If you want to build everything from scratch, Gladia is a capable transcription choice. If you want transcription APIs that ship today plus a player, library, and embeddable recorder you don’t have to build, Speak AI is the faster path. You get production-ready APIs with real-time output and speaker diarization, plus the entire UI stack that teams need to turn audio into insights.
Why teams evaluating Gladia are also looking at Speak AI
Gladia offers solid transcription APIs with respectable latency and straightforward pricing. For teams building a pure transcription pipeline, Gladia works. But most teams don’t stop at transcription. They need to share recordings with stakeholders, let team members search and reference them later, embed recording capabilities into their workflows, and integrate transcripts with analysis tools. That’s where a pure transcription API hits the ceiling. Speak AI starts where Gladia’s API ends.
What Speak AI gives you on top of Gladia-class APIs
Beyond the core API surface, Speak AI ships with the entire production UI stack you’d otherwise need to build yourself:
- Shareable media player. Embed or link recordings instantly, with chapters and speaker labels.
- Shareable media library. Let team members search, browse, and filter recordings by speaker, date, or custom tags.
- Embeddable recorder. Drop it into your product or website; users record directly without leaving your context.
- ChatGPT integration. Summarize or analyze transcripts without leaving Speak AI.
- MCP integration. Wire Speak AI into Claude and other agents for cross-tool workflows.
- CLI plus cloud storage integrations. Push recordings to Google Drive, Dropbox, S3 directly from the API.
Gladia transcription APIs vs. Speak AI
Gladia delivers fast transcription with reliable latency and developer-friendly pricing. The API is straightforward to integrate. The limitation isn’t transcription speed or cost; it’s everything downstream. You get transcripts with speaker boundaries; you don’t get a way for non-technical users to access recordings, search them, or embed them into products. Speak AI’s API includes all that. Same transcription speed and comparable language support, same diarization output, but paired with a ready-to-use player, library, and recorder that handle discovery and collaboration.
Recording, speaker diarization, and storage
Speak AI handles all three natively. The API auto-detects speaker boundaries during transcription, labels them by order of first appearance, and stores recorded audio plus transcripts in encrypted storage. You can stream output in real time or fetch it after completion. All recordings are encrypted at rest, versioned, and available for retrieval via API key or the web player.
Integrations: ChatGPT, MCP, CLI, and cloud storage
Use ChatGPT to generate summaries or themes directly from transcripts without exporting. Connect via MCP to wire Speak AI data into Claude workflows. The CLI lets you upload, batch-process, or trigger exports from your build pipeline. Cloud storage integrations automatically back up recordings to your own Google Drive or S3 bucket, giving you compliance and redundancy without manual steps.
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Pricing and how to migrate from Gladia
Speak AI charges a transparent per-hour rate based on recording duration. There’s no platform fee and no per-user seats. If you’re using Gladia now, migration is simple: export your existing recordings and transcripts, import to Speak via our API or web importer, and start using our player and library for all new recordings. Most teams see cost parity or savings because Speak AI bundles the entire workflow. For current pricing and a migration estimate, see our API documentation and pricing page.
When Speak AI is the better fit
Choose Speak AI if:
- You need your recording workflow to ship in weeks, not months.
- Your users expect a player and library UI, not just raw transcripts.
- You want to embed a recorder into your product without building it yourself.
- Cost transparency matters more than stitching together separate point solutions.
- You need real-time output for live transcription use cases.
- Your team uses ChatGPT or Claude and wants to analyze recordings without exporting.
Frequently asked questions
Can I migrate my Gladia transcripts? Yes. Export from Gladia, import via our API or web importer, and they’ll be searchable in our library immediately.
What’s the latency on Speak AI transcription? Real-time streaming for live audio; seconds-to-low-minutes for file uploads depending on size and language complexity. Comparable to Gladia for most use cases.
How many languages do you support? Broad language coverage across transcription and analysis. See our API documentation for the current list.
Can I embed the Speak AI recorder into my own app? Yes. The recorder is a drop-in iframe or native component. You control branding, prompts, and post-recording flows.
Does Speak AI auto-detect speakers during transcription? Yes. Speaker diarization is included; labels are returned with timestamps and confidence scores.
How does pricing scale? Per-hour of recording, no seats, no platform fees. Bulk commitments available for large teams.