Gladia Alternatives for Speech-to-Text Compared (2026)
Gladia prices speech-to-text by the hour from prepaid credits, billed in euros: Solaria-3 at €0.16 an hour for files (Solaria-1 €0.27), real-time at €0.68 an hour, 100+ languages with automatic language detection, and €50 in free credits valid for a year. Self-serve allows 30 real-time sessions and 25 file jobs at once, and trains on your audio by default unless you opt out (free). If you want a second option, the alternatives below: Deepgram Nova-3 streaming at $0.0048/min (a limited-time promotional rate; regular $0.0077/min) or Flux, its voice-agent model, at $0.0065/min, with $200 in free credit; AssemblyAI Universal-Streaming at $0.15/hr and Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime at $0.45/hr; Soniox at about $0.12/hr real-time and $0.10/hr for files, with speaker labels and translation included; and Speechmatics Melia 1 at $0.40/hr real-time and $0.24/hr for files, before its discounts. Prices are from each vendor's own pricing page.
Gladia's file rate is one of the lowest around, but real-time costs more than four times as much (€0.68 vs €0.16 an hour). Price the mode your calls actually use.
Deepgram, AssemblyAI, Soniox and Speechmatics compared with Gladia on published speech-to-text pricing: real-time and file rates, speaker labels on live calls, add-ons, concurrency and free credits.
Deepgram- Starting price
- Nova-3 streaming $0.0048/min ($0.29/hr); $200 free credit
- Best for
- Streaming speech-to-text for voice agents
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
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
- Real-time is where the prices spread out. Gladia lists real-time at €0.0113 a minute. On the same unit, Soniox real-time is $0.002 a minute (its $0.12 hourly rate ÷ 60), AssemblyAI Universal-Streaming $0.0025, Deepgram Nova-3 streaming $0.0048 (promotional; $0.0077 regular) and Speechmatics Melia 1 about $0.0067 before discounts. Gladia bills in euros and the others in dollars, so check the exchange rate on the day you compare.
- Need speaker labels on live calls? Gladia's speaker diarization and enhanced punctuation are for files only. Soniox includes diarization, language identification and formatting in its real-time rate; AssemblyAI lists streaming diarization at $0.12/hr; Deepgram lists it at $0.0020/min on pay as you go.
- Building a voice agent? Compare the models made for turn-taking: Deepgram Flux at $0.0065/min (promotional; $0.0077 regular), Speechmatics Linden 1 at $0.30/hr (real-time only), and AssemblyAI Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime at $0.45/hr with keyterm prompting included.
- Price the extras. Gladia charges per hour for add-ons: translation €0.05, summarization €0.03, sentiment €0.02, named entities €0.07, and PII redaction €0.07 (files only). Soniox includes translation in the same real-time call at no extra cost. AssemblyAI lists PII redaction on streaming at $0.12/hr.
- Check concurrency before launch day. Gladia self-serve allows 30 real-time sessions and 25 file jobs at once (Enterprise removes the limit). Deepgram's pay as you go allows up to 150 streaming connections, Speechmatics self-serve 50 real-time sessions (2 on Free), and AssemblyAI says its streaming concurrency scales automatically, starting at 100 new sessions a minute on pay as you go.
- Decide who trains on your audio. Gladia's self-serve plan opts you in by default, with a free opt-out (Enterprise is opted out by default). Speechmatics takes 33% off if you opt in to model training, and up to 25% more with volume.
- Mind volume tiers. Gladia's Solaria-3 file rate falls automatically from €0.16/hr under 100 hours a month to €0.12/hr above 10,000, and top-ups of €1,000 or more add 10–20% in bonus credit. Deepgram lists lower rates again on its Growth plan (Nova-3 streaming $0.0042/min, promotional).
- Medical audio? AssemblyAI lists Medical Mode at $0.15/hr extra on its streaming models, and Speechmatics Oak 1 is $0.30/hr for files with real-time marked coming soon. Gladia lists HIPAA among its certifications. Get a BAA signed before any patient calls.
- Test with your own calls: Gladia gives €50 (about 73 hours of real-time, it says), Deepgram $200, Speechmatics $100, and AssemblyAI's free tier covers up to 333 hours of streaming with no card. Accuracy claims on these pages come from each vendor's own tests, not your callers.
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Prices from vendors' official pricing pages, checked October 20, 2026. Not sponsored; order isn't a ranking.