diff --git a/packages/api/src/services/speech.ts b/packages/api/src/services/speech.ts
index 01d86c768..997773624 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/services/speech.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/services/speech.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 import { getRepository } from '../entity/utils'
 import { Speech, SpeechState } from '../entity/speech'
+import { searchPages } from '../elastic/pages'
+import { Page } from '../elastic/types'
+import { SortBy, SortOrder } from '../utils/search'
 
 export const setSpeechFailure = async (id: string) => {
   // update state
@@ -7,3 +10,37 @@ export const setSpeechFailure = async (id: string) => {
     state: SpeechState.FAILED,
   })
 }
+
+/*
+ * We should not transcribe the page when:
+ ** 1. User has no recent listens the last 30 days
+ ** 2. User has a recent listen but the page was saved after the listen
+ */
+export const shouldTranscribe = async (
+  userId: string,
+  page: Page
+): Promise<boolean> => {
+  const [recentListenedPage, count] = (await searchPages(
+    {
+      dateFilters: [
+        {
+          field: 'listenedAt',
+          startDate: new Date(Date.now() - 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000),
+        },
+      ],
+      sort: {
+        by: SortBy.LISTENED,
+        order: SortOrder.DESCENDING,
+      },
+      size: 1,
+    },
+    userId
+  )) || [[], 0]
+  if (count === 0) {
+    return false
+  }
+  return (
+    !!recentListenedPage[0].listenedAt &&
+    page.savedAt < recentListenedPage[0].listenedAt
+  )
+}
diff --git a/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts b/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts
index 554d08c83..f09b2b3af 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/utils/search.ts
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ export enum SortBy {
   SCORE = '_score',
   PUBLISHED = 'publishedAt',
   READ = 'readAt',
+  LISTENED = 'listenedAt',
 }
 
 export enum SortOrder {