# Amazon Transcribe vs OpenAI Speech to Text

> Amazon Transcribe scores 73.4 (BB) to OpenAI Speech to Text's 72.4 (BB) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Amazon Transcribe scores 73.4 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenAI Speech to Text's 72.4 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenAI Speech to Text leads on security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do speech-to-text.

- Amazon Transcribe: grade BB, 73.4/100, rank #89 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-transcribe.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-transcribe.json
- OpenAI Speech to Text: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #106 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-speech-to-text.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 91 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Amazon Transcribe (BB)

Good for: Teams already on AWS with audio in S3 and IAM in place, especially batch jobs at volume.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 95 against 80
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 61

Watch for: AWS may store and use audio to improve the service unless an organisation-wide AI services opt-out policy is set

### OpenAI Speech to Text (BB)

Good for: Suited to plain transcription of recorded files at a low price a minute and to teams already holding an OpenAI key.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 86 against 80
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 35

Watch for: `whisper-1`, `gpt-4o-transcribe`, `gpt-4o-mini-transcribe` and `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize` were deprecated on 26 August 2026 and shut down on 26 February 2027


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Transcribe | OpenAI Speech to Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 95 | 80 | Amazon Transcribe +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 88 | Amazon Transcribe +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 78 | Amazon Transcribe +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 80 | 86 | OpenAI Speech to Text +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 20 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 75 | OpenAI Speech to Text +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 61 | Amazon Transcribe +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.4 · BB** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Transcribe | OpenAI Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://transcribe.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.openai.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | Proprietary hosted service. The service terms were not read (see open questions). The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 and the OpenAPI document is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-08-26 |
| 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 | 32k stars |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Amazon Transcribe.** $0.006 a minute batch and $0.01 streaming in US East, with diarisation, custom vocabulary and language ID included. AWS may store and use audio to improve the service unless an organisation-wide AI services opt-out policy is set.

**OpenAI Speech to Text.** `gpt-transcribe` costs $0.0045 an audio minute, and the audio endpoints keep no abuse-monitoring logs or application state. Speaker labels, timestamps, subtitles and translation exist only on `whisper-1` and `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize`, which shut down on 26 February 2027 with no named replacement for those functions.

## Before you call either

### Amazon Transcribe

1. Give every job a unique `TranscriptionJobName`. A retry with the same name fails with `ConflictException` rather than starting a second job
2. Batch is a job. Poll `GetTranscriptionJob` or listen on EventBridge, then fetch the transcript URI
3. Set `OutputBucketName`, because job records are deleted after 90 days
4. Back off on `LimitExceededException`. It arrives as a 400, not a 429
5. Set the organisation's AI services opt-out policy before sending customer audio

### OpenAI Speech to Text

1. Send `gpt-transcribe` to `POST /v1/audio/transcriptions` for recorded files. Use `languages` (a list), not `language`, and never send both.
2. Keep each upload at 25 MB or less. Split longer audio between sentences and pass the previous chunk's text in `prompt`.
3. For speaker labels send `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize` with `response_format=diarized_json` and `chunking_strategy=auto` for audio over 30 seconds. Plan for its shutdown on 26 February 2027.
4. Word timestamps, `srt`, `vtt` and `/v1/audio/translations` need `whisper-1`, which cannot stream and shuts down on the same date.
5. On 429 or 503 wait at least `Retry-After` when present, then back off with jitter. Do not retry `credit_balance_exhausted` or spend-limit errors.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Transcribe or OpenAI Speech to Text?

Amazon Transcribe scores 73.4 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenAI Speech to Text's 72.4 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenAI Speech to Text leads on security & auth and maintenance & community.

### Do Amazon Transcribe and OpenAI Speech to Text need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Amazon Transcribe and OpenAI Speech to Text without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Transcribe has a hosted endpoint at https://transcribe.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and OpenAI Speech to Text at https://api.openai.com/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amazon-transcribe", "b": "openai-speech-to-text"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amazon-transcribe openai-speech-to-text`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-transcribe.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-speech-to-text.json

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