# MiniMax Speech-to-Text vs OpenAI Speech to Text (slim)

> OpenAI Speech to Text scores 75 (BB) to MiniMax Speech-to-Text's 48.4 (D) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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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.

- MiniMax Speech-to-Text: D 48.4, rank #1114 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/minimax-stt.min.md
- OpenAI Speech to Text: BB 75, rank #74 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-speech-to-text.min.md
- MiniMax Speech-to-Text, good for Cheap file transcription with diarisation and subtitles, strongest on Chinese and code-switched audio by the vendor's account.
- OpenAI Speech to Text, 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 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 Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | MiniMax Speech-to-Text | OpenAI Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 47 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 82 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 70 | 78 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 33 | 97 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 6 | 71 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 90 |

| Fact (where they differ) | MiniMax Speech-to-Text | OpenAI Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | MiniMax | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.openai.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Licence | none | 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 |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| Last release | none | 2026-08-26 |
| Popularity | none | 32k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- 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).)

| Task | MiniMax Speech-to-Text | OpenAI Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.38 | $0.27 to $1.02 |