# Inworld STT vs MiniMax Speech-to-Text

> Inworld STT scores 54.7 (C) to MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inworld-stt-vs-minimax-stt
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inworld-stt-vs-minimax-stt.md (~4,850 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Inworld STT scores 54.7 (C) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. MiniMax Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do speech-to-text.

- Inworld STT: grade C, 54.7/100, rank #895 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inworld-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inworld-stt.json
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text: grade D, 48.4/100, rank #1114 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/minimax-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/minimax-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

### Inworld STT (C)

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

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 47
- Security & auth, 63 against 33
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 41 against 6

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

Watch for: No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract

### MiniMax Speech-to-Text (D)

Good for: Cheap file transcription with diarisation and subtitles, strongest on Chinese and code-switched audio by the vendor's account.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 54
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 56

Watch for: Files only, up to 500 seconds and 50 MB; live audio input isn't supported


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Inworld STT +35

- 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.
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text (6): Read as a model. No dated release or change of `asr-1.0` was found on the model or API release notes or the status page (0). No dated ASR entries in the last 90 days (0). Support by email and Discord, not tested (6 of 15). No official SDK, and the MCP servers have no transcription tool (0 of 15). No package to judge (0 of 10). Total 6.

### Security & auth: Inworld STT +30

- 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.
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text (33): Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain API keys from the console with no scopes found, and the docs say publicly leaked keys may be disabled, as on minimax-voice-cloning (20 of 30). The terms (effective 30 March 2026), as read for minimax-voice-cloning on 4 November, let MiniMax use input and generated content to operate, maintain, develop and improve its services, with no opt-out found, and the privacy policy rules out only training to profile or target consumers (5 of 20). No retention period for uploaded audio or transcripts was found (3 of 15). Each response carries a trace ID, with no audit log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found, as on the other MiniMax listings (0 of 20). Total 33.

### Schema & documentation: MiniMax Speech-to-Text +28

- Inworld STT (54): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable file. The usual spec paths redirect, and the reference pages are Markdown (0). llms.txt, Markdown twins and a docs MCP server (10). Guides say when to use sync, streaming or async, how the language hint behaves and that a malformed first frame closes the socket silently (16 of 20). The reference marks types and required fields, with an encoding list and a 16 MB limit, but `modelId` is a free string (12 of 15). Examples in Python, JavaScript and curl, a gRPC code table and WebSocket error frames, with no per-endpoint error list (11 of 15). Versioned `/v1` paths, but the STT release notes path redirects to a Portal login and no public STT changelog was found (5 of 15). Total 54.
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text (82): OpenAPI 3.1 for `/v1/speech_to_text`, with eight documented responses (25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). The guide says when to stream, when to use `verbose_json`, and that subtitles and diarisation can't be combined with streaming (15 of 20). Typed multipart fields with an enum for `response_format`, and file limits stated in prose (12 of 15). Python examples and an error table giving HTTP status, `error.type` and trigger for 400, 401, 402, 413, 422, 429 and 500 (15). Versioned `/v1` path, but neither release notes page mentions the ASR API, and the API notes stop at 28 October 2025 (5 of 15). Total 82.

### Payments & pricing: Inworld STT +20

- Inworld STT (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-hour prices for every plan published without a login (20). On-Demand includes up to 400 minutes of STT and lists no payment method, while async jobs need one (20). A person signs up in the Portal or through `inworld login` in a browser before a key exists (0). Total 40.
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). $0.38 an hour published without a login (20). Speech to text is for paid accounts only (0). A person signs up in a browser and funds a balance (0). Total 20.

### Agent ergonomics: MiniMax Speech-to-Text +14

- 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.
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text (70): API reading of the checklist. The default `json` returns only text, duration and a trace ID, with segments and subtitles opt-in (22 of 25). No lists to page. `response_format` and `language` are the output controls (12 of 20). Typed error envelopes with the real HTTP status, an error type and `request_id`, and 402 for an empty balance (18 of 20). Calls are synchronous with no idempotency key (10 of 20). Two fields, a model and a file. No official SDK, and MiniMax's MCP servers don't cover transcription (8 of 15). Total 70.

### Reliability: Inworld STT +13

- 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.
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text (47): Atlassian Statuspage at status.minimax.io with component history, but its components are LLM, Text-to-Speech and Video Generation, with none for speech to text (10 of 20). With no component, the history holds no record for transcription (5). Limits published with numbers, 2 concurrent connections and 30,000 audio seconds a minute (15). 429 is documented as `rate_limit_error`, and the general error code page says to retry later, with no backoff figures or Retry-After (7 of 15). No SLA in the terms or docs (0). `asr-1.0` is called the current public model with no beta label (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 47.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Inworld STT | MiniMax Speech-to-Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 47 | Inworld STT +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 82 | MiniMax Speech-to-Text +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 70 | MiniMax Speech-to-Text +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 33 | Inworld STT +30 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Inworld STT +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 41 | 6 | Inworld STT +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 63 | MiniMax Speech-to-Text +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.7 · C** | **48.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Inworld STT | MiniMax Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Inworld AI | MiniMax |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, websocket | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| Price for speech-to-text | $0.0017 per minute of audio | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 0 | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2025-06-11 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-18 | 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 | not found in the text | 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 |

## What the same task costs

| Task | Inworld STT | MiniMax Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.10 to $0.15 | $0.38 |

## Verdicts

**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.

**MiniMax Speech-to-Text.** MiniMax's ASR API has an OpenAPI file, typed error envelopes and a public price of $0.38 an hour, with diarisation and subtitle output. It takes files of up to 500 seconds only, allows 2 concurrent connections, has no free tier or status component, and no dated release.

## Before you call either

### 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

### MiniMax Speech-to-Text

1. Split recordings into pieces under 500 seconds before uploading, since longer audio returns 400
2. Convert to mono 16 kHz or a compressed format to stay under 50 MB
3. Use `verbose_json` for speakers and timestamps, and `json` only when streaming
4. Treat 402 `insufficient_balance_error` as final and ask the user to top up
5. Use `https://api.minimaxi.com` for a mainland China account

## Questions

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

Inworld STT scores 54.7 (C) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. MiniMax Speech-to-Text leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

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

Both need an API key.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Inworld STT. No hosted endpoint is listed for MiniMax Speech-to-Text.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Inworld STT or MiniMax Speech-to-Text

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

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