Head to head · Speech-to-text · October 2026 research run

Groq Speech-to-Text vs Inworld STT

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 70.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Inworld STT's 54.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do speech-to-text.

Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents · All 320 stt comparisons

Which one, for what

Groq Speech-to-Text BB

Best 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 60
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 56
  • Security & auth, 79 against 63
  • Maintenance & community, 48 against 41
  • Transparency & trust, 85 against 60

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

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

Inworld STT C

Best for Low-cost live transcription for voice agents, with speaker traits.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reliability Groq Speech-to-Text +30

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.

Inworld STT 60

Hosted reading of the checklist. status.inworld.ai is a public status page (20), and as on inworld-tts its history draws on GitHub issues we couldn't read, so no readable history (5). Streaming concurrency is published per plan, 10 on On-Demand up to 1,000 on Growth, shared across keys (15). 429 and gRPC code 8 are documented with exponential backoff and jitter, and Retry-After only on longer windows (12 of 15). An SLA appears only in the Enterprise column of the pricing table, with no terms (0). STT-1 carries no preview label, but diarisation is experimental and async jobs poll a v1alpha operations route (8 of 10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 0 + 8 = 60.

Transparency & trust Groq Speech-to-Text +25

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).

Inworld STT 60

Closed service with clear terms naming Theai, Inc. dba Inworld AI (15). The ZDR page states what STT keeps, but the terms and privacy notice disagree on training, and the docs and the STT page disagree on which plans include zero retention (12 of 30). No dated STT deprecation or change notices are public (8 of 20). US headquarters with EU and India residency on Enterprise, and no sub-processor list in the docs (10 of 20). Total 45.

Agent ergonomics Groq Speech-to-Text +19

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).

Inworld STT 56

API reading of the checklist. Voice Profile, word timestamps and diarisation are opt-in, and responses carry a usage block (18 of 25). No lists to page. Async jobs return an operation to poll (8 of 20). Errors carry a numeric gRPC code and message on both endpoints, but a malformed first message closes the socket with 1005 and no frame (12 of 20). Sync calls are stateless and async calls return an operation, with no idempotency key, and empty transcripts and add-ons are billed (10 of 20). A call needs a model, an encoding and the audio. No STT SDK was found, only the CLI and its MCP server and REST examples (8 of 15). Total 56.

Security & auth Groq Speech-to-Text +16

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).

Inworld STT 63

Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Workspace API keys sent as Basic credentials, deleted to revoke, with separate keys per environment advised. The CLI mints read-only keys unless --write is given, but write toggles cover only the Voice and Router APIs, so no key is limited to one product. Browsers use short-lived tokens minted server side, via the bearer_ WebSocket subprotocol, not the URL (25 of 30). The Terms (11 June 2025) say Inworld won't train generally available models on customers' non-public Materials, except feedback and flagged content, while the Privacy Notice (18 January 2026) lists training AI models among its uses, per the inworld-tts check of 4 November (12 of 20). Zero data retention keeps STT audio and transcripts in memory and out of logs, included on Developer ($300 a month) and above per the docs, while the STT page says Enterprise or a Growth add-on. Async results and audio go after 7 days, and no default period is given for logs (8 of 15). Usage is attributed per key and a Performance page shows errors and throttling (8 of 15). SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA claimed and a vulnerability report form, with no security.txt or bug bounty, per the 4 November reading (10 of 20). Total 63.

Maintenance & community Groq Speech-to-Text +7

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.

Inworld STT 41

Read as a model. No public STT changelog. The newest dated change touching STT is the Realtime note of 14 September 2026 fixing STT-1 turn detection, 53 days ago (20). The CLI, which carries the STT command and MCP tool, shipped 1.4.0 to 1.5.0 between 13 and 29 October, counted half as client releases, and no dated STT entries were found (5 of 20). Discord and support@inworld.ai, with no evidence of answers read (6 of 15). No official STT SDK; the CLI is current (5 of 15). CLI on npm under MIT, current, CI not read (5 of 10). Total 41.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGroq Speech-to-TextInworld STTEdge
Reliability16%209060Groq Speech-to-Text +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25854Groq Speech-to-Text +4
Agent ergonomics13%16.27556Groq Speech-to-Text +19
Security & auth14%17.57963Groq Speech-to-Text +16
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84841Groq Speech-to-Text +7
Transparency & trust7%8.88560Groq Speech-to-Text +25
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 70.1/100C 54.7/100

Facts side by side

FactGroq Speech-to-TextInworld STT
KindModel APIModel API
VendorGroqInworld AI
Hosted endpointhttps://api.groq.com/openai/v1no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP, websocket
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
Price for speech-to-textnot published$0.0017 per minute of audio
x402nono
LicenceProprietary hosted service under the Groq Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0 and the Whisper weights are published by OpenAI on Hugging Facenone
Tools exposednone0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-08-262026-10-29
Terms last updated2026-06-222025-06-11
Privacy policy last updated2025-11-122026-01-18
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity621 starsnone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (4)none

What the same task costs

TaskGroq Speech-to-TextInworld STT
Transcribe a one-hour meeting60 minutes of recorded audio$0.04 to $0.11$0.10 to $0.15

Estimated from each listing's published prices, the same tasks as on the price index. Plans, minimums and free allowances aren't counted.

How the scores have moved

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.

Inworld STT

Inworld STT costs $0.10 to $0.15 an hour with 400 free minutes, and covers files, live streams and async jobs in 30 languages with Voice Profile signals. There is no machine-readable spec, no public STT changelog and no readable status history, and diarisation is still experimental.

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.

Inworld STT

  1. Send the Base64 credential as-is in Authorization: Basic; don't encode it again
  2. Wrap the first WebSocket message in transcribeConfig, because a malformed first frame closes the socket with 1005 and no error
  3. Use POST /stt/v1/transcribe:async for files over about 16 MB and collect the transcript within 7 days
  4. Retry 429 or gRPC code 8 with exponential backoff and jitter, and stay within the plan's streaming concurrency
  5. Stop sending audio when nobody speaks, since streams are billed for every second sent

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Groq Speech-to-Text or Inworld STT?

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 70.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Inworld STT's 54.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Groq Speech-to-Text and Inworld STT need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Groq Speech-to-Text and Inworld STT without installing anything?

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

Other comparisons with Groq Speech-to-Text or Inworld STT

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