Speech / TTS · Updated 2026-10-25
Deepgram — what it is actually for
Deepgram provides speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and voice agent APIs. Usage is billed per minute for speech-to-text and per 1,000 characters for text-to-speech, with a free starting credit.
Short answer: use Deepgram when you need call and meeting transcription. It is a free credit + usage-based api service from Deepgram; the official pricing source is linked below.
- Vendor
- Deepgram
- Category
- Speech / TTS
- Pricing model
- Free credit + usage-based API
- Free option
- Yes. New accounts receive a US$200 free credit with no expiration according to Deepgram.
What Deepgram is used for
- Call and meeting transcription
- Realtime captions and streaming speech-to-text
- Voice agents and text-to-speech
Source: official product page and official documentation.
Who Deepgram is for
- High-volume transcription
- Realtime voice and captioning
- Developers who want per-second billing
Source: official documentation.
Who it is not for
- Users who want a bundled consumer transcription app
- Teams that need only a free service at scale
Source: documented plans, limits, and deployment model on the official product page.
Pricing
- US$200 free credit, then pay-as-you-go with no minimum commitment.Source: deepgram.com
- Pre-recorded Nova-3 speech-to-text is listed from US$0.0043/minute for monolingual audio; streaming is listed at US$0.0077/minute regular, with promotional rates.Source: deepgram.com
- Text-to-speech is priced per 1,000 characters (for example, Aura-2 at US$0.030/1k characters). Growth and Enterprise plans offer prepaid credits and volume terms.Source: deepgram.com
Billing is per second with no rounding up to the minute. Multichannel audio is billed per channel.
Full pricing page: https://deepgram.com/pricing
Alternatives to Deepgram
- AssemblyAI — Speech-to-text, audio intelligence, and voice agent APIs with per-hour pricing.
- OpenAI Audio API — Speech-to-text and text-to-speech APIs billed by usage.
- Azure AI Speech — Enterprise speech-to-text, neural TTS, translation, and speaker recognition.
- ElevenLabs — Text-to-speech, voice cloning, dubbing, music, and conversational voice agents.
Official sources
Deepgram FAQ
Is Deepgram free?
New accounts receive a US$200 free credit. After that, usage is billed pay-as-you-go.
How is Deepgram billed?
Speech-to-text is billed per minute and text-to-speech per 1,000 characters. Billing is per second without rounding up to the minute.
Does Deepgram offer a voice agent API?
Yes. Deepgram lists a Voice Agent API alongside its speech-to-text and text-to-speech products.