{"id":"speech-to-text","slug":"speech-to-text","name":"Speech-to-text / transcription","shortName":"Speech-to-text / transcription","problemStatement":"Transcribe audio for agents.","whenNotTopPick":"Already all-in on OpenAI and Whisper quality/latency is fine — openai-media; need richest audio-intelligence features (summaries/PII) — AssemblyAI; ultra-cheap batch Whisper on Groq LPU — groq.","categoryIds":["cat-media-gen","cat-inference-apis"],"depotPickProviderId":"deepgram","depotPickRationale":"Blunt: openai-media was the Round-1 convenience pick before Deepgram entered the catalog. Deepgram wins production STT on $/min + streaming agent DX (Nova-3 / Flux). Keep openai-media only when you refuse a second vendor. Aligns with production-stt.","runnersUpIds":["assemblyai","openai-media","groq","speechmatics","gladia"],"weights":{"capabilityFit":0.25,"pricePerformance":0.18,"latencyReliability":0.15,"developerDx":0.15,"privacyPosture":0.1,"lockInRisk":0.07,"maturity":0.1},"methodologyNotes":"Blunt: openai-media was the Round-1 convenience pick before Deepgram entered the catalog. Deepgram wins production STT on $/min + streaming agent DX (Nova-3 / Flux). Keep openai-media only when you refuse a second vendor. Aligns with production-stt.","tags":["speech"],"depth":{"whenNotToUse":{"text":"Already all-in on OpenAI and Whisper quality/latency is fine — openai-media; need richest audio-intelligence features (summaries/PII) — AssemblyAI; ultra-cheap batch Whisper on Groq LPU — groq.","source":"editorial `whenNotTopPick` (data/jtbds.json)"},"whenNotToUseReason":null,"runnerUp":{"providerId":"assemblyai","name":"AssemblyAI","overallForJob":8.11,"pickOverallForJob":8.5,"beatsPickOn":["developerDx"],"source":"first resolvable entry of the job's editorially ranked `runnersUpIds`; scores are stored job-weighted scores"},"runnerUpReason":null,"lockIn":{"pickLockInRisk":4,"runnerUpLockInRisk":4.2,"scale":"0–10 stored curated estimate; higher = more lock-in (worse)","pickExitSignals":[],"runnerUpExitSignals":[],"pickNotes":[],"selfHostFallback":[{"id":"openai-whisper","name":"OpenAI Whisper","license":"MIT","sourceUrl":"https://github.com/openai/whisper/blob/main/LICENSE"},{"id":"whisper-cpp","name":"whisper.cpp","license":"MIT","sourceUrl":"https://github.com/ggml-org/whisper.cpp/blob/master/LICENSE"}],"migration":"The pick has lower stored lock-in risk than runner-up AssemblyAI (4 vs 4.2). Self-host fallback listed for this job: OpenAI Whisper, whisper.cpp.","migrationReason":null,"derivedFrom":"stored lockInRisk scores, provider tags (oss, self-host, openai-compat, open-models), free rows that list this job, and verbatim provider notes. No migration guide was invented."}},"freshness":{"pick":{"score":{"asOf":"2026-10-19","ageDays":8,"stale":false,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"lastReviewed":{"asOf":"2026-10-19","ageDays":8,"stale":false,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"sourceCheck":{"checkedAt":"2026-10-27","sourceUrls":3,"sourcesReachable":3,"pricingRows":6,"pricingRowsReconfirmed":2,"note":"A source re-check confirms the page is reachable and, for pricing rows, that the stored amount and SKU name appear on it. It does not re-derive or change the score.","reason":null}}},"depotPick":{"id":"deepgram","slug":"deepgram","name":"Deepgram","tagline":"Default STT and strong voice-agent platform. Standard Flux TTS / Voice Agent rates live since 2026-09-15…","overall":8.5},"runnersUp":[{"id":"assemblyai","slug":"assemblyai","name":"AssemblyAI","tagline":"Great when you need STT + audio intelligence features. Deepgram usually wins raw $/min STT.","overall":8.11},{"id":"openai-media","slug":"openai-media","name":"OpenAI Media (Images/Audio)","tagline":"Convenient if you're already on OpenAI. For best image variety/cost, keep Fal in the toolkit.","overall":8.15},{"id":"groq","slug":"groq","name":"Groq","tagline":"Use when latency is the product. Do not build your whole company on one Groq model SKU — they rotate.","overall":7.95},{"id":"speechmatics","slug":"speechmatics","name":"Speechmatics","tagline":"Depot pick for multilingual/production STT beyond English-first stacks. Deepgram remains default $/min…","overall":8.24},{"id":"gladia","slug":"gladia","name":"Gladia","tagline":"EU multilingual STT with a now-pinned official $/hr card. Speechmatics remains Depot multilingual pick…","overall":7.94}]}