# Mistral Voxtral Transcribe vs OpenAI Speech to Text

> OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (BB) to Mistral Voxtral Transcribe's 64.1 (B) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.md (~2,950 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-voxtral-transcribe-vs-openai-speech-to-text.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- 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

OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Mistral Voxtral Transcribe's 64.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mistral Voxtral Transcribe leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do speech-to-text.

- Mistral Voxtral Transcribe: grade B, 64.1/100, rank #365 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mistral-voxtral-transcribe.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mistral-voxtral-transcribe.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

### Mistral Voxtral Transcribe (B)

Good for: Suited to low-cost batch transcription with diarisation in the 13 supported languages, and to live captions or voice agents that can run without speaker labels.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 61

Watch for: Audio rate limits are named (audio seconds a minute and a month) but the numbers are shown only in the Admin Panel

### 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:
- Reliability, 80 against 53
- Security & auth, 86 against 70
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 66

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No incidents deducted, where Mistral Voxtral Transcribe loses 3 points for them

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 | Mistral Voxtral Transcribe | OpenAI Speech to Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 80 | OpenAI Speech to Text +27 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 88 | OpenAI Speech to Text +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 78 | OpenAI Speech to Text +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 86 | OpenAI Speech to Text +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Mistral Voxtral Transcribe +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 75 | OpenAI Speech to Text +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 61 | Mistral Voxtral Transcribe +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.1 · B** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Mistral Voxtral Transcribe | OpenAI Speech to Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Mistral AI | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.mistral.ai/v1` | `https://api.openai.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, websocket | HTTP, websocket |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under Mistral's commercial terms. Voxtral Mini 4B Realtime weights and the SDKs are Apache-2.0 | 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 | 2026-02-04 | 2026-08-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-25 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-03 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | 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 | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 773 stars | 32k stars |

## Verdicts

**Mistral Voxtral Transcribe.** Batch transcription costs $0.003 a minute and takes one multipart call with a file, a URL or an uploaded file ID. Rate limit numbers are shown only in the console, and timestamps cannot be combined with a set language, nor diarisation with the realtime model.

**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

### Mistral Voxtral Transcribe

1. Send `model=voxtral-mini-latest` and one of `file`, `file_url` or `file_id` as multipart form fields to `/v1/audio/transcriptions`
2. Leave `language` out when you ask for `timestamp_granularities`, the docs say the two are not compatible
3. Use the batch endpoint for diarisation. `voxtral-mini-transcribe-realtime-2602` does not accept `diarize`
4. Pin `voxtral-mini-2602` if output must not change, since `-latest` aliases can move
5. Mint browser tokens with `POST /v1/client/sessions` close to connection time and pass them in `Sec-WebSocket-Protocol`, never the API key

### 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, Mistral Voxtral Transcribe or OpenAI Speech to Text?

OpenAI Speech to Text scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Mistral Voxtral Transcribe's 64.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Mistral Voxtral Transcribe leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Mistral Voxtral Transcribe and OpenAI Speech to Text need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Mistral Voxtral Transcribe and OpenAI Speech to Text without installing anything?

Yes. Mistral Voxtral Transcribe has a hosted endpoint at https://api.mistral.ai/v1 and OpenAI Speech to Text at https://api.openai.com/v1.


## For agents

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

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