# Giggy Speech to Text vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP

> Gladia Speech-to-Text scores 69.8 (B) to Giggy 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/giggy-stt-vs-gladia-stt
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-gladia-stt.md (~5,800 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: 2026-11-04

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Giggy Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech-to-text.

- Giggy Speech to Text: grade C, 54.5/100, rank #806 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/giggy-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/giggy-stt.json
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #205 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gladia-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gladia-stt.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 253 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Giggy Speech to Text (C)

Good for: Agents and voice pipelines that need plain transcripts of recorded or live speech at a few cents an hour, or free for clips under 25 minutes, and can convert audio to 16 kHz mono WAV first.

Watch for: Recorded input must be PCM16 mono 16 kHz WAV, so MP3, M4A, stereo or other sample rates need converting before upload

### Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP (B)

Good for: Multilingual meetings and calls where live and async transcription in 100+ languages is needed, and for teams who want an MCP server.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 68
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 68
- Security & auth, 65 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Self-serve audio is used for model training by default unless the account opts out


## Why the edge

### Transparency & trust: Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +35

- Giggy Speech to Text (30): Closed hosted service. The terms exist at /terms but draw by script and could not be read, so their clarity is unknown; the SDK, Pipecat and MCP repositories are ISC and the n8n node MIT (5 of 30). What could be read agrees with itself, no training on user data, an optional 12-hour retention flag, a seven-day window for Batch audio, and the EEA compute flag. The privacy policy, any DPA and a retention period for transcripts were not found or not readable (12 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices, only a statement that the legacy origin remains supported (3 of 20). No subprocessors or data locations are named; the EEA-adequate compute option implies processing outside the EEA by default without saying where (3 of 20). 5+12+3+3 = 23.
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP (65): Closed service with an MIT SDK and MCP server and separate terms for Gladia SAS and Gladia Inc. (15). The statements disagree. The security page gives a 12-month default retention with custom policies for customers and says only Free plan data trains models, while the retention page gives 1 year on free, 3 weeks on paid and zero retention only on Enterprise, and the pricing page says Self-serve is opted in to training by default. ISO 27001 is described as in progress (15). Breaking changes are flagged with dates in the changelog, such as SDK 2.0.0 and the move to credit billing on 3 July 2026 with a 6 to 20 July rollout, but no deprecation policy was found (10). Hosting with a French provider is stated, and no sub-processor list was found (10).

### Schema & documentation: Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +27

- Giggy Speech to Text (68): Model reading, with the API reference. The docs and llms.txt link an OpenAPI 3.1 file at https://api.giggy.ai/v1/openapi.json, but api.giggy.ai's robots.txt could not be read, so the file wasn't fetched. We credit only what the reference pages show of it, typed `mode` values, the privacy booleans and a typed error body, and there is no AsyncAPI file for the live socket (12 of 25). llms.txt and llms-full.txt (10). The docs say when to use each mode and transport, that MCP is not a live transport, that an OpenAI base-URL swap does not work for STT, and which options have no equivalent, more than most listings say about when not to use something (17 of 20). `mode` is an enum of three values and the input format is fixed, but `language` is a free code or name with no published list, and the MCP input schemas were read only from the repository's docs, not from the server (11 of 15). Examples in the SDK READMEs, the examples repository and a Postman collection, and an error table of ten statuses with `type`, `code`, `message`, `status`, `request_id` and `param` fields, though only one code value is named (11 of 15). Paths are under `/v1` and the SDK and Pipecat repositories keep CHANGELOG.md files, dated in two of them, but there is no service changelog (7 of 15). 12+10+17+11+11+7 = 68.
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP (95): OpenAPI file at api.gladia.io/openapi.json (25). llms.txt (10). Reference pages state purpose per endpoint and the model page says to use `solaria-3` only for async English, French, German, Spanish or Italian (15). Typed bodies with enums and required fields, `audio_url` the only required input for pre-recorded (15). Examples per endpoint and documented error codes (15). Versioned `/v2` paths and a dated changelog (15).

### Reliability: Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +20

- Giggy Speech to Text (50): Hosted reading, as for deepgram-stt and cartesia-ink-stt. Giggy's own status page at https://giggy.ai/status lists one component, Text to speech, operational on 4 November 2026 with 98.61 per cent observed availability and 99.85 per cent completion over 14 days, refreshed every 30 minutes. It has no speech-to-text component and no incident log, so it shows nothing about this surface (5 of 20). No readable incident history, so the floor (5). Rate limits are published per credential, 60 Batch generation POSTs, 120 event-stream GETs, 600 reads and 120 MCP requests a minute, with eight live contexts per controller; Fast and Streaming POSTs have no per-credential limit and Batch queue capacity isn't given (15). 429 carries `Retry-After` with `RateLimit-*` headers, and the docs give a safe-retry rule for uploads, read the generation by UUID after a timeout or 504 and never upload the same recording again. REST transcription has no idempotency key, but the MCP `transcribe_audio` tool takes one (15). No SLA on the pricing page or in the docs; the terms could not be read (0). No beta or preview label on the API, the SDKs or the MCP server (10). 5+5+15+15+0+10 = 50.
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP (70): incident.io status page with per-component uptime bars and incident pages, and an RSS feed read on 1 November (20). One major incident in the 90 days from 3 August, a global Pre-Recorded and Real-Time incident on 23 September 2026 from 07:05 to 08:10 caused by a provider network fault, as read on 1 October. The rest are partial and read as minor, a 20-minute full outage and a timeouts incident on 22 September, slower processing on the afternoon of 23 September, and Europe-only degradations on 2, 10, 14 to 15 (elevated errors and timeouts in Europe from 09:07 on 14 September to 13:58 on 15 September), 21, 22 and 28 September and on 3, 4 and 7 October (Pre-Recorded v2 in Europe) (10). Concurrency limits published with numbers, 25 parallel async jobs plus 300 queued and 30 live sessions on paid plans, 3 and 1 on free (15). The docs say a 429 means the concurrency limit, but we found no backoff guidance or Retry-After (5). The pricing page's plan comparison, read on 1 November, lists a 99.9% uptime SLA for Enterprise (10). `solaria-1` and `solaria-3` are GA (10). 20 + 10 + 15 + 5 + 10 + 10 = 70.

### Payments & pricing: Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +10

- Giggy Speech to Text (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-hour prices for Batch, Fast and Streaming and every credit pack published without a login (20). Free Batch transcription and Personal free credits topped up to 10,000 a month, but no page read says whether a card is needed, so half, as other listings read an unstated card requirement (10 of 20). A person signs up in a browser and creates the key there; no programmatic key route was found (0). 0+20+10+0 = 30.
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-hour prices in euros published without a login, re-read on 1 November, async from 0.27€ an hour on `solaria-1` and 0.16€ on `solaria-3`, real-time 0.68€, add-ons per hour (20). A one-time €50 credit, with no card per the 1 October check (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).

### Security & auth: Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +8

- Giggy Speech to Text (57): Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines, as for deepgram-stt and cartesia-ink-stt. Keys prefixed `giggy_sk_` are shown once on creation or rotation, rejected immediately after revocation, limited to ten per space and tied to the space that made them, with REST budgets that Workspace members can set. No scopes or expiry were found. The key travels in a header only, with no query-string option documented (22 of 30). The workspace privacy guide states 'Giggy does not use user data to train models'. The privacy policy and terms draw by script and could not be read to confirm it (18 of 20). Requests can opt into 12-hour content retention and EEA-adequate compute, and a guide gives Batch audio a seven-day window, but no retention period for transcripts was found and results can vanish after an unstated 'retention cleanup' (9 of 15). Generation history per space and a request ID on errors; no audit log of key or admin actions was found (8 of 15). /.well-known/security.txt answered a client error, none of the six repositories has a SECURITY.md, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found on the pages that rendered; the support page that may name a reporting route drew by script (0 of 20). 22+18+9+8+0 = 57.
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP (65): Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of least-privilege and injection lines. Plain revocable API keys in the `x-gladia-key` header. Live sessions connect to a WebSocket URL minted per session by `POST /v2/live`, which we don't deduct for (20). The pricing page, read on 1 November, says Self-serve, the paid pay-as-you-go plan, is opted in to model training by default with a free opt-out in the profile, and Enterprise is opted out by default. The security page still says only Free plan data is used for training. We score the pricing page's default, as for AWS's default use with an opt-out (10 of 20). Retention is documented and jobs can be deleted, but zero retention needs Enterprise per the retention page (10). Job history through the list endpoint and dashboard, no audit log of key actions found (10). SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2, a bug bounty programme that doubles as the disclosure route, no security.txt (404 on 1 November) and no public advisories found. The SDKs fixed an API key leak on cross-origin redirects in 2.1.0 (September) and limited list pagination to the configured API in 2.2.0 (13 October), both released. ISO 27001 is in progress, not held (15). 20 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 65.

### Agent ergonomics: Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +7

- Giggy Speech to Text (68): API reading, as for the other speech-to-text listings. The transcript is compact, text, detected languages, audio duration and model metadata, with no word array to trim; on an MCP reading five tools would score 25 (20 of 25). Nothing to page through and no output options, no timestamps, subtitles or speaker labels, and recorded input must be PCM16 mono 16 kHz WAV, so the caller converts everything else; a 12-hour recording goes up in one request (10 of 20). Errors are structured with a type, code, message, status, request ID and parameter, and the reference says what each status means and what to do after a 504, but no list of code values was found and the SDK error classes expose only the status and the raw body (13 of 20). Upload retries are left to the caller with clear rules, read the generation first and never re-upload after a timeout; REST has no idempotency key and `client_request_id` is documented as no guarantee, while MCP `transcribe_audio` takes an `idempotency_key`. The SDKs never retry, and closing an unfinished live socket cancels it (13 of 20). Only the audio is required, with official Python and Node SDKs, but raw REST and MCP default to paid Fast while the SDKs default to free Batch (12 of 15). 20+10+13+13+12 = 68.
- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP (75): API reading of the checklist. Add-ons such as summaries, NER and translation are opt-in, so a plain request stays small, but there's no field selection (15). Pre-recorded jobs list with offset, limit and filters (20). Documented error codes, with a 429 for concurrency (15). No idempotency key. The docs warn that a job is already queued once the 200 or `transcription.created` webhook arrives, which is safe-retry guidance of a sort (10). One required parameter and official SDKs in JavaScript and Python (15). The official MCP server adds 8 tools for async jobs, which this API reading doesn't score.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Giggy Speech to Text | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 95 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +27 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 75 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 65 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 30 | 65 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +35 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.5 · C** | **69.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Giggy Speech to Text | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Giggy | Gladia |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.giggy.ai/v1` | `https://api.gladia.io/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, SSE (legacy), websocket, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service. The terms page draws its text by script and was not read. The Python and Node SDKs, the Pipecat adapter and the MCP repository are ISC (Copyright 2026 Giggy), the n8n node MIT | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.GRQDigitalCapital/giggy-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Giggy Speech to Text

No score change since it was listed.

### Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP

- +0.2 on 1 November 2026: terms, correction
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Giggy Speech to Text.** Fast transcription costs $0.04 an input audio hour and Batch is free up to 25 minutes, with published rate limits, Retry-After and a rule to check a generation before resubmitting. Input must be 16 kHz mono WAV, there are no timestamps or speaker labels, the status page covers text-to-speech only, and no company is named on pages we could read.

**Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP.** The `solaria-1` model transcribes live and recorded audio in over 100 languages with code switching, behind an OpenAPI file and SDKs in two languages. Self-serve audio is used for model training unless the account opts out, and Gladia's pages disagree on retention and training defaults.

## Before you call either

### Giggy Speech to Text

1. Pass `mode=batch` explicitly for free transcription. Raw REST and MCP default to paid Fast when `mode` is omitted.
2. Convert audio to PCM16 mono 16 kHz WAV first and send it as the raw body with `Content-Type: audio/wav`.
3. Keep the `generation_uuid` from the 202 and poll `GET /v1/generations/{uuid}`. Never re-upload after a timeout or 504 before reading that generation.
4. Fetch the transcript from the signed `generation.result.url` after completion, without the API key. It can disappear after retention cleanup.
5. On the live WebSocket, replace earlier text with each cumulative `transcription` event and publish final text only after `input_complete`.

### Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP

1. Don't resubmit a pre-recorded job after a 200 or a `transcription.created` webhook. It's already queued
2. Pick `solaria-3` only for async EN, FR, DE, ES or IT audio. Anything live or multilingual needs `solaria-1`
3. A 429 means the concurrency limit, 3 async and 1 live on the free plan. Wait for a running job to finish
4. Opt the account out of model training in its profile before sending sensitive audio on Self-serve
5. Split files over 135 minutes or 1,000 MB

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Giggy Speech to Text or Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP?

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Giggy Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Giggy Speech to Text and Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Giggy Speech to Text and Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Giggy Speech to Text has a hosted endpoint at https://api.giggy.ai/v1 and Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP at https://api.gladia.io/v2.


## For agents

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

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

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