AssemblyAI vs Microsoft Azure Speech pricing
STT: AssemblyAI from $0.0025 vs Microsoft Azure Speech from $0.003.
Last updated · prices checked daily
Speech-to-text: AssemblyAI vs Microsoft Azure Speech
AssemblyAI has the lower listed STT price: $0.0025 per minute (Universal-Streaming (English)) vs $0.003 for Microsoft Azure Speech (Standard batch transcription), about 17% less.
| Vendor | Product / tier | $/min |
|---|---|---|
| AssemblyAI Visit site ↗ | Universal-Streaming (English) | $0.0025 |
| AssemblyAI Visit site ↗ | Universal-2 (pre-recorded) | $0.0025 |
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Standard batch transcription | $0.003 |
| AssemblyAI Visit site ↗ | Universal-3.5 Pro (pre-recorded) | $0.0035 |
| Microsoft Azure Speech Visit site ↗ | Standard real-time transcription | $0.0167 |
What it costs at volume (lowest listed rate)
| Minutes | AssemblyAI | Microsoft Azure Speech |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 min | $2.50 | $3.00 |
| 10,000 min | $25.00 | $30.00 |
| 100,000 min | $250.00 | $300.00 |
Cost-per-call calculator
Estimate what one call really costs. Prices come from today's table; LLM and telephony presets are per-minute rates published by Retell and Vapi. Everything is editable.
Cartesia's pricing page puts one minute of speech at 750–800 characters; Rime says about 1,000. The talk share is your own guess at how much of each call the agent is speaking.
FAQ
Is AssemblyAI or Microsoft Azure Speech cheaper for speech-to-text?
AssemblyAI has the lower listed STT price: $0.0025 per minute (Universal-Streaming (English)) vs $0.003 for Microsoft Azure Speech (Standard batch transcription), about 17% less. Prices checked Oct 28, 2026.
How often are these prices updated?
Every day. A script reads each vendor's public pricing page, extracts the listed rates and keeps a dated copy, so price changes show up in the history.