ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Soniox Speech-to-Text

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.

Soniox Speech-to-Text

About $0.10 an hour async and $0.12 real time, with diarisation, language ID and translation included. No free credits for new accounts since October 2025.

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

Soniox Speech-to-Text

1. Pass audio_url for public files and skip the upload step. Delete uploaded files or they count against the 10 GB quota for 30 days
2. Use the context field for names and domain terms
3. Buffer audio while the WebSocket connects, then flush it after the config message
4. Split anything over 300 minutes. The cap is fixed
5. Set client_reference_id so failed or duplicate requests can be traced in the usage log