3CX Transcription Discontinued

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3CX used to offer its own hosted transcription service — send your calls to 3CX, get text back. It was an easy way to try transcription without running anything yourself.

That service has been discontinued. 3CX no longer offers its own transcription, and its documentation still references the old service in places — so if you found this page while going in circles through the docs, you're not alone.

This page sets out, honestly, every way to transcribe 3CX calls today, and which one suits which business.

// What 3CX replaced it with: the AI Server

3CX's own answer is the 3CX AI Server: instead of sending calls to 3CX's cloud, you run the transcription engine on hardware you provide. It's part of the AI Edition licence (16SC minimum), needs 3CX v20 Update 10 or newer, and runs on a Mac mini or a Debian server. Your PBX generates a secure link to the AI server, and transcripts come back into the 3CX GUI with sentiment scores.

It's a capable engine. But notice what it makes you: the operator. The hardware, the installation, the updates, the monitoring, the capacity planning, the failover — all of it lives with whoever owns the box.

// Your three options today

• Do it yourself with a speech-to-text API — wire OpenAI, Google or Deepgram into 3CX with your own integration. Cheapest per minute (~£0.005), but you build it, maintain it, and your call audio is processed outside the UK.
• Run the 3CX AI Server yourself — full control on your own hardware. You buy the machine, hold the AI Edition licence, and own every update, outage and upgrade forever.
• Use a managed provider — that's us. We run the AI servers in a UK datacentre, you connect your PBX with a few clicks, and transcription is a monthly bundle from £39 with a live usage portal. UK data, UK jurisdiction, no hardware, no maintenance.

// Which one is right for you?

• Choose DIY if you have development resource, are happy maintaining an integration, and UK data residency isn't a requirement.
• Choose self-hosting if you want the engine on your own terms, have the hardware and the IT time, and enjoy running infrastructure.
• Choose managed if you want transcription to simply work — priced per minute, running in the UK, with someone else on call when a server misbehaves.

// The managed option, in one paragraph

Pipertech runs 3CX AI servers on our own Apple Silicon hardware in a UK datacentre. Your 3CX PBX connects to them with a secure link generated in your Admin Console — a few clicks, no engineering. Every call comes back as accurate, searchable text with sentiment, billed as a simple monthly minute bundle. You watch the usage live in your own portal; transcription pauses fairly at the limit and resumes on renewal.

Full details, screenshots and pricing: 3CX AI Transcription. Questions? Talk to us.