Head to head · Speech-to-text · October 2026 research run

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Inworld STT

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Inworld STT's 54.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do speech-to-text.

Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents · All 320 stt comparisons

Which one, for what

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API BB

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

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 80 against 60
  • Schema & documentation, 95 against 54
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 56
  • Maintenance & community, 77 against 41
  • Transparency & trust, 71 against 60

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

Inworld STT C

Best for Low-cost live transcription for voice agents, with speaker traits.

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Schema & documentation ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +41

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.

Inworld STT 54

No OpenAPI or other machine-readable file. The usual spec paths redirect, and the reference pages are Markdown (0). llms.txt, Markdown twins and a docs MCP server (10). Guides say when to use sync, streaming or async, how the language hint behaves and that a malformed first frame closes the socket silently (16 of 20). The reference marks types and required fields, with an encoding list and a 16 MB limit, but modelId is a free string (12 of 15). Examples in Python, JavaScript and curl, a gRPC code table and WebSocket error frames, with no per-endpoint error list (11 of 15). Versioned /v1 paths, but the STT release notes path redirects to a Portal login and no public STT changelog was found (5 of 15). Total 54.

Maintenance & community ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +36

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.

Inworld STT 41

Read as a model. No public STT changelog. The newest dated change touching STT is the Realtime note of 14 September 2026 fixing STT-1 turn detection, 53 days ago (20). The CLI, which carries the STT command and MCP tool, shipped 1.4.0 to 1.5.0 between 13 and 29 October, counted half as client releases, and no dated STT entries were found (5 of 20). Discord and support@inworld.ai, with no evidence of answers read (6 of 15). No official STT SDK; the CLI is current (5 of 15). CLI on npm under MIT, current, CI not read (5 of 10). Total 41.

Reliability ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +20

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.

Inworld STT 60

Hosted reading of the checklist. status.inworld.ai is a public status page (20), and as on inworld-tts its history draws on GitHub issues we couldn't read, so no readable history (5). Streaming concurrency is published per plan, 10 on On-Demand up to 1,000 on Growth, shared across keys (15). 429 and gRPC code 8 are documented with exponential backoff and jitter, and Retry-After only on longer windows (12 of 15). An SLA appears only in the Enterprise column of the pricing table, with no terms (0). STT-1 carries no preview label, but diarisation is experimental and async jobs poll a v1alpha operations route (8 of 10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 0 + 8 = 60.

Agent ergonomics ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +19

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.

Inworld STT 56

API reading of the checklist. Voice Profile, word timestamps and diarisation are opt-in, and responses carry a usage block (18 of 25). No lists to page. Async jobs return an operation to poll (8 of 20). Errors carry a numeric gRPC code and message on both endpoints, but a malformed first message closes the socket with 1005 and no frame (12 of 20). Sync calls are stateless and async calls return an operation, with no idempotency key, and empty transcripts and add-ons are billed (10 of 20). A call needs a model, an encoding and the audio. No STT SDK was found, only the CLI and its MCP server and REST examples (8 of 15). Total 56.

Transparency & trust ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +11

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.

Inworld STT 60

Closed service with clear terms naming Theai, Inc. dba Inworld AI (15). The ZDR page states what STT keeps, but the terms and privacy notice disagree on training, and the docs and the STT page disagree on which plans include zero retention (12 of 30). No dated STT deprecation or change notices are public (8 of 20). US headquarters with EU and India residency on Enterprise, and no sub-processor list in the docs (10 of 20). Total 45.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text APIInworld STTEdge
Reliability16%208060ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +20
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29554ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +41
Agent ergonomics13%16.27556ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +19
Security & auth14%17.56563ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +2
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87741ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +36
Transparency & trust7%8.87160ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +11
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 73/100C 54.7/100

Facts side by side

FactElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text APIInworld STT
KindModel APIModel API
VendorElevenLabsInworld AI
Hosted endpointhttps://api.elevenlabs.io/v1no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, stdioHTTP, websocket
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
Price for speech-to-textnot published$0.0017 per minute of audio
x402nono
LicenceMIT (SDKs)none
Tools exposednone0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-272026-10-29
Terms last updated2026-03-312025-06-11
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-202026-01-18
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wknone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)none

What the same task costs

TaskElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text APIInworld STT
Transcribe a one-hour meeting60 minutes of recorded audio$0.22 to $0.39$0.10 to $0.15

Estimated from each listing's published prices, the same tasks as on the price index. Plans, minimums and free allowances aren't counted.

How the scores have moved

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.

Inworld STT

Inworld STT costs $0.10 to $0.15 an hour with 400 free minutes, and covers files, live streams and async jobs in 30 languages with Voice Profile signals. There is no machine-readable spec, no public STT changelog and no readable status history, and diarisation is still experimental.

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

Inworld STT

  1. Send the Base64 credential as-is in Authorization: Basic; don't encode it again
  2. Wrap the first WebSocket message in transcribeConfig, because a malformed first frame closes the socket with 1005 and no error
  3. Use POST /stt/v1/transcribe:async for files over about 16 MB and collect the transcript within 7 days
  4. Retry 429 or gRPC code 8 with exponential backoff and jitter, and stay within the plan's streaming concurrency
  5. Stop sending audio when nobody speaks, since streams are billed for every second sent

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API or Inworld STT?

ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Inworld STT's 54.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and Inworld STT need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and Inworld STT 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 Inworld STT.

Other comparisons with ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API or Inworld STT

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