# Giggy Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT

> Smallest.ai Pulse STT scores 65 (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-smallest-pulse-stt
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-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: 2026-11-07

Smallest.ai Pulse STT scores 65 (B) on agent readiness against Giggy Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Giggy Speech to Text leads on security & auth. Both do speech-to-text.

- Giggy Speech to Text: grade C, 54.5/100, rank #903 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/giggy-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/giggy-stt.json
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT: grade B, 65/100, rank #441 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 320 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.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 57 against 52

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

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

### Smallest.ai Pulse STT (B)

Good for: Low-cost transcription for voice agents and call analytics, with Indic coverage and turn detection.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 63 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 68
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 30

Watch for: Health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September 2026, the longest about 64 minutes


## Why the edge

### Transparency & trust: Smallest.ai Pulse STT +41

- 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.
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (71): Closed service with clear terms naming Smallest Inc. under California law (15). The ZDR page is specific about what each mode keeps, but the terms' no-training clause and the privacy policy's machine-learning use of usage data sit side by side, the privacy policy gives no retention periods, and the policy doesn't mention the DPA a footer link points to (15 of 30). A deprecations page gives statuses, dates and migration targets, deprecated routes return a `Deprecation: true` header, and the 30 September changelog removed 14 European codes from the batch enum with a migration to `multi-eu`. The terms still let Smallest change or discontinue services at any time without notice (15 of 20). Two regions named (Mumbai and Oregon) with region-pinned hosts, and only Google Analytics and Fullstory named among third parties, with no sub-processor list found (10 of 20). Total 55.

### Schema & documentation: Smallest.ai Pulse STT +24

- 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.
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (92): OpenAPI 3.1 for the HTTP routes and AsyncAPI 2.6 for the STT socket, with query parameters and event schemas (25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Model cards and a compare page say which model suits which audio, and fields say where they're ignored (Pulse Pro ignores redaction), but several changelog entries correct response fields the reference had wrong, such as the diarisation shape and a `redacted_entities` array that doesn't exist (15 of 20). Typed query parameters with enums, defaults and required marks, though booleans are string enums that must be lowercase (13 of 15). Examples in curl, Python and JavaScript, and the reference lists 400, 401, 403, 413, 422 and 429 bodies with known `code` values (14 of 15). Versioned `/v1` paths, a deprecations page and a dated Pulse changelog (15). Total 92.

### Reliability: Smallest.ai Pulse STT +13

- 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.
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (63): BetterStack status page at status.smallest.ai with components for the Global, India and USA APIs (one health check covers the Agents and Models APIs), docs, the app and Electron, and per-component history (20). In the 90 days from 8 August the health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September (about 8, 21, 33, 17 and 64 minutes of flapping), in the Global and India regions on 11 and 17 September (12 minutes each), and in the USA region alone on 1, 3, 5, 12, 21 and 30 September (6 to 62 minutes) and 6 October (12 minutes). Outages in every region at once are read as wide errors, so several majors (0). Standard plan limits published per model, 100 concurrent streaming sessions and 25 batch requests a minute, and the pricing page also says 100 concurrent STT streams (15). 429 is documented with exponential backoff from 500 ms to 30 s and Retry-After when present, and batch calls are synchronous with optional webhooks (15). An infrastructure SLA of 99.99 per cent is named for Enterprise only, with no terms published, and the terms disclaim any availability commitment (5 of 10). Pulse, Pulse 2.0 and Pulse Pro carry no preview label, but eleven language codes are marked Beta (8 of 10). 20 + 0 + 15 + 15 + 5 + 8 = 63.

### Payments & pricing: Smallest.ai Pulse STT +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.
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-minute prices for each Pulse model published without a login, with two figures for Pulse Pro (20). Pay as you go starts with $10 of trial credits, which the terms also describe, and no page says a card is needed to claim them, read as inworld-tts's free plan was (20). A person signs up in a browser at app.smallest.ai and creates the key in the dashboard, and top-ups go to a card on file (0). Total 40.

### Security & auth: Giggy Speech to Text +5

- 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.
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT (52): Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain `sk_` keys per organisation, shown once, revoked at once and deletable, with one key per environment advised. The docs say a key grants full account access, and no scope is offered. Short-lived access tokens (`wat_`, 30 to 900 seconds) cover only inference routes and can't mint tokens (22 of 30). The error reference documents the key as a `?token=` query parameter for browser WebSockets, and the token guide passes access tokens as `?api_key=` on the STT socket, so 10 off (12 of 30). The terms (21 October 2026) say Smallest won't use user content or input to train or improve its services. The privacy policy (18 September 2026) lists improving the services with machine learning as a use of usage data and doesn't address uploaded audio or text either way (15 of 20). Zero data retention and the `x-expire-content` header are Enterprise only, or a $1,000 a month HIPAA add-on on pay as you go. Other plans keep content readable in logs and the dashboard, with no retention period published (5 of 15). Usage is tracked per key, request rows sit in a dashboard log viewer, and every response carries `x-request-id`. No audit log of key actions was found (10 of 15). security.txt is valid to 31 December 2026 and the site footer claims SOC 2, GDPR and HIPAA compliance, while the pricing page lists SOC 2 compliance only on Enterprise. No bug bounty, disclosure policy or public advisories found (10 of 20). Total 52.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Giggy Speech to Text | Smallest.ai Pulse STT | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 63 | Smallest.ai Pulse STT +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 92 | Smallest.ai Pulse STT +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 66 | Giggy Speech to Text +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 52 | Giggy Speech to Text +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Smallest.ai Pulse STT +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 73 | Smallest.ai Pulse STT +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 30 | 71 | Smallest.ai Pulse STT +41 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.5 · C** | **65 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Giggy Speech to Text | Smallest.ai Pulse STT |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Giggy | Smallest AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.giggy.ai/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, SSE (legacy), websocket, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| 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 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.GRQDigitalCapital/giggy-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |

## What the same task costs

| Task | Giggy Speech to Text | Smallest.ai Pulse STT |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.04 to $0.09 | $0.18 to $0.30 |

## 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.

**Smallest.ai Pulse STT.** Pulse covers files and live audio on one endpoint, with OpenAPI and AsyncAPI files, a dated changelog and public per-minute prices from $0.003. The shared API's health checks failed in every region on five days in September, keys carry no scopes and can travel in a URL, and zero retention is Enterprise only.

## 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`.

### Smallest.ai Pulse STT

1. Pass `?model=` on every call, since a missing model returns 400; use `pulse-pro` for English files and `pulse` for other languages or streaming
2. Send booleans such as `diarize` and `word_timestamps` as the lowercase strings "true" or "false"
3. Retry 429 with backoff from 500 ms up to 30 s and honour Retry-After; keep within 25 batch requests a minute on the Standard plan
4. Use the region-pinned host api.us.smallest.ai or api.india.smallest.ai when the audio must stay in one region
5. Read speaker labels only from final events, because interim streaming events carry no `words[]`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Giggy Speech to Text or Smallest.ai Pulse STT?

Smallest.ai Pulse STT scores 65 (B) on agent readiness against Giggy Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Giggy Speech to Text leads on security & auth.

### Do Giggy Speech to Text and Smallest.ai Pulse STT need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Giggy Speech to Text and Smallest.ai Pulse STT without installing anything?

Giggy Speech to Text has a hosted endpoint at https://api.giggy.ai/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Smallest.ai Pulse STT.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Giggy Speech to Text or Smallest.ai Pulse STT

- [Amazon Transcribe vs Giggy Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-giggy-stt.md)
- [Amazon Transcribe vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Giggy Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-giggy-stt.md)
- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-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 Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Cartesia Ink vs Giggy Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-giggy-stt.md)
- [Cartesia Ink vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [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 Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Giggy Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-giggy-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Giggy Speech to Text vs Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-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 IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Giggy Speech to Text vs Inworld STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-inworld-stt.md)
- [Giggy Speech to Text vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-minimax-stt.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 Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Inworld STT vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inworld-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [MiniMax Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Mistral Voxtral Transcribe vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [OpenAI Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Rev AI Speech-to-Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rev-ai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Smallest.ai Pulse STT vs Soniox Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-soniox-stt.md)
- [Smallest.ai Pulse STT vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smallest-pulse-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp