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

> Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP has a score of 69.7 (B) against Soniox Speech-to-Text's 58.3 (C). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 50 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-soniox-stt
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-soniox-stt.md (~1,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-soniox-stt.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-soniox-stt.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: 2026-10-04

Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP has a score of 69.7 (B) against Soniox Speech-to-Text's 58.3 (C). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 50 points.

- Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP: grade B, 69.7/100, rank #108 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gladia-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gladia-stt.json
- Soniox Speech-to-Text: grade C, 58.3/100, rank #281 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/soniox-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/soniox-stt.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP for schema & documentation (+35), agent ergonomics (+5), payments & pricing (+20), maintenance & community (+50).

Pick Soniox Speech-to-Text for reliability (+5), transparency & trust (+12).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Soniox Speech-to-Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 65 | Soniox Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 60 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 70 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 70 | even |
| 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 | 30 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +50 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 78 | Soniox Speech-to-Text +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.7 · B** | **58.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Soniox Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Gladia | Soniox |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.gladia.io/v2` | `https://api.soniox.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) | Apache-2.0 (Python SDK) |
| Tools exposed | 8 | 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 | 2026-09-24 | 2026-08-11 |
| Popularity | 4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wk | 12 stars, 22k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

**Soniox Speech-to-Text.** About $0.10 an hour async and $0.12 real time, with diarisation, language ID and translation included. No free credits for new accounts since October 2025.

## 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

### Soniox Speech-to-Text

1. Pass `audio_url` for public files and skip the upload step. Delete uploaded files or they count against the 10 GB quota for 30 days
2. Use the `context` field for names and domain terms
3. Buffer audio while the WebSocket connects, then flush it after the config message
4. Split anything over 300 minutes. The cap is fixed
5. Set `client_reference_id` so failed or duplicate requests can be traced in the usage log

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

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