ElevenLabs alternative for speech to text and text to speech
An hour of transcription for $0.05, subtitles included, in ElevenLabs' own API shape. No account, no plan, failed calls free.
ElevenLabs and Glyphcall Voice side by side
| ElevenLabs | Glyphcall Voice | |
|---|---|---|
| Speech to text, one hour | $0.20 per hour (Scribe v2/v3) | $0.05 per file up to 60 minutes (4x less) |
| Meeting summary with action items | Not on its API price page | $0.05 per recording: transcript, summary, key points, action items |
| Text to speech, per 1,000 characters | $0.04 per 1,000 characters (Flash/Turbo); $0.08 (Multilingual v2, v3) | $0.02 (Aura-1, English) or $0.04 (Aura-2, English and Spanish) |
| Account before the first call | Yes | No: card credits from $1 give a key, or an agent pays per call in USDC (x402, MPP) |
| Same API shape | Its own | POST /v1/text-to-speech/{voice_id} and /v1/speech-to-text in ElevenLabs' shape; the xi-api-key header works |
| Subtitles | Scribe returns timestamps | SRT or VTT in the answer (subtitles=srt) |
ElevenLabs figures from its API pricing page, read on 14 November 2026.
When ElevenLabs is the better choice
- The most natural voices, a large voice library and voice cloning
- Speech in 70+ languages (ours: English, and Spanish on Aura-2)
- Dubbing, music and realtime voice agents
- Speaker labels (diarization) in transcripts
Switch with one line
curl -X POST "https://tools.funwords.eu/v1/speech-to-text" \
-H "xi-api-key: $API_KEY" \
-F "file=@meeting.mp3" -F "model_id=scribe_v1"Text to speech: POST https://tools.funwords.eu/v1/text-to-speech/{voice_id} with {"text": "…"} returns MP3 bytes, as ElevenLabs does.
Speech to text prices across services
| Service | Model | Price as listed | One hour of audio | To start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyphcall Voice | Whisper large-v3-turbo | $0.05 per file up to 60 minutes; $0.01 per file up to 5 MB | $0.05 | No account: card credits from $1, or an agent pays per call in USDC |
| AssemblyAI | Universal-2 | $0.15 per hour | $0.15 | Account; $50 free credit, no card |
| OpenAI | gpt-4o-mini-transcribe | $0.003 per minute | $0.18 | Account and API key; No free API credit stated |
| ElevenLabs | Scribe v2 / v3 | $0.20 per hour | $0.2 | Account; Sign-up; no free allowance stated on the API price page |
| AssemblyAI | Universal-3.5 Pro | $0.21 per hour | $0.21 | Account; $50 free credit, no card |
| Deepgram | Nova-3 (one language) | $0.0043 per minute | $0.258 | Account; $200 free credit, no card |
| OpenAI | Whisper | $0.006 per minute | $0.36 | Account and API key; No free API credit stated |
Sources: ElevenLabs · OpenAI · Deepgram · AssemblyAI. More in the speech to text comparison.
Questions
Is Glyphcall Voice cheaper than ElevenLabs?
For speech to text, yes: an hour of audio is $0.05 in one call against Scribe's $0.20 per hour. For text to speech, our Aura-1 voice is half of Flash per character and Aura-2 equals Flash; ElevenLabs' Multilingual voices cost twice Flash.
Can I keep my ElevenLabs code?
Yes. Change the base URL: POST /v1/text-to-speech/{voice_id} and POST /v1/speech-to-text take ElevenLabs' requests, and the xi-api-key header carries your key. Voice IDs map to our voices; there is no cloning.
Where is ElevenLabs better?
Voice quality, a large voice library, voice cloning, 70+ speech languages, dubbing, realtime voice agents and enterprise contracts. Choose ElevenLabs for those.
Are my files stored?
No. Audio sent in a request is held in memory for that request only. It is not stored, cached or logged.