Kakao Speech (Kakao i)

by Kakao Enterprise

Don’t want to wire up the Kakao 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.

Kakao Enterprise's Korean speech recognition + synthesis platform.

API  ·  Contact sales

TL;DR

Best for korean enterprise contact centers and Kakao ecosystem integrations. Pricing: Contact sales.

Category
Transcription APIs
Pricing
Contact sales
Platforms
API

What it is

Kakao Enterprise's speech offering (often branded as Kakao i Connect / Kakao i Speech) provides STT and TTS for Korean-language enterprise customers, with deepest fit inside the Kakao ecosystem (KakaoTalk, KakaoWork). Most contracts are B2B and priced on negotiation. Strong Korean coverage; international language support is limited compared to Clova. Best fit: korean enterprise contact centers and kakao ecosystem integrations. Caveats: korean-first; b2b-only; docs primarily in korean. Feature flags from vendor docs: streaming. Directory tags: commercial-api, regional-asia. Last vendor-page check: 2026-05-12.

Best for: Korean enterprise contact centers and Kakao ecosystem integrations.
Watch out for: Korean-first; B2B-only; docs primarily in Korean.

Install / use

Kakao Speech REST API (app-key bearer)

What people actually do with Kakao Speech (Kakao i)-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 diarizationNo
Word-level timestampsNo
Streaming / real-timeYes
Languages supportedNone
HIPAA eligibleNo

Kakao Speech (Kakao i) vs Whipscribe

FeatureKakao Speech (Kakao i)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
Languages—99
PlatformsAPIWeb, API, MCP

Alternatives to Kakao Speech (Kakao i)

Frequently asked about Kakao Speech (Kakao i)

How much does Kakao Speech (Kakao i) cost?

Kakao Speech (Kakao i) does not publish a self-serve price — it is quoted by the vendor on contact. Expect an enterprise-style agreement rather than a card-and-go signup.

What platforms does Kakao Speech (Kakao i) support?

Kakao Speech (Kakao i) is an API — you call it from whatever you build, on any platform with an HTTP client.

How do I get started with Kakao Speech (Kakao i)?

Kakao Speech (Kakao i) 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.

What are the limitations of Kakao Speech (Kakao i)?

Korean-first; B2B-only; docs primarily in Korean.

Who is Kakao Speech (Kakao i) best for?

Korean enterprise contact centers and Kakao ecosystem integrations.

Is Kakao Speech (Kakao i) open source?

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

Who makes Kakao Speech (Kakao i)?

Kakao Speech (Kakao i) is made by Kakao Enterprise.

What kind of tool is Kakao Speech (Kakao i)?

In this directory Kakao Speech (Kakao i) is filed under commercial api, regional asia as a API.

What are the alternatives to Kakao Speech (Kakao i)?

There is a side-by-side page at /tools/kakao-speech-alternatives comparing Kakao Speech (Kakao i) with the closest tools in the same category on price, platform and features.

Can I automate Kakao Speech (Kakao i)-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 Kakao Speech (Kakao i)?

Kakao Speech (Kakao i) 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 Kakao Speech (Kakao i)?

$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 Kakao Speech (Kakao i) 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

Long recording to get through?

One file up to 10 hours, as an upload or a link: see MP3 to text for long recordings, transcribing a podcast episode and the SRT file generator.

Looking at paid options?

Before you choose a transcription tool or service: see the best transcription services side by side, cheap transcription services and the real cost per hour and our transcription service with prices and turnaround.