Interview Signal free minutes: how the 20 minutes and plans work

Every Interview Signal account starts with 20 free minutes of live transcription, once and not per month, with no card. Minutes are counted only while an interview is being transcribed, and when they run out the interview you are in keeps its transcript, scorecard and submittal. After that you can buy hours that never expire (1 hour $9, 5 hours $29, 15 hours $69) or subscribe: Solo is $49 a month or $468 a year, and Team is $59 per seat per month, or $49 billed yearly, for three seats or more. Prices are as of October 2026; this page describes app version 0.9.10.

How do I get the 20 free minutes?

1. Install the app from the download page and open it.
2. Enter your work email and press "Email me a link". Sign in with the link or the six-digit code.
3. If the address has no account yet, the app shows "No account for this address yet". Press "Start free — 20 minutes, no card", or "See plans" to compare plans on the website.
4. The app confirms the account is ready with 20 minutes of live transcription. Add a role to start.

The free plan includes the whole desktop app for one person: kits from your job descriptions, the live guide, follow-ups, the scorecard and the submittal. One account per email address.

How are the minutes counted?

By the minute, and only while live transcription is running. A minute counts when any audio was transcribed during that minute of clock time, so a 25-minute phone screen with no pauses uses about 25 minutes (an example). Paused stretches send no audio and use none. Building a kit, running the audio check, and reading or exporting a scorecard afterwards are not counted.

Where can I see how much is left?

• Home screen header: a bar and a line such as "12 of 20 free minutes left" (example numbers), with "Buy hours" and "Upgrade" buttons. On pay as you go it reads like "Pay as you go · 4 h 10 min left".
• Settings: the "Plan" line under "Your account" shows the plan and what is left.
• As an interview starts: with 3 free minutes or fewer left (5 on pay as you go), a heads-up appears, such as "3 free minutes left. Transcription stops when they run out; the transcript so far and the scorecard stay."

What happens when the free minutes run out?

Before an interview: with nothing left, "Start interview" does not begin capture. It first checks the count with the server again, in case you have just bought hours, and then says: "Your 20 free minutes are used up, so this interview would not be transcribed. Buy hours or upgrade to keep going — every role and interview you have stays."

During an interview:

1. Transcription stops, and a banner says "Your 20 free minutes are used up." with a "Buy hours or upgrade" button and the billing support address.
2. Words that were on screen as a live caption are kept in the transcript.
3. The microphone and the meeting's sound are released, so "Pause capture" and "Mute me" are switched off.
4. If "Score as we go" is on, the last answer is scored.
5. "End interview" works as usual: the interview that used the last minute still gets its scorecard and submittal.

Hours bought or an upgrade made during that call apply from the next interview. Nothing is deleted at any point; roles and past interviews stay where they are.

How do I buy hours or upgrade?

Every "Buy hours", "Upgrade" or "Manage billing" button in the app opens the billing page of your account at interviewersignal.com in your browser, never inside the app. Sign in there with the same email. A free account chooses an hour pack or Solo; the plan changes in place and keeps every role and interview. You can also buy from the pricing page before you have an account.

Which plan fits after the free minutes?

The pricing page puts the crossover at about eleven hours of interviews a month: from there, Solo costs less than even the 15-hour pack at $4.60 an hour. If a Solo subscription ends while bought hours remain, the account goes back to pay as you go with those hours.

What happens when bought hours run out?

The same as the free minutes, in the words of a plan you paid for: the heads-up comes at 5 minutes left, and the banner reads "Your hours are used up. Buy more hours to keep transcribing." with a "Buy hours" button.

What do the free and one-person plans leave out?

• Team features: no shared question library, admins, invitations, panels or coaching report across recruiters, per the pricing page.
• Once the minutes are spent and the last interview is wrapped up, new kits and AI features stop too, with the same message and button.
• The app itself is the same desktop app on every plan, with the same limits: Windows and macOS only, and no ATS integration.

If a subscription payment fails, the app keeps working while the card is retried and shows "Your payment is overdue. Interview Signal keeps working for now — update the card in billing." The pricing page gives that grace period as seven days. For how other tools' free plans compare, see the best free AI note takers for interviews; for the whole app, see how Interview Signal works.