OpenAI Whisper is free as an open-source model and costs $0.006/minute via the API, but it is a raw transcription engine — no case workspace, no citations, no redaction, no audit trail. Evidence Copilot is a full evidence-review workspace for criminal-defense teams starting at $39/user/mo (Solo) with 15 media-processing hours included, and every AI answer cites the exact video second or PDF page it came from. If you just need a transcript of one file, Whisper works; if you need to review a whole discovery dump defensibly, a workspace is the better fit.
Bottom line: For criminal-defense evidence review, Whisper is only the transcription layer — everything around it (diarization QC, citations, redaction, audit trail, exhibits) has to be built by hand. Evidence Copilot ships that entire workflow at published prices, with a 7-day full-access trial and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
TL;DR
- OpenAI Whisper is free as an open-source model; via the API it costs $0.006/minute ($0.36/hour), with a 25MB per-request file limit.
- Whisper produces transcripts only — no speaker-diarization QC workflow, no citations, no redaction, no audit trail, no exhibit exports.
- Evidence Copilot starts at $39/user/mo (Solo, 15 processing hours) with Firm at $99/user/mo (60 hours) and a PD Office tier at $750/attorney/yr (100 hours).
- Evidence Copilot's AI agent answers questions with clickable citations into the exact second of video or page of the PDF; all AI output is marked pending human review and originals are immutable.
- Built-in playbooks cover suppression motion prep, Miranda timelines, and exhibit list drafting — workflows Whisper has no concept of.
- Evidence Copilot includes frame-accurate video redaction, audio word-span muting, and image/PDF redaction as derived files with a full audit trail.
- An MCP server lets you query cases read-only from Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Claude Code, or Cursor.
Head-to-head
| Dimension | OpenAI Whisper | Evidence Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free open-source; API $0.006/min ($0.36/hr); $5 free credits for new userswinner | Solo $39/user/mo (15 hrs); Firm $99/user/mo (60 hrs); PD Office $750/attorney/yr (100 hrs); overage capped at 3x included hours |
| Ease of use | Requires local setup or API scripting; 25MB file limit forces manual chunking of long footage | Web upload or email attachment up to 2 GB; per-case inbound email address; 7-day trial with no cardwinner |
| Features | Transcription and translation only; word-level timestamps on the Whisper model; diarization on gpt-4o-transcribe | Transcription, OCR, AI agent with citations, auto-signals, redaction, multi-camera sync, playbooks, timeline/tasks, exhibit exports, MCP serverwinner |
| Support | Open-source community channels; no vendor SLA | 20-minute walkthroughs bookable; email support; defense-only focuswinner |
| Integrations | API callable from any code; no product integrations | MCP server for Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor (read-only, org-scoped, revocable, audited); two-way email intakewinner |
| Setup | Install locally or wire up the API; build your own pipeline for chunking, speakers, and storage | Verify email, start 7-day full-access trial, pick a plan after; upload or email files immediatelywinner |
| Audit trail & defensibility | None — raw text output, no provenance, no redaction record | Originals immutable; every redaction is a derived file; every action audited; AI output marked pending human reviewwinner |
Scores
OpenAI Whisper
github.com/openai/whisper ↗Whisper is OpenAI's open-source automatic speech recognition model, available for free as a downloadable model or via the API as whisper-1. It supports transcription and translation across 50+ languages from audio files up to 25 MB, in formats including mp3, mp4, wav, and webm, and is priced per minute of audio duration billed to the nearest second. The legacy Whisper model uniquely supports word-level and segment-level timestamps via the timestamp_granularities parameter, which matters if you need precise timing for subtitles or clip-cutting. Newer OpenAI transcription models (gpt-transcribe at $0.0045/min, gpt-4o-transcribe at $0.006/min with diarization, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe at $0.003/min) sit alongside it on the same API. Community benchmarks of whisper.cpp versus the Python bindings show comparable, consistent results on the same hardware. As a raw engine, Whisper is genuinely capable — but it is an engine, not a workspace: whatever surrounds the transcript (speaker QC, citations, redaction, file organization) is on you.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Open-source (local) | $0/one_time | Free downloadable model; you supply compute and tooling |
| API — whisper-1 | $0.36/mo | $0.006/minute ($0.36/hour); 25MB max file per request; word-level timestamps supported |
| API — gpt-4o-transcribe | $0.36/mo | $0.006/minute; speaker diarization at no extra cost; no granular timestamps |
| API — gpt-4o-mini-transcribe | $0.18/mo | $0.003/minute; cost-sensitive option |
Pros
- Free as an open-source model — no subscription at all if you run it locally
- Very low API cost at $0.006/minute, with a cheaper $0.003/minute mini option
- Only the Whisper model supports word-level timestamps, useful for precise clip timing
- Broad language support (50+ languages) and common audio/video formats
- Community benchmarks show consistent transcription results across runs
Cons
- No case workspace: transcripts are just text files you organize yourself
- No citations — a transcript line can't link back to the exact video moment for the court or co-counsel
- No redaction capability, no audit trail, no exhibit exports
- 25MB per-request file limit means long bodycam or interrogation footage must be split manually
- No vendor support; open-source community channels only
Evidence Copilot
evidencecopilot.com ↗Evidence Copilot is a grounded evidence-review workspace built for US criminal-defense attorneys, law clerks, defense investigators, and public-defender offices. You upload the discovery dump — bodycam video, interrogation footage, jail calls, 911 audio, police reports, photos, scanned documents — and get timestamped diarized transcripts (Deepgram Nova, word-level timestamps), OCR'd document text, and an AI evidence agent that answers questions with clickable citations into the exact second of video or page of the PDF. Auto-signals compare each new file against earlier evidence and surface candidate inconsistencies (report vs bodycam, statement vs call audio) before anyone asks. One-click playbooks handle suppression motion prep, Miranda timelines, and exhibit list drafting. Redaction is frame-accurate for video, word-span muting for audio, and box-based for images and PDFs — always as derived files, originals immutable, every action audited. Multi-camera sync links bodycam, dashcam, and interview-room footage to a master clock. Exports include exhibit packs with a citation-index manifest. An MCP server lets you query cases read-only from Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Claude Code, or Cursor. Every AI output is marked AI-generated and pending human review; the product never makes legal conclusions.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | $39/mo | Per user/month; 15 media-processing hours included; full workspace, no feature tiers |
| Firm | $99/mo | Per user/month; 60 media-processing hours included; full workspace, no feature tiers |
| PD Office | $750/yr | Per attorney/year; 100 media-processing hours included; full workspace, no feature tiers |
Pros
- Every AI answer cites the exact source moment — verifiable in the actual video or PDF
- Full workflow in one place: transcription, OCR, redaction, timeline, tasks, notes, exhibits
- Auto-signals flag report-vs-bodycam and statement-vs-call inconsistencies without being asked
- Published pricing with no feature tiers and overage hard-capped at 3x included hours
- 7-day full-access trial with no card, plus a 14-day money-back guarantee on every paid plan
- Defense-only design; originals immutable and every action audited
Cons
- Costs money where raw Whisper is free — $39/user/mo at entry
- Included processing hours are finite (15–100 depending on plan); heavy intake draws on metered overage
- Built for criminal defense specifically — not a general-purpose transcription tool
- AI output requires human review by design; it does not replace attorney judgment
Pricing compared
What Whisper actually gives you — and what it doesn't
The workflow difference: one file vs a discovery dump
Which should you pick?
FAQs
Is OpenAI Whisper really free?
The open-source model is free to download and run locally — you supply the compute. If you use it through the OpenAI API instead, whisper-1 costs $0.006 per minute of audio ($0.36/hour), billed to the nearest second, with a 25MB per-request file limit. New API accounts get $5 in free credits, roughly 833 minutes with Whisper, expiring after three months. The free part covers transcription only; everything around it — file handling, speaker QC, citations, redaction — is your own tooling.
Can Whisper handle a full bodycam discovery dump?
Not directly. The API caps requests at 25MB, so long footage has to be split into chunks before upload, and there is no workspace to organize the resulting transcripts, no speaker-diarization QC workflow, no way to cite a transcript line back to the exact video second, and no redaction or audit trail. For a single short recording it's workable; for a 40-hour dump with a police report to cross-reference, the surrounding workflow becomes the project.
How much does Evidence Copilot cost?
Published pricing, no sales wall: Solo is $39/user/mo with 15 media-processing hours included, Firm is $99/user/mo with 60 hours, and the PD Office tier is $750/attorney/yr with 100 hours. Every plan includes the full workspace — there are no feature tiers. Overage is metered and hard-capped at 3x included hours so runaway intake cannot overbill. New accounts start on a 7-day full-access trial (Firm-level, no card), and there's a 14-day money-back guarantee on every paid plan.
Does Evidence Copilot replace attorney judgment?
No, and it's designed not to. Every AI output is marked AI-generated and pending human review, the product never makes legal conclusions, and cross-exam drafts are suggested questions only — every question tied to a quoted source, no credibility conclusions, saved as attorney-review notes. AI-suggested redaction regions and multi-camera sync proposals file as review cards that are never auto-applied. Originals are immutable and every action is audited.
Which is cheaper for a small defense practice?
It depends on volume and what you count. Per minute of raw transcription, Whisper's API at $0.006/minute is far cheaper than any subscription. But Evidence Copilot's Solo plan at $39/user/mo includes the whole workflow — diarized transcription, OCR, an AI agent with exact-moment citations, redaction, timeline, and exhibit exports — that you'd otherwise assemble (or do by hand) around free Whisper transcripts. The 7-day full-access trial and 14-day money-back guarantee make it possible to test the math on your own cases before committing.
Sources
- Pricing | OpenAI API
- OpenAI Transcribe & Whisper API Pricing
- OpenAI: Whisper 1 — API Pricing & Providers
- OpenAI Whisper on GitHub
- Perf comparison with OpenAI whisper model vs cpp model
- Size limit error with a 2 MB sized file — openai/whisper
- Evidence Copilot — grounded evidence review for criminal defense
- Evidence Transcription: The Ultimate Guide