Speech-to-text APIs · Comparison

Amazon Transcribe vs AssemblyAI vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text

3 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.

Side by side

Amazon Transcribe vs AssemblyAI vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text: value, access facts, plan limits and bottom lines
Metric	Amazon Transcribe	AssemblyAI	Google Cloud Speech-to-Text
What you're paying for	Built-in reachTranscription inside your AWS account at $0.006 a minute for batch, with speaker labels, custom vocabulary and language identification in the rate.	Compliance includedA transcription API whose BAA, training opt-out and retention controls are self-serve on paid accounts, with diarized batch audio from $0.17 an hour.	Built-in reachSpeech recognition inside your Google Cloud account, with IAM, audit logs, a BAA and EU processing, and dynamic batch at $0.003 a minute.
Overall score	7.0	8.4Best	7.8
Free option	Free trial	Free trial	Free plan
Card to start	–Not measured	No card needed	Card required
Getting access	Self-serve	Self-serve	Self-serve
Starter priceCheapest paid plan	$0.006/min	$0.15/hr	$0.003/min
Pricing model	Usage-based	Usage-based	Usage-based
Pricing page	Public prices	Public prices	Public prices
Billing unit	Per second, no minimum; two channels at no extra charge	Per second of pre-recorded audio; streaming by session time, idle included; multichannel per channel	Per second of audio, no minimum; each channel billed
Free credit	60 minutes a month for 12 months	$50 at sign-up, no card, does not expire	60 minutes a month on the V1 API; none on V2
Streaming rate	$0.01/min ($0.60/h)	Universal-Streaming $0.15/h; Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime $0.45/h	$0.016/min ($0.96/h), the same as batch
Diarization	Included in batch and streaming, up to 30 speakers	Batch +$0.02/h; streaming +$0.12/h (beta in the docs)	No separate price; Chirp 3 diarization in batch only
Languages	About 90 languages across 113 language rows (our count)	99 on Universal-2; 18 on Universal-3.5 Pro	Over 125 (product page)
Training on your audio	By default; opt out with an AWS Organizations policy	By default; paid accounts opt out online, free accounts cannot	Not without your permission; V1 data logging opt-in gives a lower rate
HIPAA BAA	Accepted in AWS Artifact	Signed online at no cost on paid plans	Covered; accepted in the console per the docs
EU processing	Six EU regions for batch, four for streaming	EU endpoint for batch and streaming, same price as US	Chirp 3 GA in the eu multi-region
Self-hosted	Not offered	Streaming only, $20,000 upfront commitment	Speech-to-Text On-Prem on GKE, through sales
SOC 2 / ISO 27001	SOC 1, 2 and 3 and ISO 27001 (AWS Artifact)	SOC 2 Type 2; ISO 27001:2022	SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (Compliance Reports Manager)
Console SSO	IAM Identity Center, no extra charge	SAML/OIDC add-on, $199/month per connection	SAML through Cloud Identity Free, no listed cost
Bottom line	From its public pages, Amazon Transcribe is the simple choice inside AWS: flat per-minute rates with the main features included and self-serve compliance paperwork. Voice inputs are used to improve the service unless your organization opts out.	From its public pages, AssemblyAI combines the lowest 500-hour price here with compliance controls you switch on yourself: a BAA, a training opt-out and retention as short as an hour. A few add-on prices differ between its pages.	From its public pages, Google Cloud Speech-to-Text suits teams inside Google Cloud: no training without permission, a BAA, EU processing and dynamic batch at $0.003 a minute. Features need checking per model, and there is no PII redaction.

Evidence: Amazon Transcribe: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; AssemblyAI: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Google Cloud Speech-to-Text: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.

When to pick each

In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.

From our Amazon Transcribe review
Checked Oct 16, 2026
Pick Amazon Transcribe when
You want PII redaction, a documented delete API and transcription inside AWS.
Pick Google Cloud Speech-to-Text when
You want audio kept out of training by default and dynamic batch at $0.003 a minute.
From our Amazon Transcribe review
Checked Oct 16, 2026
Pick Amazon Transcribe when
You already run on AWS and want IAM, CloudTrail and S3 integration with no extra vendor account.
Pick AssemblyAI when
You want a lower 500-hour price ($85 a month, computed), retention you set yourself and a $50 credit.
From our AssemblyAI review
Checked Oct 16, 2026
Pick AssemblyAI when
You want PII redaction, a $50 credit with no card and every add-on priced per hour.
Pick Google Cloud Speech-to-Text when
You already use Google Cloud and want its IAM, audit logs and BAA under your existing account.
From our Google Cloud Speech-to-Text review
Checked Oct 16, 2026
Pick Google Cloud Speech-to-Text when
You want audio kept out of training by default and dynamic batch at $0.003 a minute.
Pick Amazon Transcribe when
You run on AWS and want PII redaction as a priced add-on and a documented delete API.
From our Google Cloud Speech-to-Text review
Checked Oct 16, 2026
Pick Google Cloud Speech-to-Text when
You want training off by default and Google Cloud IAM, audit logs and SSO at no listed cost.
Pick AssemblyAI when
You want PII redaction, a $50 credit with no card and a BAA signed online in a speech-only account.

Entry price

Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.

Amazon Transcribe
Standard batch
$0.006/min
Flat, US East; billed per second
- Diarization, custom vocabulary and language identification included
- Up to two channels included
- SRT and WebVTT subtitles
AssemblyAI
Universal-2, pre-recorded
$0.15/hr
Billed per second; 99 languages
- Diarization +$0.02/h
- Keyterm prompting included (pricing page)
- PII redaction +$0.08/h
- Word timestamps and confidence included
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text
V2 standard recognition
$0.016/min
First 500,000 min a month; then $0.01, $0.008 and $0.004
- Batch, sync and streaming at one price
- Chirp 3 priced at $0.016 on the product page
- Diarization and speech adaptation with no separate price

Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Amazon Transcribe 2026-10-16, AssemblyAI 2026-10-16, Google Cloud Speech-to-Text 2026-10-16.

Which one fits

If you need to start today without a sales call: AssemblyAISelf-serve sign-up, no card needed; the highest score of the 3 self-serve products here (8.4/10).
If you want to try it without entering a card: AssemblyAIFree trial, no card needed; scored 8.4/10.
Highest overall score: AssemblyAI8.4/10 (Excellent). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.

Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score

Full reviews

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