AssemblyAI Pricing 2026

AssemblyAI's Pay-As-You-Go plan is priced per hour of audio: $0.15 per hour for universal-2 and $0.21 per hour for universal-3-5-pro. Add-on features are priced separately and stack on top of base transcription. Enterprise pricing is custom-quoted, with no published number.

AssemblyAI offers a free tier with $50 in credits that covers up to 185 hours of pre-recorded transcription or 333 hours of streaming audio using the Universal model. No credit card is required to start. However, this is a one-time credit that does not refresh monthly -- once the $50 is exhausted, you move to Pay-As-You-Go pricing at $0.15/hour minimum. For long-term free usage, consider open-source alternatives like OpenAI Whisper (self-hosted) or Deepgram's $200 free credit with no expiration.

AssemblyAI is a speech-to-text and audio intelligence API platform for developers. It provides pre-trained AI models to transcribe audio and video files into text, supporting both batch processing and real-time streaming. Beyond basic transcription, AssemblyAI offers audio intelligence features like speaker diarization, entity detection, sentiment analysis, topic detection, summarization, and PII redaction. The platform is used by companies like Spotify, Eventbrite, and CallRail to power voice applications, automate meeting notes, analyze customer calls, and generate content from podcasts and videos.

AssemblyAI starts at $0.15/hour ($0.0025/min) vs Deepgram Nova-3 at $0.0077/min ($0.46/hr) on Pay-As-You-Go, making AssemblyAI 84% cheaper per hour at the base tier. AssemblyAI's $50 free credit covers ~185 hours, while Deepgram offers $200 in credits with no expiration. Deepgram excels at real-time streaming with lower latency (<300ms) and charges by the second for more precise billing. AssemblyAI offers more audio intelligence features built-in (summarization, chapters, key phrases) without separate add-ons. Choose AssemblyAI for batch processing, richer audio intelligence, and lower base costs; choose Deepgram for real-time applications, ultra-low latency, and more granular per-second billing.

AssemblyAI costs $0.15/hour ($0.0025/min) for Universal speech-to-text vs Rev AI's Reverb at $0.20/hour, making AssemblyAI 25% cheaper for comparable models. However, Rev AI offers Reverb Turbo at $0.10/hour (50% less than AssemblyAI) for faster processing when accuracy is less critical. Rev AI also provides human transcription at $1.99/min for mission-critical accuracy. AssemblyAI includes significantly more built-in audio intelligence features (entity detection, topic detection, auto chapters), while Rev AI focuses on core transcription with lightweight add-ons. Choose AssemblyAI for feature-rich audio intelligence and content generation; choose Rev AI for budget-conscious high-volume transcription or when human fallback is required.

AssemblyAI's base pricing ($0.15/hr for Universal) includes speech-to-text transcription, automatic punctuation, capitalization, and optional speaker diarization (+$0.02/hr). Audio intelligence add-ons are priced separately: speaker identification ($0.02/hr), entity detection ($0.08/hr), topic detection ($0.15/hr), summarization ($0.03/hr), sentiment analysis ($0.02/hr), auto chapters ($0.08/hr), key phrases ($0.01/hr), PII redaction ($0.08/hr), and content moderation ($0.15/hr). Real-time streaming costs $0.15/hr for connection time. Enterprise plans include custom models, dedicated infrastructure, priority support, and SLA guarantees with negotiated volume pricing.

Yes, AssemblyAI charges for the full duration of submitted audio files, including silence, music, and non-speech segments. If you upload a 60-minute file with 20 minutes of silence, you are billed for the full 60 minutes at $0.15/hour ($0.15 total). For real-time streaming, you are charged for the entire WebSocket connection time regardless of whether audio is actively being transcribed. To minimize costs, preprocess audio to remove long silences using tools like FFmpeg or leverage voice activity detection (VAD) before sending to AssemblyAI's API.

AssemblyAI operates on a usage-based billing model with no subscriptions or advance payments for Pay-As-You-Go customers, so there are no refunds -- you are billed only for audio processed. The $50 free credit is non-refundable and does not expire until fully used. Enterprise customers with prepaid annual commitments should negotiate refund terms directly in their contracts, as prepaid credits typically expire annually and are non-refundable. If you encounter a service issue or are overcharged due to a bug, contact support@assemblyai.com to request a credit adjustment.

No, AssemblyAI's free tier provides a one-time $50 credit that covers approximately 185 hours of Universal transcription. Once this credit is exhausted, you automatically move to Pay-As-You-Go pricing at $0.15/hour minimum with no free monthly refresh. For ongoing free usage, consider Deepgram's $200 credit with no expiration (lasts longer before requiring payment), OpenAI Whisper API at $0.006/min (lower cost), or self-hosted open-source Whisper models (free but requires GPU infrastructure). AssemblyAI is best suited for production applications where the $0.0025/min cost is justified by rich audio intelligence features.