AssemblyAI
situationalSpeech-to-text and voice-agent APIs — Universal-3.5 Pro, streaming billed on socket time.
Visit assemblyai.com →> **AssemblyAI** — situational > Verified 2026-08-24 > Limitation: Streaming bills session duration, not speech duration — leaving a socket open is a bill. > > https://noemium.com/tools/assemblyai/Add to kitOpen in NoemiumFact-check this catalog entry for AssemblyAI (audio). Verdict: situational Verdict text: A real STT rate card, not a homepage teaser. Async Pro is $0.21/hr; streaming Pro is $0.45/hr on WebSocket open time (idle counts). Voice Agent is $4.50/hr bundled. EU region is the same price. $50 credits get you a prototype. Not Deepgram, not Whisper on your GPU. Limitations: - Streaming bills session duration, not speech duration — leaving a socket open is a bill. - Multichannel audio is billed per channel (stereo = 2×). - Add-ons stack on the base rate; diarization/PII/medical are extra meters. - Free-tier streaming concurrency is 5 new streams/min vs 100 on pay-as-you-go. Receipts: https://www.assemblyai.com/pricing https://www.assemblyai.com/docs Last verified: 2026-08-24 Find outdated prices, wrong claims, or missing limitations. Cite primary sources (docs, pricing pages, benchmarks, model cards). Do not use marketing pages.[](https://noemium.com/tools/assemblyai/)
ledger entry · observed by @whysanesanders
A real STT rate card, not a homepage teaser. Async Pro is $0.21/hr; streaming Pro is $0.45/hr on WebSocket open time (idle counts). Voice Agent is $4.50/hr bundled. EU region is the same price. $50 credits get you a prototype. Not Deepgram, not Whisper on your GPU.
Strengths
- Transparent per-hour rate card ($0.21 async / $0.45 streaming / $4.50 voice agent).
- $50 free credits let you prototype without a card.
- Voice Agent API bundles everything at one hourly rate.
Known limitations
- Streaming bills session duration, not speech duration — leaving a socket open is a bill.
- Multichannel audio is billed per channel (stereo = 2×).
- Add-ons stack on the base rate; diarization/PII/medical are extra meters.
- Free-tier streaming concurrency is 5 new streams/min vs 100 on pay-as-you-go.
Use it when
- Prototyping STT or voice agents on the $50 credit pool.
- Async transcription jobs where per-hour cost is the main metric.
- Real-time streaming when you can tolerate session-duration billing.
Skip it when
- You need streaming billed by speech time, not idle WebSocket time.
- Multichannel audio would multiply the hourly rate beyond budget.
- Free-tier streaming concurrency (5 streams/min) would be the production path.
Buy-check
- ·Price — freemium, $50 free credits (no card); Universal-3.5 Pro $0.21/hr async / $0.45/hr streaming; Voice Agent API $4.50/hr all-in; add-ons stack as of 2026-08-24. Open the pricing page, not a screenshot.
- ·Free tier — Free tier exists — burn it first.
- ·Cancel fallout — What happens to your data/projects on cancel — check the ToS, not the FAQ.
- ·Seat math — Per-seat pricing multiplies quietly. Count seats before the annual plan.
- ·Who skips it — Also skipped when: You need streaming billed by speech time, not idle WebSocket time.; Multichannel audio would multiply the hourly rate beyond budget..
Price trailchangelog →
No price move in this repo yet.
Facts
- pricing
- freemium1
- price note
- $50 free credits (no card); Universal-3.5 Pro $0.21/hr async / $0.45/hr streaming; Voice Agent API $4.50/hr all-in; add-ons stack
- free tier
- yes
- open source
- no
- api
- yes
- self-host
- no
- category
- audio
- evidence
- source-verified
- Models
- bundled
Sources
No source, no number.
Similar joball alternatives →
| tool | verdict | price | oss | self-host |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AssemblyAI | situational | freemium | no | no |
| Deepgram | ship | freemium | no | no |
| ElevenLabs | ship | freemium | no | no |
| Suno | ship | freemium | no | no |
Facts from the catalog files — not scores you can buy. Quality and speed stay in the briefing, not in a fake 1–5 grid.
Deepgram
Speech-to-text API built for developers — fast, cheap, real-time.
APIFREE TIER
freemium$200 free credits; Nova-3 STT from $0.0048/min (promo)
ElevenLabsanchor
The reference standard for AI voice — TTS, cloning, dubbing and voice agents.
APIFREE TIER
freemiumfree tier (10k credits/mo, non-commercial); Starter $6/mo, Creator $22/mo
Suno
Full-song generation — vocals, lyrics, arrangement — from a text prompt.
FREE TIER
freemiumfree tier (10 songs/day, non-commercial); Pro $10/mo, Premier $30/mo