AssemblyAI vs Gladia
AssemblyAI
assemblyai.com
Gladia
gladia.ioSide by side
| Figure | AssemblyAI | Gladia |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.15/mo | $0.20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 13 | 7 |
| Spec score · Transcription Software | 8.8 (#8) | 8.9 (#6) |
| Spec score · Speech Recognition Software | 8.8 (#8) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · AI transcription tools | 8.7 (#13) | 8.8 (#11) |
| Spec score · Audio Transcription Software | 8.8 (#10) | 8.9 (#7) |
| Spec score · Speech-to-Text Software | 8.8 (#10) | 8.9 (#6) |
| Spec score · Transcription tools | 8.8 (#11) | 9.0 (#5) |
| API access | Yes | Yes |
| Compliance | AssemblyAI maintains an annually audited SOC 2 Type 2 report and conducts annual third-party penetration tests. | The company lists GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, and ISO 27001 among its compliance credentials. |
| Export formats | SRT,VTT | SRT,VTT |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Integrations | Official integrations include LiveKit, Pipecat, OpenRouter, Zapier, Make, n8n, Postman, Recall.ai, Zoom RTMS, Telnyx, Twilio, Amazon Connect, Genesys Cloud, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, Power Automate, Semantic Kernel, Cloudflare, Bubble, Pipedream, and Drupal. | The site names Pipecat, LiveKit, Twilio, and Retell integrations, plus Zapier, Make, and n8n connectors. |
| Languages supported | 99 | 100 |
| Security | AssemblyAI offers TLS 1.2+ encryption in transit, AES-256 encryption at rest, zero data retention, and an opt-out from model training. | The Compliance Hub says customer data is not used for model training by default and describes encryption at rest and in transit. |
| Speaker identification | Yes | Yes |
| Timestamp support | Yes | Yes |
Plans
AssemblyAI
- Free creditsFree
- Pay as you go — Universal-2$0.15 a month
- Pay as you go — Universal-3.5 Pro$0.21 a month
- Pay as you go — Universal-Streaming$0.15 a month
- Pay as you go — Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime$0.45 a month
- Free tierFree
- Universal-2$0.15 a month
- Universal-Streaming$0.15 a month
- Universal-Streaming Multilingual$0.15 a month
- Universal-3.5 Pro$0.21 a month
Gladia
- Starter - asynchronous$0.61 a month
- Starter - real-time$0.75 a month
- Growth - asynchronous$0.20 a month
- Growth - real-time$0.25 a month
- StarterFree
- EnterprisePrice not published
- GrowthPriced on request
In their own words
AssemblyAI
AssemblyAI provides Voice AI models and APIs for speech-to-text, speech understanding, and voice applications. Its Speech Understanding API can identify and diarize speakers, summarize speech, extract action items and key phrases, detect sentiment, entities, and topics, and handle formatting, language detection, translation, PII redaction, and content moderation. The platform lists support for 99 languages and translation into 86. It offers streaming and voice-agent latency below 300ms and states that it processes more than 800 million API calls per month. Use its managed cloud or self-host models in your own environment; the service also lists API access and integrations including Twilio, Zoom RTMS, Zapier, and LangChain. Security options include TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 at rest, zero data retention, and opting out of model training. A free tier is available. Pay-as-you-go billing is based on usage, with monthly invoices and no minimum commitments. Universal-2 is listed at $0.15 per hour of audio; Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime is $0.45 per hour.
Gladia
Gladia provides audio infrastructure through an API for recording, transcribing, and enriching audio. It offers asynchronous and real-time transcription, including live streaming, with Starter supporting 100+ languages and automatic language detection and switching. Listed audio tools include speaker diarization, sentiment analysis, PII redaction, entity detection, and audio-to-LLM processing. Developers can use Python or Node.js SDKs, WebSocket streaming, or REST uploads; named integrations include Pipecat, LiveKit, Twilio, Retell, Zapier, Make, and n8n. Transcripts can include speaker labels and timestamps, and SRT and VTT are listed export formats. Starter is listed at free and includes 50€ in one-time credits that do not expire. Flexible pay-as-you-go Starter rates are $0.61 a month for asynchronous transcription and $0.75 a month for real-time transcription. Hourly call and total audio limits vary by tier. Gladia also offers GladiaFlow, a desktop voice dictation app for Mac and Windows; its code is available under the MIT license.