# Groq Speech-to-Text vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text

> Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Speechmatics Speech-to-Text's 67.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Speechmatics Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do speech stt. Category…

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

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Speechmatics Speech-to-Text's 67.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Speechmatics Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do speech stt.

- 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
- Speechmatics Speech-to-Text: grade B, 67.1/100, rank #243 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/speechmatics-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/speechmatics-stt.json

## 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 70
- Security & auth, 79 against 65
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 75

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

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

### Speechmatics Speech-to-Text (B)

Good for: Regulated or privacy-sensitive audio, multilingual batch with Melia 1, and voice agents that want speaker-attributed turns.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 65 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 75
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 68

Watch for: Enhanced costs $0.40 to $0.43 an hour, above most rivals


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Groq Speech-to-Text | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 70 | Groq Speech-to-Text +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 65 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 80 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 79 | 65 | Groq Speech-to-Text +14 |
| 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) | 68 | 75 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 75 | Groq Speech-to-Text +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **71.8 · BB** | **67.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Groq Speech-to-Text | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Groq | Speechmatics |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` | `https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for speech stt | not published | $0.0027 per minute of audio |
| 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 | MIT (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-26 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-22 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-12 | 2026-05-27 |
| 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 | 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 | 621 stars | 20 stars, 58k npm/wk, 48k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

**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

### 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.

### 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

## Questions

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

Groq Speech-to-Text scores 71.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Speechmatics Speech-to-Text's 67.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Speechmatics Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

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

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Groq Speech-to-Text has a hosted endpoint at https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 and Speechmatics Speech-to-Text at https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2.


## For agents

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

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