Speech-to-Text API · decision tool
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text alternatives — ranked for your stack
Leaving Google Cloud Speech-to-Text? The other speech-to-text API options ranked at your usage, budget and constraints with verified dated pricing — plus when Google Cloud Speech-to-Text is still the right call.
Prices verified 2026-07-17 against official pricing pages · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration
As of Jul 2026, with 100 hours of audio transcribed/month, a $50 budget for this slot, AssemblyAI ranks first for these inputs at 81% fit and a StackSays-estimated $15.00/month (OpenAI Transcription: 78% fit, $18.00/month). Fit weights are our estimates; prices trace to official pages. Change any input below and the verdict recomputes.
Your situation
The verdict updates as you move these.
Narrow pick — the runner-up is close
Per-hour STT with a deep menu of paid intelligence add-ons
vs OpenAI Transcription: fit 81% against 78%, est $15.00 against $18.00 per month
Comparing 5 tools head-to-head. Open the full field (6 options) →
The decision, in plain words
For a solo builder at 100 hours of audio transcribed/month and a $50.00/mo budget for the speech-to-text API slot, AssemblyAI leads at 81% fit and $15.00/mo. The two rules doing the work: budget fit (~$15/mo is 30% of your $50/mo budget); batteries included (Bundles realtime streaming, speaker diarization — fewer services to glue at team size 1).
OpenAI Transcription runs close (78% fit, $18.00/mo). It takes the lead if ~$18/mo is 36% of your $50/mo budget matters more to you than the current weights assume.
Honest weak spot of the pick: no free tier — paying from day one.
Generated from the calculation above — every number traces to the sourced data; nothing here is written by an AI making things up.
Why AssemblyAI scores 81%
How the $15.00/mo estimate is calculated
What could change this verdict
Cost risk
Official prices verified 2026-07-17; calculation is deterministic code over those prices.
At a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Paid entry | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deepgram | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — Nova-3 monolingual prerecorded at $0.0077/min = $0.462/hour; streaming is promo-priced lower ($0.0048/min) but flagged limited-time; $200 one-time signup credit | 2026-07-17 |
| AssemblyAI | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.15/hour async or streaming (Universal-2); add-ons stack per hour: diarization +$0.02, PII redaction +$0.08; $50 one-time signup credit | 2026-07-17 |
| OpenAI Transcription | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.003/min vendor-estimated = $0.18/hour (billing is actually per audio token); gpt-4o-transcribe is $0.36/hour for higher quality | 2026-07-17 |
| Groq (Whisper) | No free tier | Pay-as-you-go — $0.04/hour transcribed (whisper-large-v3 is $0.111/hour); 10-second minimum billed per request | 2026-07-17 |
| Cartesia (STT) | 20K credits/month ≈ 1h51m STT (vendor's own approximation) | Pro $5/mo | 2026-07-17 |
Data sources
| Tool | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Deepgram | Deepgram pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| AssemblyAI | AssemblyAI pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| OpenAI Transcription | OpenAI API pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Groq (Whisper) | Groq pricing | 2026-07-17 |
| Cartesia (STT) | Cartesia pricing | 2026-07-17 |
A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.