# Amazon Transcribe vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text (slim)

> Amazon Transcribe scores 73.6 (BB) to MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-minimax-stt.md (~5,750 tokens) · this version ~3,430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-minimax-stt.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-minimax-stt
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Amazon Transcribe scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech-to-text.

- Amazon Transcribe: BB 73.6, rank #104 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-transcribe.min.md
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text: D 48.4, rank #1126 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/minimax-stt.min.md
- Amazon Transcribe, good for Teams already on AWS with audio in S3 and IAM in place, especially batch jobs at volume. Ahead on Reliability, 75 against 47; Schema & documentation, 90 against 82; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 70; Security & auth, 83 against 33; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20; Maintenance & community, 60 against 6; Transparency & trust, 85 against 63. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card.
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text, good for Cheap file transcription with diarisation and subtitles, strongest on Chinese and code-switched audio by the vendor's account.

| Category | Amazon Transcribe | MiniMax Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 75 | 47 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 90 | 82 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 80 | 70 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 83 | 33 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 60 | 6 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 85 | 63 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Amazon Transcribe | MiniMax Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | MiniMax |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://transcribe.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | no (local only) |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 185 stars, 506k npm/wk, 201k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Amazon Transcribe +54: Amazon Transcribe 60 (Read by the listing's own service models (transcribe and transcribe-streaming), as this run's amazon-s3 re-check read models/s3. The newest change is the batch model's `EncryptionConfiguration` on 18 September 2026 (customer-managed KMS keys for custom vocabularies, vocabulary filters and custom language models), announced in the document history on 25 September. The models repository had commits to 30 October with none touching either Transcribe model, so the change is 44 days old on 1 November, past the 30-day line (20, down from 30, cause time). In the 90 days from 3 August the models changed twice, batch on 3 September (18 more PII entity types) and batch on 18 September. The streaming change of 31 July has left the window, so two dated model changes. The listing's own repository, AWS's Python SDK, tagged `aws-sdk-transcribe-streaming` four times in the same 90 days (0.9.0 on 13 August, 0.10.0 on 20 August, 0.11.0 on 24 August and 0.12.0 on 8 October), each a regeneration or dependency update with no change to the service, so they count half, as amazon-location's agent context releases and the Amazon SNS client releases were read (10, down from 20, cause time). Public document history, AWS re:Post and paid support plans (10). Official SDKs are current, `@aws-sdk/client-transcribe` and `-streaming` at 3.1161.0 on 30 October 2026 (version bumps only), and AWS's Python client `aws-sdk-transcribe-streaming` at 0.12.0 on 8 October (15). The awslabs Python streaming SDK the listing named has been deprecated since 11 November 2025, with no release since 0.6.4 in May 2025, and its replacement is marked pre-alpha and needs Python 3.12 or later (5 of 10). 20 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 5 = 60.); MiniMax Speech-to-Text 6 (Read as a model. No dated release or change of `asr-1.0` was found on the model or API release notes or the status page (0). No dated ASR entries in the last 90 days (0). Support by email and Discord, not tested (6 of 15). No official SDK, and the MCP servers have no transcription tool (0 of 15). No package to judge (0 of 10). Total 6.)
- Security & auth, Amazon Transcribe +50: Amazon Transcribe 83 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of least-privilege and injection lines. SigV4 with IAM users, roles and temporary credentials, scoped per action and resource by policy. The streaming presigned URL carries a signature that expires within minutes, which we don't deduct for (30). Section 50.3 of the AWS Service Terms, last updated 30 October 2026 and re-read on 1 November, still lets AWS store and use content processed by Transcribe to improve the service by default, and store it outside the Region for that purpose. Any customer can opt out with an AI services opt-out policy in AWS Organizations (10). Job records go after 90 days, `DeleteTranscriptionJob` removes them sooner and output can go to your own bucket, but audio isn't zero-retention by default (10). Since 18 September 2026 custom vocabularies, vocabulary filters and custom language models can be encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key. CloudTrail logs API calls per caller (15). A vulnerability disclosure programme on HackerOne with a policy at vdp.aws.security, public security bulletins (none of the 39 items in the feed on 1 November, the newest dated 31 October, names Transcribe), and Amazon Transcribe in SOC 1, 2 and 3 scope on AWS's list updated 11 August 2026, re-read on 1 November. The security.txt on aws.amazon.com, re-read on 1 November, expires on 16 October 2027 and points to the VDP. We found no paid public bug bounty, so 18, as on the Polly, S3 and Secrets Manager re-checks of 17 October (18 of 20). 30 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 18 = 83.); MiniMax Speech-to-Text 33 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain API keys from the console with no scopes found, and the docs say publicly leaked keys may be disabled, as on minimax-voice-cloning (20 of 30). The terms (effective 30 March 2026), as read for minimax-voice-cloning on 4 November, let MiniMax use input and generated content to operate, maintain, develop and improve its services, with no opt-out found, and the privacy policy rules out only training to profile or target consumers (5 of 20). No retention period for uploaded audio or transcripts was found (3 of 15). Each response carries a trace ID, with no audit log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found, as on the other MiniMax listings (0 of 20). Total 33.)
- Reliability, Amazon Transcribe +28: Amazon Transcribe 75 (AWS Health Dashboard with per-service, per-region history and RSS feeds (20). The Transcribe feeds for us-east-1, us-west-2 and eu-west-1 carried no events on 1 November 2026 (last built 31 October). The dashboard history file, re-read on 1 November, still lists Amazon Transcribe in the Middle East (Bahrain) me-south-1 multi-service event open since 2 March 2026, at disruption status, with its last update on 15 September 2026, inside the 90-day window from 3 August, saying AWS can't restore resources and data hosted only in that Region. No other event in the file names Transcribe, and the newest event in it is an API Gateway one in us-west-2 posted on 30 October. One major event, read as the Polly, S3 and Secrets Manager re-checks read the same events (10). Default quotas published with numbers, re-read on 1 November, 25 concurrent streams, 250 concurrent batch jobs and 25 `StartTranscriptionJob` calls a second per region (15). Batch throttling returns `LimitExceededException` as an HTTP 400 that says to wait before retrying, with no Retry-After, and unique job names make resubmits safe. Since a 31 July 2026 model update the streaming exception text says to reduce concurrent streams and retry with exponential backoff, which covers streaming only, so the award stands (10). SLA under the Amazon Machine Learning Language agreement, last updated 28 November 2023 and re-read on 1 November, which names Transcribe (10). GA (10). 20 + 10 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 75.); MiniMax Speech-to-Text 47 (Atlassian Statuspage at status.minimax.io with component history, but its components are LLM, Text-to-Speech and Video Generation, with none for speech to text (10 of 20). With no component, the history holds no record for transcription (5). Limits published with numbers, 2 concurrent connections and 30,000 audio seconds a minute (15). 429 is documented as `rate_limit_error`, and the general error code page says to retry later, with no backoff figures or Retry-After (7 of 15). No SLA in the terms or docs (0). `asr-1.0` is called the current public model with no beta label (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 47.)
- Transparency & trust, Amazon Transcribe +22: Amazon Transcribe 85 (Closed service under the AWS Service Terms, last updated 30 October 2026 (15). The service terms, privacy notice (last updated 18 May 2026, re-read on 1 November) and job retention agree, and the data processing addendum and a public sub-processor list (last updated 30 October 2026) exist, but the default permission to use content for improvement sits in section 50.3 of the service terms rather than the Transcribe guide. The DPA's text is per the 1 October check (25). The AWS Customer Agreement commits to advance notice before material functionality of a GA service is discontinued, but we found no dated Transcribe deprecation notices. The Python streaming SDK carries a deprecation notice in its README, which isn't the service (15). Sub-processors and regions disclosed, with region choice per request. Section 50.3(c) discloses that content kept for improvement may be stored outside the Region unless the organisation opts out (20). 15 + 25 + 15 + 20 = 75.); MiniMax Speech-to-Text 63 (Closed API with clear terms under Singapore law naming Nanonoble Pte. Ltd., as on the other MiniMax listings (15 of 30). The terms and privacy policy agree that inputs may be used to improve services and that data sits in a United States data centre, with no retention period for audio (8 of 30). No deprecation notice or policy touches the ASR API (10 of 20, for the dated notices elsewhere on the API release notes). Data location stated as the United States and an EU representative named, with third parties only by category (10 of 20). Total 43.)
- Agent ergonomics, Amazon Transcribe +10: Amazon Transcribe 80 (API reading of the checklist. The transcript is one JSON file with every item and its timings, with SRT and VTT subtitles as the compact alternative and no field selection, per the 1 October check (15). `ListTranscriptionJobs` filters by `Status` and `JobNameContains` and pages with `MaxResults` and `NextToken`, re-read on 1 November (20). Typed exceptions per action, each with a recovery hint (20). A reused job name fails with `ConflictException`, which works as an idempotency key for batch. Streaming has no resume (15). Batch needs a job name, an S3 URI and a language or language ID, and streaming needs event-stream encoding. SDKs in every major language (10).); MiniMax Speech-to-Text 70 (API reading of the checklist. The default `json` returns only text, duration and a trace ID, with segments and subtitles opt-in (22 of 25). No lists to page. `response_format` and `language` are the output controls (12 of 20). Typed error envelopes with the real HTTP status, an error type and `request_id`, and 402 for an empty balance (18 of 20). Calls are synchronous with no idempotency key (10 of 20). Two fields, a model and a file. No official SDK, and MiniMax's MCP servers don't cover transcription (8 of 15). Total 70.)
- Payments & pricing, Amazon Transcribe +10: Amazon Transcribe 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-minute prices by region published without a login, re-read on 1 November ($0.006 batch and $0.01 streaming in US East) (20). The pricing page still shows 60 free minutes a month for 12 months, which per the 1 October check applies only to accounts opened before 2025-07-15. Newer accounts get up to $200 in Free Tier credits, and Free Tier FAQ Q4, re-read on 1 November, says a payment method isn't required to sign up for most new customers, though AWS may request one to verify identity. Half, as on the Polly, S3 and Secrets Manager listings (10). A person signs up in a browser. IAM can mint keys by API, but only after a human has an account (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30.); MiniMax Speech-to-Text 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). $0.38 an hour published without a login (20). Speech to text is for paid accounts only (0). A person signs up in a browser and funds a balance (0). Total 20.)

| Task | Amazon Transcribe | MiniMax Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.36 to $0.60 | $0.38 |