{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "assemblyai-stt", "name": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)", "vendor": "AssemblyAI", "vendorUrl": "https://www.assemblyai.com", "kind": "model", "category": "speech-to-text", "summary": "Speech-to-text APIs for recorded audio and live streams, with speaker identification, translation and redaction options.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/assemblyai-stt", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/assemblyai-stt.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/assemblyai-stt.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/assemblyai-stt.json", "dns": "assemblyai-stt.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/AssemblyAI/assemblyai-python-sdk", "license": "MIT (SDKs)", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.assemblyai.com/v2", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "assemblyai" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "assemblyai" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "API key in the `authorization` header. Temporary tokens for browser streaming. The docs MCP needs no key.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Free tier with no card covers up to 185 hours of pre-recorded or 333 hours of streaming. Then pay as you go per hour of audio. Universal-3.5 Pro $0.21, Universal-2 $0.15, Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime $0.45, Universal-Streaming $0.15, Sync $0.45. Diarisation $0.02 an hour on files and $0.12 on streams, keyterms $0.05 on Universal-3.5 Pro, translation $0.06. Streaming bills session time, not audio sent (https://www.assemblyai.com/pricing).", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402 or machine payment in the docs or pricing. Card or prepaid credits only (checked 2026-09-30).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 213, "npmWeekly": 599958, "pypiWeekly": 738086, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://www.assemblyai.com/docs", "llmsTxt": "https://www.assemblyai.com/docs/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://www.assemblyai.com/docs/openapi.yaml", "capabilities": [ "speech.stt", "speech.streaming", "speech.batch", "speech.diarisation", "speech.languages", "speech.translation" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "no-card", "free-tier", "closed-source", "python", "typescript", "openapi", "llms-txt", "mcp", "streaming", "batch", "webhooks", "async-jobs", "enterprise" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-19", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 66.8, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 355, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 11, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 80, "maintenance": 79, "payments": 40, "reliability": 85, "schema": 95, "security": 50, "transparency": 77 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-01" }, "negative": -6, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-07-10, the async `speech_model` parameter began returning 400 for current model names and silently routing legacy names to the default model, and `universal-3-pro` was blocked for new accounts and accounts inactive for 7 days, all announced in the changelog the same day. We found no earlier notice (https://www.assemblyai.com/changelog). Documented, so the minimum deduction.", "11 September and 1 September 2026, fixes of described flaws released with no advisory. Node SDK 4.41.0 (released with 4.41.1 on 11 September) escapes multipart file names because a quote, backslash or control character in a file name could break out of the part header, and the 1 September changelog entry fixed Reader-role users being able to manage API tokens. OSV lists no advisory for either SDK on 1 November. A separate kind from the same-day change above, so a second -3 (https://www.assemblyai.com/changelog)" ], "verdict": "OpenAPI 3.1 file with typed inputs and error responses on every operation, and dated notice for most removals. Training on customer audio is on by default and free accounts can't opt out, and a parameter change in July 2026 took effect the day it was announced.", "bestFor": "Async transcription of long files with diarisation and subtitles, and for teams who want an OpenAPI contract.", "strengths": [ "OpenAPI 3.1 file with typed inputs and error responses on every operation", "Universal-2 covers 99 languages at $0.15 an hour, Universal-3.5 Pro is $0.21", "Transcript lists paginate with `limit`, `before_id` and `after_id`, and transcripts come back as sentences, paragraphs, SRT or VTT", "Free tier with no card, up to 185 hours pre-recorded", "TTL deletion from 1 hour and a delete endpoint for transcripts" ], "weaknesses": [ "Fourteen partial incidents from 3 August to 1 November 2026, among them a 75-minute US async outage on 16 September", "Free accounts can't opt out of model training", "The HTTP rate limit returns 403 with no Retry-After", "Streaming bills the time the socket is open, up to a 3-hour auto-close", "No published disclosure policy found, and the SDKs fixed described flaws in September 2026 without an advisory" ], "agentNotes": [ "Send `{\"type\":\"Terminate\"}` to close every stream, or billing runs to the 3-hour auto-close", "Use `speech_models` (plural). The singular `speech_model` now returns 400 for current model names", "Treat a 403 on polling as the rate limit and back off with jitter, or use webhooks", "Fetch `/sentences` or `/paragraphs` instead of the full transcript when you only need text", "Opt out in Data Controls on a paid account before sending customer audio" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 66.8 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 80, "maintenance": 79, "payments": 40, "reliability": 85, "schema": 95, "security": 50, "transparency": 70 }, "provenanceScore": 84, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-01", "maintenance": "2026-11-01", "payments": "2026-11-01", "reliability": "2026-11-01", "schema": "2026-11-01", "security": "2026-11-01", "transparency": "2026-11-01" }, "last": "2026-11-01", "lastMoved": "2026-11-01", "oldest": "2026-11-01", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "http": "curl -X POST https://api.assemblyai.com/v2/transcript -H \"authorization: $ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY\" \\\n -H \"content-type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"audio_url\":\"https://assembly.ai/wildfires.mp3\",\"language_detection\":true,\"speaker_labels\":true}'", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add assemblyai-docs --transport http https://assemblyai.com/docs/mcp" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/speech.stt", "tool": "https://letme.dev/assemblyai-stt" }, "sameCompany": [ "assemblyai-voice-agent" ], "area": "voice", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Universal-3.5 Pro pre-recorded", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.0035, "note": "published as $0.21 an hour" }, { "item": "Universal-2 pre-recorded", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.0025, "note": "published as $0.15 an hour" }, { "item": "Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.0075, "note": "published as $0.45 an hour, billed on session time" }, { "item": "Universal-Streaming", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.0025, "note": "published as $0.15 an hour, billed on session time" }, { "item": "Sync API", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.0075, "note": "published as $0.45 an hour, clips up to 2 minutes" }, { "item": "Streaming diarisation add-on", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.002, "note": "published as $0.12 an hour" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "AssemblyAI, Inc.", "domain": "assemblyai.com", "domainRegistered": "2016-12-24", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.assemblyai.com/legal/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://www.assemblyai.com/legal/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.assemblyai.com", "changelog": "https://www.assemblyai.com/changelog", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-09-30", "score": 84 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/assemblyai-stt.json", "live": { "slug": "assemblyai-stt", "probe": { "target": "https://api.assemblyai.com/v2", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T19:21:53.264538144Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 487, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 446, "p95ms24h": 527, "samples24h": 238, "samples30d": 7920, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 268, "ok": 268 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-10", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-11", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-14", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-15", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-16", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-17", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-18", "probes": 256, "ok": 256 }, { "date": "2026-10-19", "probes": 255, "ok": 255 }, { "date": "2026-10-20", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-22", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-23", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-24", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-25", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-26", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-27", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-28", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-29", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-30", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-31", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-11-01", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-11-02", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-11-03", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-11-04", "probes": 246, "ok": 246 }, { "date": "2026-11-05", "probes": 185, "ok": 185 }, { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 241, "ok": 241 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 197, "ok": 197 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.assemblyai.com", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T19:20:58.1729632Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "AssemblyAI/assemblyai-python-sdk", "version": "1.8.2", "released": "2026-10-23", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:07:24.795738153Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "assemblyai", "version": "4.42.0", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:07:24.37874508Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "assemblyai", "version": "1.8.2", "released": "2026-10-23", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:07:24.602096011Z" } ], "githubStars": 213, "npmWeekly": 721030, "pypiWeekly": 1128956, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://assemblyai.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:59.173300071Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://www.assemblyai.com/docs/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:31:36.691930249Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "assemblyai.com", "registered": "2016-12-24", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/assemblyai.com", "checkedAt": "2026-11-01T14:13:09.893972788Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://www.assemblyai.com/changelog", "kind": "deprecations", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:24:59.818674644Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "f7dbbe98a56a" }, { "url": "https://www.assemblyai.com/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:25:07.903462209Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-28T04:47:29.082599637Z", "fingerprint": "07b4e4bca050" }, { "url": "https://www.assemblyai.com/legal/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:25:04.097129356Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-29T05:19:57.021868162Z", "fingerprint": "0d66f2361b1a" }, { "url": "https://www.assemblyai.com/legal/terms-of-service", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:25:05.91110965Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-29T05:19:59.07743229Z", "fingerprint": "3a1714b7db67" } ], "github": { "repo": "assemblyai/assemblyai-python-sdk", "checkedAt": "2026-11-02T08:31:52.341717945Z", "stars": 213, "archived": false, "issuesEnabled": true, "pushedAt": "2026-10-29T13:30:21Z", "openIssues": 1, "openPRs": 23, "issuesOpened90d": 0, "issuesClosed90d": 8, "prsMerged90d": 40, "ci": { "branch": "master", "runs": 50, "success": 50, "failure": 0, "other": 0, "latest": "success", "latestAt": "2026-10-26T10:38:48Z" }, "replies": { "sampled": 25, "unanswered": 0, "medianDays": 167.9 } }, "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T19:21:53.264538144Z" } }, "answer": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Smallest.ai Pulse STT's 65 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.", "b": { "slug": "smallest-pulse-stt", "name": "Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "vendor": "Smallest AI", "vendorUrl": "https://smallest.ai", "kind": "model", "category": "speech-to-text", "summary": "Smallest AI's Pulse speech-to-text API transcribes pre-recorded files over HTTP and live audio over WebSocket, with three models (Pulse, Pulse 2.0 and Pulse Pro), diarisation, word timestamps, redaction and turn detection.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-pulse-stt", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.json", "dns": "smallest-pulse-stt.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/smallest-inc/smallest-python-sdk", "transports": [ "http", "websocket" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "smallestai" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "smallestai" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@developer-smallestai/smallest-mcp-server" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Bearer `sk_` API key created in the dashboard after a browser signup, shared by every model and the Voice Agents API. Keys are shown once, revoked by deleting them and carry no scopes. Servers can mint `wat_` access tokens for browsers (30 to 900 seconds, inference routes only), which the STT socket takes as `?api_key=`.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Pay as you go from $0.003 a minute for Pulse batch, $0.004 for Pulse streaming and $0.005 for Pulse 2.0. Pulse Pro is listed at both $0.0035 and $0.004 a minute. $10 in trial credits. Enterprise pricing, SLA and zero data retention by quote.", "priceSummary": "Pay per use", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, OpenAPI file or pricing page (checked 2026-11-06). Credits are bought with a card on file.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 0, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-11-06" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.smallest.ai/models/speech-to-text/overview", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.smallest.ai/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.smallest.ai/openapi/models-api.json", "capabilities": [ "speech.stt", "speech.streaming", "speech.batch", "speech.diarisation", "speech.languages" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "usage", "closed-source", "python", "typescript", "openapi", "llms-txt", "streaming", "batch", "webhooks", "mcp", "enterprise", "self-hosted" ], "lastRelease": "2026-11-02", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 65, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 443, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 13, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 66, "maintenance": 73, "payments": 40, "reliability": 63, "schema": 92, "security": 52, "transparency": 71 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-06" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Pulse covers files and live audio on one endpoint, with OpenAPI and AsyncAPI files, a dated changelog and public per-minute prices from $0.003. The shared API's health checks failed in every region on five days in September, keys carry no scopes and can travel in a URL, and zero retention is Enterprise only.", "bestFor": "Low-cost transcription for voice agents and call analytics, with Indic coverage and turn detection.", "strengths": [ "OpenAPI 3.1 and AsyncAPI 2.6 files cover the batch route and the streaming socket, with llms.txt and Markdown copies of every page", "Public prices of $0.003 a minute for batch, $0.004 for streaming and $0.005 for Pulse 2.0, with $10 of trial credits", "Dated Pulse changelog with nine entries between 30 August and 2 November 2026", "Opt-in diarisation, word timestamps, PII and PCI redaction, keyword boosting and turn detection on the same endpoint", "Region-pinned hosts in Mumbai and Oregon for data residency" ], "weaknesses": [ "Health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September 2026, the longest about 64 minutes", "Keys grant full account access with no scopes, and the docs pass keys or tokens as URL query parameters on WebSockets", "Zero data retention is Enterprise only or a $1,000 a month add-on, and no retention period is published for other plans", "No published SLA below Enterprise, and the terms allow changes or discontinuation without notice", "Several changelog entries correct response fields the reference had documented wrongly" ], "agentNotes": [ "Pass `?model=` on every call, since a missing model returns 400; use `pulse-pro` for English files and `pulse` for other languages or streaming", "Send booleans such as `diarize` and `word_timestamps` as the lowercase strings \"true\" or \"false\"", "Retry 429 with backoff from 500 ms up to 30 s and honour Retry-After; keep within 25 batch requests a minute on the Standard plan", "Use the region-pinned host api.us.smallest.ai or api.india.smallest.ai when the audio must stay in one region", "Read speaker labels only from final events, because interim streaming events carry no `words[]`" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 65 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 66, "maintenance": 73, "payments": 40, "reliability": 63, "schema": 92, "security": 52, "transparency": 55 }, "provenanceScore": 87, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-06", "maintenance": "2026-11-06", "payments": "2026-11-06", "reliability": "2026-11-06", "schema": "2026-11-06", "security": "2026-11-06", "transparency": "2026-11-06" }, "last": "2026-11-06", "oldest": "2026-11-06", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "install": "pip install smallestai", "http": "curl -X POST \"https://api.smallest.ai/waves/v1/stt/?model=pulse\u0026language=en\" \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $SMALLEST_API_KEY\" -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"url\": \"https://github.com/smallest-inc/cookbook/raw/main/speech-to-text/getting-started/samples/audio.wav\"}'", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add smallest -- npx -y @developer-smallestai/smallest-mcp-server" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/speech.stt", "tool": "https://letme.dev/smallest-pulse-stt" }, "sameCompany": [ "smallest-lightning-tts", "smallest-voice-clone" ], "area": "voice", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Pulse pre-recorded", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.003, "note": "pay as you go" }, { "item": "Pulse streaming", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.004, "note": "pay as you go" }, { "item": "Pulse Pro pre-recorded", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.0035, "note": "the pricing page also shows $0.004" }, { "item": "Pulse 2.0 streaming", "unit": "audio-minute", "usd": 0.005, "note": "Standard plan, per the Pulse changelog" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Smallest, Inc.", "domain": "smallest.ai", "domainRegistered": "2023-09-02", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://smallest.ai/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://smallest.ai/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.smallest.ai/", "changelog": "https://docs.smallest.ai/changelog/models", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-11-06", "notes": [ "The terms of service (effective 21 October 2026) name Smallest Inc., 311 California Street, Suite 320, San Francisco, under California law. The privacy policy (effective 18 September 2026) names Smallest, Inc. with a registered office in Lewes, Delaware.", "The terms forbid accessing or searching the services with spiders, robots, crawlers or similar data mining tools except through means Smallest makes available. Only public pages were read, with no account.", "smallest.ai/robots.txt allows all crawlers including ClaudeBot, with Content-Signal ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes. docs.smallest.ai/robots.txt allows all paths except /api/fern-docs/.", "/.well-known/security.txt names security@smallest.ai and expires 31 December 2026. /security.txt returns 404.", "RDAP gives smallest.ai a registration date of 2 September 2023.", "Every docs page served as Markdown opens with a block addressed to AI assistants that says which models to prefer. It was read as data, not followed.", "firstReleased is left empty. No dated launch of the Models API was found on a page our reader may fetch." ], "score": 87 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.json", "live": { "slug": "smallest-pulse-stt", "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.smallest.ai", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T04:48:45.825598924Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "smallest-inc/smallest-python-sdk", "version": "v2.1.0", "released": "2025-03-04", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:06:40.503973794Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@developer-smallestai/smallest-mcp-server", "version": "0.11.2", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:06:37.84247373Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "smallestai", "version": "1.0.1", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:06:37.805702611Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "smallestai", "version": "5.14.0", "released": "2026-10-07", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:06:37.684406795Z" } ], "githubStars": 42, "npmWeekly": 149, "pypiWeekly": 850, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://smallest.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2026-12-31T23:59:59.000Z", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:21.76871346Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.smallest.ai/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:33:58.699076043Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:21.76871346Z" } }, "edges": [ { "by": 22, "category": "reliability", "leads": "assemblyai-stt", "name": "Reliability", "reasons": { "a": "Statuspage at status.assemblyai.com with component history, read from history.atom on 1 November (20). Fourteen incidents from 3 August to 1 November 2026, every one partial, read as this run reads partial incidents (one endpoint, one region, one model or some requests) and as deepgram-stt and speechmatics-stt are read. The longest are an outage of the US async endpoint on 16 September from an AWS service issue (about half of US async jobs failed for 75 minutes, per the 1 October check, with the EU endpoint unaffected), rejected Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime sessions on the US endpoint for two hours on 6 October, and slower EU async processing with some failures from 08:20 to 10:45 UTC on 5 October. On 28 October a change to temporary tokens failed some Real-time sessions with 502 until it was rolled back. The 31 July us-east streaming fault left the window on 30 October. Minor only (20). Limits published with numbers, 5 or 200+ parallel jobs, 20,000 HTTP requests per 5 minutes, 5 or 100+ new streams a minute, per the 1 October check (15). Overload handling is partly documented. Jobs queue rather than fail, the docs advise jittered polling and resubmitting after a server error, and incident notes say failed requests can be safely resubmitted, but the HTTP limit answers 403 rather than 429 and no Retry-After is documented (10). A 99.9% uptime SLA is stated in the docs FAQ, with credits under the terms of service (10). Async, streaming and Sync APIs are GA (10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 85.", "b": "BetterStack status page at status.smallest.ai with components for the Global, India and USA APIs (one health check covers the Agents and Models APIs), docs, the app and Electron, and per-component history (20). In the 90 days from 8 August the health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September (about 8, 21, 33, 17 and 64 minutes of flapping), in the Global and India regions on 11 and 17 September (12 minutes each), and in the USA region alone on 1, 3, 5, 12, 21 and 30 September (6 to 62 minutes) and 6 October (12 minutes). Outages in every region at once are read as wide errors, so several majors (0). Standard plan limits published per model, 100 concurrent streaming sessions and 25 batch requests a minute, and the pricing page also says 100 concurrent STT streams (15). 429 is documented with exponential backoff from 500 ms to 30 s and Retry-After when present, and batch calls are synchronous with optional webhooks (15). An infrastructure SLA of 99.99 per cent is named for Enterprise only, with no terms published, and the terms disclaim any availability commitment (5 of 10). Pulse, Pulse 2.0 and Pulse Pro carry no preview label, but eleven language codes are marked Beta (8 of 10). 20 + 0 + 15 + 15 + 5 + 8 = 63." }, "scores": { "a": 85, "b": 63 } }, { "by": 14, "category": "ergonomics", "leads": "assemblyai-stt", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "reasons": { "a": "API reading of the checklist. Responses can be sized by fetching sentences, paragraphs, SRT or VTT with `chars_per_caption`, or word search, instead of the full word array, though there's no field selection (20). `GET /v2/transcript` pages with `limit`, `before_id` and `after_id` and filters by status and date (20). Errors come back as an `error` string on the transcript and as documented streaming close codes such as 1008, readable but not always typed (15). No idempotency key, and a resubmitted job is a new billed job. The retry guide covers server errors only (10). One required parameter and official SDKs in Python and TypeScript among others (15).", "b": "API reading of the checklist. Word timestamps, utterances, diarisation, emotion and gender are each opt-in, so the default response is the transcript with metadata (18 of 25). There are no list endpoints for transcriptions to page. Output controls are the opt-in fields and finalisation settings on the socket (10 of 20). Errors carry a status and a machine-readable `code` or `error_code` (`LANGUAGE_NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_MODEL`, `AudioTooLong` and others) with fixes, but the body comes in two shapes, `message` or `error` (15 of 20). Batch calls are synchronous with no idempotency key, and whether a retried file is billed again isn't stated (10 of 20). A file call needs only the model and audio. Official Python and Node SDKs exist, though the Node SDK was last published in May 2025 (13 of 15). Total 66." }, "scores": { "a": 80, "b": 66 } }, { "by": 6, "category": "maintenance", "leads": "assemblyai-stt", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "reasons": { "a": "Read as a model, for deprecation notice and support rather than release counts and issue replies, on the lines deepgram-stt, gladia-stt and speechmatics-stt use in this run. Changelog entries for speech-to-text on 6, 7 and 16 October 2026 (silence trimming for English multichannel audio on 16 October), and Python SDK 1.6.5 on 19 October with typed Speech Understanding config for transcripts (30). Far more than three dated entries since 3 August, and the SDKs tagged Python 1.5.2 to 1.8.2 and Node 4.40.0 to 4.42.0 in the period (10 of 10). No deprecation policy, but removals carry dates. Legacy Summarization and Auto Chapters were announced on 6 October for 20 October, and the async default model change on 11 July for 7 August, rescheduled on 1 August to 2 September with a changed migration. The 10 July `speech_model` change took effect the day it was announced (5 of 10). Public changelog and a support address (10 of 15). The Python SDK had 8 open issues on 1 October, the newest from December 2025 and the oldest from March 2024, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November, since GitHub's pages answered 403 (4 of 10). Official SDKs current, Python 1.8.2 on 23 October and Node 4.42.0 on 26 October (15). Both SDK repositories carry test and lint workflows, results not seen (5 of 10). 30 + 10 + 5 + 10 + 4 + 15 + 5 = 79.", "b": "Read as a model. The newest Pulse changelog entry is dated 2 November 2026 (updated Indic benchmarks), and Pulse 2.0 launched within the period (30). Dated Pulse entries on 30 August, 18, 29 and 30 September, 1, 12, 13 and 21 October and 2 November (20). Public changelog, email support and a Discord server, with no evidence read of how they answer (10 of 15). The Python SDK `smallestai` 5.14.0 dates from 7 October with 12 releases since 9 August, but the npm Node SDK has not been published since May 2025 (8 of 15). The Python SDK repository runs CI and release workflows, but has no licence file (5 of 10). Total 73." }, "scores": { "a": 79, "b": 73 } }, { "by": 6, "category": "transparency", "leads": "assemblyai-stt", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "reasons": { "a": "Closed service with clear terms (15). Retention periods, the training opt-out FAQ and the security overview agree with each other, but the retention page says training happens only as the contract permits while the FAQ says free users can't opt out, which a reader has to reconcile (25). Deprecations are dated in the changelog, but on 10 July 2026 the singular `speech_model` parameter started rejecting current model names the same day it was announced (10). Subprocessor list at /legal/subprocessors and US and EU endpoints (20).", "b": "Closed service with clear terms naming Smallest Inc. under California law (15). The ZDR page is specific about what each mode keeps, but the terms' no-training clause and the privacy policy's machine-learning use of usage data sit side by side, the privacy policy gives no retention periods, and the policy doesn't mention the DPA a footer link points to (15 of 30). A deprecations page gives statuses, dates and migration targets, deprecated routes return a `Deprecation: true` header, and the 30 September changelog removed 14 European codes from the batch enum with a migration to `multi-eu`. The terms still let Smallest change or discontinue services at any time without notice (15 of 20). Two regions named (Mumbai and Oregon) with region-pinned hosts, and only Google Analytics and Fullstory named among third parties, with no sub-processor list found (10 of 20). Total 55." }, "scores": { "a": 77, "b": 71 } } ], "facts": [ { "a": "Model API", "b": "Model API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "AssemblyAI", "b": "Smallest AI", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.assemblyai.com/v2", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "b": "HTTP, websocket", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "API key", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Pay per use", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT (SDKs)", "b": "none", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "none", "b": "0", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-19", "b": "2026-11-02", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2026-07-01", "b": "no date given", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2026-05-26", "b": "no date given", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "yes, with an opt-out", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "213 stars, 600k npm/wk, 738k PyPI/wk", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3.5/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Smallest.ai Pulse STT's 65 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) or Smallest.ai Pulse STT?" }, { "answer": "Both need an API key.", "question": "Do AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) and Smallest.ai Pulse STT need an API key?" }, { "answer": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.assemblyai.com/v2. No hosted endpoint is listed for Smallest.ai Pulse STT.", "question": "Can an agent call AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) and Smallest.ai Pulse STT without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 85 against 63", "Agent ergonomics, 80 against 66", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 79 against 73", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 77 against 71" ], "also": [ "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install", "Free to start without a card" ], "goodFor": "Async transcription of long files with diarisation and subtitles, and for teams who want an OpenAPI contract.", "slug": "assemblyai-stt", "watchFor": "Fourteen partial incidents from 3 August to 1 November 2026, among them a 75-minute US async outage on 16 September" }, { "aheadOn": null, "also": [ "No incidents deducted, where AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) loses 6 points for them" ], "goodFor": "Low-cost transcription for voice agents and call analytics, with Indic coverage and turn detection.", "slug": "smallest-pulse-stt", "watchFor": "Health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September 2026, the longest about 64 minutes" } ], "history": { "assemblyai-stt": [ { "causes": [ "correction" ], "date": "2026-11-01", "delta": -0.1, "from": 66.9, "fromGrade": "B", "to": 66.8, "toGrade": "B" }, { "causes": [ "method" ], "date": "2026-10-27", "delta": 0.1, "from": 66.8, "fromGrade": "B", "to": 66.9, "toGrade": "B" }, { "causes": [ "method" ], "date": "2026-10-08", "delta": -0.2, "from": 67, "fromGrade": "B", "to": 66.8, "toGrade": "B" } ], "smallest-pulse-stt": null }, "job": { "capability": "speech.stt", "name": "Speech-to-text" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-assemblyai-stt.json", "title": "Amazon Transcribe vs AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-assemblyai-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Amazon Transcribe vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-azure-speech-to-text.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Azure AI Speech speech-to-text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-azure-speech-to-text" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-cartesia-ink-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Cartesia Ink", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-cartesia-ink-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-deepgram-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-deepgram-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-giggy-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Giggy Speech to Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-giggy-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-gladia-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-gladia-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-google-speech-to-text.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-google-speech-to-text" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-groq-speech-to-text.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Groq Speech-to-Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-groq-speech-to-text" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs IBM Watson Speech to Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-inworld-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Inworld STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-inworld-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-minimax-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-minimax-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-mistral-voxtral-transcribe.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-mistral-voxtral-transcribe" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs OpenAI Speech to Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-rev-ai-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-rev-ai-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-soniox-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Soniox Speech-to-Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-soniox-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.json", "title": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Cartesia Ink vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Giggy Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Groq Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inworld-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Inworld STT vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inworld-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "MiniMax Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Mistral Voxtral Transcribe vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "OpenAI Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rev-ai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "title": "Rev AI Speech-to-Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rev-ai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-soniox-stt.json", "title": "Smallest.ai Pulse STT vs Soniox Speech-to-Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-soniox-stt" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.json", "title": "Smallest.ai Pulse STT vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt" } ], "panel": null, "scores": [ { "assemblyai-stt": 85, "by": 22, "edge": "assemblyai-stt", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "smallest-pulse-stt": 63, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "assemblyai-stt": 95, "by": 3, "edge": "assemblyai-stt", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "smallest-pulse-stt": 92, "weight": 13 }, { "assemblyai-stt": 80, "by": 14, "edge": "assemblyai-stt", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "smallest-pulse-stt": 66, "weight": 13 }, { "assemblyai-stt": 50, "by": 2, "edge": "smallest-pulse-stt", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "smallest-pulse-stt": 52, "weight": 14 }, { "assemblyai-stt": 40, "by": 0, "edge": "", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "smallest-pulse-stt": 40, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "assemblyai-stt": 79, "by": 6, "edge": "assemblyai-stt", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "smallest-pulse-stt": 73, "weight": 7 }, { "assemblyai-stt": 77, "by": 6, "edge": "assemblyai-stt", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "smallest-pulse-stt": 71, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Smallest.ai Pulse STT's 65 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do speech-to-text.", "tasks": [ { "a": "$0.15 to $0.45", "b": "$0.18 to $0.30", "cheaper": "assemblyai-stt", "task": "Transcribe a one-hour meeting", "what": "60 minutes of recorded audio" } ], "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "assemblyai-stt": "OpenAPI 3.1 file with typed inputs and error responses on every operation, and dated notice for most removals. Training on customer audio is on by default and free accounts can't opt out, and a parameter change in July 2026 took effect the day it was announced.", "smallest-pulse-stt": "Pulse covers files and live audio on one endpoint, with OpenAPI and AsyncAPI files, a dated changelog and public per-minute prices from $0.003. The shared API's health checks failed in every region on five days in September, keys carry no scopes and can travel in a URL, and zero retention is Enterprise only." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.min.md" }, "markdown": "AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Smallest.ai Pulse STT's 65 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do speech-to-text.\n\n- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal): grade B, 66.8/100, rank #355 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/assemblyai-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/assemblyai-stt.json\n- Smallest.ai Pulse STT: grade B, 65/100, rank #443 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.json\n- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md\n- All 320 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) (B)\n\nGood for: Async transcription of long files with diarisation and subtitles, and for teams who want an OpenAPI contract.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 85 against 63\n- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 66\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 79 against 73\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 77 against 71\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n- Free to start without a card\n\nWatch for: Fourteen partial incidents from 3 August to 1 November 2026, among them a 75-minute US async outage on 16 September\n\n### Smallest.ai Pulse STT (B)\n\nGood for: Low-cost transcription for voice agents and call analytics, with Indic coverage and turn detection.\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No incidents deducted, where AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) loses 6 points for them\n\nWatch for: Health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September 2026, the longest about 64 minutes\n\n\n## Why the edge\n\n### Reliability: AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +22\n\n- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) (85): Statuspage at status.assemblyai.com with component history, read from history.atom on 1 November (20). Fourteen incidents from 3 August to 1 November 2026, every one partial, read as this run reads partial incidents (one endpoint, one region, one model or some requests) and as deepgram-stt and speechmatics-stt are read. The longest are an outage of the US async endpoint on 16 September from an AWS service issue (about half of US async jobs failed for 75 minutes, per the 1 October check, with the EU endpoint unaffected), rejected Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime sessions on the US endpoint for two hours on 6 October, and slower EU async processing with some failures from 08:20 to 10:45 UTC on 5 October. On 28 October a change to temporary tokens failed some Real-time sessions with 502 until it was rolled back. The 31 July us-east streaming fault left the window on 30 October. Minor only (20). Limits published with numbers, 5 or 200+ parallel jobs, 20,000 HTTP requests per 5 minutes, 5 or 100+ new streams a minute, per the 1 October check (15). Overload handling is partly documented. Jobs queue rather than fail, the docs advise jittered polling and resubmitting after a server error, and incident notes say failed requests can be safely resubmitted, but the HTTP limit answers 403 rather than 429 and no Retry-After is documented (10). A 99.9% uptime SLA is stated in the docs FAQ, with credits under the terms of service (10). Async, streaming and Sync APIs are GA (10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 85.\n- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (63): BetterStack status page at status.smallest.ai with components for the Global, India and USA APIs (one health check covers the Agents and Models APIs), docs, the app and Electron, and per-component history (20). In the 90 days from 8 August the health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September (about 8, 21, 33, 17 and 64 minutes of flapping), in the Global and India regions on 11 and 17 September (12 minutes each), and in the USA region alone on 1, 3, 5, 12, 21 and 30 September (6 to 62 minutes) and 6 October (12 minutes). Outages in every region at once are read as wide errors, so several majors (0). Standard plan limits published per model, 100 concurrent streaming sessions and 25 batch requests a minute, and the pricing page also says 100 concurrent STT streams (15). 429 is documented with exponential backoff from 500 ms to 30 s and Retry-After when present, and batch calls are synchronous with optional webhooks (15). An infrastructure SLA of 99.99 per cent is named for Enterprise only, with no terms published, and the terms disclaim any availability commitment (5 of 10). Pulse, Pulse 2.0 and Pulse Pro carry no preview label, but eleven language codes are marked Beta (8 of 10). 20 + 0 + 15 + 15 + 5 + 8 = 63.\n\n### Agent ergonomics: AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +14\n\n- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) (80): API reading of the checklist. Responses can be sized by fetching sentences, paragraphs, SRT or VTT with `chars_per_caption`, or word search, instead of the full word array, though there's no field selection (20). `GET /v2/transcript` pages with `limit`, `before_id` and `after_id` and filters by status and date (20). Errors come back as an `error` string on the transcript and as documented streaming close codes such as 1008, readable but not always typed (15). No idempotency key, and a resubmitted job is a new billed job. The retry guide covers server errors only (10). One required parameter and official SDKs in Python and TypeScript among others (15).\n- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (66): API reading of the checklist. Word timestamps, utterances, diarisation, emotion and gender are each opt-in, so the default response is the transcript with metadata (18 of 25). There are no list endpoints for transcriptions to page. Output controls are the opt-in fields and finalisation settings on the socket (10 of 20). Errors carry a status and a machine-readable `code` or `error_code` (`LANGUAGE_NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_MODEL`, `AudioTooLong` and others) with fixes, but the body comes in two shapes, `message` or `error` (15 of 20). Batch calls are synchronous with no idempotency key, and whether a retried file is billed again isn't stated (10 of 20). A file call needs only the model and audio. Official Python and Node SDKs exist, though the Node SDK was last published in May 2025 (13 of 15). Total 66.\n\n### Maintenance \u0026 community: AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +6\n\n- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) (79): Read as a model, for deprecation notice and support rather than release counts and issue replies, on the lines deepgram-stt, gladia-stt and speechmatics-stt use in this run. Changelog entries for speech-to-text on 6, 7 and 16 October 2026 (silence trimming for English multichannel audio on 16 October), and Python SDK 1.6.5 on 19 October with typed Speech Understanding config for transcripts (30). Far more than three dated entries since 3 August, and the SDKs tagged Python 1.5.2 to 1.8.2 and Node 4.40.0 to 4.42.0 in the period (10 of 10). No deprecation policy, but removals carry dates. Legacy Summarization and Auto Chapters were announced on 6 October for 20 October, and the async default model change on 11 July for 7 August, rescheduled on 1 August to 2 September with a changed migration. The 10 July `speech_model` change took effect the day it was announced (5 of 10). Public changelog and a support address (10 of 15). The Python SDK had 8 open issues on 1 October, the newest from December 2025 and the oldest from March 2024, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November, since GitHub's pages answered 403 (4 of 10). Official SDKs current, Python 1.8.2 on 23 October and Node 4.42.0 on 26 October (15). Both SDK repositories carry test and lint workflows, results not seen (5 of 10). 30 + 10 + 5 + 10 + 4 + 15 + 5 = 79.\n- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (73): Read as a model. The newest Pulse changelog entry is dated 2 November 2026 (updated Indic benchmarks), and Pulse 2.0 launched within the period (30). Dated Pulse entries on 30 August, 18, 29 and 30 September, 1, 12, 13 and 21 October and 2 November (20). Public changelog, email support and a Discord server, with no evidence read of how they answer (10 of 15). The Python SDK `smallestai` 5.14.0 dates from 7 October with 12 releases since 9 August, but the npm Node SDK has not been published since May 2025 (8 of 15). The Python SDK repository runs CI and release workflows, but has no licence file (5 of 10). Total 73.\n\n### Transparency \u0026 trust: AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +6\n\n- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) (77): Closed service with clear terms (15). Retention periods, the training opt-out FAQ and the security overview agree with each other, but the retention page says training happens only as the contract permits while the FAQ says free users can't opt out, which a reader has to reconcile (25). Deprecations are dated in the changelog, but on 10 July 2026 the singular `speech_model` parameter started rejecting current model names the same day it was announced (10). Subprocessor list at /legal/subprocessors and US and EU endpoints (20).\n- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (71): Closed service with clear terms naming Smallest Inc. under California law (15). The ZDR page is specific about what each mode keeps, but the terms' no-training clause and the privacy policy's machine-learning use of usage data sit side by side, the privacy policy gives no retention periods, and the policy doesn't mention the DPA a footer link points to (15 of 30). A deprecations page gives statuses, dates and migration targets, deprecated routes return a `Deprecation: true` header, and the 30 September changelog removed 14 European codes from the batch enum with a migration to `multi-eu`. The terms still let Smallest change or discontinue services at any time without notice (15 of 20). Two regions named (Mumbai and Oregon) with region-pinned hosts, and only Google Analytics and Fullstory named among third parties, with no sub-processor list found (10 of 20). Total 55.\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) | Smallest.ai Pulse STT | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 63 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +22 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 92 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +3 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 66 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +14 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 50 | 52 | Smallest.ai Pulse STT +2 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 73 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +6 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 71 | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) +6 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **66.8 · B** | **65 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) | Smallest.ai Pulse STT |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Model API | Model API |\n| Vendor | AssemblyAI | Smallest AI |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.assemblyai.com/v2` | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, websocket |\n| Auth | API key | API key |\n| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | none |\n| Tools exposed | none | 0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-19 | 2026-11-02 |\n| Terms last updated | 2026-07-01 | no date given |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-26 | no date given |\n| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |\n| Popularity | 213 stars, 600k npm/wk, 738k PyPI/wk | none |\n| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |\n\n## What the same task costs\n\n| Task | AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) | Smallest.ai Pulse STT |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.15 to $0.45 | $0.18 to $0.30 |\n\n## How the scores have moved\n\n### AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)\n\n- -0.1 on 1 November 2026: correction\n- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist\n- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist\n\n### Smallest.ai Pulse STT\n\nNo score change since it was listed.\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal).** OpenAPI 3.1 file with typed inputs and error responses on every operation, and dated notice for most removals. Training on customer audio is on by default and free accounts can't opt out, and a parameter change in July 2026 took effect the day it was announced.\n\n**Smallest.ai Pulse STT.** Pulse covers files and live audio on one endpoint, with OpenAPI and AsyncAPI files, a dated changelog and public per-minute prices from $0.003. The shared API's health checks failed in every region on five days in September, keys carry no scopes and can travel in a URL, and zero retention is Enterprise only.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)\n\n1. Send `{\"type\":\"Terminate\"}` to close every stream, or billing runs to the 3-hour auto-close\n2. Use `speech_models` (plural). The singular `speech_model` now returns 400 for current model names\n3. Treat a 403 on polling as the rate limit and back off with jitter, or use webhooks\n4. Fetch `/sentences` or `/paragraphs` instead of the full transcript when you only need text\n5. Opt out in Data Controls on a paid account before sending customer audio\n\n### Smallest.ai Pulse STT\n\n1. Pass `?model=` on every call, since a missing model returns 400; use `pulse-pro` for English files and `pulse` for other languages or streaming\n2. Send booleans such as `diarize` and `word_timestamps` as the lowercase strings \"true\" or \"false\"\n3. Retry 429 with backoff from 500 ms up to 30 s and honour Retry-After; keep within 25 batch requests a minute on the Standard plan\n4. Use the region-pinned host api.us.smallest.ai or api.india.smallest.ai when the audio must stay in one region\n5. Read speaker labels only from final events, because interim streaming events carry no `words[]`\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) or Smallest.ai Pulse STT?\n\nAssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) scores 66.8 (B) on agent readiness against Smallest.ai Pulse STT's 65 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.\n\n### Do AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) and Smallest.ai Pulse STT need an API key?\n\nBoth need an API key.\n\n### Can an agent call AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) and Smallest.ai Pulse STT without installing anything?\n\nAssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.assemblyai.com/v2. No hosted endpoint is listed for Smallest.ai Pulse STT.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"assemblyai-stt\", \"b\": \"smallest-pulse-stt\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare assemblyai-stt smallest-pulse-stt`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/assemblyai-stt.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.json\n\n## Other comparisons with AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) or Smallest.ai Pulse STT\n\n- [Amazon Transcribe vs AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-assemblyai-stt.md)\n- [Amazon Transcribe vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Azure AI Speech speech-to-text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-azure-speech-to-text.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Cartesia Ink](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-cartesia-ink-stt.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, 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Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Inworld STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-inworld-stt.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-minimax-stt.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-mistral-voxtral-transcribe.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs OpenAI Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-rev-ai-stt.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Soniox Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-soniox-stt.md)\n- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.md)\n- [Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Cartesia Ink vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Giggy Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Inworld STT vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inworld-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [MiniMax Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [OpenAI Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Rev AI Speech-to-Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rev-ai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)\n- [Smallest.ai Pulse STT vs Soniox Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-soniox-stt.md)\n- [Smallest.ai Pulse STT vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link the page or API address you took it from (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-11-07", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.7", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ 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