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Use cases · Speech-to-Text & Transcription APIs

Best Medical Speech-to-Text APIs

Speech-to-text APIs with dedicated clinical and medical transcription models for healthcare documentation.

Required capability: Medical transcription.

Our pick: Amazon Transcribe

Amazon Transcribe is an automatic speech recognition service from AWS that converts audio to text via batch or real-time streaming, with support for speaker diarization, custom vocabularies, custom language models, and multi-language identification. It targets a broad range of applications including contact center analytics, clinical documentation through a dedicated medical variant, accessibility captioning, and toxic content detection in gaming. Pricing starts at $0.006 per minute on a pay-as-you-go basis, with a free tier of 60 minutes per month for the first 12 months. The service is HIPAA-eligible, SOC 2 Type 2 certified, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS compliant, available across 25 AWS regions including GovCloud, and provides SDKs for Python, JavaScript, Java, Go, C++, Ruby, and PHP.

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.

Amazon Transcribe profile →

Best for…

Best overall
Amazon Transcribe - our default pick: strongest across pricing, trust and breadth
Best free pick
Amazon Transcribe - free tier: 60 minutes per month for the first 12 months after account creation, shared across Amazon…
Best for enterprise
Amazon Transcribe - for regulated or large teams: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, published SLA
Cheapest to start
Soniox - from $0.0017 minute to start; compare on your real usage, not the entry price
Best for agents
AssemblyAI - easiest to wire up programmatically: MCP server + llms.txt
Broadest surface
Amazon Transcribe - 26 documented actions; breadth isn't quality, but it's the most to build on

Ranked (5)

  • #1 Amazon Transcribe

    72 / 100
    • Best overall
    • Best free pick
    • Best for enterprise
    • Broadest surface

    Amazon Transcribe is an automatic speech recognition service from AWS that converts audio to text via batch or real-time streaming, with support for speaker diarization, custom vocabularies, custom language models, and multi-language identification. It targets a broad range of applications including contact center analytics, clinical documentation through a dedicated medical variant, accessibility captioning, and toxic content detection in gaming. Pricing starts at $0.006 per minute on a pay-as-you-go basis, with a free tier of 60 minutes per month for the first 12 months. The service is HIPAA-eligible, SOC 2 Type 2 certified, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS compliant, available across 25 AWS regions including GovCloud, and provides SDKs for Python, JavaScript, Java, Go, C++, Ruby, and PHP.

    PricingUsage · from $0.006 minute · free tier ✓
    TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001 · PCI DSS
    Does
    • Real-time streaming
    • Speaker diarization
    • Medical transcription
    • PII redaction

    Amazon Transcribe profile →

  • #2 Google Cloud Speech-to-Text

    70 / 100

    Google Cloud Speech-to-Text is a REST API from Google Cloud that converts audio to text, supporting synchronous, batch, and streaming transcription across more than a dozen languages and regional endpoints. It covers call center transcription, live captioning with WebVTT and SRT output, speaker diarization, and multi-speaker meeting transcription. Pricing starts at $0.016 per minute with a free tier of 60 minutes per month, self-serve signup, and no sales call required. The service holds SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS certifications, and ships official SDKs for Python, Node.js, Java, Go, C#, PHP, Ruby, and C++.

    PricingUsage · from $0.02 minute · free tier ✓
    TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001 · PCI DSS
    Does
    • Real-time streaming
    • Speaker diarization
    • Medical transcription
    Used byHubSpot, InteractiveTel, Embodied, iGenius

    Google Cloud Speech-to-Text profile →

  • #3 AssemblyAI

    79 / 100
    • Best for agents

    AssemblyAI is a voice AI platform providing speech-to-text transcription, speaker diarization, and audio intelligence features via REST API, aimed at developers building products on top of speech data. Pricing is usage-based at $0.0025 per minute with a $50 one-time free credit requiring no credit card, and enterprise plans are available. The service holds SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS certifications, with data processed in the US and EU. Customers include Zoom, Spotify, and Dovetail, and SDKs are actively maintained for Python and Node.js.

    PricingUsage · from $0.0025 minute · free tier ✗
    TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001 · PCI DSS
    Does
    • Real-time streaming
    • Speaker diarization
    • Speech translation
    • Medical transcription
    • PII redaction
    Used byZoom, Spotify, Veed, CallRail
    Avoid ifYou want to try it free before paying

    AssemblyAI profile →

  • #4 Speechmatics

    67 / 100

    Speechmatics is a speech-to-text API supporting batch and real-time transcription across EU, US, and Australia regions, with capabilities including speaker diarization, language detection, translation, summarization, and audio event detection, making it suited for contact centers, legal, medical, and broadcast use cases. Pricing starts at $0.0022 per minute with a free tier of 3,000 minutes per month and self-serve signup, scaling to enterprise plans with dedicated regional endpoints. The API is REST-based with SDK support for Python, Node.js, .NET, and Rust, and holds SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001 certifications.

    PricingUsage · from $0.0022 minute · free tier ✓
    TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001
    Does
    • Real-time streaming
    • Speaker diarization
    • Speech translation
    • Medical transcription
    Used bywhat3words, 3Play Media, Veritone, Deloitte UK

    Speechmatics profile →

  • #5 Soniox

    68 / 100
    • Cheapest to start

    Soniox is a speech-to-text API built for real-time and batch transcription workloads, targeting voice agents, call centers, medical teams, and media producers who need multilingual support, speaker diarization, and word-level timestamps. Pricing is usage-based at $0.0017 per minute with self-serve sign-up and no sales call required, though free credits were discontinued in October 2025. The platform holds SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001 certifications, with data residency options across the United States, European Union, and Japan. SDKs are available for Python, Node.js, and browser JavaScript, and an MCP server is also supported.

    PricingUsage · from $0.0017 minute · free tier ✗
    TrustSOC 2 Type II · HIPAA · GDPR · ISO 27001
    Does
    • Real-time streaming
    • Speaker diarization
    • Speech translation
    • Medical transcription
    Used byScribe
    Avoid ifYou want to try it free before paying

    Soniox profile →

Scope: only APIs with the required capability, picked from published, cited data. The score is one input, not the verdict, and we lead with each one’s trade-off. No reviews yet, no paid placement. See the full Speech-to-Text & Transcription APIs directory.