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

> Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP has a score of 69.7 (B) against Speechmatics Speech-to-Text's 67.3 (B). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 30 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.md (~1,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-speechmatics-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 Speechmatics Speech-to-Text's 67.3 (B). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 30 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
- Speechmatics Speech-to-Text: grade B, 67.3/100, rank #145 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/speechmatics-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/speechmatics-stt.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP for schema & documentation (+30), security & auth (+5), maintenance & community (+5).

Pick Speechmatics Speech-to-Text for reliability (+10), agent ergonomics (+5), transparency & trust (+12).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 70 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 95 | 65 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +30 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 80 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 65 | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| 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) | 66 | 78 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.7 · B** | **67.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Gladia | Speechmatics |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.gladia.io/v2` | `https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) | MIT (SDKs) |
| 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 | 2026-09-22 |
| Popularity | 4 stars, 4.8k npm/wk, 126k PyPI/wk | 20 stars, 58k npm/wk, 48k PyPI/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.

**Speechmatics Speech-to-Text.** Training is opt-in and real-time audio is not stored. Enhanced transcription costs $0.40 to $0.43 an hour.

## 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

### Speechmatics Speech-to-Text

1. Set `"model": "enhanced"` explicitly. The default is `standard`
2. Use notifications instead of polling. Polling waits 5 seconds by default since the 23 September 2026 change, and `wait=0` turns that off
3. Fetch batch transcripts within 7 days. After that the API returns 404 `expired`
4. Pass a `fetch_data` URL for files over 1 GB
5. Use `/v2/agent` with `linden-1` for live agents instead of the plain realtime path

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