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

MiniMax Speech-to-Text vs OpenAI Speech to Text

OpenAI Speech to Text scores 75 (BB) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do speech-to-text.

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

Which one, for what

MiniMax Speech-to-Text D

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

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

Watch for

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

OpenAI Speech to Text BB

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

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 65 against 47
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 82
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 70
  • Security & auth, 97 against 33
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 71 against 6
  • Transparency & trust, 90 against 63

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

whisper-1, gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe, gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize and /v1/audio/translations shut down on 26 February 2027

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.

Maintenance & community OpenAI Speech to Text +65

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.

OpenAI Speech to Text 71

Model reading. The last dated change to transcription is still the deprecation notice of 26 August 2026, 67 days before 1 November, after the release of gpt-transcribe and gpt-live-transcribe on 28 July (20 of 30). The deprecations page promises at least six months' notice for generally available models, and the four transcription models got six months to the day. On 14 October GA GPT-4 series models got 92 days with no reason stated, so the policy reads as a minimum of two to three months in practice, as the OpenAI API and Decisions API listings read it (8 of 12, was 12). Four of the five file transcription models were deprecated within a month of their replacements shipping, and the replacements don't cover diarisation, timestamps or subtitles (2 of 8). The dated changelog has two transcription entries in 90 days among dozens for the API (13 of 15). Python SDK replies were not sampled (5 of 10). Python SDK v3.42.0 was tagged on 31 October 2026, with v3.41.0 on 28 October and v3.40.0 on 27 October (15). CI, CodeQL and a breaking-change check run in the repository (8 of 10). 20 + 8 + 2 + 13 + 5 + 15 + 8 = 71.

Security & auth OpenAI Speech to Text +64

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.

OpenAI Speech to Text 97

Model reading, on the lines the OpenAI API and Decisions API listings use. Project keys with permissions per key, service-account keys through the Administration API and workload identity federation, per the Decisions API listing's read of 8 October. The access-control guide, re-read on 1 November, puts audio under one Model capabilities permission with chat completions, embeddings and images, so a restricted key can't be limited to the audio endpoints alone (27 of 30, as the Decisions API listing, was 26). The data controls page says API data isn't used for training unless the customer opts in (20). Both audio endpoints are listed with no abuse-monitoring retention, no application state and Zero Data Retention eligibility, re-read on 1 November (15). The Admin API has an audit log endpoint, and the OpenAPI document has GET /organization/usage/audio_transcriptions grouped by project, API key or model, the per-key usage view both other OpenAI listings got 15 for (15, was 13). security.txt, re-read on 1 November, is PGP-signed, names a Bugcrowd programme and a coordinated disclosure policy and has no Expires field. trust.openai.com, read on 1 November, names SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001, 27017, 27018 and 27701 (20, was 12 when no trust centre was read, the award both other OpenAI listings carry). 27 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 20 = 97.

Transparency & trust OpenAI Speech to Text +27

MiniMax Speech-to-Text 63

Closed API with clear terms under Singapore law naming Nanonoble Pte. Ltd., as on the other MiniMax listings (15 of 30). The terms and privacy policy agree that inputs may be used to improve services and that data sits in a United States data centre, with no retention period for audio (8 of 30). No deprecation notice or policy touches the ASR API (10 of 20, for the dated notices elsewhere on the API release notes). Data location stated as the United States and an EU representative named, with third parties only by category (10 of 20). Total 43.

OpenAI Speech to Text 90

The hosted models are closed with clear terms, the Python SDK Apache-2.0 and the OpenAPI document MIT, per the OpenAI API listing's check of the services agreement. openai.com answered the services agreement with 403 again on 1 November (15, was 12). The data controls page, re-read on 1 November, lists both audio endpoints with no training, no abuse-monitoring retention, no application state and Zero Data Retention eligibility. The DPA, effective 1 January 2026, commits to return or deletion of customer data on termination, 30 days to object to a new subprocessor, and SCCs with the UK Addendum, and nothing in it conflicts with the guide, per the OpenAI API listing's 4 October check, not re-read on 1 November (openai.com answered 403). The same reading as the OpenAI API listing (30 of 30, was 28). A deprecations page with notice periods by model class, dated shutdowns and replacements, including /v1/audio/translations to v1/realtime/translations (20). Data residency is documented by region and endpoint, with the audio endpoints in every listed region for storage and in the United States and Europe for processing. The subprocessor list, updated 9 July 2026, names third-party subprocessors and OpenAI affiliates with processing countries for each and a form for notice of new ones, per the OpenAI API listing's 4 October check, not re-read on 1 November (openai.com answered 403). The same reading as the OpenAI API listing (20 of 20, was 16). 15 + 30 + 20 + 20 = 85.

Reliability OpenAI Speech to Text +18

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.

OpenAI Speech to Text 65

Hosted reading. status.openai.com (incident.io) lists Audio and Realtime as components of the API group (20). The feed, read on 1 November, names the Audio component in three incidents in the 90 days from 3 August, and their incident pages give the Audio impact. 17 September, "elevated error rates across API models", Audio degraded from 20:20 to 21:20 UTC with ten other API components, an hour. 29 September (last updated 6 October in the feed, which the 9 October check dated 6 October), errors across ChatGPT, Codex and the API, Audio degraded from 17:52 to 23:14 UTC, 5 hours 21 minutes. 21 October, degraded performance across 33 components, Audio from 02:26 to 02:48 UTC, 22 minutes and minor. The first two are API-wide and an hour or more, so two majors, and two majors give 5 of 30, as the OpenAI API, OpenAI Moderation and OpenAI Image API listings read the same two incidents (5, was 20 when the durations were unread). The July incidents are outside the window. The gpt-transcribe model page, re-read on 1 November, gives 5,000 requests a minute on Build, 10,000 on Launch and 30,000 on Grow (15). The rate limits guide, re-read on 1 November, documents Retry-After on 429 and 503, the slow_down and server_is_overloaded codes and backoff with jitter, and transcription is a stateless call (15). No SLA covering the audio endpoints was found, read as for the OpenAI Decisions API listing; the Scale Tier pages are on openai.com and weren't requested (0). gpt-transcribe carries no preview label (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 65.

Payments & pricing OpenAI Speech to Text +10

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.

OpenAI Speech to Text 30

No x402, MPP or L402 on the pricing page, re-read on 1 November (0). $0.0045 an audio minute for gpt-transcribe, $0.017 for gpt-live-transcribe and $0.006 for whisper-1 on the public pricing page (20). The rate limits guide lists a Free tier capped at $100 a month in allowed countries, while the gpt-transcribe model page's rate-limit table starts at Build, which needs $5 of credit. Half, the reading both other OpenAI listings use for the same pages (10, was 0). A person signs up in a browser and creates the key in the console (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30.

Agent ergonomics OpenAI Speech to Text +8

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.

OpenAI Speech to Text 78

API reading, as for the other speech-to-text listings. The default json response is the text, detected languages and usage, text returns a bare string, and segments, words and speaker labels come only when asked for on the models that have them (20 of 25). There is no transcript store to page through. Files stop at 25 MB, the caller splits longer audio, and the gpt-transcribe model page marks the Batch API as not supported (10 of 20). Errors carry message, type, param and code, and the error codes page gives a fix for each status (18 of 20). The call is stateless and safe to retry, and the Python SDK retries 408, 409, 429 and 5xx twice by default. No idempotency key applies to this endpoint (15 of 20). file and model are the only required fields, with guide examples for JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, C# and Ruby SDKs and a CLI (15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runMiniMax Speech-to-TextOpenAI Speech to TextEdge
Reliability16%204765OpenAI Speech to Text +18
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28289OpenAI Speech to Text +7
Agent ergonomics13%16.27078OpenAI Speech to Text +8
Security & auth14%17.53397OpenAI Speech to Text +64
Payments & pricing10%12.52030OpenAI Speech to Text +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8671OpenAI Speech to Text +65
Transparency & trust7%8.86390OpenAI Speech to Text +27
Negative events≤1500
TotalD 48.4/100BB 75/100

Facts side by side

FactMiniMax Speech-to-TextOpenAI Speech to Text
KindModel APIModel API
VendorMiniMaxOpenAI
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.openai.com/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP, websocket
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary hosted service. The service terms were not read (see open questions). The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 and the OpenAPI document is MIT
Tools exposed0none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last releasenone2026-08-26
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Popularitynone32k stars
Agent reviewsnone3.3/5 (4)

What the same task costs

TaskMiniMax Speech-to-TextOpenAI Speech to Text
Transcribe a one-hour meeting60 minutes of recorded audio$0.38$0.27 to $1.02

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

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.

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, word timestamps and subtitles exist only on whisper-1 and gpt-4o-transcribe-diarize, which shut down on 26 February 2027 with no replacement named for those functions.

Before you call either

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

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 and vtt need whisper-1, which cannot stream and shuts down on 26 February 2027. Move English translation to v1/realtime/translations before then.
  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, MiniMax Speech-to-Text or OpenAI Speech to Text?

OpenAI Speech to Text scores 75 (BB) on agent readiness against MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D), and leads in every scored category.

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

Both need an API key.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for MiniMax Speech-to-Text. OpenAI Speech to Text has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1.

Other comparisons with MiniMax Speech-to-Text or OpenAI Speech to Text

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