Developers adding transcription to their own products get a generous free tier and low per-hour rates, though it's an API, not an app.

Kenning's take

What it does

AssemblyAI sells speech-to-text models through an API, for recorded files and for live audio. It also offers speech understanding, a voice agent API and a dictation API. Developers build it into note-takers, call analytics, medical scribes and voice agents.

• Pre-recorded and realtime speech-to-text APIs
• Support for 99 languages
• Speaker diarization and medical mode add-ons
• Voice Agent API and Dictation API
• LLM Gateway for running language models on transcripts

Who it suits. Developers and companies adding transcription or voice features to their own products.

Key facts

Category

Developer tools

Made by

AssemblyAI, Inc.

Based in

United States

How to get it

Sign up for a free API account; pay as you go after that, or contact sales for custom plans

Works on

API, Web (playground)

Free plan

Free tier includes up to 185 hours of pre-recorded and up to 333 hours of streaming transcription, no card needed

API price

$0.15 per audio hour (Universal-2), $0.21 per audio hour (Universal-3.5 Pro); add-ons such as speaker diarization $0.02 per hour

Pricing

Plan	Price	Billed
Universal-2 pre-recorded	$0.15	per hour of audio
Universal-3.5 Pro pre-recorded	$0.21	per hour of audio
Voice Agent API	$4.50	per hour

source

FAQ

Facts from the maker's own pages and the sources listed. Checked 2026-10-11.