AssemblyAI
AssemblyAI: A developer-focused transcription API with multilingual coverage, realtime audio, and usage-based pricing. Ranked #7 of 46 in Transcription Software by our editors (8.4/10); pricing: Paid; best for developers building speech products.
At a glance
- Editor score8.4 / 10
- PricingPaid
- Best forDevelopers building speech products
- Free planNo
- Paid from$0.15/unit usage-based
- Languages supported99 languages
- Facts checked20 Sep 2026
Where it wins
- Free plan includes up to 185 prerecorded hours and 333 streaming hours
- Supports 99 prerecorded transcription languages with Universal-2
- Offers diarization, timestamps, subtitles, and speech-understanding models
Where it doesn't
- API-only access may not suit teams seeking a ready-made transcription app
- Pay-as-you-go costs scale with audio usage at $0.15 per hour
- Self-hosted deployment options are limited to eligible workloads
Our verdict on AssemblyAI
AssemblyAI provides APIs for turning prerecorded and streaming audio into text and structured speech data. It is aimed at developers and organizations building voice applications, including meeting transcription, call analytics, AI notetakers, medical transcription, dictation, and voice agents. The platform is API-only and supports REST authentication with API keys, while realtime transcription runs over WebSockets. Its feature set covers multilingual transcription, speaker diarization, word-level timestamps, SRT and VTT subtitle export, language detection, and speech understanding for translation, sentiment, entities, and key phrases.
Pricing is usage-based rather than subscription-based. The Free plan includes up to 185 hours of prerecorded audio transcription and up to 333 hours of streaming audio transcription, along with developer documentation and community support. The Pay as you go plan costs $0.15 per hour and adds unlimited access to speech-to-text, speech understanding, and LLM Gateway, plus scalable concurrency and customizable rate limits. Self-hosted deployment options are listed for eligible workloads. This structure fits teams that want to start without a subscription commitment, but organizations should account for costs increasing with audio volume.
AssemblyAI also fits a broad developer ecosystem. Listed integrations include LiveKit, Pipecat, Zapier, Make, n8n, Postman, Recall.ai, Zoom RTMS, Twilio, Amazon Connect, Genesys Cloud, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, Microsoft Power Automate, and Semantic Kernel. Choose it when your product needs transcription alongside diarization, subtitles, timestamps, multilingual coverage, or speech analysis. Teams looking for a non-technical desktop application, or a fixed monthly plan instead of hourly billing, should consider an alternative with that model.
Your product? Our editors can test AssemblyAI in depth and publish a review, labelled as paid · from $149/mo →
AssemblyAI pricing
All 5 AssemblyAI plans and prices →
AssemblyAI fact sheet
| Free plan | No |
|---|---|
| Paid from | $0.15/unit usage-based |
| Languages supported | 99 languages |
| Included minutes | Not verified |
| Speaker identification | Yes |
| Timestamp support | Yes |
| Export formats | SRT, VTT |
| API access | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud, Self-hosted |
| Platforms | Web |
| Compliance & security | SOC 2 |
| Support | Email, Live chat, Community, Docs |
| Built for | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate) |
| Integrations | 20 integrations: Zapier, Make, n8n, Postman, Power Automate, Bubble … See all → |
| Pricing | Paid (source) |
| Website | assemblyai.com |
| Facts checked | 20 Sep 2026 |
AssemblyAI integrations
AssemblyAI lists 20 integrations on its own site.
- Zapier
- Make
- n8n
- Postman
- Power Automate
- Bubble
- Pipedream
- LangChain
- Semantic Kernel
- Haystack
- Cloudflare
- Relay.app
- Twilio
- Telnyx
- Amazon Connect
- Genesys Cloud
- Recall.ai
- Zoom RTMS
- LiveKit
- Pipecat
See all AssemblyAI integrations →
Alternatives to AssemblyAI
- Amazon TranscribeA low-cost AWS transcription service with broad workflow and analytics features.9.3
- Google Cloud Speech-to-TextA flexible speech API with strong transcription features and usage-based pricing.9.2
- WhisperA flexible free transcription engine for developers who can work with code.9.1
See all AssemblyAI alternatives →
AssemblyAI vs the competition
- AssemblyAI vs Amazon Transcribe
- AssemblyAI vs Google Cloud Speech-to-Text
- AssemblyAI vs Whisper
- AssemblyAI vs Express Scribe
- AssemblyAI vs IBM Watson Speech to Text
- AssemblyAI vs Happy Scribe
Compare AssemblyAI with any tool side by side →
Also Ranked In
AssemblyAI is ranked in 6 of our directories.
Used AssemblyAI? Be the first to review it
The editor score above is our own research. What this page doesn't have yet is a reader's view — what you used AssemblyAI for, what worked and what didn't. No stars are seeded and no review is paid for; an editor reads every one before it appears.
Write a reviewTwo minutes · verified accounts only · read by an editor before it appears
Featured on iTechGuides
AssemblyAI is listed in our Transcription Software directory. Add the badge to your site — it links back to this page.
<a href="https://www.itechguides.com/products/assemblyai/"><img src="https://www.itechguides.com/best/badge/assemblyai.svg" alt="Featured on iTechGuides" width="230" height="46"></a>
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.
Last updated · How we research and update