Speechmatics pricing per hour and per minute
Speechmatics charges $0.12 to $0.38 an hour for recorded audio ($0.002 to $0.0063 a minute) across 3 options, and $0.20 to $0.40 an hour for live audio ($0.0033 to $0.0067 a minute) across 3 options at regular prices; a promotion lowers some of them for now. New accounts get $100 of free credit, no card required. Usage is charged down to the second at the hourly rate.
Ranked by each vendor's cheapest option at 100 hours a month, Speechmatics comes 2nd of 12 for recorded audio and 2nd of 10 for live audio.
Prices by model
| Model | Audio | Per minute | Per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melia 1 Multilingual; the real-time version is marked coming soon. | batch | $0.002 | $0.12 |
| Standard | batch | $0.0038 | $0.23 |
| Enhanced | batch | $0.0063 | $0.38 |
| Linden 1 (voice agents) Promotion: $0.0025 a minute, no end date given. Shown as $0.20, struck through, and $0.15, with no end date. | streaming | $0.0033 | $0.20 |
| Standard | streaming | $0.0038 | $0.23 |
| Enhanced | streaming | $0.0067 | $0.40 |
What 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 hours a month cost
| Model | 10 hours | 100 hours | 1,000 hours | 10,000 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melia 1 batch | $1.20 $0.12/h | $12 $0.12/h | $120 $0.12/h | $1,200 $0.12/h |
| Standard batch | $2.30 $0.23/h | $23 $0.23/h | $230 $0.23/h | $2,300 $0.23/h |
| Enhanced batch | $3.80 $0.38/h | $38 $0.38/h | $380 $0.38/h | $3,800 $0.38/h |
| Linden 1 (voice agents) streaming | $2 $0.20/h | $20 $0.20/h | $200 $0.20/h | $2,000 $0.20/h |
| Standard streaming | $2.30 $0.23/h | $23 $0.23/h | $230 $0.23/h | $2,300 $0.23/h |
| Enhanced streaming | $4 $0.40/h | $40 $0.40/h | $400 $0.40/h | $4,000 $0.40/h |
Regular prices. One-off credits and promotions aren't counted.
Free tier and credits
- Once, at sign-up: New accounts get $100 of free credit, no card required.
Billing
- Usage is charged down to the second at the hourly rate.
Add-ons
| Feature | Audio | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker diarization | batch, streaming | Included Listed among the features included for free. |
| Translation | batch | +$0.49 an hour |
Volume discounts and commitments
- A volume discount of up to 25% on credits, and 33% off for customers in its model-training discount programme.
Also priced, not ranked
Specialist products and promotion-only prices, kept out of the comparisons:
- Oak 1 Medical (batch): $0.0025 a minute ($0.15 an hour). For medical audio.
Quick answers
How much does Speechmatics cost per hour?
$0.12 to $0.38 an hour for recorded audio, and $0.20 to $0.40 an hour for live audio, at regular pay-as-you-go prices.
What do 100 hours of audio a month cost on Speechmatics?
$12 for recorded audio on Melia 1, or $20 for live audio on Linden 1 (voice agents).
Does Speechmatics have a free tier?
New accounts get $100 of free credit, no card required.
Does Speechmatics bill per second?
Usage is charged down to the second at the hourly rate.
Is anything cheaper than Speechmatics for recorded audio?
Yes: at 100 hours a month, 1 of the 11 other vendors we price costs less: Groq Whisper Large V3 Turbo at $0.04 an hour.
Is anything cheaper than Speechmatics for live audio?
Yes: at 100 hours a month, 1 of the 9 other vendors we price costs less: AssemblyAI Universal-Streaming at $0.15 an hour.
Speechmatics against the market: 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 |
Speechmatics against the market: 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 |
Price your own monthly hours with the speech-to-text cost calculator, or see the cheapest speech-to-text API.
Head to head: AssemblyAI vs Speechmatics, Speechmatics vs Deepgram.
Sources
Read on 6 October 2026:
- www.speechmatics.com/pricing (headless Chromium; the real-time rates and FAQ answers appear only after clicking the page's own tabs)
Show the quoted text
Pre-recorded models Show rates per Hours Hours Minutes Minutes General purpose Melia 1 $0.12 / hr Our next-generation multilingual model. Transcribes 56 languages without choosing one up front, switches language mid-sentence. Enhanced $0.38 / hr Our highest accuracy. You pick the language for each transcription. Supports custom dictionary and advanced punctuation. Medical Oak 1 Medical $0.15 / hr Our latest medical model. For transcription of clinical language: drug names, dosages, abbreviations and procedure terms, with full multilingual support. Voice agents Linden 1 agent STT Only available as a Real-time model Our voice agent model, with built-in turn detection for conversational use cases. More models Standard $0.23 / hr Cost-efficient and feature-rich: the same features as Enhanced at a lower rate, with lower accuracy. Model-training discount 33% off Volume discount: up to 25% off
www.speechmatics.com/pricing
Real-time models Show rates per Hours Hours Minutes Minutes General purpose Melia 1 Coming soon Our next-generation multilingual model. Transcribes 56 languages without choosing one up front, switches language mid-sentence. Enhanced $0.40 / hr Our highest accuracy. You pick the language for each transcription. Supports custom dictionary and advanced punctuation. Medical Oak 1 Medical Coming soon Our latest medical model. For transcription of clinical language: drug names, dosages, abbreviations and procedure terms, with full multilingual support. Voice agents Linden 1 agent STT $0.20 $0.15 / hr Our voice agent model, with built-in turn detection for conversational use cases. More models Standard $0.23 / hr
www.speechmatics.com/pricing. In the page's HTML the $0.20 is struck through (<del>) and $0.15 is the current price.
$100 in credits No card required
www.speechmatics.com/pricing
Our pricing is usage-based. You buy credits (1 credit = $1 before discounts), and your usage consumes them down to the second at an hourly rate.
www.speechmatics.com/pricing
Features Included for free.
www.speechmatics.com/pricing
Speaker diarization
www.speechmatics.com/pricing
Translation $0.49 / hr
www.speechmatics.com/pricing
Prices on this page were checked against the official pricing pages on .