Head to head · Speech stt · October 2026 research run
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Groq Speech-to-Text
Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API's 68.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do speech stt.
Which one, for what
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API B
Good for Batch transcription where diarisation, entity detection and keyterms matter, and for teams already on ElevenLabs for speech.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 58
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 68
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
Watch for
Audio may be used for training unless the account opts out, and the opt-out isn't retroactive
Good for Suited to cheap, fast transcription of recorded files in many languages, and to agents that already hold a Groq key or use an OpenAI-compatible client.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 90 against 70
- Security & auth, 79 against 55
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 70
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
No streaming or realtime endpoint and no diarisation in the reviewed documentation
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Groq Speech-to-Text | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 90 | Groq Speech-to-Text +20 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 95 | 58 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 75 | even |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 55 | 79 | Groq Speech-to-Text +24 |
| 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 | 68 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 70 | 85 | Groq Speech-to-Text +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 68.9 · B | 71.8 · BB |
Facts side by side
| Fact | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Groq Speech-to-Text |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | Groq |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 | https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | Proprietary hosted service under the Groq Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0 and the Whisper weights are published by OpenAI on Hugging Face |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-08-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | 2026-06-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | 2025-11-12 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 621 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |
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.
Groq Speech-to-Text
Whisper Large v3 Turbo costs $0.04 an audio hour and Whisper Large v3 $0.111, with a no-card free plan and zero data retention as a self-serve setting. There is no streaming endpoint, no diarisation and no subtitle output, and uploads stop at 25 MB on the free plan and 100 MB on the Developer plan.
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
Groq Speech-to-Text
- Send
whisper-large-v3-turbofor transcription andwhisper-large-v3for translation to English. The translations endpoint does not accept Turbo. - Pass
urlinstead offilefor audio over 25 MB, and split anything over the plan's size limit into overlapping chunks before sending. - Set
response_formattoverbose_jsonbefore asking fortimestamp_granularities[]. Word timestamps add latency, segment timestamps do not. - Every request is billed as at least 10 seconds of audio, so join very short clips where the task allows.
- Read
retry-afteron a 429 and back off. Audio limits count seconds an hour and a day as well as requests.
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API or Groq Speech-to-Text?
Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API's 68.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.
Do ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and Groq Speech-to-Text need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and Groq Speech-to-Text without installing anything?
Yes. ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 and Groq Speech-to-Text at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.json·/api/v1/tools/groq-speech-to-text.json - From a terminal
anchor compare elevenlabs-scribe groq-speech-to-text(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "elevenlabs-scribe", "b": "groq-speech-to-text"}at/mcp, no key