ShortTranscript: a focused workflow for public short-video speech

I’m Julian Tao, the individual founder and maker of ShortTranscript. I built a small web tool for turning authorized public Instagram Reels, TikTok videos and recorded Facebook videos into editable English transcripts.

The workflow is deliberately short: paste a supported video link, check the allowance or credit quote, review the timestamped text against the original audio, then copy or export it. It is useful when you want to revisit what was said without repeatedly scrubbing through a clip.

A few product choices may be useful to other early-stage founders:

• Keep the free boundary visible. Guests can try up to three successful transcripts per day, up to five minutes each. Copy and TXT export are free; subtitle and Word exports require credits.

• Charge in the same unit as the work. Paid transcription uses one credit per started minute, so users see a duration-based quote before starting.

• Make the result reviewable. Text can be edited segment by segment while retaining timestamps. Recognition can miss names or faint speech, so checking the audio remains part of the workflow.

• Keep sharing optional. Results are private by default, and users can choose to create a public share link.

• State the limits. English is the verified language; private videos, Instagram Stories and translation are outside the supported workflow. Recorded public Facebook videos require a full permalink.

The service uses Go and SQLite on our own server, with cloud speech recognition for transcription.

You can try the Instagram workflow here: ShortTranscript Instagram workflow

I’m sharing this as the maker, not as a customer review. Feedback on the clarity of the free-versus-paid boundary and transcript-review workflow would be useful.