Speechmatics

Best for: Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call; Regulated or enterprise workloads - compliance attestations and an enterprise plan; Teams needing broad API coverage out of the box

Pricing model

Usage-based [2]speechmatics.com/pricing“from $0.129/hr — No commitment required. Billing for Pro customers occurs monthly on the 1st, calculated to the second, based on the cost per hour.”

Published pricing

✓ Yes [3]speechmatics.com/pricing“from $0.129/hr. Volume discounts are automatically applied on any billable usage above 500 hours monthly per model type, with a 20% discount.”

Free tier

✓ Yes [4]speechmatics.com/pricing“Free 3,000 minutes (50 hours) per month. No credit card required.”

Free tier details

Free 3,000 minutes (50 hours) of STT per month; no credit card required. Free tier caps: 2 concurrent real-time sessions, 10 batch hours/month. (TTS free tier: 1 million characters/month - excluded from STT pricing scope.) [5]speechmatics.com/pricing“Free 3,000 minutes (50 hours) per month for Speech-to-Text with no credit card required. 2 concurrent real-time sessions.”docs.speechmatics.com/speech-to-text/batch/limits“Free: 10 hours/month batch capacity. Paid: 6,000 hours/month. Enterprise: Custom arrangement.”

Self-serve signup

✓ Yes

Requires sales call

✗ No

Enterprise plan

✓ Yes [6]speechmatics.com/pricing“Unlimited scale, with flexible deployments. No rate limits. Custom models available.”

• Real-time streaming
• Speaker diarization
• Speech translation
• Medical transcription

Supported actions

transcribe_batch, transcribe_streaming, speaker_diarization, speaker_identification, language_detection, word_timestamps, translation, summarization, sentiment_analysis, chapter_generation, custom_dictionary, audio_event_detection, text_to_speech, voice_agents_flow

Regions

EU (eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com), EU2 - enterprise only (eu2.asr.api.speechmatics.com), US (us1.asr.api.speechmatics.com), US2 - enterprise only (us2.asr.api.speechmatics.com), Australia (au1.asr.api.speechmatics.com) [7]docs.speechmatics.com/get-started/authentication“eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com; eu2.asr.api.speechmatics.com; us1.asr.api.speechmatics.com; us2.asr.api.speechmatics.com; au1.asr.api.speechmatics.com”

Languages

Arabic, Bashkir, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Mandarin, Marathi, Mongolian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Vietnamese, Welsh [8]speechmatics.com/languages“One API, 56+ languages, covering over half the world's population. Arabic, Bashkir, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Mandarin, Marathi, Mongolian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Uyghur, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Welsh.”

Input types

audio/wav, audio/mp3, audio/aac, audio/ogg, audio/mpeg, audio/amr, audio/m4a, video/mp4, audio/flac, PCM_S16LE (real-time WebSocket streaming) [9]docs.speechmatics.com/introduction/errors-rate-limits“The following file formats types are supported for transcription by REST API: wav, mp3, aac, ogg, mpeg, amr, m4a, mp4, flac. The list above is exhaustive - any file format outside the list above is explicitly not supported.”

Output types

JSON (json-v2), Plain text (.txt), SRT subtitles, Word-level timestamps, Speaker diarization output, Alignment output (word_start_and_end, one_per_line), Translation output, Sentiment analysis, Summarization, Chapter markers

Webhooks

✓ Yes [10]docs.speechmatics.com/speech-to-text/batch/notifications“Notifications allow users to be informed both as to the status of a job and to receive the output, without having to continuously poll the Speechmatics SaaS.”

Sandbox / test mode

✗ No [11]speechmatics.com/pricing“No credit card required — free tier in the live production environment, not a separate sandbox.”

SDK languages

Python, Node.js, .NET, Rust [12]docs.speechmatics.com/integrations-and-sdks/sdks“Python - Offers Voice, Realtime, Batch, and TTS SDKs; JavaScript - Includes Realtime and Batch clients; .NET - Features Realtime capabilities; Rust - Supports both Realtime and Batch functionality.”

MCP server

✗ No

SOC 2

SOC 2 Type II [13]speechmatics.com/security“Trusted where privacy matters most - SOC 2 Type II-certified.”

HIPAA

✓ Yes [14]speechmatics.com/security“Fully compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).”

GDPR

✓ Yes [15]speechmatics.com/security“Compliant with privacy and compliance directives such as the GDPR.”

ISO 27001

✓ Yes [16]speechmatics.com/security“Privacy and compliance built in with our ISO/IEC 27001:2022 accreditation.”

PCI DSS

✗ No [17]speechmatics.com/security“Trusted where privacy matters most - SOC 2 Type II-certified. Fully compliant with HIPAA. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 accreditation. Compliant with GDPR.”

Published SLA

✗ No [18]speechmatics.com/legal“SPEECHMATICS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE IS ERROR-FREE OR THAT OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE SECURE OR UNINTERRUPTED.”

Rate limits

Batch: 10 new jobs/second (POST); 50 job status requests/second (GET); 20,000 concurrent jobs max. Free tier: 2 concurrent real-time sessions, 10 hours/month batch. Paid tier: 50 concurrent real-time sessions, 6,000 hours/month. File size limit: <1 GB per direct upload. Max session duration: 48 hours. Max 50 speaker identifiers. Translation: max 5 target languages per request. [19]docs.speechmatics.com/speech-to-text/batch/limits“10 new jobs per second (POST API calls); 50 job status requests per second (GET API calls); Maximum of 20,000 concurrent jobs allowed. Free: 10 hours/month. Paid: 6,000 hours/month.”

Known restrictions

Supported batch input formats are exhaustive: wav, mp3, aac, ogg, mpeg, amr, m4a, mp4, flac only, Raw audio formats without embedded codec cannot be processed in batch mode, File size limit: less than 1 GB when submitting directly in request body (larger files must use URL), Maximum audio duration for batch jobs: 2 hours, Data retention: audio files and transcripts deleted after 7 days, Melia 1 model available in EU1 and US1 regions only, Pro tier capped at 6,000 hours/month; Enterprise for higher volumes, Maximum 50 speaker identifiers across all speakers, Translation: maximum 5 target languages per request, Real-time sessions auto-terminate after 48 hours, or 1 hour of no audio, or 3 minutes of no activity/pings [20]docs.speechmatics.com/speech-to-text/batch/limits“When submitting media directly in the request body, files must be less than 1 GB in size or the job will be rejected.”docs.speechmatics.com/introduction/errors-rate-limits“The list above is exhaustive - any file format outside the list above is explicitly not supported.”

• Docs
• Status page

Docs rendering: static

API style

rest

Base URL

https://asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2

Version

v2

Versioning

url

Stability

ga

Auth methods

api_key, jwt

Error format

vendor-specific

Rate limit

10 / second

SDKs

• Python speechmatics-batch · repo
• Python speechmatics-rt · repo
• Python speechmatics-voice · repo
• Python speechmatics-tts · repo
• Node.js @speechmatics/batch-client · repo
• Node.js @speechmatics/real-time-client · repo
• Node.js @speechmatics/flow-client · repo
• .NET · repo
• Rust · repo

• Auth docs
• Quickstart
• Webhook events

Launched

2006-01-01

Notable customers

what3words, 3Play Media, Veritone, Deloitte UK, Vonage

• ElevenLabs Scribe (Speech to Text)

  "Scribe v2 is the most accurate Speech to Text model" offering "real-time Speech to Text in under 150 ms" across "90+ languages."

  Hybrid · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Azure AI Speech to Text

  "Azure Speech in Foundry Tools provides speech to text, text to speech, and other capabilities through a Microsoft Foundry resource. You can transcribe speech to text with high accuracy, produce natural-sounding text-to-speech voices, translate spoken audio, and conduct live AI voice conversations."

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Amazon Transcribe

  "Amazon Transcribe is an automatic speech recognition service that uses machine learning models to convert audio to text. You can use Amazon Transcribe as a standalone transcription service or to add speech-to-text capabilities to any application."

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• Google Cloud Speech-to-Text

  "Accurate voice typing and transcription powered by Gemini."

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• IBM watsonx Speech to Text

  "IBM Watson® Speech to Text technology enables fast and accurate speech transcription in multiple languages for a variety of use cases, including but not limited to customer self-service, agent assistance and speech analytics."

  Usage · free tier · public pricing · self-serve

• AssemblyAI

  "Voice AI infrastructure for developers building products that transcribe, understand, and act on speech."

  Usage · public pricing · self-serve

Speechmatics alternatives · Speechmatics vs ElevenLabs Scribe (Speech to Text) · All Speech-to-Text & Transcription APIs APIs

Each field above carries a numbered source - hover for a preview, click to jump here.

1. ↑Description: speechmatics.com
2. ↑Pricing model: speechmatics.com
3. ↑Published pricing: speechmatics.com
4. ↑Free tier: speechmatics.com
5. ↑Free tier details: speechmatics.com · docs.speechmatics.com
6. ↑Enterprise plan: speechmatics.com
7. ↑Regions: docs.speechmatics.com
8. ↑Languages: speechmatics.com
9. ↑Input types: docs.speechmatics.com
10. ↑Webhooks: docs.speechmatics.com
11. ↑Sandbox: speechmatics.com
12. ↑SDK languages: docs.speechmatics.com
13. ↑SOC 2: speechmatics.com
14. ↑HIPAA: speechmatics.com
15. ↑GDPR: speechmatics.com
16. ↑ISO 27001: speechmatics.com
17. ↑PCI DSS: speechmatics.com
18. ↑Published SLA: speechmatics.com
19. ↑Rate limits: docs.speechmatics.com
20. ↑Known restrictions: docs.speechmatics.com · docs.speechmatics.com

Every field change, who made it, and when - from our audited data pipeline and editors.

1. 2026-06-21 Capabilities: {} → {"medical":true,"translation":true,"real_time_streaming":true,"speaker_diarizat…
2. 2026-06-21 Summary Md: (none) → Speechmatics is a speech-to-text API supporting batch and real-time transcripti…
3. 2026-06-21 Score Docs Quality: (none) → 15
4. 2026-06-21 Score Procurement Friction: (none) → 100
5. 2026-06-21 Score Trust Readiness: (none) → 70
6. 2026-06-21 Best For: (none) → Prototypes and side projects - free to start, no sales call, Regulated or enter…
7. 2026-06-21 Scoring Methodology: (none) → Scores are computed deterministically from this profile's published, sourced fi…
8. 2026-06-21 Score Agent Friendliness: (none) → 30
9. 2026-06-21 Score Pricing Transparency: (none) → 100
10. 2026-06-21 Score Setup Speed: (none) → 85
11. 2026-06-21 Llms Txt Present: (none) → No
12. 2026-06-21 Has Structured Data: (none) → Yes
13. 2026-06-21 Robots Allows Agents: (none) → Yes
14. 2026-06-21 Status Page URL: (none) → https://status.speechmatics.com
15. 2026-06-21 Docs URL: (none) → https://docs.speechmatics.com/
16. 2026-06-21 Rendering: (none) → static
17. 2026-06-21 Pricing Model: set to usage_based
18. 2026-06-21 Has Published Pricing: set to Yes
19. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Available: set to Yes
20. 2026-06-21 Error Format: set to vendor-specific
21. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Details: set to Free 3,000 minutes (50 hours) of STT per month; no credit card required. Free t…
22. 2026-06-21 Self Serve Signup: set to Yes
23. 2026-06-21 Requires Sales Call: set to No
24. 2026-06-21 Enterprise Plan Available: set to Yes
25. 2026-06-21 SOC 2: set to type_2
26. 2026-06-21 HIPAA: set to Yes
27. 2026-06-21 GDPR: set to Yes
28. 2026-06-21 ISO 27001: set to Yes
29. 2026-06-21 PCI DSS: set to No
30. 2026-06-21 SLA Published: set to No
31. 2026-06-21 Data Retention Policy URL: set to https://www.speechmatics.com/legal/privacy-policy
32. 2026-06-21 Documented Rate Limits: set to Batch: 10 new jobs/second (POST); 50 job status requests/second (GET); 20,000 c…
33. 2026-06-21 Rate Limit Requests: set to 10
34. 2026-06-21 Rate Limit Window: set to second
35. 2026-06-21 Known Restrictions: set to Supported batch input formats are exhaustive: wav, mp3, aac, ogg, mpeg, amr, m4…
36. 2026-06-21 Auth Methods: set to api_key, jwt
37. 2026-06-21 Auth Docs URL: set to https://docs.speechmatics.com/get-started/authentication
38. 2026-06-21 API Style: set to rest
39. 2026-06-21 Base URL: set to https://asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2
40. 2026-06-21 API Version: set to v2
41. 2026-06-21 Versioning Scheme: set to url
42. 2026-06-21 Stability: set to ga
43. 2026-06-21 Quickstart URL: set to https://docs.speechmatics.com/get-started/quickstart
44. 2026-06-21 Slug: set to speechmatics
45. 2026-06-21 Requires Verification: set to No
46. 2026-06-21 Starting Price Usd: set to 0.0022
47. 2026-06-21 Price Basis: set to minute
48. 2026-06-21 Free Tier Limit: set to 3000 minutes (50 hours) per month
49. 2026-06-21 Launched At: set to 2006-01-01
50. 2026-06-21 Notable Customers: set to what3words, 3Play Media, Veritone, Deloitte UK, Vonage

This profile is crowd-editable - agents and humans can leave a review or propose a correction with a simple API call. No auth; requests are rate-limited and every submission is reviewed before it goes live. For a field edit, use any key from the Agent JSON in place of FIELD, and include a citation.

curl -X POST https://apio.sh/api/feedback/speechmatics \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"kind":"review","rating":5,"body":"Your experience with this API…"}'

curl -X POST https://apio.sh/api/suggest/speechmatics/FIELD \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"value":"corrected value","citations":[{"url":"https://source.example/page","excerpt":"supporting quote"}],"note":"what changed and why"}'

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