Amazon Transcribe review
by Amazon Web Services, Inc.Speech-to-text APIs
AWS speech-to-text at $0.006 a minute for batch and $0.01 for streaming, with diarization, custom vocabulary and language identification included.
- Free trial
- Self-serve
- Usage-based
- Public prices
What you're paying for
- Built-in reach (main value)
- Compliance included
- Worth the price
Transcription inside your AWS account at $0.006 a minute for batch, with speaker labels, custom vocabulary and language identification in the rate.
For teams on AWS, Transcribe reads audio from and writes transcripts to your own S3 buckets, uses IAM permissions and CloudTrail logging, and is covered by the BAA you accept in AWS Artifact. The batch rate of $0.006 a minute includes diarization, custom vocabularies, language identification and two channels, and PII redaction is priced per minute. Batch runs in six EU regions, and the SOC and ISO reports come from AWS Artifact.
- Runs inside your AWS accountInput audio stays in your S3 bucket and output can go to your bucket; IAM controls access, CloudTrail records every API call, and PrivateLink endpoints keep traffic in your VPC.Evidence: Transcribe developer guide: data protection, IAM, CloudTrail (2026-10-16)
- BAA and reports self-serveTranscribe is a HIPAA-eligible service; the BAA is accepted in AWS Artifact, which also serves the SOC and ISO reports.Evidence: HIPAA eligible services reference (updated Oct 15, 2026) and compliance pages (2026-10-16)
- Features in the base rateThe pricing page says the rate includes custom vocabularies, vocabulary filtering, speaker diarization and language identification; two channels cost the same as one.Evidence: Pricing page (2026-10-16)
- Best for
- Teams already on AWS that want transcription under their existing account, IAM and BAA.
- Good to know
- Standard Transcribe stores and uses voice inputs to improve the service unless you set an AWS Organizations opt-out policy.
How Amazon Transcribe compares
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Speech-to-text APIs: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Amazon Transcribe | AssemblyAI | Speechmatics | 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. | Compliance includedTranscription in 55+ languages where your audio stays out of model training unless you opt in, with EU, US and Australian processing for every account. | 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 | 8.1 | 7.8 |
| Free option | Free trial | Free trial | Free trial | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | No card needed | No card needed | Card required |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.006/min | $0.15/hr | $0.24/hr | $0.003/min |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | 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, from credits at hourly rates; credit price falls with packs and subscriptions | 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 | $100 at sign-up, no card, valid 12 months | 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 | Melia 1 $0.40/h; Standard $0.45/h; Enhanced $0.80/h (list) | $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) | Included; real-time speaker labels on Enhanced, Standard and Linden, not Melia 1 | 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 | 55+ (pricing page); 56 for Melia 1 | 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 | Only if you opt in (33% off) | 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 | Sub-BAA through the Trust Center; plan and process not stated | 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 | EU, US and Australia regions for all customers | Chirp 3 GA in the eu multi-region |
| Self-hosted | Not offered | Streaming only, $20,000 upfront commitment | On-prem containers, virtual appliance and on-device on Enterprise | 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 (Trust Center, under NDA); ISO/IEC 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/OIDC on Enterprise, $280/month add-on | 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, Speechmatics has the strictest privacy defaults of the five: no training unless you opt in, 7-day batch retention and real-time audio not stored. Its pricing page leads with discounted rates, and redaction, SSO and on-prem are Enterprise features. | 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; Speechmatics: 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.
Score
- Pricing clarity
- 5.0 / 10, Fair
- batch rate published; streaming rate published; bought online; page says usage is billed on the tiered pricing shown, but standard batch and streaming show one flat rate; tier tables include a stray "T3 Over 1,000,000 minutes" row beside T4; page says rates vary by region; the price file lists the same rates in every region it covers; a 15-second per-request minimum appears under call summarization while the page says no minimum applies; the pricing page starts the 12-month free tier at sign-up in one place and at your first transcription request in another
- Free credit
- 4.5 / 10, Fair
- 60 free minutes a month for 12 months = 12 hours in the first 12 months; card not stated as optional; time-limited; not for PII redaction or custom language models; the AWS new-account credit is not counted
- Price for 500 hours
- 5.7 / 10, Fair
- $180/mo: Standard model, batch at $0.36/h × 500 hours; $0.006/min flat in US East; diarization included
- Transcription features
- 9.6 / 10, Excellent
- streaming included; streaming diarization included; custom vocabulary included; PII redaction paid add-on; language detection included; multichannel included; 90 batch languages (our count of distinct languages in the supported-languages table, which has 113 rows and states no total)
- Data use and retention
- 8.5 / 10, Excellent
- used for training unless you opt out; delete API or no storage by default; retention stated; DPA with the terms; voice inputs used to improve the service unless an AWS Organizations opt-out policy is set (Medical excluded); job records kept 90 days; DeleteTranscriptionJob
- Compliance and deployment
- 8.5 / 10, Excellent
- own SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA BAA online, EU region self-serve, no self-hosted option, SAML SSO on a published plan or add-on, BAA accepted in AWS Artifact; batch in six EU regions; SSO through IAM Identity Center at no extra charge
Review
Review from public pages
Written from Amazon Transcribe's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
What the public pages show
We read the Amazon Transcribe pricing page, the price file that page loads, the FAQ and landing pages, the developer guide on languages, diarization, channels, language identification, redaction, data protection, opt-out, IAM and CloudTrail, the service quotas, the AWS Service Terms, the HIPAA and compliance pages and the free tier pages on Oct 16, 2026; we did not sign up or call the API for this review. The pricing page fills in its prices from a JSON price file, so we read the numbers there and checked them against the worked examples on the page.
The rates are simple: $0.006 a minute for batch and $0.01 for streaming, flat, with the main features included. Internet Archive copies of the pricing page from Apr 9 and Jun 23, 2026 show standard pricing changing from tiers starting at $0.024 a minute to these flat rates; we found no announcement, and the rates are not labelled promotional.
Some text on the page still describes the old structure: it says usage is billed on tiered pricing and that rates vary by region, while the price file lists the same flat rates in every region it covers. A 15-second minimum appears under call summarization, and the same page starts the 12-month free tier at sign-up in one place and at your first transcription request in another.
Strengths
- Main features in the base rate
Diarization (up to 30 speakers), custom vocabularies, vocabulary filtering and language identification are included in $0.006 a minute for batch and $0.01 for streaming.
vs AssemblyAI: Deepgram and AssemblyAI charge $0.12 an hour for streaming diarization.
- Runs inside AWS
S3 input and output, IAM permissions, CloudTrail logging, PrivateLink endpoints, and FIPS endpoints in US, Canada and GovCloud regions.
- Compliance paperwork self-serve
The BAA is accepted in AWS Artifact, the DPA applies through the Service Terms, and SOC and ISO reports download from AWS Artifact.
vs Deepgram: Deepgram's BAA and DPA go through its sales team.
- PII redaction priced per minute
Transcript redaction is $0.0024 a minute for the first 250,000 minutes, batch or streaming, with lower tiers above.
vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text: Google Cloud Speech-to-Text has no PII redaction; Speechmatics offers it on Enterprise.
Things to know
- Voice inputs used by default
The Service Terms let AWS store and use content processed by Transcribe to improve the service, possibly in another region, unless you set an AWS Organizations AI services opt-out policy. Transcribe Medical is excluded.
Workaround: Set the opt-out policy in AWS Organizations before sending audio.
- Two channels at most
Transcribe does not support audio with more than two channels.
- Some pricing-page text describes older tiers
The page still says usage is billed on tiered pricing and that rates vary by region; the price file shows flat rates everywhere it lists them.
Workaround: The worked examples on the page match the flat rates.
- No self-hosted option
Transcribe runs only as an AWS service; on-prem or on-device deployment is not offered.
Pricing reality
Amazon Transcribe bills each second of audio, with no minimum, through your AWS bill. For our scenario, 500 hours of pre-recorded English with diarization and word timestamps on the standard model cost 30,000 × $0.006 = $180 a month (computed) before tax; diarization is included. Streaming is $0.01 a minute. Add-ons are tiered by monthly minutes: PII redaction $0.0024 a minute for the first 250,000 ($72 a month at our volume, computed), custom language models $0.006, toxicity detection $0.0036 and Call Analytics $0.03. Transcribe Medical is $0.075 a minute. Larger volume discounts go through AWS sales, and S3 storage for audio and transcripts is billed separately.
Exit path
Transcripts are written as JSON to your S3 bucket, or to a service-managed bucket behind links valid for 15 minutes, with SRT and WebVTT subtitles for batch. ListTranscriptionJobs covers 90 days of job records. After an account closes, the Customer Agreement keeps content retrievable for 30 days if all amounts are paid.
Compared with
- 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.
- Pick Amazon Transcribe when
- You want streaming diarization included and a BAA accepted in AWS Artifact.
- Pick Deepgram when
- You want a lower batch price ($129 against $180 a month for 500 hours, computed), a $200 credit and self-hosting.
- 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.
Choose it if
- You already run on AWS and want transcription under the same account, IAM and BAA.
- You want diarization and custom vocabulary in the base rate for batch and streaming.
- You need PII redaction priced per minute.
Look elsewhere if
- You need more than two channels per file.
- You need self-hosted or on-device transcription.
- You want audio kept out of training without setting an organization policy.
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.
Plan limits at a glance
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per second, no minimum; two channels at no extra charge |
| Free credit | 60 minutes a month for 12 months |
| Streaming rate | $0.01/min ($0.60/h) |
| Diarization | Included in batch and streaming, up to 30 speakers |
| Languages | About 90 languages across 113 language rows (our count) |
| Training on your audio | By default; opt out with an AWS Organizations policy |
| Retention | Job records 90 days; output in your S3 bucket |
| HIPAA BAA | Accepted in AWS Artifact |
| EU processing | Six EU regions for batch, four for streaming |
| Self-hosted | Not offered |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 1, 2 and 3 and ISO 27001 (AWS Artifact) |
| Console SSO | IAM Identity Center, no extra charge |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Amazon Transcribe yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Amazon Transcribe yet.
Amazon Transcribe lists 6 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Standard batch (US East), costs $0.006/min.
- Amazon TranscribeFreeFree tier$0/mo60 minutes a month for 12 months
- Separate 60 minutes for Call Analytics and Medical
- Not for PII redaction or custom language models
- Amazon TranscribeStandard batch$0.006/minFlat, US East; billed per second
- Diarization, custom vocabulary and language identification included
- Up to two channels included
- SRT and WebVTT subtitles
- Amazon TranscribeStandard streaming$0.01/minFlat, US East
- HTTP/2 and WebSocket
- Diarization included
- Amazon TranscribePII redaction add-on$0.0024/minFirst 250,000 min a month; $0.0015, $0.00102 and $0.00078 above
- Batch and streaming
- Amazon TranscribeCustom language model add-on$0.006/minFirst 250,000 min a month; lower tiers above
- Five batch languages, US English streaming
- Amazon TranscribeTranscribe Medical$0.075/minBatch and streaming, US English
- Not used to improve the service
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: aws.amazon.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.