Compare speech-to-text models
- Overall WER2.21%3.02%
- Pipecat WER1.90%2.54%
- Ocular WER2.78%3.92%
- TTFT P50730ms1.20s
- TTFS P50123ms38ms
- Measures won4 of 51 of 5
- WER · Word error rate
- Share of words the model got wrong: replaced, missing or added. Lower is better.
- Pipecat Dataset
- 1,000 short public clips from Pipecat's STT benchmark dataset.
- Ocular Dataset
- 8 recordings from 4 real phone conversations, licensed from Ocular.
- TTFT · Time to first text
- How long after the audio starts streaming until the first words appear.
- TTFS · Final-text delay
- How long after the caller stops until the full transcript arrives. A voice agent waits for this before it replies.
Any two of the 19 models, head to head on accuracy and speed, measured the same way.
Last updated Methodology by Dileep Chagam
By provider
The best model from each provider, metric by metric. For the wider field, see our pick of the best voice AI APIs for real-time audio.
Every comparison
Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Reson8
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Cartesia Ink 2
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Google Chirp 3
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Speechmatics Linden
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Google Chirp 2
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Smallest Pulse
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Deepgram Flux English
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Inworld STT-1
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Gradium
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
Gradium
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs GPT-4o Transcribe
GPT-4o Transcribe
- vs Fish Audio Transcribe Stream 1
- vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe
- vs Reson8
- vs Cartesia Ink 2
- vs GPT Realtime Whisper
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.6 Pro
- vs AssemblyAI Universal 3.5 Pro
- vs Google Chirp 3
- vs Speechmatics Linden
- vs Google Chirp 2
- vs Soniox STT-RT v5
- vs Smallest Pulse
- vs GPT-4o Mini Transcribe
- vs Deepgram Nova-3
- vs Deepgram Flux English
- vs Deepgram Flux Multilingual
- vs Inworld STT-1
- vs Gradium
Speech-to-text model comparison FAQ
How do I compare speech-to-text models and APIs?
Choose any two models to compare word error rate, time to first text, and final-text delay from the same recordings and test pipeline. Lower values are better for every displayed metric.
Which speech-to-text model is the most accurate?
Accuracy depends on the audio and dataset. Use the Pipecat and Ocular word error rates separately, because a model can rank differently on clean clips and real conversations.
Can I compare Deepgram with AssemblyAI?
Yes. Select the tested Deepgram and AssemblyAI models to compare accuracy and streaming latency under the same conditions, including direct model-version comparisons.
What matters besides word error rate?
Voice agents also depend on how quickly partial text arrives, how soon the final transcript is available after the speaker stops, whether text streams during speech, and whether the provider returns usable output consistently.
Test your voice agent the same way.
Cekura runs these simulated calls on your agent and scores every one.