Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs Superwhisper

Google Cloud Speech-to-Text converts audio into text and provides APIs for adding speech recognition to applications. It offers synchronous, asynchronous, and streaming recognition for post-processing, periodic, or real-time results, and lists support for 85+ languages and variants. Model adaptation lets users provide hints for domain-specific terms, rare words, and phrases. Speaker diarization can predict which speaker produced each utterance; the service also supports multichannel recognition and says it can handle noisy audio without additional noise cancellation. Specialized models are available for voice control, phone calls, and video transcription. API v2 includes data residency, audit logging, and customer-managed encryption keys. Speech-to-Text On-Prem runs in private data centers and is offered through a sales contact. Developer access includes REST and RPC APIs, client libraries, and command-line quickstarts. Listed pricing includes Speech-to-Text V2 API standard recognition models at $0.02 a month, billed at $0.016 / 1 minute for 0–500,000 minutes, with lower rates at higher monthly volumes; V1 standard plans include 60 free minutes per month. Costs depend on duration, channel count, model, batch method, and API version, with each channel billed separately.

Superwhisper turns speech into formatted text for use across applications. Its Super Mode reads the screen and adjusts dictated text to the current app, for example treating email as a message or coding prompts technically. It supports more than 100 languages, automatic language detection, and translation between languages. On-device speech models process audio locally, work without internet, and keep audio off the device's outbound path. With cloud models, audio and text pass through the Superwhisper proxy to the provider; the product says they are not retained for training. It works wherever text can be entered and names Slack, Cursor, and Notion, with coding plugins for Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, and Pi. A CLI can search and export transcripts, report recording statistics, and start a local MCP server. Free includes voice-to-text, meeting recording and transcription, and email support. Pro costs $8.49 per month or $84.99 per year and adds audio and video transcription, cloud and local models, custom API keys, and priority support. Pro features can be tried for 3,000 words before free-tier features remain available.