Azure AI Speech
Microsoft Azure speech-to-text with cheap batch transcription, pricier real-time and fast modes, and commitment tiers; EU regions available.
Batch transcription is the cheap path here at $0.18/hour, matching Mistral's batch rate, while real-time standard transcription costs $1.00/hour and fast transcription $0.36/hour. That split suits Microsoft-based teams with bulk or overnight workloads; heavy real-time users can buy commitment tiers starting at 2,000 hours for $1,600/month. Diarization is an enhanced add-on at $0.30/hour, and the free F0 tier covers real-time transcription only, not batch.
- Headquarters
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Parent jurisdiction
- 🇺🇸 United States (parent: Microsoft)
- EU self-serve plan
- Available; check eligible plans and regions
- GDPR DPA
- Yes
- Billing
- payg
- Free tier
- Free F0 tier: 5 audio hours/month of real-time transcription (batch not supported).
- Open source
- No
- Website
- azure.microsoft.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 |
|---|
| $0.18 |
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
- $0.18
Batch transcription (standard model, REST API) $0.18/hour. Real-time standard transcription $1.00/hour; fast transcription (synchronous file API) $0.36/hour; custom models $1.20/hour real-time, $0.225/hour batch, plus $0.0538/hour endpoint hosting. Enhanced add-on features (diarization, continuous language ID) $0.30/hour. Commitment tiers for real-time standard STT: 2,000 h $1,600/month (overage $0.80/h), 10,000 h $6,500 ($0.65), 50,000 h $25,000 ($0.50), 100,000 h $40,000 ($0.40). Billed per second. Prices from the Azure retail prices API (East US; West Europe identical), since the pricing page renders them client-side. MAI Transcribe models are listed separately on the pricing page. Deployable in EU regions; Microsoft Products and Services DPA applies.
Managed alternatives
At 1,000 audio hours / month. Adjust usage and requirements.
Azure AI Speech: $2,160/yr estimated.
- DeepInfra: $324/yr estimated · $1,836/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Groq: $1,332/yr estimated · $828/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’d 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 Azure AI Speech among european speech-to-text providers.
Other speech-to-text comparisons
Found a wrong rate or plan restriction? Report a correction with a current source.