# Rev AI Speech-to-Text API vs Smallest.ai Pulse STT (slim)

> Smallest.ai Pulse STT scores 65 (B) to Rev AI Speech-to-Text's 55.5 (C) for speech-to-text. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rev-ai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.md (~6,050 tokens) · this version ~3,630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rev-ai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rev-ai-stt-vs-smallest-pulse-stt
- 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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Smallest.ai Pulse STT scores 65 (B) on agent readiness against Rev AI Speech-to-Text API's 55.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Rev AI Speech-to-Text API leads on reliability. Both do speech-to-text.

- Rev AI Speech-to-Text API: C 55.5, rank #862 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rev-ai-stt.min.md
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT: B 65, rank #441 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smallest-pulse-stt.min.md
- Rev AI Speech-to-Text API, good for English batch jobs where a human-checked transcript may be needed later, through the same API. Ahead on Reliability, 75 against 63. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- Smallest.ai Pulse STT, good for Low-cost transcription for voice agents and call analytics, with Indic coverage and turn detection. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 92 against 80; Agent ergonomics, 66 against 52; Security & auth, 52 against 40; Payments & pricing, 40 against 20; Maintenance & community, 73 against 40.

| Category | Rev AI Speech-to-Text API | Smallest.ai Pulse STT |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 75 | 63 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 92 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 52 | 66 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 40 | 52 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 40 | 73 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 69 | 71 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Rev AI Speech-to-Text API | Smallest.ai Pulse STT |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Rev | Smallest AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.rev.ai/speechtotext/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, websocket |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Last release | 2024-11-27 | 2026-11-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-15 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-02-03 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 36 stars, 16k npm/wk, 130k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Smallest.ai Pulse STT +33: Rev AI Speech-to-Text API 40 (Read on the model lines the other speech-to-text model listings use (recency 30, dated releases 10, notice 10, support 15, issues 10, SDKs 15, health 10), where the 1 October note used the tool lines. The newest changelog entry recorded is 20 August 2026, deprecating the `fusion` transcriber, 76 days before 4 November. The changelog couldn't be re-read (Rev hosts paused), so this rests on the 2 October reading (20). Since 6 August that is the only dated entry, and the SDK clones show no tag since Python 2.21.0 (27 November 2024) and Node 3.8.6 (25 October 2024), and no commit since 12 May 2026, so fewer than three (0). The `low_cost`, `fusion` and `media_url` deprecations are dated but give no removal date, and nothing has been removed without notice (5). Public changelog and an email support channel (10). SDK issue replies unread, github.com answers 403 (0). The published SDKs aren't current. npm's latest Node SDK was 3.8.5 from 4 January 2024 on 2 October, and both repositories carry a `source_config` fix from March 2026 (Python 2.22.0, Node 3.9.0 in source) that is in no tag. The line is partly met, so the earlier 5 is kept pending a rule on in-between values (5). Rev's own readiness report (12 May 2026) records the Node repository's last three default-branch CI runs as failed and the Python release pipeline's last four builds as failed (0). 20+0+5+10+0+5+0 = 40.); Smallest.ai Pulse STT 73 (Read as a model. The newest Pulse changelog entry is dated 2 November 2026 (updated Indic benchmarks), and Pulse 2.0 launched within the period (30). Dated Pulse entries on 30 August, 18, 29 and 30 September, 1, 12, 13 and 21 October and 2 November (20). Public changelog, email support and a Discord server, with no evidence read of how they answer (10 of 15). The Python SDK `smallestai` 5.14.0 dates from 7 October with 12 releases since 9 August, but the npm Node SDK has not been published since May 2025 (8 of 15). The Python SDK repository runs CI and release workflows, but has no licence file (5 of 10). Total 73.)
- Payments & pricing, Smallest.ai Pulse STT +20: Rev AI Speech-to-Text API 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-hour and per-minute prices published without a login (20). Free credits worth 5 hours of Reverb, but whether sign-up needs a card wasn't confirmed (0). A person signs up in a browser (0). Pricing per the 2 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Rev hosts paused). 0+20+0+0 = 20.); Smallest.ai Pulse STT 40 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-minute prices for each Pulse model published without a login, with two figures for Pulse Pro (20). Pay as you go starts with $10 of trial credits, which the terms also describe, and no page says a card is needed to claim them, read as inworld-tts's free plan was (20). A person signs up in a browser at app.smallest.ai and creates the key in the dashboard, and top-ups go to a card on file (0). Total 40.)
- Agent ergonomics, Smallest.ai Pulse STT +14: Rev AI Speech-to-Text API 52 (API reading of the checklist, on the docs as read on 1 and 2 October (not re-read on 4 November, Rev hosts paused). Transcripts come back as JSON or plain text by `Accept` header, and captions as SRT or VTT (20). `GET /jobs` pages with `limit` and `starting_after` (20). Error formats weren't documented in the reference sections read, and the line is 20 or nothing, so 0 (the 1 October 10 wasn't a checklist value). No idempotency key. `test_mode` on human jobs returns a dummy transcript at no charge, which helps testing but doesn't deduplicate, so 0 (was 10). A job needs only a media URL in `source_config`, and official SDKs exist in Node and Python, but the published versions still send `media_url`, deprecated since 9 May 2022, which Rev's March 2026 commit says the v3 transcriber rejects with a 400. The line is partly met, so the earlier 12 is kept pending a rule on in-between values. 20+20+0+0+12 = 52.); Smallest.ai Pulse STT 66 (API reading of the checklist. Word timestamps, utterances, diarisation, emotion and gender are each opt-in, so the default response is the transcript with metadata (18 of 25). There are no list endpoints for transcriptions to page. Output controls are the opt-in fields and finalisation settings on the socket (10 of 20). Errors carry a status and a machine-readable `code` or `error_code` (`LANGUAGE_NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_MODEL`, `AudioTooLong` and others) with fixes, but the body comes in two shapes, `message` or `error` (15 of 20). Batch calls are synchronous with no idempotency key, and whether a retried file is billed again isn't stated (10 of 20). A file call needs only the model and audio. Official Python and Node SDKs exist, though the Node SDK was last published in May 2025 (13 of 15). Total 66.)
- Reliability, Rev AI Speech-to-Text API +12: Rev AI Speech-to-Text API 75 (Statuspage at status.rev.ai with component history (20), per the 1 October check, not re-read on 4 November, because the Rev terms (updated 14 October 2026) bar using any automated system to extract content from Rev's web sites, so every Rev host is paused for this run. The history feed read on 1 October showed no incident since 13 May 2026, and the page has posted eight incidents since September 2022. The window from 6 August is held at what that reading supports, with 2 October to 4 November unread (30). Limits published with numbers, 10,000 async submissions and 500 processing jobs per 10 minutes and 10 concurrent streams (15). No 429 handling, Retry-After or backoff guidance in the async reference, the get-started page or the changelog (0). No SLA found, and the pricing page names none (0). Async and streaming are GA (10). All per the 1 and 2 October checks. 20+30+15+0+0+10 = 75.); Smallest.ai Pulse STT 63 (BetterStack status page at status.smallest.ai with components for the Global, India and USA APIs (one health check covers the Agents and Models APIs), docs, the app and Electron, and per-component history (20). In the 90 days from 8 August the health checks on the shared API failed in all three regions on 9, 10, 13, 14 and 15 September (about 8, 21, 33, 17 and 64 minutes of flapping), in the Global and India regions on 11 and 17 September (12 minutes each), and in the USA region alone on 1, 3, 5, 12, 21 and 30 September (6 to 62 minutes) and 6 October (12 minutes). Outages in every region at once are read as wide errors, so several majors (0). Standard plan limits published per model, 100 concurrent streaming sessions and 25 batch requests a minute, and the pricing page also says 100 concurrent STT streams (15). 429 is documented with exponential backoff from 500 ms to 30 s and Retry-After when present, and batch calls are synchronous with optional webhooks (15). An infrastructure SLA of 99.99 per cent is named for Enterprise only, with no terms published, and the terms disclaim any availability commitment (5 of 10). Pulse, Pulse 2.0 and Pulse Pro carry no preview label, but eleven language codes are marked Beta (8 of 10). 20 + 0 + 15 + 15 + 5 + 8 = 63.)
- Schema & documentation, Smallest.ai Pulse STT +12: Rev AI Speech-to-Text API 80 (The async reference links an OpenAPI description at docs.rev.ai/_bundle/api/asynchronous/reference.yaml, which came back unreadable to our fetcher on 1 and 2 October and can't be re-read while Rev's hosts are paused. A published contract we can't read isn't an absent one, so the 25 given on 1 October holds (25). llms.txt (10). Endpoint descriptions state purpose, and the docs explain when to choose the machine, foreign-language or human transcriber (15). Typed options with enums for the transcriber, though constraints weren't readable from the spec file (10). The reference excerpt read shows no error responses for `POST /jobs` (5). Versioned `/speechtotext/v1` paths and a dated changelog (15). Docs per the 1 and 2 October checks, not re-read on 4 November. 25+10+15+10+5+15 = 80.); Smallest.ai Pulse STT 92 (OpenAPI 3.1 for the HTTP routes and AsyncAPI 2.6 for the STT socket, with query parameters and event schemas (25). llms.txt and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Model cards and a compare page say which model suits which audio, and fields say where they're ignored (Pulse Pro ignores redaction), but several changelog entries correct response fields the reference had wrong, such as the diarisation shape and a `redacted_entities` array that doesn't exist (15 of 20). Typed query parameters with enums, defaults and required marks, though booleans are string enums that must be lowercase (13 of 15). Examples in curl, Python and JavaScript, and the reference lists 400, 401, 403, 413, 422 and 429 bodies with known `code` values (14 of 15). Versioned `/v1` paths, a deprecations page and a dated Pulse changelog (15). Total 92.)
- Security & auth, Smallest.ai Pulse STT +12: Rev AI Speech-to-Text API 40 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of least-privilege and injection lines. Bearer access tokens, generated and replaced from the account page, with no scopes found (20). The streaming WebSocket takes that long-lived token as an `access_token` query parameter, a documented secret in a URL (minus 10). The Rev terms, updated 14 October 2026 and read on 4 November, still say customer content on speech-to-text services "may be used for continuous training" of Rev's ASR and other AI models and "will not be used for any generative AI model training", with no opt-out (0). Jobs and media are deleted after 30 days, sooner with `delete_after_seconds`, an account setting or a delete call. Streaming retention isn't stated (10). Jobs are listed per account, no audit log found (10). Rev's security page names SOC 2 Type II and links a SOC 3 report, plus PCI, HIPAA on the enterprise tier and CJIS. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty found (10 of 20). Docs and security page per the 1 and 2 October checks. 10+0+10+10+10 = 40.); Smallest.ai Pulse STT 52 (Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. Plain `sk_` keys per organisation, shown once, revoked at once and deletable, with one key per environment advised. The docs say a key grants full account access, and no scope is offered. Short-lived access tokens (`wat_`, 30 to 900 seconds) cover only inference routes and can't mint tokens (22 of 30). The error reference documents the key as a `?token=` query parameter for browser WebSockets, and the token guide passes access tokens as `?api_key=` on the STT socket, so 10 off (12 of 30). The terms (21 October 2026) say Smallest won't use user content or input to train or improve its services. The privacy policy (18 September 2026) lists improving the services with machine learning as a use of usage data and doesn't address uploaded audio or text either way (15 of 20). Zero data retention and the `x-expire-content` header are Enterprise only, or a $1,000 a month HIPAA add-on on pay as you go. Other plans keep content readable in logs and the dashboard, with no retention period published (5 of 15). Usage is tracked per key, request rows sit in a dashboard log viewer, and every response carries `x-request-id`. No audit log of key actions was found (10 of 15). security.txt is valid to 31 December 2026 and the site footer claims SOC 2, GDPR and HIPAA compliance, while the pricing page lists SOC 2 compliance only on Enterprise. No bug bounty, disclosure policy or public advisories found (10 of 20). Total 52.)

| Task | Rev AI Speech-to-Text API | Smallest.ai Pulse STT |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Transcribe a one-hour meeting | $0.20 to $119 | $0.18 to $0.30 |