# Groq Speech-to-Text vs OpenAI Speech to Text

> OpenAI Speech to Text and Groq Speech-to-Text score within a point of each other for speech-to-text, 72.4 and 71.8 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/groq-speech-to-text-vs-openai-speech-to-text
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- Updated: 2026-10-09

OpenAI Speech to Text and Groq Speech-to-Text score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 72.4 (BB) and 71.8 (BB). Groq Speech-to-Text leads on reliability, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do speech-to-text.

- Groq Speech-to-Text: grade BB, 71.8/100, rank #117 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/groq-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/groq-speech-to-text.json
- OpenAI Speech to Text: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #106 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-speech-to-text.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-speech-to-text.json
- Best speech-to-text APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/speech-to-text/index.md
- All 91 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 80
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 61

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

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

### OpenAI Speech to Text (BB)

Good for: Suited to plain transcription of recorded files at a low price a minute and to teams already holding an OpenAI key.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 58
- Security & auth, 86 against 79
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 68

Watch for: `whisper-1`, `gpt-4o-transcribe`, `gpt-4o-mini-transcribe` and `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize` were deprecated on 26 August 2026 and shut down on 26 February 2027


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Groq Speech-to-Text | OpenAI Speech to Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 80 | Groq Speech-to-Text +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 88 | OpenAI Speech to Text +30 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 78 | OpenAI Speech to Text +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 79 | 86 | OpenAI Speech to Text +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Groq Speech-to-Text +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 75 | OpenAI Speech to Text +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 61 | Groq Speech-to-Text +24 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **71.8 · BB** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Groq Speech-to-Text | OpenAI Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Groq | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` | `https://api.openai.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| 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 | Proprietary hosted service. The service terms were not read (see open questions). The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 and the OpenAPI document is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-26 | 2026-08-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-22 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-12 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 621 stars | 32k stars |

## 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.

**OpenAI Speech to Text.** `gpt-transcribe` costs $0.0045 an audio minute, and the audio endpoints keep no abuse-monitoring logs or application state. Speaker labels, timestamps, subtitles and translation exist only on `whisper-1` and `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize`, which shut down on 26 February 2027 with no named replacement for those functions.

## 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.

### OpenAI Speech to Text

1. Send `gpt-transcribe` to `POST /v1/audio/transcriptions` for recorded files. Use `languages` (a list), not `language`, and never send both.
2. Keep each upload at 25 MB or less. Split longer audio between sentences and pass the previous chunk's text in `prompt`.
3. For speaker labels send `gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize` with `response_format=diarized_json` and `chunking_strategy=auto` for audio over 30 seconds. Plan for its shutdown on 26 February 2027.
4. Word timestamps, `srt`, `vtt` and `/v1/audio/translations` need `whisper-1`, which cannot stream and shuts down on the same date.
5. On 429 or 503 wait at least `Retry-After` when present, then back off with jitter. Do not retry `credit_balance_exhausted` or spend-limit errors.

## Questions

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

OpenAI Speech to Text and Groq Speech-to-Text score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 72.4 (BB) and 71.8 (BB). Groq Speech-to-Text leads on reliability, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

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

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Groq Speech-to-Text has a hosted endpoint at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 and OpenAI Speech to Text at https://api.openai.com/v1.


## For agents

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

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