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

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

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 API: grade B, 69/100, rank #117 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.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 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 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 60 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +10 |
| 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) | 55 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +15 |
| 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) | 75 | 80 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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

1. Create a key restricted to speech-to-text with a credit quota and an expiry
2. Use `source_url` for hosted files instead of downloading and re-uploading
3. Set `webhook=true` for long files so the call doesn't block
4. Back off exponentially on any of the three 429 codes
5. Opt out under Data use before sending customer audio. It only covers later uploads

### 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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