Tool profile
Auphonic: cost, fit and limits
Auphonic is a web-based audio post-production service made by Auphonic GmbH of Austria that automatically levels, denoises and transcribes recordings, billed by hours of processed audio rather than by seat. It suits podcasters and broadcasters who publish regularly.
What to know first
Auphonic works as a processing step: you upload a finished recording, pick or reuse a preset and download a leveled, cleaned file. Recurring plans give 9, 21 or 45 hours a month, a free tier gives 2 hours, and one-time credit packages from 5 to 3000 hours never expire. The pricing page we fetched showed no amounts, so costs were not captured.
Auphonic at a glance
| Maker | Auphonic GmbH, Austria |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | Free for 2 hours of processed audio a month |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Audio Editing Software in 2026, rank 1 of 11 |
| Website | auphonic.com |
Who Auphonic is best for
Weekly podcast hosts
A saved preset applies the same loudness and cleanup to every episode, which keeps levels consistent when guests record in different rooms.
Producers with long archives
One-time credit packages never expire, so a batch of back-catalog files can be processed without a monthly subscription. That pricing model fits publishers who process in bursts, such as a season launch or a migration of old shows.
European publishers
The privacy policy names Germany as the main storage location and says EU-only storage is available on request, which suits teams with data residency rules.
Auphonic plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 2 hours a month, free productions include a jingle, and unused free credits do not stack. |
| Auphonic S | Amount not captured | 9 hours a month, billed monthly or yearly with a yearly saving of 20 percent. |
| Auphonic M | Amount not captured | 21 hours a month, monthly or yearly billing. The pricing fetch for this entry did not show amounts, so check the live page for the exact figure. |
| Auphonic L | Amount not captured | 45 hours a month, monthly or yearly billing. The pricing fetch for this entry did not show amounts, and a yearly option is offered at a stated saving. |
| One-time credits | Per-hour rate, amounts not captured | Packages from 5 to 3000 hours that never expire, with an optional auto-renew top-up. Optional auto-renew top-ups keep a balance from running dry mid-season. |
Checked October 2026.
What Auphonic does
- Intelligent Leveler
- Balances loudness between speakers, music and speech, so a quiet guest and a loud host land at a comparable level without manual gain rides. Presets let a team reuse the same target loudness for every episode of a show.
- Noise and reverb reduction
- Cleans background hiss and room echo from speech recordings automatically. Settings come from presets, so the same treatment repeats across episodes. Settings come from presets, and the same treatment can be repeated over a whole season of episodes.
- Filler and silence cutting
- Removes filler words, coughs and silences in several languages, which shortens raw interview audio before final export. Several languages are supported, but the pages read do not list which ones, so test your own.
- Speech2Text
- Multilingual transcription creates shownotes and chapters. A testimonial on the site names OpenAI's Whisper as part of the speech recognition. Chapters and shownotes are generated automatically, which saves a manual listening pass on long episodes.
- Batch productions and watch folders
- Premium accounts can process many files in a queue or watch a folder, which suits network-style publishing workflows. Both are limited to premium accounts, so a free-tier user processes files one by one.
How Auphonic handles your data
Auphonic's privacy policy says productions and media are deleted after 21 days for audio and 7 days for video and API jobs, while billing metadata and presets stay until deleted. Staff or contractors may review content to improve algorithms, and some excerpts may be kept for that purpose; business customers can opt out via an account flag. Hosting is mainly in Germany on Hetzner, media may also sit in Cloudflare R2 buckets, and EU-only storage is available on request. Paying customers can get a data processing agreement.
Where Auphonic falls short in practice
- No arrangement tools. Auphonic processes files you provide. It has no timeline, so cuts, multitrack layering and arrangement have to happen in another editor first. It also means an editor still has to prepare the cut before upload.
- Review of content. Content may be examined to improve algorithms unless a business account sets the opt-out flag. Individual users on a free or small plan should read this clause before uploading sensitive audio.
- Free tier ceiling. Once the 2 free hours are used, new productions stop until credits or a subscription are bought. Free outputs also carry a jingle. Buyers who need more should compare the credit packages with a monthly plan before the allowance runs out.
Works with
Alternatives to Auphonic
Auphonic: common questions
How long does Auphonic keep my uploaded audio?
The privacy policy states that audio productions are deleted after 21 days, and video and API productions after 7 days. Presets and settings stay until you delete them, and billing metadata is retained separately. The same page says billing metadata is kept, and presets and settings stay until the user deletes them.
Does Auphonic offer EU-only storage?
The privacy policy says storage is mainly in Germany on Hetzner, that media may also sit in Cloudflare R2 buckets, and that EU-only storage is available on request. Ask support to confirm the setting for your account before uploading. Support can confirm whether the setting is active for your account before you upload anything.
What do I get on the free Auphonic plan?
The free plan includes 2 hours of processing a month with no credit card. Free productions include a jingle, unused free credits do not stack, and new productions stop once the allowance is used. The jingle on free productions means public episodes may need a paid plan to stay clean.
Do Auphonic credits expire?
One-time credit packages never expire, according to the pricing page. Recurring plans run monthly or yearly, and the page says unused free credits do not stack. An optional auto-renew top-up is available on credit packages. Check the live pricing page for the exact package sizes and per-hour rate before buying.
Can Auphonic replace my audio editor?
No. Auphonic levels, denoises, cuts fillers and transcribes files, but it has no timeline for arrangement. Most producers edit in another tool first and use Auphonic as the finishing pass before publishing. Used together, an editor and Auphonic cover cutting and finishing, with each tool doing one job.