AssemblyAI vs Deepgram

AssemblyAI

Audio

Deepgram

Audio

Tagline

AssemblyAI

Speech-to-text API with diarisation, summarisation, and topic detection.

Deepgram

Production-grade speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and voice-agent APIs for real-time and batch audio.

Pricing

AssemblyAI

Freemium· Pre-recorded Speech-to-Text API: $0.21 /hr · Universal-2: $0.15 /hr · Realtime Speech-to-Text API: $0.45 /hr · Universal-Streaming: $0.15 /hr · Universal-Streaming Multilingual: $0.15 /hr

Deepgram

Freemium· Free credits on signup; usage-based pricing; enterprise contracts available

Lowest paid tier

AssemblyAI

$0.15 /hr · Universal-2

captured 2026-08-11

Deepgram

—

Free trial

AssemblyAI

Not listed

Deepgram

Yes

API

AssemblyAI

Not listed

Deepgram

Yes

Platforms

AssemblyAI

web

Deepgram

api

Company

AssemblyAI

AssemblyAI

Deepgram

Deepgram, Inc.

Model used

AssemblyAI

Universal / Slam-1

Deepgram

Nova, Flux, Speak (proprietary)

Best for

AssemblyAI

Pick AssemblyAI when you need accurate streaming/batch ASR plus diarisation + summarisation without engineering it yourself.

Deepgram

Pick Deepgram if you're building a real-time voice product — agents, call analytics, live captions — and need streaming latency plus a self-hosting escape hatch.

Not for

AssemblyAI

Skip it at extreme volume — Whisper self-hosted is cheaper if engineering capacity is available.

Deepgram

Skip it if you only need occasional batch transcription and would prefer a fully open-source stack like Whisper or a cheaper pay-per-minute API.

Editorial score

AssemblyAI

8.7 / 10

Deepgram

7.9 / 10

Use cases

AssemblyAI

transcriptiondiarisationpodcast indexing

Deepgram

speech-to-texttext-to-speechvoice-agentscall-center-analyticsreal-time-transcription

Pros

AssemblyAI

• High accuracy
• Strong streaming API
• Lots of post-processing features
• Excellent SDKs and docs

Deepgram

• Very low latency streaming STT suitable for real-time voice agents
• Self-hosted deployment option for regulated industries
• Unified Voice Agent API bundles STT + TTS + LLM orchestration
• Multilingual conversational STT via Flux across 10 languages

Cons

AssemblyAI

• More expensive than Whisper for high volume
• Latency varies

Deepgram

• Pricing not transparent on the marketing site
• Not open source; vendor lock-in on proprietary models
• Product lineup (Nova vs Flux vs Agent) can confuse first-time evaluators

Website

AssemblyAI

www.assemblyai.com

Deepgram

deepgram.com

Editorial score: rule-based, 0–10, from AI-assisted profile inputs (see /methodology) — not a user rating; “—” means unscored. “Not listed” means we have no record of it, not that it is absent. GitHub figures and prices carry the date they were checked or captured; prices are shown as published, unconverted.