from the transcript will not find that here.
Choose Simon Says if the transcript needs to become a rough cut inside Premiere or Resolve rather than a document to read: assembly mode lets an editor build a sequence by selecting lines of text. Pay as you go costs $15 an hour with no monthly fee, and the break-even against the $20-a-month Starter plan, which includes 2 hours with extra hours at $7.50, lands at a little over an hour a month. Below that line, skip the subscription entirely.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper for a lot of transcription minutes?
- Notta, by a wide margin, if the job is just getting text out of audio: $8.17 a month billed annually buys 1,800 minutes on Pro, a fraction of a cent per minute. Simon Says charges $15 an hour with no plan, or $7.50 an hour for extra time on its Starter plan, because it is pricing an edit-ready document rather than a raw transcript.
- Can Notta's transcript become a rough cut inside my editing software?
- No. Notta produces a transcript and an AI summary with action items, without an export into an editing timeline. Simon Says is built for exactly that: transcripts land in Premiere or Resolve, and assembly mode builds a rough cut by selecting lines of the transcript.
- Is there a way to try Simon Says without a monthly subscription?
- Yes. Pay as you go costs $15 an hour, or $0.25 a minute of file duration, with no card needed to start and no recurring fee. Notta has no equivalent pay-per-use option, only a free 120-minutes-a-month tier and paid plans billed monthly or annually.
- Does either handle more than one language?
- Both do. Notta transcribes in over a hundred languages with bilingual transcription and translation from one recording. Simon Says also transcribes and translates, with subtitles available in more than 100 languages from the same source file.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.