Head to head · Speech-to-text · October 2026 research run
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs OpenAI Speech to Text
OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (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, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do speech-to-text.
Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents · All 91 stt comparisons
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 88
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 61
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 plain transcription of recorded files at a low price a minute and to teams already holding an OpenAI key.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 80 against 70
- Security & auth, 86 against 55
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
Watch for
whisper-1, gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe and gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize were deprecated on 26 August 2026 and shut down on 26 February 2027
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | OpenAI Speech to Text | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 80 | OpenAI Speech to Text +10 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 95 | 88 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 78 | OpenAI Speech to Text +3 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 55 | 86 | OpenAI Speech to Text +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 20 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 75 | 75 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 70 | 61 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 68.9 · B | 72.4 · BB |
Facts side by side
| Fact | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | OpenAI Speech to Text |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 | https://api.openai.com/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | Proprietary hosted service. The service terms were not read (see open questions). The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 and the OpenAPI document is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-08-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-31 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-20 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 32k 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.
OpenAI Speech to Text
gpt-transcribe costs $0.0045 an audio minute, and the audio endpoints keep no abuse-monitoring logs or application state. Speaker labels, timestamps, subtitles and translation exist only on whisper-1 and gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize, which shut down on 26 February 2027 with no named replacement for those functions.
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
OpenAI Speech to Text
- Send
gpt-transcribetoPOST /v1/audio/transcriptionsfor recorded files. Uselanguages(a list), notlanguage, and never send both. - Keep each upload at 25 MB or less. Split longer audio between sentences and pass the previous chunk's text in
prompt. - For speaker labels send
gpt-4o-transcribe-diarizewithresponse_format=diarized_jsonandchunking_strategy=autofor audio over 30 seconds. Plan for its shutdown on 26 February 2027. - Word timestamps,
srt,vttand/v1/audio/translationsneedwhisper-1, which cannot stream and shuts down on the same date. - On 429 or 503 wait at least
Retry-Afterwhen present, then back off with jitter. Do not retrycredit_balance_exhaustedor spend-limit errors.
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API or OpenAI Speech to Text?
OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (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, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.
Do ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and OpenAI Speech to Text need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API and OpenAI Speech to Text without installing anything?
Yes. ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 and OpenAI Speech to Text at https://api.openai.com/v1.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-openai-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/openai-speech-to-text.json - From a terminal
anchor compare elevenlabs-scribe openai-speech-to-text(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "elevenlabs-scribe", "b": "openai-speech-to-text"}at/mcp, no key