# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

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): grade BB, 70.6/100, rank #94 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepgram-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepgram-stt.json
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP: grade B, 69.7/100, rank #108 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gladia-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gladia-stt.json

## 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 | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 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 this run) | 95 | 95 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 75 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 80 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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)

1. Add `mip_opt_out=true` to every request that carries customer audio
2. Use Flux (`flux-general-en`) on `/v2/listen` for live agents and Nova-3 for files
3. Back off exponentially on 429. The concurrency limit is per project
4. Pass `callback` for long files so the request doesn't hit the 10-minute processing timeout
5. Mint keys with an expiry for short-lived jobs

### Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP

1. Don't resubmit a pre-recorded job after a 200 or a `transcription.created` webhook. It's already queued
2. Pick `solaria-3` only for async EN, FR, DE, ES or IT audio. Anything live or multilingual needs `solaria-1`
3. A 429 means the concurrency limit, 3 async and 1 live on the free plan. Wait for a running job to finish
4. Upgrade off the free plan before sending sensitive audio
5. Split files over 135 minutes or 1,000 MB

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