AssemblyAI vs ElevenLabs
Both cover audio. ElevenLabs is the cheaper way in at $6/mo .
Entry cost
AssemblyAI —/mo
Speech API with speaker labels and audio intelligence.
Free tier: yes · Billing: usage
ElevenLabs $6/mo
The benchmark for synthetic voice and voice cloning.
Free tier: yes · Billing: usage
Plan by plan
| AssemblyAI | Price | ElevenLabs | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-recorded Speech-to-Text API - Universal-3.5 Pro | $0.21 | Free | Free |
| Pre-recorded Speech-to-Text API - Universal-2 | $0.15 | Starter | $6 |
| Realtime Speech-to-Text API - Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime | $0.45 | Creator | $22 |
| Realtime Speech-to-Text API - Universal-Streaming | $0.15 | Pro | $99 |
| Realtime Speech-to-Text API - Universal-Streaming Multilingual | $0.15 | Scale | $299 |
| Sync Speech-to-Text API - Sync API | $0.30 | Business | $990 |
| Voice Agent API | $4.50 | Enterprise | — |
Which to pick
AssemblyAI — Building transcript features without training models.
ElevenLabs — Voiceover, dubbing and anything that has to sound human.
AssemblyAI checked 2026-10-06 · ElevenLabs checked 2026-10-14