AssemblyAI vs Speechmatics pricing

STT: AssemblyAI from $0.0025 vs Speechmatics from $0.002.

Last updated · prices checked daily

Speech-to-text: AssemblyAI vs Speechmatics

Speechmatics has the lower listed STT price: $0.002 per minute (Melia 1 (pre-recorded)) vs $0.0025 for AssemblyAI (Universal-Streaming (English)), about 20% less.

VendorProduct / tierPrice per minute$/minPer hourAs listedSource
Speechmatics
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Melia 1 (pre-recorded)$0.002$0.12$0.12 /hrsource
2026-10-28
AssemblyAI
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Universal-Streaming (English)$0.0025$0.15$0.15 /hrsource
2026-10-28
AssemblyAI
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Universal-2 (pre-recorded)$0.0025$0.15$0.15 /hrsource
2026-10-28
AssemblyAI
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Universal-3.5 Pro (pre-recorded)$0.0035$0.21$0.21 /hrsource
2026-10-28
Speechmatics
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Standard (pre-recorded)$0.0038$0.23$0.23 /hrsource
2026-10-28
Speechmatics
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Enhanced (pre-recorded)$0.0063$0.38$0.38 /hrsource
2026-10-28

What it costs at volume (lowest listed rate)

MinutesAssemblyAISpeechmatics
1,000 min$2.50$2.00
10,000 min$25.00$20.00
100,000 min$250.00$200.00

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.

$0.00per call
$0.000per minute
$0per month

FAQ

Is AssemblyAI or Speechmatics cheaper for speech-to-text?

Speechmatics has the lower listed STT price: $0.002 per minute (Melia 1 (pre-recorded)) vs $0.0025 for AssemblyAI (Universal-Streaming (English)), about 20% 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.

All AssemblyAI prices · All Speechmatics prices