Head to head · Speech stt · October 2026 research run
AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP has a score of 69.7 (B) against AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)'s 67 (B). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is security & auth, 20 points.
AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)AssemblyAI · Model API
B67/100#148 of 452
Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCPGladia · Model API
B69.7/100#108 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) for
- reliability (+10)
- agent ergonomics (+5)
- transparency & trust (+12)
Pick Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP for
- security & auth (+20)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 60 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +10 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 95 | 95 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 80 | 75 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 50 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 80 | 80 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 78 | 66 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| Total | 67 · B | 69.7 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | AssemblyAI | Gladia |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.assemblyai.com/v2 | https://api.gladia.io/v2 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-24 |
| Popularity | 213 stars, 600k npm/wk, 738k PyPI/wk | 4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |
Verdicts
AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)
OpenAPI 3.1 file with typed inputs and error responses on every operation. Two outages of an hour or more in the last 90 days, on 31 July and 16 September 2026.
Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
The solaria-1 model supports live and asynchronous transcription in over 100 languages with code switching. Starter pricing is $0.61 an hour for asynchronous transcription and $0.75 for real-time audio.
Before you call either
AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)
- Send
{"type":"Terminate"}to close every stream, or billing runs to the 3-hour auto-close - Use
speech_models(plural). The singularspeech_modelnow returns 400 for current model names - Treat a 403 on polling as the rate limit and back off with jitter, or use webhooks
- Fetch
/sentencesor/paragraphsinstead of the full transcript when you only need text - Opt out in Data Controls on a paid account before sending customer audio
Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
- Don't resubmit a pre-recorded job after a 200 or a
transcription.createdwebhook. It's already queued - Pick
solaria-3only for async EN, FR, DE, ES or IT audio. Anything live or multilingual needssolaria-1 - A 429 means the concurrency limit, 3 async and 1 live on the free plan. Wait for a running job to finish
- Upgrade off the free plan before sending sensitive audio
- Split files over 135 minutes or 1,000 MB
Other comparisons with AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) or Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
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- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API
- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
- Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
Machine-readable
/api/v1/tools/assemblyai-stt.json·/api/v1/tools/gladia-stt.json- This page as Markdown,
/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-gladia-stt.md