# Rev AI Speech-to-Text API vs Speechmatics Speech-to-Text

> Speechmatics Speech-to-Text has a score of 67.3 (B) against Rev AI Speech-to-Text API's 58 (C). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 45 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- 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: 2026-10-04

Speechmatics Speech-to-Text has a score of 67.3 (B) against Rev AI Speech-to-Text API's 58 (C). Both do speech stt. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 45 points.

- Rev AI Speech-to-Text API: grade C, 58/100, rank #285 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rev-ai-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rev-ai-stt.json
- Speechmatics Speech-to-Text: grade B, 67.3/100, rank #145 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/speechmatics-stt.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/speechmatics-stt.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Rev AI Speech-to-Text API for reliability (+5), schema & documentation (+15).

Pick Speechmatics Speech-to-Text for agent ergonomics (+8), security & auth (+25), payments & pricing (+20), maintenance & community (+45), transparency & trust (+7).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Rev AI Speech-to-Text API | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 70 | Rev AI Speech-to-Text API +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 65 | Rev AI Speech-to-Text API +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 80 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 65 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 30 | 75 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +45 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 78 | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58 · C** | **67.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Rev AI Speech-to-Text API | Speechmatics Speech-to-Text |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Rev | Speechmatics |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.rev.ai/speechtotext/v1` | `https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs) | MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2024-11-27 | 2026-09-22 |
| Popularity | 36 stars, 16k npm/wk, 130k PyPI/wk | 20 stars, 58k npm/wk, 48k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Rev AI Speech-to-Text API.** Reverb English at $0.20 an hour, foreign languages at $0.30. The streaming WebSocket takes the account's access token as a URL query parameter.

**Speechmatics Speech-to-Text.** Training is opt-in and real-time audio is not stored. Enhanced transcription costs $0.40 to $0.43 an hour.

## Before you call either

### Rev AI Speech-to-Text API

1. Keep streaming URLs out of logs. They carry `access_token`
2. Send `source_config: {"url": ...}`, not `media_url`, even though the published SDKs still use `media_url`
3. Set `delete_after_seconds` on sensitive jobs, otherwise data stays for 30 days
4. Use `notification_config` webhooks rather than polling job status
5. Don't build on `low_cost` or `fusion`. Both are deprecated

### Speechmatics Speech-to-Text

1. Set `"model": "enhanced"` explicitly. The default is `standard`
2. Use notifications instead of polling. Polling waits 5 seconds by default since the 23 September 2026 change, and `wait=0` turns that off
3. Fetch batch transcripts within 7 days. After that the API returns 404 `expired`
4. Pass a `fetch_data` URL for files over 1 GB
5. Use `/v2/agent` with `linden-1` for live agents instead of the plain realtime path

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