Auphonic review: priced by the hour of processed audio
Auphonic finishes audio rather than editing it, and it charges by the hour of audio processed. Our check of auphonic.com on 11 June 2026 recorded a free tier of two hours a month and recurring plans from $13 a month for nine hours up to $105 a month for one hundred. That evidence is four months old.
The short answer
Buy Auphonic Buy an Auphonic plan if your recordings are already edited and you want them levelled, loudness-normalised and cleaned to platform specification without doing it by hand. Our check of auphonic.com on 11 June 2026 recorded Auphonic S at $13 a month for nine hours of processed audio, with a free tier of two hours a month behind it. Those figures are four months old.
Skip it if you need to cut, rearrange or remove anything, because Auphonic is not an editor. Hindenburg, recorded at $12 a month on its Standard personal plan on 14 June 2026, gives you an editor with automatic levelling built in instead.
Where Auphonic fits
Auphonic is a finishing tool, and that single fact decides whether it belongs in your stack. You upload a recording that is already cut the way you want it, the algorithms handle loudness normalisation, noise reduction and speaker levelling, and you download a file that meets broadcast standards. There is no timeline, no cutting and no rearranging.
The unit is an hour of processed audio, not a seat and not a calendar month of unlimited use. Our 11 June 2026 check of auphonic.com recorded two hours a month on the free tier, then four recurring plans: Auphonic S at $13 a month for nine hours, Auphonic M at $27 for twenty-one hours, Auphonic L at $53 for forty-five hours and Auphonic XL at $105 for one hundred hours.
Annual billing dropped each of those, and our snapshot records the saving as roughly 20%, which we pass on as approximate rather than exact. The annual rates recorded were $11 a month on S, $23 on M, $45 on L and $89 on XL. On S that is $156 across a year monthly against $132 prepaid, a difference of $24 at the rates we recorded.
There are also one-time credit packs that do not expire, recorded from $12 for five hours up to $150 or more for one hundred hours. That is the right shape for an irregular publisher: a show that releases six episodes a year has no business paying monthly for hours it will not use, and a pack that sits in the account until needed fits better.
The free tier does more work than most free tiers in this category. Two hours a month with all features and no watermark, on our 11 June 2026 check, covers a weekly show with episodes under thirty minutes, which is a large share of podcasts. Many people never need to pay, and we would rather say that than talk you into a plan.
Against the rest of the category Auphonic occupies a slot of its own. Audacity is $0, free and open source, as recorded on 13 June 2026, and will do this work manually if you know how. Hindenburg was $12 a month on Standard personal, verified 14 June 2026, and includes levelling inside an editor. Alitu was $38 a month, verified 15 June 2026, and automates the whole production line rather than the last step. iZotope RX is the one to reach for when audio needs repair rather than finishing, sold outright with Elements at $49 and Standard at $399, verified 10 June 2026.
Everything above comes from one check on 11 June 2026 and is the oldest-but-one set of figures in this category on our site, four months behind at the time of this review. Read auphonic.com/pricing before you subscribe, especially the hour allowances, since those are the numbers most likely to have moved. The audio editing software category holds the alternatives.
Auphonic pricing
Auphonic meters in hours of processed audio and sells them two ways, as a monthly allowance or as packs that do not expire. The figures below come from our check of auphonic.com on 11 June 2026 and have not been re-verified in the four months since.
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | Two hours of processed audio a month, all features, no watermark |
| Auphonic S | $13/mo | $11 a month billed annually. Nine hours of processed audio a month |
| Auphonic M | $27/mo | $23 a month billed annually. Twenty-one hours a month |
| Auphonic L | $53/mo | $45 a month billed annually. Forty-five hours a month |
| Auphonic XL | $105/mo | $89 a month billed annually. One hundred hours a month |
One meter runs here, and it is hours of audio processed. Five things set your bill:
- Monthly hours of finished audio. Two free, nine on Auphonic S, twenty-one on M, forty-five on L and one hundred on XL, as recorded on 11 June 2026.
- Whether your volume is steady or lumpy. Our snapshot records that monthly credits do not roll over, so a quiet month is paid for and lost.
- Recurring plan against one-time packs. Packs were recorded from $12 for five hours to $150 or more for one hundred hours, and they do not expire.
- Billing period. Annual billing was recorded as saving roughly 20%, taking Auphonic S from $13 to $11 a month, which is $156 against $132 across a year.
- Multitrack work, which consumes the same hours but is where the automatic speaker levelling and crosstalk removal earn their keep.
Auphonic pricing against the audio editors
Auphonic is cheap for what it does and useless for what it does not. Audacity is $0, free and open source, as recorded on 13 June 2026, and will normalise audio manually. Adobe Podcast was free with Premium at $9.99 a month, verified 12 June 2026, and cleans speech without targeting loudness standards. Hindenburg was $12 a month on Standard personal, verified 14 June 2026, and bundles levelling into an editor, which makes it the direct competitor for anyone who also needs to cut. Alitu was $38 a month, verified 15 June 2026. All five checks fall within one week of June 2026, so the comparison is consistent, and all five are four months old.
Auphonic billing terms worth knowing
The thing to understand before you choose a plan is that the allowance is monthly and it does not accumulate.
- Free plan
- Two hours of processed audio a month, all features, no watermark, as of 11 June 2026.
- Auphonic S
- $13 per month for nine hours, or $11 a month billed annually. $156 or $132 across a year.
- Auphonic M
- $27 per month for twenty-one hours, or $23 billed annually. $324 or $276 across a year.
- Auphonic L
- $53 per month for forty-five hours, or $45 billed annually. $636 or $540 across a year.
- Auphonic XL
- $105 per month for one hundred hours, or $89 billed annually. $1,260 or $1,068 across a year.
- One-time packs
- From $12 for five hours up to $150 or more for one hundred hours. Recorded as never expiring.
- Check date
- 11 June 2026. Four months old and not re-verified since.
Auphonic uses a credit-based system measured in hours of processed audio. The free plan gives you 2 hours per month. Four paid recurring plans range from $11/month (9 hours) to $89/month (100 hours). One-time credit packs that never expire are available from $12 (5 hours) to $150+ (100 hours).
If auphonic.com/pricing shows different hour allowances or rates, the pricing page is right and this review has aged four months. We have kept the vendor's own unit throughout, hours of processed audio per month, rather than converting it into anything tidier. Our creator tool cost calculators will total a year of finishing costs once you know your monthly audio hours.
What Auphonic gives up
You give up editing, completely. Nothing can be cut, moved or removed, so Auphonic is always the second tool in a workflow. Anyone looking for one subscription to cover the whole job should price Hindenburg at $12 a month on Standard personal, verified 14 June 2026, or Alitu at $38 a month, verified 15 June 2026, instead.
You give up unused hours at the end of every month on a recurring plan, because our snapshot records that credits do not roll over. A show that publishes in bursts should look at the one-time packs, recorded from $12 for five hours, which were described as never expiring.
You give up fine control over the processing. The algorithms decide how much noise reduction and levelling a file needs, and the parameters exposed are limited. When the result is wrong on unusual material, there is not much room to steer it.
Processing is not instant. You upload and wait, and the wait grows with the file, which is a different rhythm from local processing. On a deadline that matters, and it is the cost of the work happening on their machines rather than yours.
Support is hard to reach, which is the common complaint from people who have needed it. For a tool that runs in the background of a weekly schedule that is usually fine, and it is a real risk if your publishing depends on it.
You give up repair, as opposed to finishing. Auphonic will polish a usable recording; it will not rescue one with a chair scrape across a sentence. That is what iZotope RX is for, sold outright with Elements at $49 and Standard at $399 on our 10 June 2026 check.
Our pricing evidence is four months old, and on a metered product the allowance matters as much as the rate. Nine hours on Auphonic S was the figure in June 2026; if that has changed, the whole plan choice changes with it, so read the current pricing page first.
How Auphonic compares
The three tools below are the ones weighed against Auphonic, and the axis is automatic finishing against editing control. Each price is that vendor's own published rate with the date we checked it, and every check falls in June 2026, so treat all four as four months old. The wider field sits in the audio editing software category.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auphonic | Automatic levelling and loudness to spec | Free 2 hours a month, $13/mo on S (June 2026) | Not an editor; monthly hours do not roll over |
| Hindenburg | Editing with levelling built in | $12/mo Standard personal (June 2026) | No third-party plugins and no video |
| Audacity | Doing the same work by hand for nothing | $0, free and open source (June 2026) | Manual, dated interface, no automation |
| iZotope RX | Repairing damaged recordings | $49 Elements, $399 Standard, one-time (June 2026) | Repair rather than finishing, and a steep price |
What to test on the Auphonic free tier
The free tier gave two hours of processed audio a month with all features and no watermark on our 11 June 2026 check. That is four months old, so confirm the allowance before you plan around it.
- Read auphonic.com/pricing and confirm the current free hours and the plan allowances. Our figures are from June 2026 and the hour counts are what matters most.
- Process a finished episode and compare it with your own manual master. If you cannot hear the difference, the free tier may be all you ever need.
- Process a multitrack recording with two or more speakers, since automatic speaker levelling and crosstalk removal are the strongest part of the service.
- Add up your monthly audio hours honestly, including re-runs of the same file. Two hours free, nine on Auphonic S at $13 a month on our check.
- If your publishing is irregular, price the one-time packs instead, recorded from $12 for five hours and described as never expiring.
- Check the processing wait against your deadline, because upload and wait is a different workflow from local processing.
- Decide whether you also need to cut. If so, price Hindenburg at $12 a month on Standard personal, verified 14 June 2026, rather than paying for an editor and a finisher separately.
Auphonic questions buyers ask
How much does Auphonic cost per month?
Auphonic's free plan gives you 2 hours of processing per month. Paid plans start at $13/month ($11/month with annual billing) for 9 hours, and go up to $105/month ($89/month annually) for 100 hours. Every plan includes the same features: the only difference is processing hours. One-time credit packs that never expire are also available, starting at $12 for 5 hours.
Does Auphonic have a free plan?
Yes, and it's genuinely useful. The free plan gives you 2 hours of processed audio per month with no watermark, no feature restrictions, and no credit card required. Every algorithm (loudness normalization, noise reduction, multitrack processing, transcription) is included. For a weekly podcast under 30 minutes, 2 hours per month is enough to process every episode without paying.
Who is Auphonic best for?
Auphonic is best for podcasters who want professional-sounding audio without learning manual mastering. If you record decent audio but your episodes come out with uneven speaker volumes, inconsistent loudness, or background noise, Auphonic fixes these problems automatically. It's not for podcasters who need a full editor: it doesn't cut, trim, or rearrange audio. Think of it as the last step before publishing.
Auphonic vs Descript: which is better?
They do different things. Descript is a full audio and video editor with text-based editing, filler word removal, and AI features. Auphonic is a post-production tool that masters your audio (loudness, noise, leveling) but doesn't let you edit it. Many podcasters use both: edit in Descript, then run the export through Auphonic for final mastering. If you can only pick one, Descript is the more complete tool. If you already have an editor and just want mastering, Auphonic is cheaper and faster.
What does Auphonic integrate with?
Auphonic integrates with podcast hosts (Libsyn, Podbean, Buzzsprout, Spreaker), file storage (Dropbox, S3, Google Drive), video platforms (YouTube, SoundCloud), and automation tools (Zapier). It also has a full REST API for custom integrations. You can set up automated workflows where audio files are processed and published without manual steps.
Is Auphonic good for interview podcasts?
Yes, especially with multitrack processing. Upload separate audio tracks for each speaker, and Auphonic levels them individually, reduces noise per track, removes microphone crosstalk, and creates the final mixdown automatically. This is one of Auphonic's biggest strengths: balancing two speakers who recorded at different volumes or in different environments is exactly what the multitrack algorithms are designed for.
What audio formats does Auphonic export?
Auphonic exports to MP3, AAC/M4A, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, and OPUS. You can set custom bitrate, sample rate, and channel settings. It also handles video files: you can upload an MP4 and Auphonic will process the audio track while keeping the video intact. Metadata tags are preserved and mapped across multiple output files if you export to several formats at once.
Can teams use Auphonic together?
Auphonic accounts are individual, but the API and preset system make team workflows practical. You can share presets so every team member uses the same processing settings, and the API allows centralized processing through a single account. There are no built-in collaboration features like shared workspaces or role-based permissions, but for most podcast teams, sharing a set of presets and a processing account is enough.
Is Auphonic worth it compared to manual mastering?
For most podcasters, yes. Manual mastering (compression, EQ, limiting, loudness normalisation) takes real time on every episode and requires some knowledge of audio processing, while Auphonic applies the same chain automatically with no expertise needed. We publish no minutes-saved figure, because the numbers in circulation have no source behind them. On cost, Auphonic S is $13 a month, or $11 a month billed annually, for 9 hours of processing, verified 11 June 2026, which is cheap against the work it removes. The exception is if you are an audio engineer who wants precise creative control: Auphonic's automatic approach will not always match your specific preferences.
Do unused Auphonic credits roll over?
Monthly subscription credits do not roll over: they reset at the start of each billing cycle. If you have 9 hours on the S plan and only use 4, those 5 extra hours are lost. However, one-time credit packs (purchased separately) never expire and carry forward indefinitely. If your production schedule is inconsistent, one-time credits are the smarter purchase.