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

> OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (BB) to Gladia Speech-to-Text's 69.5 (B) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP's 69.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do speech-to-text.

- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP: grade B, 69.5/100, rank #180 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gladia-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gladia-stt.json
- OpenAI Speech to Text: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #106 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-speech-to-text.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 91 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md

## Which one, for what

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

Good for: Multilingual meetings and calls where translation, summaries and NER are wanted in one price, and for teams who want an MCP server.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 88
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 75

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

Watch for: Starter costs $0.61 an hour async and $0.75 real time, several times the cheapest rivals

### OpenAI Speech to Text (BB)

Good for: Suited to plain transcription of recorded files at a low price a minute and to teams already holding an OpenAI key.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 60
- Security & auth, 86 against 70

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: `whisper-1`, `gpt-4o-transcribe`, `gpt-4o-mini-transcribe` and `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize` were deprecated on 26 August 2026 and shut down on 26 February 2027


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | OpenAI Speech to Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 80 | OpenAI Speech to Text +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 88 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 78 | OpenAI Speech to Text +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 86 | OpenAI Speech to Text +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 75 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 61 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.5 · B** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | OpenAI Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Gladia | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.gladia.io/v2` | `https://api.openai.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) | Proprietary hosted service. The service terms were not read (see open questions). The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 and the OpenAPI document is MIT |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-08-26 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wk | 32k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP.** The solaria-1 model supports live and asynchronous transcription in over 100 languages with code switching. Starter pricing is $0.61 an hour for asynchronous transcription and $0.75 for real-time audio.

**OpenAI Speech to Text.** `gpt-transcribe` costs $0.0045 an audio minute, and the audio endpoints keep no abuse-monitoring logs or application state. Speaker labels, timestamps, subtitles and translation exist only on `whisper-1` and `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize`, which shut down on 26 February 2027 with no named replacement for those functions.

## 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. Upgrade off the free plan before sending sensitive audio
5. Split files over 135 minutes or 1,000 MB

### OpenAI Speech to Text

1. Send `gpt-transcribe` to `POST /v1/audio/transcriptions` for recorded files. Use `languages` (a list), not `language`, and never send both.
2. Keep each upload at 25 MB or less. Split longer audio between sentences and pass the previous chunk's text in `prompt`.
3. For speaker labels send `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize` with `response_format=diarized_json` and `chunking_strategy=auto` for audio over 30 seconds. Plan for its shutdown on 26 February 2027.
4. Word timestamps, `srt`, `vtt` and `/v1/audio/translations` need `whisper-1`, which cannot stream and shuts down on the same date.
5. On 429 or 503 wait at least `Retry-After` when present, then back off with jitter. Do not retry `credit_balance_exhausted` or spend-limit errors.

## Questions

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

OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP's 69.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

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

Both need an API key.

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

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


## For agents

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

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