# Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs Groq Speech-to-Text

> Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Google Cloud Speech-to-Text's 70.2 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Google Cloud Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do speech stt. Category scores, facts, verdicts…

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Google Cloud Speech-to-Text's 70.2 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Google Cloud Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do speech stt.

- Google Cloud Speech-to-Text: grade BB, 70.2/100, rank #152 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-speech-to-text.json
- Groq Speech-to-Text: grade BB, 71.8/100, rank #113 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq-speech-to-text.json

## Which one, for what

### Google Cloud Speech-to-Text (BB)

Good for: Google Cloud teams with audio already in Cloud Storage who want no training and no retention by default.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 58
- Security & auth, 95 against 79

Watch for: No release note since 2025-11-13

### Groq Speech-to-Text (BB)

Good for: Suited to cheap, fast transcription of recorded files in many languages, and to agents that already hold a Groq key or use an OpenAI-compatible client.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 85
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 70
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 68 against 25

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No streaming or realtime endpoint and no diarisation in the reviewed documentation


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Google Cloud Speech-to-Text | Groq Speech-to-Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 90 | Groq Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 58 | Google Cloud Speech-to-Text +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 75 | Groq Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 95 | 79 | Google Cloud Speech-to-Text +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Groq Speech-to-Text +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 25 | 68 | Groq Speech-to-Text +43 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 85 | Google Cloud Speech-to-Text +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.2 · BB** | **71.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Google Cloud Speech-to-Text | Groq Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Google Cloud | Groq |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://speech.googleapis.com/v2` | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) | Proprietary hosted service under the Groq Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0 and the Whisper weights are published by OpenAI on Hugging Face |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-08-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-02 | 2026-06-22 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2025-11-12 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 713k npm/wk, 3.7M PyPI/wk | 621 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Google Cloud Speech-to-Text.** Audio isn't stored or used for training unless the project opts in to data logging. No release note since 2025-11-13.

**Groq Speech-to-Text.** Whisper Large v3 Turbo costs $0.04 an audio hour and Whisper Large v3 $0.111, with a no-card free plan and zero data retention as a self-serve setting. There is no streaming endpoint, no diarisation and no subtitle output, and uploads stop at 25 MB on the free plan and 100 MB on the Developer plan.

## Before you call either

### Google Cloud Speech-to-Text

1. Call Chirp 3 on the `us` or `eu` endpoint. It isn't listed for the `global` location
2. Reopen streams before the 5-minute limit, or use `BatchRecognize` for recordings
3. Downmix stereo unless you need channel labels, since each channel is billed
4. Set dynamic batch on offline jobs to cut the price from $0.016 to $0.003 a minute
5. Back off on `RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED`. The Speech docs don't give a retry interval

### Groq Speech-to-Text

1. Send `whisper-large-v3-turbo` for transcription and `whisper-large-v3` for translation to English. The translations endpoint does not accept Turbo.
2. Pass `url` instead of `file` for audio over 25 MB, and split anything over the plan's size limit into overlapping chunks before sending.
3. Set `response_format` to `verbose_json` before asking for `timestamp_granularities[]`. Word timestamps add latency, segment timestamps do not.
4. Every request is billed as at least 10 seconds of audio, so join very short clips where the task allows.
5. Read `retry-after` on a 429 and back off. Audio limits count seconds an hour and a day as well as requests.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Google Cloud Speech-to-Text or Groq Speech-to-Text?

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Google Cloud Speech-to-Text's 70.2 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Google Cloud Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.

### Do Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and Groq Speech-to-Text need an API key?

Google Cloud Speech-to-Text uses an OAuth sign-in. Groq Speech-to-Text needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and Groq Speech-to-Text without installing anything?

Yes. Google Cloud Speech-to-Text has a hosted endpoint at https://speech.googleapis.com/v2 and Groq Speech-to-Text at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1.


## For agents

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

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