Deepgram Alternatives for Speech-to-Text Compared (2026)
Deepgram lists Nova-3 streaming at $0.0048 per minute (about $0.29 an hour) as a promotional pay-as-you-go rate, Flux, its voice-agent model with built-in turn detection, at $0.0065 per minute, and $200 in free credit. The alternatives below price by the hour: AssemblyAI Universal-Streaming at $0.15/hr (Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime $0.45/hr) with $50 in free credits; Soniox at about $0.12/hr real-time and $0.10/hr for files; Speechmatics Melia 1 at $0.40/hr real-time and $0.24/hr for files before discounts, with $100 in free credits; and Gladia at €0.68/hr real-time and €0.16/hr for files, billed in euros. Prices are from each vendor's own pricing page.
Deepgram quotes per minute and the others quote per hour. Multiply a per-minute rate by 60 before you compare: $0.0048/min is about $0.29/hr.
AssemblyAI, Soniox, Speechmatics and Gladia compared with Deepgram on published speech-to-text pricing, free credits and languages.
AssemblyAI- Starting price
- Streaming from $0.15/hr; $50 free credits
- Best for
- Low-cost streaming and batch transcription
Soniox- Starting price
- ~$0.10/hr async; ~$0.12/hr real-time
- Best for
- Very low-cost speech-to-text
Speechmatics- Starting price
- From $0.24/hr pay as you go (as low as ~$0.12/hr with discounts)
- Best for
- Multilingual transcription with language switching
Gladia- Starting price
- Async from €0.16/hr; real-time €0.68/hr
- Best for
- Real-time multilingual transcription
STT models compared
- Price
- $0.0065/min (English)
- Latency
- Built-in turn detection
- Languages
- English or multilingual
- Price
- $0.39 / hr
- Latency
- ~150 ms partials
- Languages
- 90+
- Price
- $0.0048/min streaming (monolingual, promo; reg. $0.0077)
- Latency
- —
- Languages
- 45+ (Nova models)
- Price
- $0.21 / hr
- Latency
- Async (pre-recorded)
- Languages
- 18
- Price
- $0.017/min
- Latency
- Live transcription
- Languages
- —
- Price
- $0.30 / hr real-time
- Latency
- Built-in turn detection and VAD (real-time)
- Languages
- 55+
- Price
- $0.40 / hr real-time; $0.24 / hr files
- Latency
- Real-time or files
- Languages
- 56, switches mid-sentence
- Price
- $0.30 / hr files
- Latency
- Files (real-time coming soon)
- Languages
- 55+, tuned for clinical terms
- Price
- ~$0.12 / hr real-time; ~$0.10 / hr async
- Latency
- Real-time streaming
- Languages
- 60+ (translation included)
- Price
- €0.16 / hr async (real-time €0.68 / hr)
- Latency
- Async (files)
- Languages
- 100+
See all voice models · Latency and prices as each vendor publishes them.
What to check before you choose
- Check how streaming is billed. AssemblyAI bills streaming on session time, so a connection left open while nobody speaks still counts. Deepgram bills per second.
- Read base rates, not the default view. Speechmatics' pricing page applies discounts by default (33% off if you opt in to model training, up to 25% off with a subscription); the rates on this page are before discounts.
- Count what's bundled. Soniox includes speaker diarization and language ID in its rate; Gladia includes custom vocabulary, and diarization on files. Elsewhere some features are add-ons.
- For patient calls, get a BAA first. AssemblyAI lets account owners and admins sign a BAA from the dashboard on paid plans; Gladia lists HIPAA among its certifications.
- Run a sample of your own call audio through each vendor's free credits before you commit. Vendors' accuracy figures come from their own test sets, not your callers.
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Prices from vendors' official pricing pages, checked October 19, 2026. Not sponsored; order isn't a ranking.