whisper api · cheaper · drop-in
$0.20/hr vs OpenAI's $0.36/hr.
Same Whisper quality. Same OpenAI-compatible API. 44% cheaper. No rewrite — just change the base_url.
| Provider | $ / hr | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SpeakEasycheapest | $0.20 | Whisper-quality, OpenAI-compatible API, hours-based billing |
| OpenAI Whisper API | $0.36 | $0.006/min — the price floor we beat |
| Deepgram Nova | $0.43 | $0.0072/min on pay-as-you-go |
| AssemblyAI | $0.37 | $0.00062/sec on the universal model |
| Google Cloud Speech | $0.96 | $0.016/min standard model |
Public list prices on each provider's pricing page as of April 2026. Pay-as-you-go tier where available.
// try it on a real file
Drop something below — meeting recording, voice memo, podcast clip. See the transcript and the actual API cost on the same screen.
One-line swap from OpenAI
cURL:
curl https://www.tryspeakeasy.io/api/v1/audio/transcriptions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk-se-YOUR_KEY_HERE" \
-F file=@audio.mp3 \
-F model=whisper-1
Node:
import OpenAI from "openai";
import fs from "node:fs";
const client = new OpenAI({
apiKey: "sk-se-YOUR_KEY_HERE",
baseURL: "https://www.tryspeakeasy.io/api/v1",
});
const transcript = await client.audio.transcriptions.create({
file: fs.createReadStream("audio.mp3"),
model: "whisper-1",
});
console.log(transcript.text);
Python user? Same thing in Python →
// the actual math
10,000 hours of audio at OpenAI = $3,600.
10,000 hours of audio at SpeakEasy = $2,000.
That's $1,600/month back in your runway. Same accuracy, same SDK, same JSON response.
FAQ
Is this actually a drop-in OpenAI Whisper replacement?+
Yes. Same endpoint shape (/audio/transcriptions), same request fields, same response JSON. If you point the OpenAI SDK at https://www.tryspeakeasy.io/api/v1 your existing code keeps working — no rewrite, no new SDK.
How is it 44% cheaper without losing quality?+
Same Whisper model family, leaner deployment. OpenAI's $0.36/hr ($0.006/min list price) bakes in a heavy margin and brand premium on top of the inference cost. We run the same checkpoint on commodity GPUs with aggressive batching, charge $0.20/hr, and still run a sustainable margin. There's no quality trade-off because there's no model substitution — you're getting the same weights, just billed differently.
What about Deepgram or AssemblyAI?+
Both are great products but priced for enterprise — Deepgram Nova at ~$0.43/hr, AssemblyAI at ~$0.37/hr. Their billing is also opaque (per-second tiers, feature add-ons). SpeakEasy is hours-based and predictable. If you need diarization or real-time streaming, look at Deepgram. If you need cheap, accurate transcription with one API call, this is the answer.
Are there rate limits I should worry about?+
The free playground above is rate-limited (5 transcriptions/day/IP) to stop abuse. The paid API has generous per-account limits — multi-thousand RPM on the entry plan. If you hit them, we lift them on request.
What languages does it handle?+
Whisper supports 99 languages out of the box. Our deployment passes that through unchanged — set language='auto' to detect, or hint a specific language code (e.g. 'en', 'de', 'es') to skip detection and shave a few hundred ms.
What's the catch?+
Honestly, none. We don't do streaming yet (working on it), we don't do speaker diarization (also coming), and we don't do TTS on the same endpoint (separate /audio/speech endpoint exists). For batch transcription of recorded audio — meetings, podcasts, voice notes — there's no catch. It's just cheaper.