AssemblyAI
Multilingual Speech-to-Text API with near-human accuracy
Watch AssemblyAI in Action
Key Takeaways
- What it is
- Multilingual Speech-to-Text API with near-human accuracy
- Pricing
- Freemium
- Best for
- Real-time, accurate speech-to-text conversion
- Proficiency in various languages and dialects
- Advanced features like speaker diarisation and profanity filtering
- Rating
- 4.2/5
What is AssemblyAI?
Assembly AI is a cutting-edge tool that revolutionizes the field of speech recognition and analysis with its state-of-the-art Speech AI models. Designed for developers and businesses, it simplifies transcribing and understanding voice data across various applications, such as calls, virtual meetings, and podcasts. Key features include highly accurate speech-to-text conversion, speaker detection, sentiment analysis, and PII redaction, making Assembly AI a potent tool for harnessing voice data's potential.
Assembly AI stands out with its comprehensive suite of Speech AI models, which combine accuracy with ease of integration. Its commitment to continuous model improvement through active AI research ensures that it remains at the forefront of speech recognition and analysis technology.
Assembly AI excels in providing advanced speech recognition and analysis capabilities, making it an indispensable tool for businesses and developers focused on leveraging voice data. Its transcription accuracy, coupled with robust features like sentiment analysis and PII redaction, offers significant advantages in the Speech AI technology realm. With continuous improvements and a focus on ease of use, Assembly AI is ideally positioned to meet the evolving needs of its diverse user base.
Who is Using AssemblyAI?
Developers looking to integrate speech recognition in applications
Developers can leverage AssemblyAI to incorporate speech recognition into their applications.
Companies needing efficient transcription of calls or meetings
Companies benefit from AssemblyAI's efficient transcription services for calls and meetings.
Media professionals requiring accurate captioning and moderation
Media professionals rely on AssemblyAI for accurate captioning and content moderation.
Researchers in need of detailed, reliable transcription
Researchers find AssemblyAI useful for precise and reliable transcription.
Key Features
Rating Breakdown
Pricing Plans
Free
Free
- No credit card required
- Up to 185 hours of pre-recorded transcription
- Up to 333 hours of streaming transcription
- Up to 5 new streaming connections per minute
Pay as you go
- No minimum commitments, upfront fees, or contracts
- Monthly billing based on actual usage
- Universal-2 speech-to-text at $0.15/hr
- Universal-3.5 Pro speech-to-text at $0.21/hr
- Universal-Streaming at $0.15/hr
- Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime at $0.45/hr
- Unlimited automatic-scaling streaming concurrency
- LLM Gateway priced per input and output token
Custom
- Custom rate limits
- Enhanced concurrency
- Enterprise-grade flexibility
- Volume discounts
- Dedicated technical support
- Customized SLAs and SLOs
- BAA for HIPAA
- EU Data Residency compliance
- Self-hosted deployments
- Custom voices for branded voice agents
Which AssemblyAI plan should you pick?
Start with Free to test transcription and Speech Understanding; upgrade to Pay as you go for higher concurrency, LLM Gateway, and production-scale usage.
Free
Good for developers testing transcription, streaming, Speech Understanding, and Guardrails within the included $50 credit.
Pay as you go
Good for production applications needing LLM Gateway, higher concurrency, scalable rate limits, and usage-based billing.
Custom
Good for organizations needing custom rate limits, enhanced concurrency, dedicated support, compliance options, or self-hosted deployment.
AssemblyAI Use Cases
Meeting notetaker
Transcribe meetings, identify speakers, detect language, and analyze the transcript with an LLM.
Outcome: Creates structured meeting notes and summaries.
Sales call intelligence
Combine transcription, speaker identification, sentiment analysis, and LLM analysis for sales calls.
Outcome: Supports coaching, quality assurance, and revenue-team insights.
Medical scribe
Transcribe clinical conversations with speaker labels, Medical Mode, entity detection, and LLM analysis.
Outcome: Produces clinical documentation such as SOAP notes.
Content repurposing
Transcribe podcasts or webinars, extract key phrases, and send the transcript to an LLM.
Outcome: Creates material for marketing and multi-format content workflows.
Real-time live captioner
Use Streaming Speech-to-Text with keyterms prompting for live audio.
Outcome: Provides real-time captions for accessibility and live events.
Workflow Ideas with AssemblyAI
Google Drive audio-to-transcript workflow
- 1Watch a Google Drive folder for new audio files
- 2Upload and submit each file for AssemblyAI transcription
- 3Process speaker-labeled output and save a text transcript to Google Drive
Automated Zapier transcription
- 1Provide an audio or video URL to the AssemblyAI Zapier action
- 2Wait for the transcript to complete
- 3Send transcript, subtitles, sentences, or paragraphs to subsequent Zapier steps
Power Automate audio analysis
- 1Create a Power Automate flow and add an AssemblyAI action
- 2Upload or provide the URL of an audio file
- 3Transcribe and analyze the output, then connect it to other services in the flow
How AssemblyAI fits into your stack
Extensive Cloud and Platform Integration
Works seamlessly with major platforms like AWS and Cloudflare, enhancing its deployment capabilities.
Developer Tools and APIs
Integrates with developer tools like Retool, Rivet, and Twilio, broadening its application in tech ecosystems.
Automation and Workflow
Connects with automation platforms like Make and Pipedream, facilitating sophisticated workflow automations.
AI and Analysis Tools
Links with AI-focused tools such as Haystack, LangChain, LlamaIndex, and Semantic Kernel, enriching AI-driven analytics.
Business Applications
Compatible with Bubble for no-code development and Zapier for easy workflow integrations.
Pros
- +Perfect for crafting AI voice applications: AssemblyAI provides deep learning models rich in voice-centric data.
- +Capable of handling various media types and file conversions: It excels in processing different media types and offers seamless file conversions.
- +High accuracy in noisy environments: AssemblyAI maintains high accuracy even in noisy environments.
- +Ensures data security with SOC 2 Type 2 compliance: It prioritizes data security and complies with SOC 2 Type 2 standards.
Cons
- −Primarily accessible through an API, it necessitates coding skills: AssemblyAI is accessed mainly through an API, which may require coding skills.
- −Not the most beginner-friendly option: There may be better choices for beginners due to its learning curve.
Limitations & when to consider alternatives
Known limitations
- LLM Gateway is unavailable on the free tier. Free accounts can use transcription, streaming, Speech Understanding, and Guardrails, but must upgrade for LLM Gateway.
- Audio URLs must be directly accessible. The submitted URL must point directly to an audio or video file and remain valid while AssemblyAI downloads it.
- Pre-recorded uploads have size and duration limits. AssemblyAI’s documented integration guidance lists a maximum upload size of 2.2 GB, with transcription requests limited to 5 GB or 10 hours.
- Free accounts have concurrency limits. Free accounts support up to five concurrent pre-recorded transcriptions and five new streaming sessions per minute.
- Usage is pay-as-you-go. AssemblyAI does not offer unlimited usage plans or monthly subscriptions; charges are based on processed audio or LLM tokens.
Look elsewhere when
- You need a native mobile app.
- You need image understanding.
- You need user-managed fine-tuning of speech models.
How to Use AssemblyAI
- 1
AssemblyAI - Build AI applications with spoken data
Who is AssemblyAI For?
Conversational intelligence teams
Use transcription, speaker identification, sentiment, and summaries for meetings, revenue intelligence, and customer insights.
Voice-agent developers
Build real-time voice agents using streaming transcription, LLM Gateway, and voice-agent infrastructure.
Contact centers
Capture and analyze large volumes of customer conversations to improve agent performance and customer experiences.
Healthcare organizations
Use Medical Mode, entity detection, transcription, and summaries for clinical documentation and post-visit workflows.
Content and marketing teams
Transcribe podcasts, webinars, and other media, then repurpose the content with key phrases and LLM analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sign up for free?
Yes. The free tier provides $50 in credits for pre-recorded transcription, streaming, Speech Understanding, and Guardrails. LLM Gateway is not included in the free tier.
How does pricing work?
AssemblyAI uses pay-as-you-go pricing based on audio duration, streaming-session duration, or LLM token usage. There are no monthly subscriptions or unlimited usage plans.
What audio URLs can I use?
Audio URLs must be directly accessible by AssemblyAI’s servers and point directly to an audio or video file. Files can also be uploaded through the upload endpoint.
What products does AssemblyAI provide?
The platform provides pre-recorded Speech-to-Text, Streaming Speech-to-Text, Voice Agents, Speech Understanding, Guardrails, and LLM Gateway.
Can AssemblyAI translate transcripts?
Yes. Translation can be performed during transcription or as a separate Speech Understanding request, with support for more than 20 target languages.
Community reviews
2 reviews from people who use AssemblyAI.
Sign in to leave a review for AssemblyAI.
Thibault BM
Noah Tui
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