# Groq Speech-to-Text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text

> Groq Speech-to-Text scores 70.1 (BB) to IBM Watson Speech to Text's 54.5 (C) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 70.1 (BB) on agent readiness against IBM Watson Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do speech-to-text.

- Groq Speech-to-Text: grade BB, 70.1/100, rank #211 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq-speech-to-text.json
- IBM Watson Speech to Text: grade C, 54.5/100, rank #904 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ibm-watson-stt.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 320 stt comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/speech-to-text/index.md

## Which one, for what

### 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 40
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 66
- Security & auth, 79 against 68
- Maintenance & community, 48 against 33
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 80

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

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

### IBM Watson Speech to Text (C)

Good for: Enterprises on IBM Cloud needing custom acoustic models, HIPAA on Premium and many locations.

Watch for: No public OpenAPI file or llms.txt


## Why the edge

### Reliability: Groq Speech-to-Text +50

- Groq Speech-to-Text (90): Hosted reading. The status page at groqstatus.com (incident.io) lists `whisper-large-v3` and `whisper-large-v3-turbo` as separate production components (20). On 1 November 2026 it showed both at 100% uptime from 3 August to 1 November with "No incidents", and neither its RSS feed nor the incident pages it links names either model. The window's three incidents were on other components (an enterprise preview model on 10 and 12 October, and console errors on 12 October that Groq said did not affect inference), plus maintenance on 9 and 18 October (30). The rate limits page gives numbers for both models, 20 requests a minute, 2,000 a day, 7,200 audio seconds an hour and 28,800 a day on the free plan, re-read on 1 November, and the models page gives 300 requests a minute and 200,000 audio seconds an hour (v3) and 400 and 400,000 (Turbo) on the Developer plan (15). A 429 carries `retry-after`, the security onboarding page says to back off exponentially on 429 and 5xx, and transcription is a stateless call (15). The enterprise Performance Tier's 99.9% availability SLA names three language models and neither Whisper model, per the 8 October check, so no SLA was found for this product (0). Both models are listed as production models (10). 20+30+15+15+0+10 = 90.
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (40): IBM Cloud has a status page at cloud.ibm.com/status, but it is drawn by script and showed no components or history to our reader, read as gemini-live's script-shell page was (10 of 20, and 5 for no readable history). Plus allows up to 100 concurrent transcription requests across WebSocket and HTTP (15). No 429 or backoff guidance was found in the API reference or the docs repository (0). No SLA was read for the service (0, unchecked). Next-generation and large speech models are GA, language by language (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 40.

### Maintenance & community: Groq Speech-to-Text +15

- Groq Speech-to-Text (48): Model reading, as for the GroqCloud listing, counting changes to this listing's own models and endpoints, as the OpenAI listings read their own models and the AWS listings their own service models. No dated change to speech-to-text was found in 2026. The Python SDK 1.7.0 (tag 25 August, uploaded to PyPI on 26 August 2026 per the 8 October check) and TypeScript SDK 1.6.0 (25 August) add chat reasoning guidance, CI workflows and lock-file updates and leave the audio code untouched. The last SDK change to the transcription code was Python 1.2.0 on 18 April 2026. A release that doesn't change this service can't set the recency line in this run, as for the Azure Translator listing, and Muse Spark Open's 15 October preview is a chat model, counted on the GroqCloud listing. So no change within 180 days was found (0, was 20). The deprecations page promises an email and a named replacement and states no minimum notice. The one speech-to-text retirement on it is `distil-whisper-large-v3-en` on 23 August 2025, and the newest announcement is 24 August 2026, for Compound (4 of 12). Neither Whisper model was retired or renamed in the last 90 days (8 of 8). A dated docs changelog with a feed exists, its newest entry is 18 April and none of its entries concern speech-to-text (8 of 15). SDK issue replies not sampled (5 of 10). Official `groq` 1.7.0 on PyPI and `groq-sdk` 1.6.0 on npm, per the tags (15). CI, release automation and lock-file vulnerability fixes in 1.7.0 (8 of 10). 0+4+8+8+5+15+8 = 48.
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (33): Read as a model. The newest release note is 29 June 2026 (`parameter_set` for large speech models), 130 days ago (10). No dated entries in the 90 days from 8 August (0). Release notes, IBM support and a public docs repository last changed 30 June 2026 (8 of 15). Official SDKs, `ibm-watson` 11.2.0 on PyPI (26 January 2026) and 12.2.0 on npm (January 2026) (10 of 15). CI not read (5 of 10). Total 33.

### Security & auth: Groq Speech-to-Text +11

- Groq Speech-to-Text (79): Model reading, scored like the GroqCloud listing. Bearer keys belong to one project, each project has its own rate limits per model, and the security onboarding page covers rotation and immediate revocation. No way to limit a key to the audio endpoints was found (26 of 30). The services agreement, last modified 22 June 2026, says Groq may not use inputs or outputs for training or fine-tuning unless the customer grants permission (20). Inputs and outputs are not retained by default, logs kept for reliability or abuse last up to 30 days, and the data page lists both audio endpoints as eligible for zero data retention, a setting in Data Controls (15). Usage data and request logs per project and a read-only Reader role. No audit log of administrative actions was found (10 of 15). security.txt on groq.com holds a Contact line only, with no expiry date. The DPA commits to SOC 2 Type II audits, and the trust centre at trust.groq.com is drawn by script and was not read (8 of 20).
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (68): Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. IAM API keys per instance with Reader, Writer and Manager roles and short-lived bearer tokens (30). The WebSocket interface takes the token as an `access_token` query parameter, so 10 off (20 of 30). Request and response data are logged by default to improve the service, and any account can opt out per account or per request (10 of 20). Async results expire after a week by default (`results_ttl` shortens it), a delete method exists, and `DELETE /v1/user_data` removes data by customer ID (10 of 15). Activity Tracker events record changes to the service's state (10 of 15). Valid security.txt to 6 December 2026, PSIRT and HackerOne, HIPAA readiness on Premium. Certifications weren't read (18 of 20). Total 68.

### Agent ergonomics: Groq Speech-to-Text +9

- Groq Speech-to-Text (75): API reading, as for the other speech-to-text listings. The default response is the text alone, `text` returns a bare string, and segments and word timestamps come only with `verbose_json`. `srt` and `vtt` are listed as unsupported (18 of 25). There is no transcript store to page through. Volume goes through the Batch API by `url`, and a file over 25 MB (free) or 100 MB (Developer) has to be chunked by the caller (12 of 20). The errors page gives 13 status codes with a recovery line each and an error object of `message` and `type`, with no machine-readable code field (15 of 20). The call is stateless and safe to retry, and the SDKs retry connection errors, 408, 409, 429 and 5xx by default. No idempotency key exists or is needed (15 of 20). `model` and one of `file` or `url` are the only required fields, with official Python and TypeScript SDKs and OpenAI SDK compatibility (15).
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (66): API reading of the checklist. Timestamps, word confidence, alternatives and speaker labels are opt-in (15 of 25). Async jobs and custom models list, and async results can go to a callback URL (12 of 20). Structured errors and warnings an agent can act on (15 of 20). Async jobs take a `user_token`, results have a TTL, and jobs can be deleted, with no idempotency key (12 of 20). Most parameters are optional. Official SDKs including Python, Node and Swift, though the Python and Node SDKs last released in January 2026 (12 of 15). Total 66.

### Transparency & trust: Groq Speech-to-Text +5

- Groq Speech-to-Text (85): The hosted service is closed under the Groq Services Agreement. Both models are OpenAI's published Whisper weights, linked from each model card, served with Groq's own quantisation, and the SDKs are Apache-2.0 (20 of 30). The data page, the services agreement and the DPA agree on retention and on the training ban. The agreement limits zero retention to 'Eligible Customers' while the data page says all customers may enable it, and the privacy policy effective 12 November 2025 says it does not cover customer data sent to GroqCloud (26 of 30). A deprecations page with dated history and replacements, with no minimum notice period (14 of 20). Customer data is kept in Google Cloud storage in the United States, and the DPA gives 15 days' notice of sub-processor changes to subscribers. The sub-processor list is in the trust centre we could not read (12 of 20).
- IBM Watson Speech to Text (80): Closed service under the IBM Cloud terms (15). The data security page states default logging for improvement with an opt-out, async retention, GDPR deletion by customer ID and plan-level separation, and they agree with each other. The DPA wasn't read (20 of 30). Previous-generation models carried a dated deprecation of 15 March 2022 and removal on 31 July 2023, and release notes say changes are compatible unless noted (18 of 20). Ten locations are named, with sub-processors not read (12 of 20). Total 65.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Groq Speech-to-Text | IBM Watson Speech to Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 40 | Groq Speech-to-Text +50 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 55 | Groq Speech-to-Text +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 66 | Groq Speech-to-Text +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 79 | 68 | Groq Speech-to-Text +11 |
| 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) | 48 | 33 | Groq Speech-to-Text +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 80 | Groq Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.1 · BB** | **54.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Groq Speech-to-Text | IBM Watson Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Groq | IBM |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | 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 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-26 | 2026-06-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-22 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-12 | 2026-08-25 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| 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 | 621 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |

## What the same task costs

| Task | Groq Speech-to-Text | IBM Watson Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.04 to $0.11 | $0.60 to $1.20 |

## How the scores have moved

### Groq Speech-to-Text

- -1.7 on 1 November 2026: correction

### IBM Watson Speech to Text

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**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.

**IBM Watson Speech to Text.** Watson STT covers sync, async and WebSocket transcription in ten locations, with custom models, $0.02 a minute on Plus and 500 free minutes. There is no machine-readable spec or readable status history, requests are logged for improvement unless opted out, the WebSocket token goes in the URL, and the last release note is from June 2026.

## Before you call either

### 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.

### IBM Watson Speech to Text

1. Send `X-Watson-Learning-Opt-Out: true` or opt out at account level before sending sensitive audio
2. Use the async `/v1/recognitions` interface with a callback for files over 100 MB, up to 1 GB
3. Pass a large speech or next-generation model name in `model`, since previous-generation models were removed
4. Tag requests with `X-Watson-Metadata: customer_id=...` so the data can be deleted later
5. Keep within 100 concurrent requests on Plus across HTTP and WebSocket

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Groq Speech-to-Text or IBM Watson Speech to Text?

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 70.1 (BB) on agent readiness against IBM Watson Speech to Text's 54.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Groq Speech-to-Text and IBM Watson Speech to Text need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Groq Speech-to-Text and IBM Watson Speech to Text without installing anything?

Groq Speech-to-Text has a hosted endpoint at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for IBM Watson Speech to Text.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Groq Speech-to-Text or IBM Watson Speech to Text

- [Amazon Transcribe vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [Amazon Transcribe vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-transcribe-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [AssemblyAI Speech-to-Text (Universal) vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assemblyai-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [Azure AI Speech speech-to-text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-speech-to-text-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Cartesia Ink vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [Cartesia Ink vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cartesia-ink-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepgram-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elevenlabs-scribe-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Giggy Speech to Text vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [Giggy Speech to Text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/giggy-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [Gladia Speech-to-Text API + MCP vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gladia-stt-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs Groq Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-speech-to-text-vs-groq-speech-to-text.md)
- [Google Cloud Speech-to-Text vs IBM Watson Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-speech-to-text-vs-ibm-watson-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Inworld STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-inworld-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-minimax-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-mistral-voxtral-transcribe.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs OpenAI Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-rev-ai-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Soniox Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-soniox-stt.md)
- [Groq Speech-to-Text vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-speechmatics-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Inworld STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-inworld-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-minimax-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Mistral Voxtral Transcribe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-mistral-voxtral-transcribe.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs OpenAI Speech to Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Rev AI Speech-to-Text API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-rev-ai-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Soniox Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-soniox-stt.md)
- [IBM Watson Speech to Text vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ibm-watson-stt-vs-speechmatics-stt.md)

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