# Speech-to-text APIs platforms

> Compare 47 Speech-to-text APIs platforms on 983 verified facts, from AssemblyAI vs Deepgram to the rest. Real production cost and per-use-case verdicts.

47 platforms tracked · 983 facts verified · pricing re-checked weekly. Transcription and streaming STT APIs: batch vs realtime cost, accuracy claims with sources, and what diarization actually adds to the bill.

Last verified Jul 24, 2026

## Speech-to-text APIs platforms we track

| Tool | Positioning | Price | Rating |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Amazon Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/amazon-transcribe/) | AWS-native STT API with deep AWS ecosystem integration and compliance coverage | See pricing |  |
| [AssemblyAI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/assemblyai/) | Accuracy-led voice AI API for developers and voice agents | See pricing |  |
| [Azure AI Speech (STT)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/azure-speech/) | Enterprise-grade STT inside the Azure cloud ecosystem | From $1,600/mo |  |
| [Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepgram/) | Developer-first realtime STT API for voice agents and transcription at scale | See pricing |  |
| [ElevenLabs Scribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/elevenlabs-scribe/) | Accuracy-led STT API from the leading AI audio company | From $6/mo |  |
| [Gladia](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gladia/) | EU-based real-time and batch STT API built on the Solaria models | See pricing |  |
| [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/google-stt/) | Hyperscaler STT API with Chirp foundation models and enterprise compliance | See pricing |  |
| [OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gpt-4o-transcribe/) | Flagship GPT-4o based transcription API from OpenAI | See pricing |  |
| [Speechmatics](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/speechmatics/) | Accuracy-first enterprise STT with flexible deployment (SaaS, container, on-prem) | See pricing |  |
| [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voxtral/) | Low-cost EU-based transcription API with Apache-2.0 open-weight models | See pricing |  |
| [OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisper/) | Low-cost pay-as-you-go file transcription from OpenAI; no first-party streaming or diarization | See pricing |  |
| [Cartesia Ink](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/cartesia-ink/) | Streaming STT for voice agents with native turn detection | From $5/mo |  |
| [Cohere Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/cohere-transcribe/) | Enterprise-grade open ASR for accurate batch transcription | See pricing |  |
| [xAI Grok Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/grok-stt/) | Low-cost hosted STT API on the Grok stack | See pricing |  |
| [Groq (hosted Whisper)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/groq-whisper/) | Ultra-fast, low-cost hosted Whisper transcription API (no realtime streaming) | See pricing |  |
| [IBM watsonx Speech to Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/ibm-watson-stt/) | Enterprise cloud STT API | See pricing |  |
| [Microsoft MAI-Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/mai-transcribe/) | Frontier-lab accuracy STT delivered through Azure Speech | See pricing |  |
| [NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/nvidia-parakeet/) | Open-weights, GPU-accelerated self-hosted STT stack | See pricing |  |
| [Picovoice (Leopard / Cheetah)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/picovoice/) | Private, on-device STT SDK for apps and edge devices | See pricing |  |
| [Rev AI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/rev/) | Transcription-heritage STT API with low per-hour pricing and open (non-commercial) Reverb models | See pricing |  |
| [Soniox](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/soniox/) | Ultra-low-cost multilingual STT + real-time translation API | See pricing |  |
| [Aqua Voice](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/aqua-voice/) | AI-native system-wide dictation (YC W24) with a developer speech API (Avalon) | From $8/mo |  |
| [DeepInfra (ASR)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepinfra-stt/) | Low-cost hosted ASR inference | See pricing |  |
| [Distil-Whisper](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/distil-whisper/) (OSS) | Distilled Whisper: near-Whisper accuracy at a fraction of the size and up to 6x the speed, English-only, MIT-licensed | See pricing |  |
| [faster-whisper / whisper.cpp](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/faster-whisper/) (OSS) | The de facto local Whisper runtimes: faster-whisper (Python/CTranslate2) and whisper.cpp (C/C++) | See pricing |  |
| [FunASR / SenseVoice (Alibaba)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/funasr/) (OSS) | Open-source industrial ASR toolkit | See pricing |  |
| [Gradium Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gradium-stt/) | Low-latency STT for voice agents | From $13/mo |  |
| [Handy](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/handy/) | Private local-first open-source dictation | See pricing |  |
| [JigsawStack Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/jigsawstack-stt/) | Whisper-based STT endpoint inside an indie all-in-one small-model AI API platform | From $27/mo |  |
| [Kyutai STT](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/kyutai-stt/) (OSS) | Streaming-first open STT for self-hosted voice agents | See pricing |  |
| [Lemonfox.ai](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/lemonfox/) | Cheapest hosted Whisper large-v3 API for batch transcription | From $5/mo |  |
| [MacWhisper](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/macwhisper/) | Local-first macOS transcription and dictation app with one-time Pro pricing | See pricing |  |
| [Monologue](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/monologue/) | Context-aware Apple dictation by Every | From $14.99/mo |  |
| [Moonshine](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/moonshine/) (OSS) | On-device streaming STT for live voice interfaces, from tiny edge models to Whisper Large v3-beating accuracy | See pricing |  |
| [Qwen3-ASR](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/qwen3-asr/) (OSS) | Open-weights multilingual ASR models | See pricing |  |
| [Salad Transcription API](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/salad-transcription/) | Ultra-low-cost batch transcription on a community GPU cloud | See pricing |  |
| [Sarvam AI (Saarika / Saaras)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/sarvam-stt/) | Indian-language sovereign speech-to-text API | See pricing |  |
| [sherpa-onnx](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/sherpa-onnx/) (OSS) | On-device ASR/TTS runtime for edge and embedded | See pricing |  |
| [Smallest.ai Pulse](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/smallest-pulse/) | Ultra-low-latency multilingual STT for voice agents | See pricing |  |
| [Superwhisper](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/superwhisper/) | AI voice-to-text dictation with context-aware formatting modes | From $8.49/mo |  |
| [Together AI Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/together-stt/) | Low-cost hosted Whisper STT API | See pricing |  |
| [VoiceInk](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voiceink/) | Open-source, local-first Superwhisper / Wispr Flow alternative with one-time pricing | See pricing |  |
| [Vosk](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/vosk/) (OSS) | Lightweight offline STT toolkit for edge and embedded devices | See pricing |  |
| [WhisperKit (Argmax)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisperkit/) (OSS) | On-device Apple Silicon STT (Whisper) | From $1,330/mo |  |
| [WhisperX](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisperx/) (OSS) | Whisper + forced alignment + diarization pipeline for accurate word timestamps | See pricing |  |
| [Willow Voice](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/willow/) | Cross-platform AI dictation with smart formatting and enterprise-grade privacy | From $15/mo |  |
| [Wispr Flow](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/wispr-flow/) | System-wide AI voice dictation with auto-editing | From $12/mo |  |

## Speech-to-text APIs pricing compared (2026)

Effective monthly bill at 10K min/mo (production app), computed from each vendor's published rates - cheapest first. Every tool page carries the full three-tier table.

| Tool | Published rate | Bill at 10K min/mo | Verified |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [DeepInfra (ASR)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepinfra-stt/) | Published rates: batch $0.0004/min · streaming $0.0002/min | $4.50 | [Jul 20](https://deepinfra.com/openai/whisper-large-v3) |
| [Together AI Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/together-stt/) | Published rates: batch $0.0015/min · streaming $0.0035/min | $15 | [Jul 20](https://www.together.ai/pricing) |
| [Soniox](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/soniox/) | Published rates: batch $0.0017/min · streaming $0.002/min | $16.67 | [Jul 20](https://soniox.com/pricing) |
| [xAI Grok Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/grok-stt/) | Published rates: batch $0.0017/min · streaming $0.0033/min | $16.67 | [Jul 20](https://docs.x.ai/developers/pricing) |
| [Groq (hosted Whisper)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/groq-whisper/) | Published rates: batch $0.0019/min | $18.50 | [Jul 20](https://groq.com/pricing) |
| [Qwen3-ASR](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/qwen3-asr/) | Published rates: batch $0.0021/min · streaming $0.0054/min | $21 | [Jul 20](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/model-pricing) |
| [Speechmatics](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/speechmatics/) | Published rates: batch $0.0022/min | $21.50 | [Jul 20](https://www.speechmatics.com/pricing) |
| [Lemonfox.ai](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/lemonfox/) | Published rates: batch $0.0028/min | $27.78 | [Jul 20](https://www.lemonfox.ai/apis/speech-to-text) |
| [Azure AI Speech (STT)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/azure-speech/) | Published rates: batch $0.003/min · streaming $0.0167/min | $30 | [Jul 20](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?%24filter=contains(productName,%20%27Speech%27)%20and%20armRegionName%20eq%20%27eastus%27&currencyCode=USD) |
| [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voxtral/) | Published rates: batch $0.003/min · streaming $0.006/min | $30 | [Jul 20](https://mistral.ai/pricing/api) |
| [Rev AI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/rev/) | Published rates: batch $0.0033/min | $33.33 | [Jul 20](https://www.rev.ai/pricing) |
| [Salad Transcription API](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/salad-transcription/) | Published rates: batch $0.0033/min | $33.33 | [Jul 20](https://docs.salad.com/transcription/explanation/billing) |
| [AssemblyAI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/assemblyai/) | Published rates: batch $0.0035/min · streaming $0.0075/min | $35 | [Jul 20](https://www.assemblyai.com/pricing) |
| [ElevenLabs Scribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/elevenlabs-scribe/) | Published rates: batch $0.0037/min · streaming $0.0065/min | $36.67 | [Jul 20](https://elevenlabs.io/pricing/api) |
| [Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepgram/) | Published rates: batch $0.0043/min · streaming $0.0048/min | $43 | [Jul 20](https://deepgram.com/pricing) |
| [Smallest.ai Pulse](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/smallest-pulse/) | Published rates: batch $0.005/min · streaming $0.005/min | $50 | [Jul 20](https://smallest.ai/speech-to-text) |
| [Amazon Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/amazon-transcribe/) | Published rates: batch $0.006/min · streaming $0.01/min | $60 | [Jul 20](https://aws.amazon.com/transcribe/pricing/) |
| [Microsoft MAI-Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/mai-transcribe/) | Published rates: batch $0.006/min | $60 | [Jul 20](https://microsoft.ai/models/mai-transcribe-1-5/) |
| [OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gpt-4o-transcribe/) | Published rates: batch $0.006/min | $60 | [Jul 20](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing) |
| [OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/whisper/) | Published rates: batch $0.006/min | $60 | [Jul 20](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models/whisper-1) |
| [Aqua Voice](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/aqua-voice/) | Published rates: batch $0.0065/min · streaming $0.0065/min | $65 | [Jul 20](https://aquavoice.com/avalon-api) |
| [Gladia](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gladia/) | Published rates: batch $0.0102/min · streaming $0.0125/min | $101.67 | [Jul 20](https://www.gladia.io/pricing) |
| [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/google-stt/) | Published rates: batch $0.016/min · streaming $0.016/min | $160 | [Jul 20](https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/pricing) |
| [IBM watsonx Speech to Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/ibm-watson-stt/) | Published rates: batch $0.02/min · streaming $0.02/min | $200 | [Jul 20](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/speech-to-text?topic=speech-to-text-faq-pricing) |

## Popular comparisons

- [AssemblyAI vs Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-deepgram/)
- [Deepgram vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-whisper/)
- [AssemblyAI vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-whisper/)
- [Deepgram vs ElevenLabs Scribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-elevenlabs-scribe/)
- [AssemblyAI vs ElevenLabs Scribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-elevenlabs-scribe/)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-whisper/)
- [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/voxtral-vs-whisper/)
- [Deepgram vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-voxtral/)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-voxtral/)
- [OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/gpt-4o-transcribe-vs-whisper/)
- [Deepgram vs Speechmatics](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-speechmatics/)
- [AssemblyAI vs Speechmatics](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-speechmatics/)
- [Deepgram vs Gladia](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-gladia/)
- [AssemblyAI vs Gladia](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-gladia/)
- [Deepgram vs Soniox](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-soniox/)
- [Azure AI Speech (STT) vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/azure-speech-vs-google-stt/)
- [Amazon Transcribe vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/amazon-transcribe-vs-google-stt/)
- [Amazon Transcribe vs Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/amazon-transcribe-vs-deepgram/)
- [Azure AI Speech (STT) vs Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/azure-speech-vs-deepgram/)
- [AssemblyAI vs Rev AI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-rev/)
- [Groq (hosted Whisper) vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/groq-whisper-vs-whisper/)
- [Cartesia Ink vs Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/cartesia-ink-vs-deepgram/)
- [NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/nvidia-parakeet-vs-whisper/)
- [AssemblyAI vs Soniox](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-soniox/)
- [Deepgram vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-google-stt/)
- [Gladia vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/gladia-vs-whisper/)
- [Deepgram vs Rev AI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-rev/)
- [Deepgram vs NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-nvidia-parakeet/)
- [Moonshine vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/moonshine-vs-whisper/)
- [Qwen3-ASR vs OpenAI Whisper (API)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/qwen3-asr-vs-whisper/)
- [Cohere Transcribe vs Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/cohere-transcribe-vs-deepgram/)
- [Deepgram vs xAI Grok Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-grok-stt/)
- [Deepgram vs Smallest.ai Pulse](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-smallest-pulse/)
- [Deepgram vs IBM watsonx Speech to Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-ibm-watson-stt/)

## Best for…

| Use case | Current pick | Guide |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Call Centers | Azure AI Speech (STT) | [Best for call centers](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/call-centers/) |
| Developers | Azure AI Speech (STT) | [Best for developers](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/developers/) |
| Dictation | Moonshine | [Best for dictation](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/dictation/) |
| Medical | AssemblyAI | [Best for medical](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/medical/) |
| Meetings | AssemblyAI | [Best for meetings](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/meetings/) |
| Self-Hosted | Mistral Voxtral Transcribe | [Best for self-hosted](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/self-hosted/) |
| Voice Agents | Cartesia Ink | [Best for voice agents](https://www.versusref.com/stt/best/voice-agents/) |

Source: https://www.versusref.com/stt/