# IBM Watson Speech to Text (slim)

> IBM Watson Speech to Text transcribes audio over synchronous and asynchronous HTTP and a WebSocket interface on IBM Cloud, with large speech models, next-generation models, custom language and acoustic models, speaker labels and language identification.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-stt.md (~6,750 tokens) · this version ~1,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-stt.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-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 · pricing https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-stt#pricing · reviews https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-stt#reviews
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

**C · 54.5/100 · rank #904 of 1486 · #18 in Speech-to-text · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: Watson STT covers sync, async and WebSocket transcription in ten locations, with custom models, $0.02 a minute on Plus and 500 free minutes. There is no machine-readable spec or readable status history, requests are logged for improvement unless opted out, the WebSocket token goes in the URL, and the last release note is from June 2026.

## Facts

- Kind: Model API · vendor: IBM · category: Speech-to-text · legal entity: International Business Machines Corporation · provenance 94/100
- Local only (HTTP, websocket): pypi `ibm-watson`, npm `ibm-watson`
- Auth: API key · pricing: Freemium · x402: no · licence: unknown
- Benchmark probes: not run yet, so Performance is pending
- Vendor status page: not read, no machine-readable status found (2026-11-07 04:47 UTC)
- Surface listed: The managed Speech to Text service on IBM Cloud, read from the API reference at cloud.ibm.com/apidocs, the release notes, the ibm-cloud-docs/speech-to-text documentation repository, IBM's security.txt and the PyPI and npm package feeds on 6 November 2026. No IBM Cloud account was used and no request was sent
- Models: Large speech models (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese and others), next-generation Multimedia and Telephony models, and custom language and acoustic models on paid plans
- Options: Interim results, low latency mode, speaker labels, smart formatting, keyword spotting, word alternatives, speech activity detection, speech begin events, language identification and transcript enrichment
- Locations: Dallas, Washington DC, Frankfurt, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Madrid, Toronto and São Paulo, with HIPAA readiness on Premium in Dallas and Washington
- Plans: Lite (free 500 minutes a month, no customisation), Plus (multi-tenant, logical separation) and Premium (single-tenant, dedicated storage and keys)
- Also offered: IBM Watson Speech Services Cartridge for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, self-hosted, with its own release notes
- Prices: Plus plan, first 999,999 minutes a month $0.02 per minute of audio; Plus plan, from 1,000,000 minutes a month $0.01 per minute of audio

- Scores: Reliability 40, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 55, Agent ergonomics 66, Security & auth 68, Payments & pricing 40, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 33, Transparency & trust 80 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, IBM Cloud has a status page at cloud.ibm.com/status, but it is drawn by script and showed no components or history to our reader, read as ge… · Schema & documentation, No public OpenAPI or other machine-readable definition was found (0). · Agent ergonomics, API reading of the checklist. · Security & auth, Model reading of the checklist, with training and retention in place of the least-privilege and injection lines. · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, Read as a model. · Transparency & trust, Closed service under the IBM Cloud terms (15).
- Sources: 9, open questions: 3, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: speech.stt, speech.streaming, speech.batch, speech.diarisation, speech.languages
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ibm-watson-stt.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/ibm-watson-stt.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ibm-watson-stt from a page on ibm.com or one of its subdomains, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.
- Support: https://github.com/ibm-granite/granite-guardian/issues; https://huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-guardian-4.1-8b/discussions; more in the full twin

## Before you call it

1. Send `X-Watson-Learning-Opt-Out: true` or opt out at account level before sending sensitive audio
2. Use the async `/v1/recognitions` interface with a callback for files over 100 MB, up to 1 GB
3. Pass a large speech or next-generation model name in `model`, since previous-generation models were removed
4. Tag requests with `X-Watson-Metadata: customer_id=...` so the data can be deleted later
5. Keep within 100 concurrent requests on Plus across HTTP and WebSocket

## Connect

```bash
pip install ibm-watson
```

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Azure AI Speech speech-to-text | BB | 75.1 | speech.stt, speech.streaming, speech.batch, speech.diarisation, speech.languages | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-speech-to-text.min.md |
| OpenAI Speech to Text | BB | 75 | speech.stt, speech.streaming, speech.batch, speech.diarisation, speech.languages | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-speech-to-text.min.md |
| Deepgram Speech-to-Text (Nova-3, Flux) | BB | 74.4 | speech.stt, speech.streaming, speech.batch, speech.diarisation, speech.languages | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepgram-stt.min.md |
| Amazon Transcribe | BB | 73.6 | speech.stt, speech.streaming, speech.batch, speech.diarisation, speech.languages | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-transcribe.min.md |
| ElevenLabs Scribe Speech to Text API | BB | 73 | speech.stt, speech.streaming, speech.batch, speech.diarisation, speech.languages | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elevenlabs-scribe.min.md |


## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)