# Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Groq Speech-to-Text

> Azure AI Speech speech-to-text scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Groq Speech-to-Text's 71.8 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Groq Speech-to-Text leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do speech stt. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Azure AI Speech speech-to-text scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Groq Speech-to-Text's 71.8 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Groq Speech-to-Text leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do speech stt.

- Azure AI Speech speech-to-text: grade BB, 73/100, rank #90 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-speech-to-text.json
- Groq Speech-to-Text: grade BB, 71.8/100, rank #113 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq-speech-to-text.json

## Which one, for what

### Azure AI Speech speech-to-text (BB)

Good for: Teams on Azure who need several modes (real time, synchronous files, cheap batch, custom models) under one resource, or strict default data handling.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 58
- Security & auth, 85 against 79
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 68

Watch for: MAI-Transcribe-2 and MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming are preview with no SLA, and both introductory prices end with 2026

### Groq Speech-to-Text (BB)

Good for: Suited to cheap, fast transcription of recorded files in many languages, and to agents that already hold a Groq key or use an OpenAI-compatible client.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 80
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No streaming or realtime endpoint and no diarisation in the reviewed documentation


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Azure AI Speech speech-to-text | Groq Speech-to-Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 90 | Groq Speech-to-Text +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 58 | Azure AI Speech speech-to-text +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 75 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 85 | 79 | Azure AI Speech speech-to-text +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Groq Speech-to-Text +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 68 | Azure AI Speech speech-to-text +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 85 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73 · BB** | **71.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Azure AI Speech speech-to-text | Groq Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Microsoft Azure | Groq |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://eastus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com/speechtotext` | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (samples), SDK under Microsoft's own licence | Proprietary hosted service under the Groq Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0 and the Whisper weights are published by OpenAI on Hugging Face |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-08-26 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-06-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-01 | 2025-11-12 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 3.5k stars, 476k npm/wk, 1M PyPI/wk | 621 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (8) | none |

## Verdicts

**Azure AI Speech speech-to-text.** Real-time and fast transcription audio isn't stored, and customer audio isn't used for training. MAI-Transcribe-2 and the new MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming are preview with no SLA, and the streaming model's WebSocket route accepts the resource key in the URL query string.

**Groq Speech-to-Text.** Whisper Large v3 Turbo costs $0.04 an audio hour and Whisper Large v3 $0.111, with a no-card free plan and zero data retention as a self-serve setting. There is no streaming endpoint, no diarisation and no subtitle output, and uploads stop at 25 MB on the free plan and 100 MB on the Developer plan.

## Before you call either

### Azure AI Speech speech-to-text

1. Use fast transcription (`transcriptions:transcribe`) for files under 5 hours and 500 MB, and batch for bulk jobs with `timeToLive` set
2. Pin `api-version=2025-10-15`. v3.0 and the v3.2 previews are retired
3. On a 429, back off 1, 2, 4 then 4 minutes. It usually means autoscaling, not a quota
4. For MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming, use Speech SDK 1.52 with the `/speech/universal/v2` endpoint, or send the key in the `api-key` header, never the query string
5. Don't budget on MAI-Transcribe-2 at $0.10 or MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming at $0.54 an hour after 2026-12-31

### Groq Speech-to-Text

1. Send `whisper-large-v3-turbo` for transcription and `whisper-large-v3` for translation to English. The translations endpoint does not accept Turbo.
2. Pass `url` instead of `file` for audio over 25 MB, and split anything over the plan's size limit into overlapping chunks before sending.
3. Set `response_format` to `verbose_json` before asking for `timestamp_granularities[]`. Word timestamps add latency, segment timestamps do not.
4. Every request is billed as at least 10 seconds of audio, so join very short clips where the task allows.
5. Read `retry-after` on a 429 and back off. Audio limits count seconds an hour and a day as well as requests.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Azure AI Speech speech-to-text or Groq Speech-to-Text?

Azure AI Speech speech-to-text scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Groq Speech-to-Text's 71.8 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Groq Speech-to-Text leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do Azure AI Speech speech-to-text and Groq Speech-to-Text need an API key?

Azure AI Speech speech-to-text takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Groq Speech-to-Text needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Azure AI Speech speech-to-text and Groq Speech-to-Text without installing anything?

Yes. Azure AI Speech speech-to-text has a hosted endpoint at https://eastus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com/speechtotext and Groq Speech-to-Text at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1.


## For agents

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

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