Head to head · Speech stt · October 2026 research run
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API has a score of 69 (B) against Speechmatics Speech-to-Text's 67.3 (B). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 30 points.
ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text APIElevenLabs · Model API
B69/100#117 of 452
Speechmatics Speech-to-TextSpeechmatics · Model API
B67.3/100#145 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API for
- schema & documentation (+30)
Pick Speechmatics Speech-to-Text for
- agent ergonomics (+5)
- security & auth (+10)
- transparency & trust (+7)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 70 | even |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 95 | 65 | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API +30 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 80 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 55 | 65 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +10 |
| 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 | 75 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 71 | 78 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 69 · B | 67.3 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | ElevenLabs | Speechmatics |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1 | https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2 |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-22 |
| Popularity | 3.1k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 2.2M PyPI/wk | 20 stars, 58k npm/wk, 48k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |
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.
Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
Training is opt-in and real-time audio is not stored. Enhanced transcription costs $0.40 to $0.43 an hour.
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
Speechmatics Speech-to-Text
- Set
"model": "enhanced"explicitly. The default isstandard - Use notifications instead of polling. Polling waits 5 seconds by default since the 23 September 2026 change, and
wait=0turns that off - Fetch batch transcripts within 7 days. After that the API returns 404
expired - Pass a
fetch_dataURL for files over 1 GB - Use
/v2/agentwithlinden-1for live agents instead of the plain realtime path
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