# ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs IBM Watson Speech to Text

> ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text scores 73 (BB) to IBM Watson Speech to Text's 54.5 (C) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-ibm-watson-stt
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md (~5,350 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against IBM Watson Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. IBM Watson Speech to Text leads on transparency & trust. Both do speech-to-text.

- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API: grade BB, 73/100, rank #113 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.json
- IBM Watson Speech to Text: grade C, 54.5/100, rank #904 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ibm-watson-stt.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 320 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md

## Which one, for what

### ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API (BB)

Good for: Batch transcription where diarisation, entity detection and keyterms matter, and for teams already on ElevenLabs for speech.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 66
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 33

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- 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

### IBM Watson Speech to Text (C)

Good for: Enterprises on IBM Cloud needing custom acoustic models, HIPAA on Premium and many locations.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 80 against 71

Watch for: No public OpenAPI file or llms.txt


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +44

- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API (77): Read as a model, as the ElevenLabs text-to-speech listing is, in place of the 1 October release-count reading. Newest change is SDK 2.75.0, tagged in the Python and JavaScript repositories on 27 October 2026 (23:02 UTC), and the 26 October changelog entry changed realtime silence thresholds and added transcription webhook retries. Speech to Text also changed on 12 October (`turn_prediction` commit strategy) and 19 October (`edited_text`) (30). Weekly dated entries, 16 between 3 August and 26 October (10). `scribe_v1` is still marked deprecated in favour of `scribe_v2` with no date or notice period (0 of 10). Public changelog and support channels (10 of 15). The Python SDK had 19 open issues on 1 October, several opened in August 2026, per the ElevenLabs text-to-speech listing's 1 October check of the same repository, not re-read on 1 November (5 of 10). Official Python and TypeScript SDKs current at 2.75.0. The local `elevenlabs-mcp` package, the only one with a transcription tool, has been deprecated since 20 August 2026 in favour of the hosted server, its last release 0.12.2 on 4 August (15). Fern-generated SDKs, read as the ElevenLabs text-to-speech listing reads them (7 of 10). 30 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 5 + 15 + 7 = 77.
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (33): Read as a model. The newest release note is 29 June 2026 (`parameter_set` for large speech models), 130 days ago (10). No dated entries in the 90 days from 8 August (0). Release notes, IBM support and a public docs repository last changed 30 June 2026 (8 of 15). Official SDKs, `ibm-watson` 11.2.0 on PyPI (26 January 2026) and 12.2.0 on npm (January 2026) (10 of 15). CI not read (5 of 10). Total 33.

### Reliability: ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +40

- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API (80): incident.io status page with a Speech to Text component and dated component history (20). Re-read on 1 November from the history page, which dates each component's impact, as the ElevenLabs text-to-speech, voice cloning and agents listings were read; the incidents feed was re-posted on 21 October and leaves older incidents out. Six incidents touched the Speech to Text component in the 90 days from 3 August. Elevated TTS and STT error rates from 06:39 to 07:13 UTC on 3 August and TTS and STT latency from 15:15 to 17:53 UTC on 26 August, both at degraded performance. Two latency incidents on 4 September, the EU residency from 11:41 to 12:12 UTC and the global residency from 13:55 to 21:01 UTC for "a small subset of requests", and STT latency from 15:42 to 16:05 UTC on 28 September, all degraded. From 16:00 to 19:44 UTC on 29 September a usage datastore fault caused latency, conversation failures and 429s on STT requests, marked partial outage on Speech to Text and Conversations. The 1 October note called it one major of 94 minutes; the page dates the STT impact at 3 hours 44 minutes, and it is read as partial, as the ElevenLabs agents listing read the same incident. A one-minute entry named "Test" on 16 October isn't counted. Nothing has touched STT since 29 September. Minor only (20 of 30, was 10). Concurrency per plan published with numbers, re-read on 1 November, 8 on Free to 60 on Scale for batch and 6 to 45 for realtime, with `current-concurrent-requests` and `maximum-concurrent-requests` headers (15). The error reference names three 429 codes, `rate_limit_exceeded`, `concurrent_limit_exceeded` and `system_busy`, and asks for exponential backoff (15). No SLA found for self-serve plans, and the API pricing page puts SLAs under Enterprise (0). Scribe v2, Scribe v2 Realtime and Scribe v2 Medical carry no alpha or beta label (10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 80.
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (40): IBM Cloud has a status page at cloud.ibm.com/status, but it is drawn by script and showed no components or history to our reader, read as gemini-live's script-shell page was (10 of 20, and 5 for no readable history). Plus allows up to 100 concurrent transcription requests across WebSocket and HTTP (15). No 429 or backoff guidance was found in the API reference or the docs repository (0). No SLA was read for the service (0, unchecked). Next-generation and large speech models are GA, language by language (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 40.

### Schema & documentation: ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +40

- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API (95): OpenAPI file at api.elevenlabs.io/openapi.json, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November because api.elevenlabs.io's robots.txt disallows every path (25). llms.txt with a Markdown twin of each page, re-read on 1 November (10). Reference pages state what each parameter does, and the docs separate batch, realtime and medical use, though they rarely say when not to use one (15). Multipart fields are typed with enums such as `timestamps_granularity`, and `model_id` is required (15). Examples on each endpoint and an error reference with codes and meanings, re-read on 1 November (15). Versioned `/v1` paths and a dated weekly changelog, the newest entry 26 October (15). 25 + 10 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 95.
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (55): No public OpenAPI or other machine-readable definition was found (0). No llms.txt (0). The reference says which parameters each model family supports and the docs cover each feature (15 of 20). Typed parameters with defaults, ranges and enums (13 of 15). curl and SDK examples on every method, and errors with `error`, `code`, `code_description` and `warnings`, with invalid arguments reported as warnings (12 of 15). Versioned `/v1` paths and dated release notes back to 2015 (15). Total 55.

### Agent ergonomics: ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +9

- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API (75): API reading of the checklist. Timestamps can be dropped or set to word or character level, and extra formats such as SRT or plain text come back alongside JSON (20). Transcripts can be fetched by ID, but we didn't find a paginated list for them (10). Typed error codes with messages, `invalid_parameters`, `insufficient_credits` and the 429 family (20). No idempotency key, and `webhook=true` makes the call asynchronous without a dedupe guarantee. Since 26 October transcription webhooks are retried on failure when the webhook's retry setting is on, and requests priced below one credit are charged one credit (10). Two required fields, the model and a file or `source_url`. Official SDKs in Python and TypeScript (15). 20 + 10 + 20 + 10 + 15 = 75.
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (66): API reading of the checklist. Timestamps, word confidence, alternatives and speaker labels are opt-in (15 of 25). Async jobs and custom models list, and async results can go to a callback URL (12 of 20). Structured errors and warnings an agent can act on (15 of 20). Async jobs take a `user_token`, results have a TTL, and jobs can be deleted, with no idempotency key (12 of 20). Most parameters are optional. Official SDKs including Python, Node and Swift, though the Python and Node SDKs last released in January 2026 (12 of 15). Total 66.

### Transparency & trust: IBM Watson Speech to Text +9

- ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API (71): Closed service with clear terms and MIT SDKs (15). The Privacy Policy, updated 9 October 2026 and re-read on 1 November, allows training on personal data with a forward-only opt-out, and the zero retention page now says every `/v1/speech-to-text/` endpoint is covered for Enterprise customers. We found no speech-to-text statement that contradicts them, though a reader still pieces the position together from three pages (15). `scribe_v1` is marked deprecated without a date or a written policy (5). EU, India and Singapore residency hosts are documented, but no named sub-processor list was found (15). 15 + 15 + 5 + 15 = 50.
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (80): Closed service under the IBM Cloud terms (15). The data security page states default logging for improvement with an opt-out, async retention, GDPR deletion by customer ID and plan-level separation, and they agree with each other. The DPA wasn't read (20 of 30). Previous-generation models carried a dated deprecation of 15 March 2022 and removal on 31 July 2023, and release notes say changes are compatible unless noted (18 of 20). Ten locations are named, with sub-processors not read (12 of 20). Total 65.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | IBM Watson Speech to Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 40 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +40 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 55 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +40 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 66 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 68 | IBM Watson Speech to Text +3 |
| 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) | 77 | 33 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +44 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 80 | IBM Watson Speech to Text +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73 · BB** | **54.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | IBM Watson Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | IBM |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-27 | 2026-06-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | 2026-08-25 |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| 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 | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## What the same task costs

| Task | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | IBM Watson Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.22 to $0.39 | $0.60 to $1.20 |

## How the scores have moved

### ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API

- +4.0 on 1 November 2026 (B to BB): new evidence, correction
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.1 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### IBM Watson Speech to Text

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API.** Scribe v2 transcribes 90+ languages at $0.22 an hour of batch audio, with diarisation up to 32 speakers and keys that can be scoped by endpoint, capped and set to expire. Audio may be used for training unless the account opts out, the opt-out isn't retroactive, and zero retention needs Enterprise.

**IBM Watson Speech to Text.** Watson STT covers sync, async and WebSocket transcription in ten locations, with custom models, $0.02 a minute on Plus and 500 free minutes. There is no machine-readable spec or readable status history, requests are logged for improvement unless opted out, the WebSocket token goes in the URL, and the last release note is from June 2026.

## 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 and turn on webhook retries so results aren't lost
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

### IBM Watson Speech to Text

1. Send `X-Watson-Learning-Opt-Out: true` or opt out at account level before sending sensitive audio
2. Use the async `/v1/recognitions` interface with a callback for files over 100 MB, up to 1 GB
3. Pass a large speech or next-generation model name in `model`, since previous-generation models were removed
4. Tag requests with `X-Watson-Metadata: customer_id=...` so the data can be deleted later
5. Keep within 100 concurrent requests on Plus across HTTP and WebSocket

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API or IBM Watson Speech to Text?

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against IBM Watson Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. IBM Watson Speech to Text leads on transparency & trust.

### Do ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and IBM Watson Speech to Text need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and IBM Watson Speech to Text without installing anything?

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for IBM Watson Speech to Text.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-ibm-watson-stt.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-ibm-watson-stt.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "elevenlabs-scribe", "b": "ibm-watson-stt"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare elevenlabs-scribe ibm-watson-stt`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ibm-watson-stt.json

## Other comparisons with ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API or IBM Watson Speech to Text

- [Amazon Transcribe vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.md)
- [Amazon Transcribe vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.md)
- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.md)
- [Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Cartesia Ink vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.md)
- [Cartesia Ink vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-elevenlabs-scribe.md)
- [Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Giggy Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-giggy-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-gladia-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-google-speech-to-text.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Inworld STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-inworld-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-minimax-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-mistral-voxtral-transcribe.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs OpenAI Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-rev-ai-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Soniox Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-soniox-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-speechmatics-stt.md)
- [Giggy Speech to Text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-speech-to-text-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Inworld STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-inworld-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-minimax-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-mistral-voxtral-transcribe.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs OpenAI Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-rev-ai-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Soniox Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-soniox-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.md)

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