How much does Deepgram Speech-to-Text cost per hour?

Deepgram’s Pay-As-You-Go pricing for our standard Nova model is approximately $0.46 per hour ($0.0077/min). For high-volume users on our Growth plan, the cost drops to roughly $0.39 per hour . This is significantly lower than major cloud providers, which often charge upwards of $1.44 per hour.

Does Deepgram charge for silence or round up audio time?

No. Deepgram uses true per-second billing . If your audio file is 14 seconds long, you pay for exactly 14 seconds. Many competitors round up to the nearest 15 seconds or full minute, which can inflate your actual invoice by 15-20%.

What is included in the $200 free credit?

Every new account receives $200 in free credit , which is equivalent to approximately 43,000 minutes (over 700 hours) of transcription using our Nova model. Unlike "free tiers" that expire after 12 months, this credit is available until you use it up, allowing you to prototype without time pressure.

How do you calculate costs for multichannel audio?

We bill based on the total duration of processed audio . If you process a 10-minute file with 2 channels (stereo), you are billed for 20 minutes of processing. This ensures you only pay for the exact amount of speech data analyzed.

What is the difference between Pay-As-You-Go and Growth plans?

Pay-As-You-Go requires no upfront commitment and bills monthly based on usage. The Growth plan requires a commitment (starting at $4k/year) but unlocks a ~20% discount on per-minute rates, higher concurrency limits, and priority support.

Are there extra fees for real-time streaming vs. pre-recorded audio?

No. Uniquely in the industry, Deepgram charges the same low rate for both real-time streaming and pre-recorded (batch) transcription. We do not charge a premium for the low-latency infrastructure required for streaming.

How does pricing work for the Voice Agent API?

The Voice Agent API is billed based on the duration of the conversation . It includes the orchestration of Speech-to-Text (listening), LLM processing (thinking), and Text-to-Speech (speaking). If you "Bring Your Own" LLM (e.g., GPT-4), you only pay Deepgram for the audio components and orchestration, often resulting in lower costs.

Do Audio Intelligence features cost extra?

Yes. Features like Summarization, Topic Detection, and Sentiment Analysis are billed per input unit (per hour or per 1,000 tokens) in addition to the transcription cost. However, because these run on our specialized small language models, they are highly cost-effective compared to running raw text through a generic LLM.

Is Text-to-Speech (Aura) billed by the minute or character?

Deepgram Aura TTS is billed by input character (e.g., $0.015 per 1,000 characters). This allows for precise cost control, as you are only charged for the text you actually convert to speech, regardless of how slowly or quickly the voice speaks.

Can I deploy Deepgram on-premise or in a private cloud?

Yes. For Enterprise customers with strict data sovereignty or security requirements (such as banking or healthcare), we offer self-hosted containers that you can deploy in your own VPC or on-premise hardware (requires NVIDIA GPUs).

What happens if I exceed my concurrency limit?

On the Pay-As-You-Go plan, requests exceeding your concurrency limit (e.g., 100 concurrent streams) may be queued or rejected. To avoid this, you can upgrade to a Growth or Enterprise plan, which offers custom concurrency limits to match your peak traffic needs.

Is Deepgram HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant?

Yes. Deepgram is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and HIPAA compliant . We can sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for Enterprise customers handling sensitive healthcare data.

Do you offer volume discounts for high-usage applications?

Yes. If your application processes millions of minutes per month, our Enterprise plan offers significant volume discounts, custom model training, and dedicated account management.

Auto-Load Functionality

For your convenience, we provide an auto-load function that automatically recharges your account when your credit balance falls below a certain threshold. By default, your account is set to reload with $100 when remaining credit is $10 . You can turn off auto-reload at any time through your account settings. It is the customer’s responsibility to manage their auto-load settings to avoid unwanted charges.

Managing Your Subscription

We encourage all customers to review their credit balance and auto-load settings regularly to ensure they align with your needs. By purchasing credits and using our services, you acknowledge that you are fully responsible for the integrity of your uploaded files and coding systems.

Refunds for Unused Credits

We offer refunds for unused credits that were purchased within the last 30 days . Refunds will only apply to credits that have not been used. Credits purchased more than 30 days ago are non-refundable , as they represent services that were available to you at the time of purchase.

Refund Request Process

To request a refund for unused credits purchased within the last 30 days, please complete this form . We will review your account and process any eligible refunds promptly. If you have any other questions please contact ConsoleBilling@deepgram.com .

Disclaimer for Incorrect Audio Files

Please note that Deepgram is not responsible for errors in your uploaded files due to issues in your recording or transcription systems, including but not limited to loops in the audio caused by coding or system errors on your end. If an incorrect or faulty file is uploaded, Deepgram’s system will process the file as received. Customers are still responsible for paying for all processed files, regardless of any errors resulting from their own system or coding. We strongly recommend reviewing your files and system before uploading them to avoid such issues. Deepgram provides the service of processing the audio files that are submitted and is not liable for customer errors.

Credit Transfer Policy

Credits purchased from Deepgram are tied to the specific account under which they were originally acquired. Purchased Credits may be transferred between accounts within the same organization upon request and subject to verification and approval. Promotional or Free Credits are non-transferable under all circumstances, including between accounts owned by the same organization. We reserve the right to decline transfer requests that appear to be an attempt to circumvent our credit usage policies or promotional terms. If additional credits are needed in a specific account, we recommend purchasing credits directly through that account’s billing profile.

Deepgram Pricing

Straightforward costs for projects at any scale.

Find the right plan with our clear, transparent, and flexible pricing. Whether you're just exploring or deploying at enterprise scale, our plans are built for innovation, not contract negotiation.

Pay As You Go

Free

$200 of credit

Then pay-as-you-go. No minimums. No expiration. No credit card required.

Sign Up Free

Access all endpoints in public models

Best For:

Developers & Startups

Usage & Scale (Concurrency):

Speech to Text:
- Up to 100 for the REST API
- Up to 150 for the WSS API
- Up to 5 for Deepgram Whisper Cloud
Text to Speech: Up to 45 for the REST API + WSS API
Voice Agent API: Up to 45 for the WSS API
Audio Intelligence: Up to 10 for the REST API

Support:

Channels: Community & Discord
SLAs: Standard Uptime

Growth

$4k+

/ year

Save up to 20%

With pre-paid credits for the year. Credits are redeemed against actual usage.

Get Started

Access all endpoints in public models

Best For:

Growing Applications

Usage & Scale (Concurrency):

Speech to Text:
- Up to 100 for the REST API
- Up to 225 for the WSS API
- Up to 5 for Deepgram Whisper Cloud
Text to Speech: Up to 60 for the REST API + WSS API
Voice Agent API: Up to 60 for the WSS API
Audio Intelligence: Up to 10 for the REST API

Support:

Channels: Community & Discord
SLAs: Standard Uptime

Enterprise

For businesses with large volumes, data or deployment requirements, or support needs.

Contact Sales

Speech to Text

Power your applications with world-class speech recognition APIs. Nova models support 45+ languages with advanced capabilities including Speaker Diarization (multi-speaker detection), Smart Formatting for readability, Keyterm Prompting, and Automatic Language Detection.

For detailed model, language, and feature availability, please refer to our Developer Documentation.

Model	Pay As You Go	Growth
Flux i Conversational speech recognition for real-time voice agents with built-in turn detection, natural interruption handling, and ultra-low latency.	$0.0077/min	$0.0065/min
Nova-3 (Monolingual) i Our highest performing model. Recommended for most use cases, especially audio with multiple languages, background noise, crosstalk and far field audio.	$0.0077/min	$0.0065/min
Nova-3 (Multilingual) i Our highest performing model. Recommended for most use cases, especially audio with multiple languages, background noise, crosstalk and far field audio.	$0.0092/min	$0.0078/min
Nova-1 & 2 i Recommended for use with non-English transcription.	$0.0058/min	$0.0047/min
Enhanced i Recommended for lower word error rates than Base, high accuracy timestamps, and use cases that require keyword boosting.	$0.0165/min	$0.0136/min
Base i Recommended for large transcription volumes and high accuracy timestamps.	$0.0145/min	$0.0105/min
Custom

Model	Pay As You Go
Flux i Conversational speech recognition for real-time voice agents with built-in turn detection, natural interruption handling, and ultra-low latency.	$0.0077/min
Nova-3 (Monolingual) i Our highest performing model. Recommended for most use cases, especially audio with multiple languages, background noise, crosstalk and far field audio.	$0.0077/min
Nova-3 (Multilingual) i Our highest performing model. Recommended for most use cases, especially audio with multiple languages, background noise, crosstalk and far field audio.	$0.0092/min
Nova-1 & 2 i Recommended for use with non-English transcription.	$0.0058/min
Enhanced i Recommended for lower word error rates than Base, high accuracy timestamps, and use cases that require keyword boosting.	$0.0165/min
Base i Recommended for large transcription volumes and high accuracy timestamps.	$0.0145/min
Custom

The total cost when using multichannel is the single-channel cost multiplied by the number of channels. Rates listed above opt in to the Model Improvement Program.

Speech-to-Text Add-ons

Enhance your transcripts with powerful AI understanding features.

Feature	Description	Pay As You Go	Growth
Redaction	Automatically identify and remove sensitive PII such as social security numbers, credit cards, and phone numbers.	$0.0020/min	$0.0017/min
Keyterm Prompting	Boost accuracy for specific domain-specific jargon, product names, or acronyms important to your use case.	$0.0013/min	$0.0012/min
Smart Formatting	Automatically format punctuation, casing, dates, and currency for readability.	Included	Included
Speaker Diarization	Detect multiple speakers and label who spoke when in the transcript.	$0.0020/min	$0.0017/min

Feature	Description
Redaction	Automatically identify and remove sensitive PII such as social security numbers, credit cards, and phone numbers.
Keyterm Prompting	Boost accuracy for specific domain-specific jargon, product names, or acronyms important to your use case.
Smart Formatting	Automatically format punctuation, casing, dates, and currency for readability.
Speaker Diarization	Detect multiple speakers and label who spoke when in the transcript.

Text to Speech

Generate natural, low-latency speech for your voice assistants and conversational AI applications.

Model	Pay As You Go	Growth
Aura-2	$0.030/1k characters	$0.027/1k characters
Aura-1	$0.0150/1k characters	$0.0135/1k characters

Model	Pay As You Go
Aura-2	$0.030/1k characters
Aura-1	$0.0150/1k characters

Rates listed above opt in to the Model Improvement Program.

Voice Agent API

Our Voice Agent API enables real-time conversational AI agents that seamlessly handle interruptions, take complex actions, and deliver natural, responsive customer interactions without delays or rigid turn-taking.

Tier	Pay As You Go	Growth
Standard	$0.0800/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.	$0.0700/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Standard - BYO TTS	$0.0600/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.	$0.0500/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Custom - BYO LLM	$0.0700/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.	$0.0600/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Custom - BYO LLM + TTS	$0.0500/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.	$0.0400/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Advanced	$0.1600/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.	$0.1500/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Advanced - BYO TTS	$0.1200/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.	$0.1100/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.

Tier	Pay As You Go
Standard	$0.0800/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Standard - BYO TTS	$0.0600/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Custom - BYO LLM	$0.0700/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Custom - BYO LLM + TTS	$0.0500/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Advanced	$0.1600/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.
Advanced - BYO TTS	$0.1200/min i calculated based on websocket connection time.

For detailed LLM tier information, please refer to our Developer Documentation.

Audio Intelligence

Analyze audio for insights. Extract actionable insights from conversational audio and text at scale.

Model	Pay As You Go	Growth
Summarization	$0.0003/1k input tokens - $0.0006/1k output tokens	$0.00024/1k input tokens - $0.00048/1k output tokens
Topic Detection
Sentiment Analysis
Intent Recognition

Topic Detection
Model	Pay As You Go
Summarization	$0.0003/1k input tokens - $0.0006/1k output tokens
Sentiment Analysis
Intent Recognition

Rates listed above opt in to the Model Improvement Program.

Security & Compliance

Deepgram is built for enterprise-grade trust, meeting the standards for data protection and privacy.

SOC 2 Type 1 & Type 2 Certified

Independently audited security controls and procedures to ensure your data is protected in the cloud.

HIPAA Compliant

We sign Business Associate Agreements (BAA) for Enterprise customers handling electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI).

GDPR Ready & EU Data Residency

Fully compliant with GDPR. We offer a dedicated EU endpoint to ensure data processing stays within the European Union (api.eu.deepgram.com).

CCPA Compliant

Adheres to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to secure privacy rights and control over personal information.

PCI Compliant

Maintains PCI compliance with yearly reviews for secure payment processing.

Deepgram Pricing FAQ

Managing your Deepgram Pay-As-You-Go credits: auto-load settings, refunds, and transfers

At Deepgram, we offer a flexible pay-as-you-go service where customers can purchase credits for usage on our platform. Our goal is to provide transparency and flexibility, while ensuring that you have full control over your account and payments.