Head to head · Speech-to-text · October 2026 research run

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech-to-text.

Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents · All 320 stt comparisons

Which one, for what

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP B

Best 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 47
  • Schema & documentation, 95 against 82
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 70
  • Security & auth, 65 against 33
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 70 against 6

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • 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

MiniMax Speech-to-Text D

Best for Cheap file transcription with diarisation and subtitles, strongest on Chinese and code-switched audio by the vendor's account.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Files only, up to 500 seconds and 50 MB; live audio input isn't supported

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +64

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP 70

Read as a model, for deprecation notice and model churn rather than release counts, on the lines deepgram-stt was settled on in this run. SDK 2.2.0 on 13 October 2026, three fixes among them limiting list pagination to the configured API, 19 days before 1 November (30). 2.2.1 on 23 October only raises the Python certifi floor to distrust a compromised certificate authority and is a version bump with no code changes for JavaScript, so as a dependency-only release it counts half and doesn't set this line, as azure-translator's was read. In the 90 days from 3 August, changelog entries on 8, 9 and 14 September, SDK 2.1.0 (18 and 21 September), 2.2.0 and 2.2.1 (at half), and the MCP server 0.1.0 and 0.1.1 on 24 September (10). The /v2/transcription endpoints are marked deprecated in favour of /v2/pre-recorded with no removal date, structured data extraction has gone from the OpenAPI file without a changelog entry, and no deprecation policy was found (0 of 10). Public changelog, help centre and Discord (10 of 15). SDK and MCP repository issues couldn't be read, since github.com refuses our reader, so absent (0 of 10). Official JavaScript and Python SDKs current at 2.2.1 (15). The SDK repository has CI, release and OpenAPI type-update workflows, results not seen (5 of 10). 30 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 70.

MiniMax Speech-to-Text 6

Read as a model. No dated release or change of asr-1.0 was found on the model or API release notes or the status page (0). No dated ASR entries in the last 90 days (0). Support by email and Discord, not tested (6 of 15). No official SDK, and the MCP servers have no transcription tool (0 of 15). No package to judge (0 of 10). Total 6.

Security & auth Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +32

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.

MiniMax Speech-to-Text 33

Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain API keys from the console with no scopes found, and the docs say publicly leaked keys may be disabled, as on minimax-voice-cloning (20 of 30). The terms (effective 30 March 2026), as read for minimax-voice-cloning on 4 November, let MiniMax use input and generated content to operate, maintain, develop and improve its services, with no opt-out found, and the privacy policy rules out only training to profile or target consumers (5 of 20). No retention period for uploaded audio or transcripts was found (3 of 15). Each response carries a trace ID, with no audit log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found, as on the other MiniMax listings (0 of 20). Total 33.

Reliability Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +23

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.

MiniMax Speech-to-Text 47

Atlassian Statuspage at status.minimax.io with component history, but its components are LLM, Text-to-Speech and Video Generation, with none for speech to text (10 of 20). With no component, the history holds no record for transcription (5). Limits published with numbers, 2 concurrent connections and 30,000 audio seconds a minute (15). 429 is documented as rate_limit_error, and the general error code page says to retry later, with no backoff figures or Retry-After (7 of 15). No SLA in the terms or docs (0). asr-1.0 is called the current public model with no beta label (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 47.

Payments & pricing Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +20

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).

MiniMax Speech-to-Text 20

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). $0.38 an hour published without a login (20). Speech to text is for paid accounts only (0). A person signs up in a browser and funds a balance (0). Total 20.

Schema & documentation Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +13

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).

MiniMax Speech-to-Text 82

OpenAPI 3.1 for /v1/speech_to_text, with eight documented responses (25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). The guide says when to stream, when to use verbose_json, and that subtitles and diarisation can't be combined with streaming (15 of 20). Typed multipart fields with an enum for response_format, and file limits stated in prose (12 of 15). Python examples and an error table giving HTTP status, error.type and trigger for 400, 401, 402, 413, 422, 429 and 500 (15). Versioned /v1 path, but neither release notes page mentions the ASR API, and the API notes stop at 28 October 2025 (5 of 15). Total 82.

Agent ergonomics Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5

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.

MiniMax Speech-to-Text 70

API reading of the checklist. The default json returns only text, duration and a trace ID, with segments and subtitles opt-in (22 of 25). No lists to page. response_format and language are the output controls (12 of 20). Typed error envelopes with the real HTTP status, an error type and request_id, and 402 for an empty balance (18 of 20). Calls are synchronous with no idempotency key (10 of 20). Two fields, a model and a file. No official SDK, and MiniMax's MCP servers don't cover transcription (8 of 15). Total 70.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGladia Speech-to-Text API + MCPMiniMax Speech-to-TextEdge
Reliability16%207047Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +23
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29582Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +13
Agent ergonomics13%16.27570Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5
Security & auth14%17.56533Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +32
Payments & pricing10%12.54020Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8706Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +64
Transparency & trust7%8.86563Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +2
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 69.8/100D 48.4/100

Facts side by side

FactGladia Speech-to-Text API + MCPMiniMax Speech-to-Text
KindModel APIModel API
VendorGladiaMiniMax
Hosted endpointhttps://api.gladia.io/v2no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, stdioHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceMIT (SDKs and MCP server)none
Tools exposed80
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-23none
Terms last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wknone
Agent reviews3/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

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.

MiniMax Speech-to-Text

MiniMax's ASR API has an OpenAPI file, typed error envelopes and a public price of $0.38 an hour, with diarisation and subtitle output. It takes files of up to 500 seconds only, allows 2 concurrent connections, has no free tier or status component, and no dated release.

Before you call either

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

MiniMax Speech-to-Text

  1. Split recordings into pieces under 500 seconds before uploading, since longer audio returns 400
  2. Convert to mono 16 kHz or a compressed format to stay under 50 MB
  3. Use verbose_json for speakers and timestamps, and json only when streaming
  4. Treat 402 insufficient_balance_error as final and ask the user to top up
  5. Use https://api.minimaxi.com for a mainland China account

Questions

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

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in every scored category.

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

Both need an API key.

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

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.gladia.io/v2. No hosted endpoint is listed for MiniMax Speech-to-Text.

Other comparisons with Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP or MiniMax Speech-to-Text

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