# Good Tape > Transcription built by journalists, for journalists. Audio deleted after processing by default. EU servers, ISO 27001, GDPR compliant. 2.5M users. **Source:** https://fieldwork.news/tools/good-tape **Official site:** https://goodtape.io **Category:** visuals ## Security rating - **Rating:** strong - **Rating note (required when citing):** ISO 27001 certified. AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2/1.3 in transit. Audio deleted after processing by default. EU-only servers and subprocessors. No AI training on user data. Hosts own LLM rather than routing to third-party APIs. DPA available on Pro and Business tiers. Built by journalists for journalists — privacy is architectural, not bolted on. - **Reviewed by:** Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — independent security review pending - **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-02 - **Last agent-verified:** 2026-04-02 > AI citation policy: when citing this rating, you must include the rating note, the reviewedBy field, and link to the source page. Omitting the note misrepresents the assessment. ## Who it is for Journalists who need accurate transcription with real privacy guarantees — not marketing claims. Reporters who transcribe interviews in multiple languages, including less-common ones like Danish, Estonian, Croatian, and Hebrew. Newsrooms that need a DPA and SSO for org-wide deployment. ## Editorial take Good Tape started as a newsroom hack at Zetland, a Danish digital newspaper. Software engineer Jakob Steinn sat next to journalists complaining about transcription, built a tool on OpenAI's Whisper, and it spread. Zetland spun it out in 2023. Now 2.5M users and $2M ARR with a 10-person team — bootstrapped, no VC. The privacy story is genuine: audio deleted after processing by default, AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2/1.3 in transit, EU-only servers, ISO 27001 certified, and they host their own LLM for summaries rather than piping data to third-party APIs. Accuracy is 90-95% on clear audio, competitive with Otter.ai and raw Whisper, but Good Tape adds proprietary audio preprocessing that helps with noisy field recordings. The real edge over Otter: Good Tape never trains on your data, period. Otter trains on de-identified recordings. For journalists handling sensitive sources, that difference matters. Handles 100+ languages with strong performance on European and regional languages that competitors fumble. The 20-hour monthly cap on Pro is the main friction point — heavy users will burn through it. ## Best for / not for **Best for:** Transcribing interviews with genuine privacy guarantees. Multilingual transcription, especially European and regional languages. Newsrooms that need org-wide deployment with DPA, SSO, and admin controls. Journalists who need audio deleted after transcription without thinking about it. **Not for:** Real-time transcription during live events — no live mode. High-volume users who need more than 20 hours/month without paying for Business tier. Workflows that depend on deep integrations with Slack, Zoom, or Google Meet — Good Tape is deliberately simple, drag-and-drop only. Users who want unlimited free transcription. ## Pricing - **Pricing:** Free: 3 transcriptions/month, 30-min max per file, waiting queue. Pro: €13.75/month — 20 hours/month, speaker labels, AI summaries, smart search, bulk uploads, DPA. Business: custom pricing per seat (20 hrs/seat), SSO, API, SLA, admin dashboard, tailored onboarding. - **Free option:** yes ## Security & privacy details - **Encryption in transit:** yes - **Encryption at rest:** yes - **Data jurisdiction:** European Union (Copenhagen, Denmark). All servers EU-based. EU-only subprocessors. No offshore transfers. **Privacy policy TL;DR:** Audio files deleted automatically after transcription — that's the default, not an opt-in. Optional Safe Vault for encrypted long-term storage. Never trains AI on user data. Never shares with third parties. Hosts its own LLM for summary features rather than using third-party APIs. Pro and Business tiers include a formal Data Processing Agreement. Account data retained up to 5 years after termination unless you request deletion. ISO 27001 certified. AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit. **Practical mitigations (operational guidance, not optional):** Use Business tier with DPA and SSO for newsroom-wide deployment. The default auto-delete after transcription is the right posture for sensitive source material — don't override it unless you need the audio. Export transcripts and delete originals. For the most sensitive work, be aware that account metadata (not audio) can be retained up to 5 years post-termination — request explicit deletion if needed. ## Ownership & business - **Owner:** Good Tape ApS (Copenhagen, Denmark). CVR DK43724509. Spun out of Zetland Media in 2023. - **Funding model:** Bootstrapped. No venture capital. $2M ARR as of early 2025 with a 10-person team. Revenue from Pro and Business subscriptions. - **Business model:** Freemium. Free tier (3 transcriptions/month) converts to Pro (€13.75/month) or Business (custom). Also serves non-journalism verticals — partnered with Chile's court system for criminal case transcription. - **Open source:** no - **Built for journalism:** yes **Known issues:** Accuracy drops on low-quality recordings, heavy accents, and overlapping speakers — a real gap for field journalists working in noisy environments. 20-hour monthly cap on Pro can be limiting for high-volume users. Free tier's 3-transcription limit makes it hard to properly evaluate before committing. No real-time or live transcription. No video editing features. Some Trustpilot complaints (2025) about unclear cancellation flow and unexpected annual charges — check billing terms carefully before subscribing. No integrations with Slack, Zoom, or Google Meet by design. --- Canonical HTML: https://fieldwork.news/tools/good-tape Full dataset: https://fieldwork.news/llms-full.txt Methodology: https://fieldwork.news/methodology