European speech-to-text providers
3 of the 14 speech-to-text services we track have a parent company in Europe: Gladia, Mistral AI (Voxtral) and Speechmatics. At 1,000 audio hours / month, the lowest European estimate is $2,160/yr for Mistral AI (Voxtral), against $324/yr for the cheapest US-owned option, DeepInfra. All of them offer EU data residency on a self-serve plan.
The median estimate is $2,880/yr across European services and $2,574/yr across US-owned ones, at the same usage.
“European” means the ultimate parent company is in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland. That describes ownership, not where your data is stored or every law that applies. How we define jurisdiction.
European speech-to-text services by estimated bill
| Service | Parent company in | EU residency (self-serve) | Est. yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral AI (Voxtral)Mistral's Voxtral Transcribe 2 speech-to-text API with diarization included, from a French company hosting in the EU. | 🇫🇷 France | Yes | $2,160/yr$0.18/hourPublished rates |
| SpeechmaticsUK speech recognition vendor with Melia 1 multilingual, Enhanced and Standard models; choice of EU, US or Australia processing. | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Yes | $2,880/yr$0.24/hourPublished rates |
| GladiaFrench speech-to-text API (Solaria models) with async and real-time transcription, diarization included, and EU hosting by default. | 🇫🇷 France | Yes | $7,320/yr$0.61/hourPublished rates |
At 1,000 audio hours / month. Pre-recorded audio, standard model, English. Real-time streaming, diarization and other add-ons often cost extra. Accuracy varies by language and audio quality. Sources last checked 2026-10-06. Change the usage to see bills for your workload.
European alternatives to US services
- Deepgram ($3,096/yr): Mistral AI (Voxtral) is estimated at $2,160/yr, $936/yr less.
- Amazon Transcribe ($4,320/yr): Mistral AI (Voxtral) is estimated at $2,160/yr, $2,160/yr less.
- OpenAI ($3,240/yr): Mistral AI (Voxtral) is estimated at $2,160/yr, $1,080/yr less.
- AssemblyAI ($2,520/yr): Mistral AI (Voxtral) is estimated at $2,160/yr, $360/yr less.
Bills leave out features, performance, support and migration work. Check the provider notes before you switch.
US-owned services with EU data residency
These offer EU data residency on a self-serve plan, but their parent company is in the US.
- Amazon Transcribe — AWS speech-to-text with batch and streaming APIs, per-second billing, diarization included; runs in several EU regions.
- AssemblyAI — US speech AI API with Universal-3.5 Pro pre-recorded and Universal streaming models, pay-as-you-go; EU endpoint in Dublin.
- Azure AI Speech — Microsoft Azure speech-to-text with cheap batch transcription, pricier real-time and fast modes, and commitment tiers; EU regions available.
- Deepgram — 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.
- Google Cloud Speech-to-Text — Google Cloud's Speech-to-Text V2 API with Chirp models, volume tiers and a cheaper dynamic batch mode; EU regions available.