OpenAI vs Deepgram
Default scenario: At 1,000 audio hours / month, estimated bills are $3,096/yr for Deepgram and $3,240/yr for OpenAI. That’s a $144 difference before accounting for different features or operating costs.
The services may differ in features, performance, support and the work you need to do yourself. Read the notes and test what matters to your setup.
Your selected usage
1,000 audio hours / month
- OpenAI: $3,240/yr estimated
- Deepgram: $3,096/yr estimated
Estimated costs at different usage levels
| Usage | OpenAI | Deepgram |
|---|---|---|
| Default scenario1,000 audio hours / month | $3,240/yr$0.27/hour | $3,096/yr$0.258/hour |
| Podcast / media500 audio hours / month | $1,620/yr$0.27/hour | $1,548/yr$0.258/hour |
| Call center10,000 audio hours / month | $32,400/yr$0.27/hour | $30,960/yr$0.258/hour |
| Meeting-notes SaaS100,000 audio hours / month | $324,000/yr$0.27/hour | $309,600/yr$0.258/hour |
Pre-recorded audio, standard model, English. Real-time streaming, diarization and other add-ons often cost extra. Accuracy varies by language and audio quality. Try your own numbers against all speech-to-text providers.
Side by side
| OpenAI | Deepgram | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | OpenAI's transcription API (gpt-transcribe, gpt-4o-transcribe, whisper-1), billed per audio minute or token. US company; EU residency is sales-gated. | US speech AI vendor with Nova-3 pre-recorded and Flux/Nova-3 streaming STT, pay-as-you-go with no minimums; EU endpoint available. |
| Headquarters | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Parent jurisdiction | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| EU self-serve plan | No / not documented | Available; check eligible plans and regions |
| GDPR DPA | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | payg | payg |
| Free tier | — | $200 one-time sign-up credit, no card required. |
| Open source | No | No |
| Source last checked | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 |
| Pricing evidence | Estimated rates | Published rates |
Which should you choose?
Deepgram has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 100 audio hours / month to 100,000 audio hours / month.
Choose OpenAI if…
Our data shows no advantage on price, residency, jurisdiction or licensing. Compare features in the notes below.
Choose Deepgram if…
- it has the lower estimated bill at Podcast / media, Call center and Meeting-notes SaaS usage
- you want to start free ($200 one-time sign-up credit, no card required)
- you need EU data residency on a self-serve plan
Based on estimated list-price bills and the facts above. Features, performance and support aren’t scored.
OpenAI pricing
At least one rate is approximate or not on a published rate card. Confirm with the vendor. Token-billed transcription uses the vendor's estimated per-minute cost, not a fixed hourly rate.
| Audio hour |
|---|
| $0.27 |
gpt-transcribe (current flagship file-transcription model) is listed at an estimated $0.0045/min ($0.27/hour). Older and cheaper options: gpt-4o-transcribe $0.006/min ($0.36/hour; $2.50 in / $10 out per 1M tokens), gpt-4o-mini-transcribe $0.003/min ($0.18/hour; $1.25/$5 per 1M tokens), whisper-1 $0.006/min ($0.36/hour). Token-billed models are priced per token, so the per-minute figure is OpenAI's estimate. Live transcription (gpt-live-transcribe, gpt-realtime-whisper) $0.017/min ($1.02/hour). No free tier. Data residency in Europe (EEA + Switzerland, audio endpoints included) requires sales approval, abuse-monitoring controls and a Modified Retention amendment, and adds a 10% uplift on models released after March 5, 2026. DPA available. The original Whisper model weights are open source (MIT), but the API models are not.
OpenAI plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Deepgram pricing
Calculated from the listed vendor rates; exclusions still apply.
| Audio hour |
|---|
| $0.258 |
Nova-3 monolingual pre-recorded $0.0043/min ($0.258/hour) pay-as-you-go; Nova-3 multilingual $0.0052/min; Whisper Large $0.0048/min. Growth plan ($4K+/year prepaid credits) lowers Nova-3 pre-recorded to $0.0036/min ($0.216/hour). Streaming: Nova-3 $0.0048/min promotional (regular $0.0077), Flux English (voice-agent model with turn detection) $0.0065/min promotional (regular $0.0077), Flux Multilingual $0.0078/min. Diarization and smart formatting included for pre-recorded; redaction $0.0020/min, keyterm prompting $0.0013/min, entity detection $0.0017/min. No minimums. EU endpoint (api.eu.deepgram.com, EU AWS regions) is generally available with the same API keys, Whisper excluded. Self-hosted deployment on enterprise contracts.
Deepgram plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenAI cheaper than Deepgram?
Deepgram has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 100 audio hours / month to 100,000 audio hours / month. At 1,000 audio hours / month, the estimates are $3,240/yr for OpenAI and $3,096/yr for Deepgram. Estimates use list prices and leave out features, support and operating costs.
Do OpenAI and Deepgram offer EU data residency?
Deepgram offers EU data residency on a self-serve plan. OpenAI doesn’t document it on a self-serve plan.
Do OpenAI and Deepgram have a free tier or trial?
Deepgram: $200 one-time sign-up credit, no card required. OpenAI has no free tier or trial in our data.
Where are OpenAI and Deepgram based?
OpenAI is headquartered in the United States. Deepgram is headquartered in the United States.