Head to head · Speech stt · October 2026 research run
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP
Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP has a score of 69.7 (B) against ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API's 69 (B). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is security & auth, 15 points.
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text APIElevenLabs · Model API
B69/100#117 of 452
Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCPGladia · Model API
B69.7/100#108 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API for
- reliability (+10)
- transparency & trust (+5)
Pick Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP for
- security & auth (+15)
- maintenance & community (+5)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 60 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +10 |
| 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 | 55 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 75 | 80 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 71 | 66 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 69 · B | 69.7 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | Gladia |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 | https://api.gladia.io/v2 |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | 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 | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-24 |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |
Verdicts
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API
$0.22 an hour for batch with 90+ languages and diarisation to 32 speakers. Audio may be used for training unless the account opts out, and the opt-out isn't retroactive.
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
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API
- Create a key restricted to speech-to-text with a credit quota and an expiry
- Use
source_urlfor hosted files instead of downloading and re-uploading - Set
webhook=truefor long files so the call doesn't block - Back off exponentially on any of the three 429 codes
- Opt out under Data use before sending customer audio. It only covers later uploads
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
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