Cheapest speech-to-text API
The cheapest speech-to-text API for recorded audio is Groq's Whisper Large V3 Turbo, at $0.04 an hour ($0.0007 a minute), 67% less than the next cheapest, Speechmatics' Melia 1 at $0.12. For live audio, the cheapest is AssemblyAI's Universal-Streaming, at $0.15 an hour ($0.0025 a minute), 25% less than the next cheapest, Speechmatics' Linden 1 (voice agents) at $0.20. Prices are regular pay-as-you-go rates at 100 hours a month.
Check how the cheapest bill before choosing on price alone:
- Groq: Every request is billed for at least 10 seconds.
- AssemblyAI: Pre-recorded audio is billed per hour of audio submitted; streaming is billed for the time the connection is open, idle time included. AssemblyAI doesn't state a rounding increment.
Cheapest for recorded audio
| # | Vendor and option | Per month | Per hour | Per minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Groq Whisper Large V3 Turbo | $4 | $0.04 | $0.0007 |
| 2 | Speechmatics Melia 1 | $12 | $0.12 | $0.002 |
| 3 | AssemblyAI Universal-2 | $15 | $0.15 | $0.0025 |
| 4 | OpenAI gpt-4o-mini-transcribe | $18 | $0.18 | $0.003 |
| 4 | Google Cloud V2 dynamic batch | $18 | $0.18 | $0.003 |
| 4 | Azure AI Speech Batch transcription | $18 | $0.18 | $0.003 |
| 7 | Rev AI Reverb (English) | $20 | $0.20 | $0.0033 |
| 8 | ElevenLabs Scribe v2 | $21.01 | $0.21 | $0.0035 |
| 9 | Deepgram Nova-3 Monolingual | $25.80 | $0.258 | $0.0043 |
| 10 | Gemini API Gemini 3.5 Transcribe | $30.60 | $0.306 | $0.0051 |
| 11 | Amazon Transcribe Standard | $36 | $0.36 | $0.006 |
| 12 | Gladia Starter (async) | $61 | $0.61 | $0.0102 |
The order shifts at 10 hours a month, where free monthly minutes or volume tiers kick in; the calculator shows each.
Cheapest for live audio
| # | Vendor and option | Per month | Per hour | Per minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AssemblyAI Universal-Streaming | $15 | $0.15 | $0.0025 |
| 2 | Speechmatics Linden 1 (voice agents) | $20 | $0.20 | $0.0033 |
| 3 | ElevenLabs Scribe v2 Realtime | $38.03 | $0.38 | $0.0063 |
| 4 | Deepgram Nova-3 Monolingual | $46.20 | $0.462 | $0.0077 |
| 5 | Gemini API Gemini 3.5 Transcribe Live | $53.55 | $0.536 | $0.0089 |
| 6 | Amazon Transcribe Standard | $60 | $0.60 | $0.01 |
| 7 | Gladia Starter (real-time) | $75 | $0.75 | $0.0125 |
| 8 | Google Cloud V1 with data logging | $95.04 | $0.95 | $0.0158 |
| 9 | Azure AI Speech Real-time transcription | $100 | $1 | $0.0167 |
| 10 | OpenAI gpt-live-transcribe | $102 | $1.02 | $0.017 |
The order is the same at 10, 1,000 and 10,000 hours a month. Groq and Rev AI list no streaming price.
Cheapest with speaker labels
Telling speakers apart costs extra on some APIs. Each vendor's cheapest recorded-audio option with labels added:
| Vendor and option | Speaker labels | Per hour with labels |
|---|---|---|
| Speechmatics Melia 1 | Included | $0.12 |
| AssemblyAI Universal-2 | +$0.02 an hour | $0.17 |
| Azure AI Speech Batch transcription | Included | $0.18 |
| Deepgram Nova-3 Monolingual | Included | $0.258 |
| Gemini API Gemini 3.5 Transcribe (estimate) | Included | $0.306 |
| OpenAI gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize (estimate) | Separate model | $0.36 |
| Amazon Transcribe Standard | Included | $0.36 |
| Gladia Starter (async) | Included | $0.61 |
Google Cloud, ElevenLabs, Groq and Rev AI don't price or mention speaker labels on their pricing pages, so they're left out.
Cheapest way to start: free credits
| Vendor | Credit | About this much audio |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud | New Google Cloud customers get $300 of free credit to try any Google Cloud product. | 1,667 hours on V2 dynamic batch |
| Speechmatics | New accounts get $100 of free credit, no card required. | 833 hours on Melia 1 |
| Deepgram | Every new account gets $200 of free credit, which doesn't expire until used. | 775 hours on Nova-3 Monolingual |
| AssemblyAI | Sign-up comes with $50 of free credit and no card required; AssemblyAI says that covers up to 185 hours of pre-recorded or 333 hours of streaming transcription. | 185 hours vendor's figure |
| Gladia | New accounts get 50€ of free credit once, with no monthly reset; Gladia puts it at roughly 80+ hours of pre-recorded or 60+ hours of real-time transcription. | 80 hours vendor's figure |
| Rev AI | New accounts get free credits worth 5 hours of Reverb transcription, usable on any product. | 5 hours vendor's figure |
Hours we work out use the vendor's cheapest recorded-audio price; Google's credit is for any Google Cloud product.
Free allowances that recur
- Google Cloud: The V1 API's first 60 minutes a month are free; the V2 table lists no free minutes.
- Gemini API: The free tier charges nothing for input or output, but Google may use free-tier content to improve its products, which it doesn't on the paid tier.
- Amazon Transcribe: New accounts get 60 minutes a month free, for the first 12 months only.
- Azure AI Speech: A separate free tier (F0) gives 5 audio hours a month of real-time transcription; batch isn't supported on it.
- ElevenLabs: The Free / pay-as-you-go column of the API price table includes 4 hours 30 minutes of Scribe v2 and 2 hours 30 minutes of Scribe v2 Realtime.
- Groq: The free plan transcribes up to 7,200 audio seconds an hour and 28,800 a day (8 hours) per Whisper model at no charge, within its rate limits.
Promotions that undercut these prices
- Azure AI Speech MAI Transcribe-2 (batch): $0.0017 a minute ($0.10 an hour), the only price published, until 31 December 2026.
- Deepgram Nova-3 Monolingual (streaming): $0.0048 a minute ($0.288 an hour) instead of $0.462, with no end date given.
- Deepgram Flux English (streaming): $0.0065 a minute ($0.39 an hour) instead of $0.462, with no end date given.
- Deepgram Nova-3 Multilingual (streaming): $0.0058 a minute ($0.348 an hour) instead of $0.552, with no end date given.
- Speechmatics Linden 1 (voice agents) (streaming): $0.0025 a minute ($0.15 an hour) instead of $0.20, with no end date given.
Price your own volume in the speech-to-text cost calculator, which also covers billing increments for short clips and every model.
Prices on this page were checked against the official pricing pages on .