AssemblyAI
US speech AI API with Universal-3.5 Pro pre-recorded and Universal streaming models, pay-as-you-go; EU endpoint in Dublin.
Universal-3.5 Pro costs $0.21/hour and Universal-2 $0.15/hour. Speaker diarization adds $0.02/hour, and medical mode adds $0.15/hour. Multichannel audio is billed for each channel, so a stereo call may cost more than its duration suggests. Use the Dublin EU endpoint if audio and transcripts need to stay in the EU.
- Headquarters
- 馃嚭馃嚫 United States
- Parent jurisdiction
- 馃嚭馃嚫 United States
- EU self-serve plan
- Available; check eligible plans and regions
- GDPR DPA
- Yes
- Billing
- payg
- Free tier
- One-time free credits (up to 185 hours pre-recorded), no card required.
- Open source
- No
- Website
- www.assemblyai.com
- Source last checked
- 2026-10-06
- Pricing evidence
- Published rates
Pricing
Calculated from the listed vendor rates; exclusions still apply. How to read these estimates.
| Audio hour |
|---|
| $0.21 |
Allowances, plan limits & calculation details
Rates are shown at their recorded precision. A zero means no charge in this calculation; the vendor may charge for things we leave out. See the notes for usage assumptions and currency conversions.
- Base fee / month
- $0
- Included audio hours / month
- 0
- Audio hour
- $0.21
Universal-3.5 Pro (most accurate pre-recorded model, 18 languages) $0.21/hour; Universal-2 (99 languages) $0.15/hour. Add-ons on Universal-3.5 Pro: speaker diarization $0.02/hour, keyterms prompting $0.05/hour, prompting $0.05/hour, medical mode $0.15/hour. Streaming: Universal-Streaming (English or multilingual) $0.15/hour, Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime $0.45/hour; streaming diarization and PII redaction $0.12/hour each. Sync API (clips up to 2 minutes) $0.30/hour. Multichannel audio billed per channel. Billed monthly in arrears, no minimum commitment; volume discounts on request. EU endpoint (api.eu.assemblyai.com, AWS eu-west-1 Dublin) keeps audio and transcripts in the EU.
Managed alternatives
At 1,000 audio hours / month. Adjust usage and requirements.
AssemblyAI: $2,520/yr estimated.
- DeepInfra: $324/yr estimated 路 $2,196/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Groq: $1,332/yr estimated 路 $1,188/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Azure AI Speech: $2,160/yr estimated 路 $360/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Mistral AI (Voxtral): $2,160/yr estimated 路 $360/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Rev.ai: $2,400/yr estimated 路 $120/yr bill differencePublished rates
No cheaper managed estimate matches your filters. Adjust your usage or compare with your actual contract bill.
The price difference leaves out migration costs, operating costs and any features you鈥檇 need to replace.
Self-hosted options
Operating cost is not estimated. These options are not counted as savings against managed services.
Want a European-owned provider? See European alternatives to AssemblyAI among european speech-to-text providers.
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