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Deepgram Review

Developer-first realtime STT API for voice agents and transcription at scale

Among the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, Deepgram has the 26th-widest language coverage.

See pricing

Facts verified Jul 20, 2026Try Deepgram →

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What we know about Deepgram

Deepgram is a speech-to-text apis platform: developer-first realtime STT API for voice agents and transcription at scale. This profile tracks every Deepgram fact we have verified, each linked to a primary source and dated.

Deepgram does not publish a public per-minute rate we have been able to verify, so the price figure here stays blank until we can confirm one. We would rather show nothing than a guessed number; if you have a current Deepgram quote, it is the fastest way for us to close that gap.

On capabilities, Deepgram covers language auto-detection, word-level timestamps, custom vocabulary / keyterm boosting, entity detection, sentiment analysis, and summarization endpoint. Each of those is verified against Deepgram's own docs or dashboard, not marketing copy.

For compliance, with Deepgram: SOC 2 Type II is in place. If you are in a regulated space, confirm the current posture with Deepgram before you commit, since these change plan by plan.

Placed against the 43 speech-to-text tools we track, Deepgram's strongest showing is the 26th-widest language coverage - a spread worth weighing against your own priorities.

In total we track 29 verified facts for Deepgram today, each linking the primary source it came from so you can check our work - and vendor claims we have not measured ourselves are labeled as such on the Deepgram fact sheet below.

Reviewed by vsref Editorialfacts verified Jul 20, 2026Methodology →

Deepgram pricing

Published rates: batch $0.0043/min · streaming $0.0048/min, verified Jul 20, 2026 (source).

Deepgram cost at monthly volume tiers
Monthly volumeBatch billStreaming bill
1K min/moSide project$4.30$4.80
10K min/moProduction app$43$48
100K min/moCall-center scale$430$480

Sticker rates only; diarization and PII redaction add-ons price in the stack builder. How we compute costs →

Fact sheet

Pricing
Pricing facts
Batch price per audio minute0.004 $/audio-minJul 20
Streaming price per audio minute0.005 $/audio-minJul 20
Pricing modelusageJul 20
Free tier quota$200 credit, no expiration, no credit card requiredJul 20
Published volume discountsGrowth: save up to 20% with $4K+/yr prepaid creditsJul 20
Concurrency on base planPAYG STT: 50 REST, 150 websocket concurrentJul 20
Capabilities
Capabilities facts
WER (third-party benchmark)5.18 % WERJul 20
WER (vendor-claimed)~5.26 % WERJul 20
Streaming latency (vendor-claimed)~300 msJul 20
Languages supported~50Jul 20
Language auto-detection✓ YesJul 20
Speaker diarization◑ Paid add-onJul 20
Diarization add-on price per minute0.002 $/audio-minJul 20
PII redaction◑ Paid add-onJul 20
PII redaction add-on price per minute0.002 $/audio-minJul 20
Word-level timestamps✓ YesJul 20
Custom vocabulary / keyterm boosting✓ YesJul 20
Entity detection✓ YesJul 20
Sentiment analysis✓ YesJul 20
Summarization endpoint✓ YesJul 20
Priced audio-intelligence add-onsSummarization, topics, sentiment, intents; token-pricedJul 20
Compliance & trust
Compliance & trust facts
HIPAA BAA available✓ YesJul 20
SOC 2 Type II✓ YesJul 20
GDPR / EU data residency✓ YesJul 20
Self-host / on-prem option✓ YesJul 20
Build experience
Build experience facts
Official SDKsJS/TS, Python, .NET, Go, Java, RustJul 20
Max file size / duration2 GB max file; 10 min processing timeout (Nova)Jul 20
Supported audio formats100+ formats incl MP3, MP4, WAV, FLAC, Ogg, Opus, WebMJul 20
Websocket streaming API✓ YesJul 20

Considering a switch? Best Deepgram alternatives →

Voice agents in this stack

The same vendor runs this engine as a full agent platform: see Deepgram Voice Agent API for the end-to-end per-minute cost. Or compare the platforms builders wire Deepgram into: Pipecat, OpenAI Realtime API, Twilio ConversationRelay, or the full voice-agent comparison →

Want it done for you?

Deepgram gets you a transcript; the bot that joins the call, labels speakers, and writes the summary is still your build. If that is more pipeline than you want to own, AI meeting notetakers do the whole job end to end: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, or the full notetaker comparison.

Deepgram head-to-head

Deepgram vs AssemblyAI →won 0 · lost 3 · tied 3
Call CenterslostDeveloperslostDictationtieMedicaltieMeetingslostSelf-Hostedtie
Deepgram vs OpenAI Whisper (API) →won 5 · lost 1 · tied 1
Call CenterswonDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingswonSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs ElevenLabs Scribe →won 2 · lost 0 · tied 1
DeveloperswonDictationtieSelf-Hostedwon
Call CenterswonDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingswonSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentslost
Deepgram vs Speechmatics →won 2 · lost 1 · tied 2
DictationtieMedicalwonMeetingslostSelf-HostedtieVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs Gladia →won 4 · lost 1 · tied 2
Call CenterswonDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingslostSelf-HostedtieVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs Soniox →won 3 · lost 3 · tied 1
Call CenterslostDeveloperslostDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingswonSelf-HostedwonVoice Agentslost
Deepgram vs Amazon Transcribe →won 3 · lost 0 · tied 1
DeveloperswonDictationtieSelf-HostedwonVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs Azure AI Speech (STT) →won 2 · lost 1 · tied 3
DeveloperslostDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingstieSelf-HostedtieVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs Cartesia Ink →won 4 · lost 1 · tied 2
Call CenterswonDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingswonSelf-HostedtieVoice Agentslost
Call CenterswonDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingswonSelf-HostedtieVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs Rev AI →won 1 · lost 1 · tied 1
DeveloperslostDictationtieVoice Agentswon
DeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs Cohere Transcribe →won 5 · lost 1 · tied 1
Call CenterswonDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingswonSelf-HostedlostVoice Agentswon
DictationtieMedicalwonSelf-HostedwonVoice Agentswon
Deepgram vs Smallest.ai Pulse →won 2 · lost 2 · tied 2
Call CenterslostDeveloperswonDictationtieMedicalwonMeetingslostSelf-Hostedtie
DeveloperswonDictationtieSelf-HostedtieVoice Agentswon