Head-to-head comparison
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text vs Soniox
Two of the transcription tools podcasters reach for. Here's how they differ on pricing, features, audience, and the trade-offs that actually matter day-to-day.
Scribe model from the voice-AI company
Best for: Teams already using ElevenLabs for TTS who want to round-trip audio in the same dashboard.
Unified speech model with mid-sentence translation across 60+ languages.
Best for: Multilingual voice apps
At a glance
The honest trade-offs
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text
Pros
- Diarisation and speaker labels are solid
- Unified billing with ElevenLabs TTS
- Word-level timestamps included
Watch-outs
- Newer than competitors, less battle-tested
- Limited non-English depth versus Whisper
- No live streaming endpoint yet
Soniox
Pros
- Strongest code-switching across languages today
- Translation included in same stream
- Cheap async rates around $0.10/hr
Watch-outs
- API-first, consumer app is bare
- Token-based pricing takes math
- Smaller community than Whisper or Speechmatics
Which one should you pick?
Pick ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text if
You’re building around teams already using elevenlabs for tts who want to round-trip audio in the same dashboard.. ElevenLabs entered the ASR race with Scribe, a model that lands competitive WER scores on English and Spanish while inheriting the company's strong diarisation work from voice cloning. Cleanest if you already use ElevenLabs for TTS.
Pick Soniox if
You’re building around multilingual voice apps. Soniox is what you reach for when you need mid-sentence language switching in production — code-switching across 60+ languages, two-way translation in the same stream, all included at one price. The async rate is brutally cheap (about $0.
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Frequently asked
What does ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text do better than Soniox?
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text's standout is "Diarisation and speaker labels are solid". Soniox doesn't make that promise — it leans into "Strongest code-switching across languages today" instead. If the first sentence describes your workflow, pick ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text; if the second does, pick Soniox.
What are the trade-offs?
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text: newer than competitors, less battle-tested. Soniox: api-first, consumer app is bare. Whether either matters depends entirely on what you actually need — neither is a deal-breaker by itself.
Can I use ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text and Soniox together?
Both are transcription tools so most teams pick one. Some workflows do combine them — for example, using ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text for one show or episode type and Soniox for another. Worth trying both free tiers before committing.