Head to head · Speech stt · October 2026 research run
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) has a score of 70.6 (BB) against Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP's 69.7 (B). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 9 points.
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)Deepgram · Model API
BB70.6/100#94 of 452
Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCPGladia · Model API
B69.7/100#108 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) for
- reliability (+5)
- transparency & trust (+9)
Pick Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP for
- security & auth (+5)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 65 | 60 | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 95 | 95 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 75 | even |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 65 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5 |
| 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 | 75 | 66 | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 70.6 · BB | 69.7 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Deepgram | Gladia |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.deepgram.com/v1 | https://api.gladia.io/v2 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio, SSE (legacy) | 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 | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-24 |
| Popularity | 468 stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 805k PyPI/wk | 4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)
Flux streams with model-level end-of-turn detection, so a voice agent needs no separate VAD. Training on audio is the default and the opt-out is a per-request flag.
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
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)
- Add
mip_opt_out=trueto every request that carries customer audio - Use Flux (
flux-general-en) on/v2/listenfor live agents and Nova-3 for files - Back off exponentially on 429. The concurrency limit is per project
- Pass
callbackfor long files so the request doesn't hit the 10-minute processing timeout - Mint keys with an expiry for short-lived jobs
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 Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) or Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
- Amazon Transcribe vs Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)
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- Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)
- Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
- 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/deepgram-stt.json·/api/v1/tools/gladia-stt.json- This page as Markdown,
/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-gladia-stt.md