Head to head · Speech stt · October 2026 research run
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) has a score of 70.6 (BB) against Soniox Speech-to-Text's 58.3 (C). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 50 points.
Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)Deepgram · Model API
BB70.6/100#94 of 452
Soniox Speech-to-TextSoniox · Model API
C58.3/100#281 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) for
- schema & documentation (+35)
- agent ergonomics (+5)
- payments & pricing (+20)
- maintenance & community (+50)
Pick Soniox Speech-to-Text for
- security & auth (+5)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) | Soniox Speech-to-Text | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 65 | 65 | even |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 95 | 60 | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 70 | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 65 | 70 | Soniox Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 20 | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 80 | 30 | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) +50 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 75 | 78 | Soniox Speech-to-Text +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 70.6 · BB | 58.3 · C |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) | Soniox Speech-to-Text |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Deepgram | Soniox |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.deepgram.com/v1 | https://api.soniox.com/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio, SSE (legacy) | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | Apache-2.0 (Python SDK) |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| 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 | 2026-08-11 |
| Popularity | 468 stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 805k PyPI/wk | 12 stars, 22k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (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.
Soniox Speech-to-Text
About $0.10 an hour async and $0.12 real time, with diarisation, language ID and translation included. No free credits for new accounts since October 2025.
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
Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Pass
audio_urlfor public files and skip the upload step. Delete uploaded files or they count against the 10 GB quota for 30 days - Use the
contextfield for names and domain terms - Buffer audio while the WebSocket connects, then flush it after the config message
- Split anything over 300 minutes. The cap is fixed
- Set
client_reference_idso failed or duplicate requests can be traced in the usage log
Other comparisons with Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) or Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Amazon Transcribe vs Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)
- Amazon Transcribe vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)
- AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux)
- Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API
- Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
- 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 Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Rev AI Speech-to-Text API vs Soniox Speech-to-Text
- Soniox Speech-to-Text vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
Machine-readable
/api/v1/tools/deepgram-stt.json·/api/v1/tools/soniox-stt.json- This page as Markdown,
/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-soniox-stt.md