Speech is Cheap is an AssemblyAI alternative for developers processing recorded audio. The $20 monthly plan includes 21,600 minutes of base transcription. Build for recurring volume with long recordings, sound labels and progress streaming. Use AssemblyAI when you need live audio ingestion or specific enterprise requirements.
21,600 Audio Minutes per Month
$20
Speech is Cheap subscription, base transcription
Lower recurring costs and more useful output from each recording.
At 21,600 minutes per month, base transcription costs $20.00 on our subscription and $54.00 on AssemblyAI Universal-2. That saves $34.00, about 63%. Use the calculator below to include the add-ons your application needs.
Speech is Cheap Pricing ; AssemblyAI PricingSubmit a compatible recording up to 1,440 minutes long without writing your own file-splitting and transcript-stitching logic. AssemblyAI's documented limit is 600 minutes. Direct uploads support files under 2 GiB.
Speech is Cheap Product Facts ; AssemblyAI File Size and Duration LimitsLabel Audio adds structured sound labels to your transcript. Progress SSE helps your app show that a long recording is moving forward, then display segments in chronological order.
Speech is Cheap Job RequestsLive captioning and voice agents need real-time audio ingestion, which AssemblyAI offers.
AssemblyAI PricingProcurement can use its published security and contractual documentation, including EU residency.
AssemblyAI SecurityIncluded word timestamps and low-cost diarization can make smaller structured-output workloads cheaper.
AssemblyAI PricingCompare base transcription and the add-ons your product needs.
| Audio Volume | Speech is Cheap PAYG | Speech is Cheap Subscription | AssemblyAI Universal-2 | AssemblyAI Universal-3.5 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,500 minutes | $25.00 | $20.00 | $31.25 | $43.75 |
| 25,000 minutes | $50.00 | $23.15 | $62.50 | $87.50 |
| 50,000 minutes | $100.00 | $46.30 | $125.00 | $175.00 |
| 100,000 minutes | $200.00 | $92.60 | $250.00 | $350.00 |
| Audio and Features | Speech is Cheap PAYG | Speech is Cheap Subscription | AssemblyAI Universal-2 | AssemblyAI Universal-3.5 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,500 minutes + words | $37.50 | $26.25 | $31.25 | $43.75 |
| 12,500 minutes + speakers | $50.00 | $32.50 | $35.42 | $47.92 |
| 12,500 minutes + both | $62.50 | $38.75 | $35.42 | $47.92 |
| 25,000 minutes + words | $75.00 | $35.65 | $62.50 | $87.50 |
| 25,000 minutes + speakers | $100.00 | $48.15 | $70.83 | $95.83 |
| 25,000 minutes + both | $125.00 | $60.65 | $70.83 | $95.83 |
| 50,000 minutes + words | $150.00 | $71.30 | $125.00 | $175.00 |
| 50,000 minutes + speakers | $200.00 | $96.30 | $141.67 | $191.67 |
| 50,000 minutes + both | $250.00 | $121.30 | $141.67 | $191.67 |
| 100,000 minutes + words | $300.00 | $142.60 | $250.00 | $350.00 |
| 100,000 minutes + speakers | $400.00 | $192.60 | $283.33 | $383.33 |
| 100,000 minutes + both | $500.00 | $242.60 | $283.33 | $383.33 |
Choose your volume and add-ons. Each step doubles the audio minutes.
$92.60
per month
$200.00
per month
$250.00
per month
$350.00
per month
-- means no verified price for the selected feature combination in the tables and calculator.
Put long recordings, sound labels and progress updates to work in your app.
| Compare | Speech is Cheap | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
| Audio Input | Recorded audio and video. Progress SSE returns results for an existing recording. Speech is Cheap Job Requests | Recorded transcription plus separate real-time and voice-agent products. AssemblyAI Pricing |
| File Limits | 0.1 to 1,440 minutes per recording. Direct uploads: under 2 GiB. Speech is Cheap Product Facts | Up to 600 minutes and approximately 4.66 GiB per transcript request. Direct uploads: approximately 2.05 GiB. AssemblyAI File Size and Duration Limits |
| Languages | 100 supported languages; optional detection per speech segment. Speech is Cheap Product Facts ; Speech is Cheap Job Requests | 99 with Universal-2; 18 with Universal-3.5 Pro. Default selection can fall back to Universal-2. AssemblyAI Model Selection |
| Outputs | JSON, SRT and VTT. Word timestamps and voice-based speaker labels are paid add-ons. Speech is Cheap Job Responses ; Speech is Cheap Pricing | JSON, word timestamps, SRT and VTT. Speaker labels are an optional add-on. AssemblyAI Transcript Responses ; AssemblyAI Transcript Export Options ; AssemblyAI Pricing |
| Integration | URL or multipart upload, REST, polling, completion webhooks and progress SSE. Speech is Cheap Job Requests ; Speech is Cheap Job Responses | URL or upload, REST, Python/JavaScript SDKs, polling and completion webhooks. AssemblyAI Transcript Requests ; AssemblyAI Webhooks |
| Audio Labels | Label Audio adds a structured label to each segment, including music and silence. Non-speech sounds appear as caption cues in SRT and VTT. Speech is Cheap Job Requests ; Speech is Cheap Pricing | Documents prompted audio tagging in its streaming product. A matching structured segment-label option is not verified for the two recorded models priced here. AssemblyAI Audio Tagging ; AssemblyAI Transcript Requests ; AssemblyAI Transcript Responses |
| Progress While Processing | Progress updates and chronological transcript segments over SSE from the same recorded job. Speech is Cheap Job Requests | Recorded jobs use polling or completion webhooks. Its separate streaming API accepts recorded files paced in real time. AssemblyAI Webhooks ; AssemblyAI Streaming Recorded Files |
| Support | Initial email response within one business day for subscribers, three for pay as you go. Resolution time is not guaranteed. Speech is Cheap Service Commitments | Developer documentation and support; custom commercial arrangements are available. Confirm support terms for your plan. AssemblyAI Billing and Pricing ; AssemblyAI Pricing |
Use public timing data to plan your recording workflow.
Speech is Cheap's public Benchmarks lets you inspect processing times by recording length and selected add-ons, with sample counts. Use those cohorts to evaluate the kind of audio your product processes.
Submit a recording, wait for completion and consume its transcript. Use the API mapping to build your integration.
| Compare | AssemblyAI | Speech is Cheap |
|---|---|---|
| Submit | POST /v2/transcript audio_url Authorization: KEYAssemblyAI Transcript Requests | POST <api|upload>/v2/jobs/ api: JSON input_url upload: multipart input_file Authorization: Bearer KEYSpeech is Cheap Job Requests |
| Speaker Labels | speaker_labels: true utterances[].speaker words[].speakerAssemblyAI Transcript Requests ; AssemblyAI Transcript Responses | can_parse_speakers: true output.segments[].speaker_idSpeech is Cheap Job Requests |
| Word Timing | words[].start / end Milliseconds; includedAssemblyAI Transcript Responses | can_parse_words: true output.segments[].words[] start / end in secondsSpeech is Cheap Job Requests |
| Status and Text | queued / processing completed / error text, words[]AssemblyAI Transcript Responses | PENDING / COMPLETED / FAILED CANCELED / UNKNOWN output.segments[].textSpeech is Cheap Job Responses |
| Completion | Webhook: transcript_id, status Then GET /v2/transcript/:idAssemblyAI Webhooks | Webhook: job output Poll GET /v2/jobs/:id Or monitor progress SSE: can_stream_output: trueSpeech is Cheap Job Requests ; Speech is Cheap Job Responses |
api means https://api.speechischeap.com with JSON input_url. upload means https://upload.speechischeap.com with multipart input_file.
A successful upload always returns an SSE stream with text/event-stream, even with can_stream_output: false. In that mode, the final event contains the asynchronous job response.
curl --request POST \
--url https://api.speechischeap.com/v2/jobs/ \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer KEY' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
"input_url": "https://example.com/recording.mp3",
"webhook_url": "https://your-domain.com/transcription-webhook",
"can_parse_speakers": true,
"can_parse_words": true
}'Example request. Replace the URLs and API key. Both add-ons are billed.
Update your status handling and output parser, including failure and cancellation paths. Convert milliseconds to seconds where needed. Check speaker IDs and word timing against the recording before switching production traffic.
Speech is Cheap results are retrievable by job ID. Treat those IDs as sensitive. Review retention and private mode before migrating; canceling a pending job is different from deleting a completed transcript.
Existing language or prompting settings do not transfer automatically. Use the language list and request reference to check each feature you currently enable.
A Production Migration
Metacast
Metacast's result versus its previous, unnamed provider
Podcast Transcription
When Metacast's previous provider stopped completing transcription jobs, its team moved production to Speech is Cheap over a weekend. The new API became its primary transcription engine.
Read the Case Study"It's now our primary transcription engine."
Start with your monthly minutes and the features your product uses. The $20 subscription includes 21,600 base minutes, followed by $0.000926 per extra minute. Add-ons cost half their PAYG rates. Use the calculator above to compare the full bill at your volume.
Try a representative recording in the free browser demo, then check the words, speaker labels and timestamps your application needs. The demo accepts 6 seconds to 3 minutes and up to 10 MiB without an account or card. Compare accuracy on the same audio.
Speech is Cheap keeps JSON segment and word timestamps in seconds and groups transcript content under output.segments. Use the mapping above to connect request fields, status handling and your output parser. You can receive the finished output in a webhook or monitor progress and chronological segments over SSE.
Yes. Enable Label Audio to receive a label on each JSON segment. In SRT and VTT, non-speech sounds become cues such as [music]; silence is an empty string. This gives your caption workflow sound information alongside the spoken words.
The linked sources support the prices, product boundaries and migration details on this page.
AssemblyAI reports about 9 seconds at the median and 60 seconds at p95 for a five-minute English recording on Universal-3.5 Pro. Those figures and our production cohorts use different inputs and measurement boundaries, so they do not establish a head-to-head speed result.
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Select Subscription or PAYG on the pricing page. Check included minutes, overage and add-ons for the workload you compared above.
All prices are in USD. Examples use single-channel, whole-minute files of up to 60 minutes, with selected features on every file. Both providers therefore bill the same audio duration in these examples.
Speech is Cheap pay as you go costs $0.002 per billed minute. The subscription costs $20 per month for 21,600 base minutes, then $0.000926 per extra minute. Unused included minutes expire each month.
Parse Words adds $0.001 per PAYG minute or $0.0005 on subscription. Parse Speakers adds $0.002 or $0.001, respectively. Label Audio adds $0.0002 per PAYG minute or $0.0001 on subscription. All enabled add-ons are billed on every job minute, including minutes covered by the base allowance.
Speech is Cheap rounds each file up to the next whole minute, for base transcription and enabled add-ons. AssemblyAI prorates recorded audio to the second. For example, a six-second base-only file costs $0.0020 on our pay-as-you-go plan and $0.00025 on Universal-2. Partial-minute files increase Speech is Cheap billed minutes.
Our subscription calculation is the monthly fee + minutes beyond the allowance × overage rate + all enabled-job minutes × add-on rates. Pay as you go is billed minutes × base and selected add-on rates. AssemblyAI is audio minutes × the selected model and add-on rates. Totals are rounded to cents for display.
These are standard-rate estimates, not a promise of equal output quality. They exclude tax, trial credits, negotiated discounts, multichannel billing, prompting and other unselected features. Paid Speech is Cheap API access requires a payment method. The browser demo requires neither an account nor a card.
AssemblyAI publishes hourly rates of $0.15 for Universal-2 and $0.21 for Universal-3.5 Pro, both with word timing included. Speaker diarization adds $0.02 per hour. We divide the exact rates by 60 for minute calculations. Its 2.2 GB upload limit and 5 GB request limit use decimal units, equivalent to approximately 2.05 GiB and 4.66 GiB. One GiB is 1,073,741,824 bytes.
AssemblyAI documents audio tagging for streaming. A matching structured sound-label option and price have not been verified for its recorded models.
AssemblyAI Billing and Pricing ; AssemblyAI Pricing ; AssemblyAI File Size and Duration Limits ; Speech is Cheap Pricing See All Speech is Cheap Prices