# Best Speech-to-text APIs for Meetings (2026)

> The best Speech-to-text APIs platforms for meetings: AssemblyAI leads, for transcribing recorded meetings and interviews, where speaker labels, summaries, and.

For meetings, **AssemblyAI** is our pick: For transcribing recorded meetings and interviews, speaker diarization is the top priority. Transcribing recorded meetings and interviews, where speaker labels, summaries, and long-file handling matter more than latency. Below is the full ranking and the tradeoffs, or read [how we score](https://www.versusref.com/methodology/).

## What matters for meetings

Weight ×5 = decisive, ×1 = relevant.

| Fact | Weight | AssemblyAI | ElevenLabs Scribe | Gladia | Amazon Transcribe | OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Speaker diarization | ×5 | ◑  Paid add-on (Jul 20) | ✓  Included (Jul 20) | ✓  Included (Jul 20) | ✓  Included (Jul 20) | ✓  Included (Jul 20) |
| Summarization endpoint | ×4 | ✓  Yes (Jul 20) | n/a | ✓  Yes (Jul 20) | ✓  Yes (Jul 20) | ✗  No (Jul 20) |
| Languages supported | ×3 | 99 (Jul 20) | 90 languages (Jul 20) | 101 languages (Jul 20) | 113 languages (Jul 20) | 57 languages (Jul 20) |
| Max file size / duration | ×3 | 5 GB / 10 hr per file; 2.2 GB via upload endpoint (Jul 20) | 3 GB / 10 hr per file (Jul 20) | 1000 MB; 135 min per request (4h15 Enterprise) (Jul 20) | 2 GB and 28,800 s (8 h) max per batch file (Jul 20) | 25 MB max upload; no duration limit stated (Jul 20) |
| Word-level timestamps | ×2 | ✓  Yes (Jul 20) | ✓  Yes (Jul 20) | ✓  Yes (Jul 20) | ✓  Yes (Jul 20) | ✗  No (Jul 20) |

- ×5 **Speaker diarization:** A meeting transcript without who-said-what is barely usable; diarization quality and cost lead the evaluation.
- ×4 **Summarization endpoint:** A first-party summary endpoint saves wiring an LLM pass over every recording.
- ×3 **Languages supported:** International teams need their meeting languages covered, not just English.
- ×3 **Max file size / duration:** A two-hour recording has to fit in one request or you are stitching transcripts.
- ×2 **Word-level timestamps:** Timestamps let notes link back to the exact moment in the recording.

## The ranking, tool by tool

| Rank | Tool | Verdict | Score | Price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [AssemblyAI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/assemblyai/) | For transcribing recorded meetings and interviews, speaker diarization is the top priority. | 9 of 12 points · 6 matchups | See pricing |
| 2 | [ElevenLabs Scribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/elevenlabs-scribe/) | For meeting transcription, speaker diarization is the single most important attribute. | 3 of 4 points · 2 matchups | From $6/mo |
| 3 | [Gladia](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gladia/) | For recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the heaviest factor, and Gladia includes it while OpenAI Whisper (API) does not. | 3 of 6 points · 3 matchups | See pricing |
| 4 | [Amazon Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/amazon-transcribe/) | Both tools include speaker diarization, so the heaviest attribute is a draw. | 1 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 5 | [OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/gpt-4o-transcribe/) | For meeting transcription, speaker diarization is the most critical attribute. | 1 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 6 | [Groq (hosted Whisper)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/groq-whisper/) | Both tools score identically on the two heaviest attributes: neither supports speaker diarization and neither offers a summarization endpoint, so those decisive criteria cancel out. | 1 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 7 | [NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/nvidia-parakeet/) | Speaker diarization, the heaviest attribute at weight 5, goes decisively to NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva, which includes diarization natively, while OpenAI Whisper API offers none. | 1 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 8 | [Smallest.ai Pulse](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/smallest-pulse/) | For transcribing recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the heaviest factor. | 1 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 9 | [Deepgram](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/deepgram/) | For meetings, speaker diarization is the top-weighted factor. | 10.5 of 22 points · 11 matchups | See pricing |
| 10 | [Azure AI Speech (STT)](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/azure-speech/) | On the two heaviest attributes, both tools tie: speaker diarization is included in both at no extra charge, and neither offers a summarization endpoint. | 1.5 of 4 points · 2 matchups | From $1,600/mo |
| 11 | [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/voxtral/) | For meeting transcription, speaker diarization is the most critical attribute, and Mistral Voxtral Transcribe includes it natively while OpenAI Whisper offers none. | 2 of 6 points · 3 matchups | See pricing |
| 12 | [Speechmatics](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/speechmatics/) | For recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the top priority. | 1 of 4 points · 2 matchups | See pricing |
| 13 | [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. | 0.5 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 14 | [Qwen3-ASR](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/qwen3-asr/) (OSS) | Open-weights multilingual ASR models. | 0.5 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 15 | [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. | 1 of 20 points · 10 matchups | See pricing |
| 16 | [Cartesia Ink](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/cartesia-ink/) | Streaming STT for voice agents with native turn detection. | 0 of 2 points · 1 matchup | From $5/mo |
| 17 | [Cohere Transcribe](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/cohere-transcribe/) | Enterprise-grade open ASR for accurate batch transcription. | 0 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 18 | [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/google-stt/) | Hyperscaler STT API with Chirp foundation models and enterprise compliance. | 0 of 6 points · 3 matchups | See pricing |
| 19 | [Rev AI](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/rev/) | Transcription-heritage STT API with low per-hour pricing and open (non-commercial) Reverb models. | 0 of 2 points · 1 matchup | See pricing |
| 20 | [Soniox](https://www.versusref.com/stt/tools/soniox/) | Ultra-low-cost multilingual STT + real-time translation API. | 0 of 4 points · 2 matchups | See pricing |

### 1. AssemblyAI

For transcribing recorded meetings and interviews, speaker diarization is the top priority. [Full AssemblyAI vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-whisper/)

For recorded meetings, speaker diarization carries the heaviest weight. [Full AssemblyAI vs Speechmatics verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-speechmatics/)

For recorded meetings and interviews, speaker diarization and summarization carry the most weight. [Full AssemblyAI vs Soniox verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-soniox/)

For meeting transcription, speaker diarization is the top-weighted factor. [Full AssemblyAI vs Rev AI verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-rev/)

For recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the top priority. [Full AssemblyAI vs Gladia verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-gladia/)

For recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the top priority. [Full AssemblyAI vs Deepgram verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/assemblyai-vs-deepgram/)

### 2. ElevenLabs Scribe

For meeting transcription, speaker diarization is the single most important attribute. [Full ElevenLabs Scribe vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-whisper/)

Both tools include speaker diarization at no extra cost, so that attribute is a wash. [Full ElevenLabs Scribe vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-voxtral/)

### 3. Gladia

For recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the heaviest factor, and Gladia includes it while OpenAI Whisper (API) does not. [Full Gladia vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/gladia-vs-whisper/)

For meeting transcription, speaker diarization carries the most weight. [Full Gladia vs Deepgram verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-gladia/)

### 4. Amazon Transcribe

Both tools include speaker diarization, so the heaviest attribute is a draw. [Full Amazon Transcribe vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/amazon-transcribe-vs-google-stt/)

### 5. OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe

For meeting transcription, speaker diarization is the most critical attribute. [Full OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/gpt-4o-transcribe-vs-whisper/)

### 6. Groq (hosted Whisper)

Both tools score identically on the two heaviest attributes: neither supports speaker diarization and neither offers a summarization endpoint, so those decisive criteria cancel out. [Full Groq (hosted Whisper) vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/groq-whisper-vs-whisper/)

### 7. NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva

Speaker diarization, the heaviest attribute at weight 5, goes decisively to NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva, which includes diarization natively, while OpenAI Whisper API offers none. [Full NVIDIA Parakeet / Riva vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/nvidia-parakeet-vs-whisper/)

### 8. Smallest.ai Pulse

For transcribing recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the heaviest factor. [Full Smallest.ai Pulse vs Deepgram verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-smallest-pulse/)

### 9. Deepgram

For meetings, speaker diarization is the top-weighted factor. [Full Deepgram vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-voxtral/)

For transcribing recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the heaviest factor, weighted 5 out of 5. [Full Deepgram vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-whisper/)

For meeting transcription, speaker diarization and summarization are the two heaviest factors. [Full Deepgram vs Soniox verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-soniox/)

For meetings, speaker diarization and summarization carry the most weight. [Full Deepgram vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-google-stt/)

For recorded meetings and interviews, speaker diarization is the single most important attribute. [Full Deepgram vs Cohere Transcribe verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/cohere-transcribe-vs-deepgram/)

For transcribing recorded meetings and interviews, speaker diarization is the most critical feature. [Full Deepgram vs Cartesia Ink verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/cartesia-ink-vs-deepgram/)

### 10. Azure AI Speech (STT)

On the two heaviest attributes, both tools tie: speaker diarization is included in both at no extra charge, and neither offers a summarization endpoint. [Full Azure AI Speech (STT) vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/azure-speech-vs-google-stt/)

### 11. Mistral Voxtral Transcribe

For meeting transcription, speaker diarization is the most critical attribute, and Mistral Voxtral Transcribe includes it natively while OpenAI Whisper offers none. [Full Mistral Voxtral Transcribe vs OpenAI Whisper (API) verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/voxtral-vs-whisper/)

### 12. Speechmatics

For recorded meetings, speaker diarization is the top priority. [Full Speechmatics vs Deepgram verdict](https://www.versusref.com/stt/deepgram-vs-speechmatics/)

### 13. Moonshine

On-device streaming STT for live voice interfaces, from tiny edge models to Whisper Large v3-beating accuracy. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

### 14. Qwen3-ASR

Open-weights multilingual ASR models. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

### 15. OpenAI Whisper (API)

Low-cost pay-as-you-go file transcription from OpenAI; no first-party streaming or diarization. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

### 16. Cartesia Ink

Streaming STT for voice agents with native turn detection. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

### 17. Cohere Transcribe

Enterprise-grade open ASR for accurate batch transcription. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

### 18. Google Cloud Speech-to-Text

Hyperscaler STT API with Chirp foundation models and enterprise compliance. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

### 19. Rev AI

Transcription-heritage STT API with low per-hour pricing and open (non-commercial) Reverb models. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

### 20. Soniox

Ultra-low-cost multilingual STT + real-time translation API. No won verdicts for this use case yet; it ranks on ties and near-misses.

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