Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)

by Microsoft Azure

Don’t want to wire up the Azure AI Speech API? Drop the file here.

The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free: a recording up to 20 minutes transcribes in full, a longer one is previewed, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, and credits never expire.

Microsoft Azure's managed STT with batch, real-time, custom speech, and conversation transcription.

API, SDK  ·  from $1/hr

TL;DR

Best for microsoft-shop teams, Office/Teams integrations, custom-domain speech models via Custom Speech. Pricing: from $1/hr (standard) and $0.30/hr (batch transcription).

Category
Transcription APIs
Pricing
from $1/hr (standard) and $0.30/hr (batch transcription)
Platforms
API, SDK

What it is

Azure AI Speech is Microsoft's managed cognitive service for speech-to-text, text-to-speech, speaker recognition, and translation. The STT pipeline supports real-time, batch (per-file submitted to Azure storage), conversation transcription with speaker diarization, fast transcription, and Custom Speech for domain-tuned models. SDKs are available for C#, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, Objective-C and Swift. HIPAA, SOC, ISO and FedRAMP compliance under the Azure compliance umbrella. Pricing differs by region, tier (standard vs free), and mode (real-time vs batch); enterprise customers usually negotiate committed-use discounts.

Best for: Microsoft-shop teams, Office/Teams integrations, custom-domain speech models via Custom Speech.
Watch out for: Custom Speech model training requires labelled data and a separate Speech Studio workflow; some neural features region-locked.

Install / use

az cognitiveservices account create --kind SpeechServices ...

What people actually do with Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)-style transcription

The tool is the means. These are the jobs — each one priced at published rates, each one wired up on its own page.

Wire it into Amazon S3n8nMake.comGoogle DriveZapierSlack

Features

Speaker diarizationYes
Word-level timestampsYes
Streaming / real-timeYes
Languages supported100
HIPAA eligibleYes

Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) vs Whipscribe

FeatureAzure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)Whipscribe
CategoryTranscription APIsTranscription APIs
PricingNot verified$6–$24 one-time packs (credits never expire) · first 20 minutes free
Speaker identificationNot verifiedNamed in the summary, key quotes and chapters
Word timestampsNot verifiedYes
StreamingNot verifiedNo
Languages10099
PlatformsAPI, SDKWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)

Frequently asked about Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)

How much does Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) cost?

Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) is a paid product — published pricing: from $1/hr (standard) and $0.30/hr (batch transcription). Pricing changes; verify on the vendor's own page before budgeting.

Does Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) work on Mac, Windows and Linux?

Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) runs on API and SDK. It is not listed for other platforms; check the vendor for anything beyond API and SDK.

How do I get started with Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)?

Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) is used through its API: get a key from the vendor, then call it from your own code. There is no desktop app to install.

How many languages does Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) support?

Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) lists 100 languages. That is the Whisper-family multilingual set, so quality varies by language — English and the large European languages are strongest.

What are the limitations of Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)?

Custom Speech model training requires labelled data and a separate Speech Studio workflow; some neural features region-locked.

Who is Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) best for?

Microsoft-shop teams, Office/Teams integrations, custom-domain speech models via Custom Speech.

Is Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) open source?

No. Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) is a proprietary API from Microsoft Azure. If you need source you can read and run yourself, the open-source tools in this directory are the place to look.

Can I use Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) in the browser?

No — Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) is a API and SDK application, not a web app. You install it rather than sign in to it.

Who makes Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)?

Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) is made by Microsoft Azure.

What kind of tool is Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)?

In this directory Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) is filed under commercial api, hyperscaler as a API.

What are the alternatives to Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)?

There is a side-by-side page at /tools/azure-speech-alternatives comparing Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.

Can I automate Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)-style transcription without running it myself?

Yes. If what you want is transcripts rather than the tool itself, Whipscribe does the same job as a hosted API: submit a file or URL, poll a job id, pull the result as txt, json, srt, vtt or docx. $0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. The automation recipes on this site show it wired to Drive folders, Zoom recordings, S3 buckets and no-code platforms.

How is Whipscribe different from Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)?

Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) is another vendor's product; Whipscribe is a per-minute transcription service. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and never used for training, and every job returns five formats plus an AI summary, quotes and topics. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export.

What does transcription cost if I use Whipscribe instead of Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text)?

$0.012 a minute — about $0.72 an audio hour — bought as credits that never expire. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: a 3-hour recording is about $2.16, a thousand-hour archive is about $720 once. The first 20 minutes of any recording are transcribed free, and a pack from $6 (500 minutes) transcribes the rest and opens every export, so you can see what your recording holds before paying anything.

Where is the Azure AI Speech (Speech-to-Text) category heading?

Three things are moving across the whole speech-to-text market right now: summaries, action items and speaker insights generated on top of the transcript rather than sold separately; private, secured deployment where the audio never leaves a boundary you control; and agent access — transcription exposed as a tool that Claude, Cursor or a workflow runner can call directly. Whipscribe ships all three today: per-job insights, our own servers, and an MCP server.

Whipscribe is a hosted transcription service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.

Transcribe your recordings

Explore

Have the recording already?

Skip the setup and send the file or the link: see MP3 to text for long recordings, transcribing a podcast episode and an SRT subtitle file from any recording.

Comparing tools before you pay?

If you would rather pay a service than run software yourself: see how the best transcription services compare, affordable transcription priced per hour and transcription services from $6.