Gladia: 10 free hours of transcription per month
Source: https://www.gladia.io/pricing
Description
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+ 1 Gladia is a French/EU speech-to-text API built around the Solaria-1 model. The free Starter tier gives every account 10 hours of transcription per month (resets monthly) with all core features enabled — async + real-time, automatic language detection, speaker diarization, word-level timestamps, code-switching across 100+ languages — and no credit card required to sign up.
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+ 3 It's the cleanest "just give me an API key, no friction" speech-to-text option for indie builders right now: no card, no sales call, no credit-by-credit accounting (it's metered in audio-hours, not dollars), and you can ship a real-time meeting-bot prototype on the free tier without ever talking to anyone.
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+ 9 1. Go to app.gladia.io
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+ 10 2. Click Sign up — currently the easiest path is Sign up with Google (more methods are being added)
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+ 11 3. Verify your email if prompted
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+ 12 4. Once logged in, navigate to the API keys section in the dashboard
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+ 13 5. A default API key has already been created for you — copy it, or hit Create new key to make a scoped one
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+ 14 6. Done — start calling the REST endpoint or open a WebSocket for real-time. No credit card, no phone verification, no approval queue.
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+ 15
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+ 16 Important:
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+ 17 • The 10 free hours reset every calendar month — they don't roll over.
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+ 18 • The free tier is enough for serious prototyping (~one full meeting-bot demo per workday) but will run out fast in production. After that you're billed at Starter pay-as-you-go rates.
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+ 19 • No automatic billing — you have to add a payment method yourself before you can exceed the free quota.
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+ 25 Unlike most STT free tiers, Gladia doesn't lock features behind paid plans. The free quota gives you the same Solaria-1 model and same feature set as paid Starter customers:
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+ 27 CapabilityFree Tier
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+ 28 Async transcription (upload audio file)Yes
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+ 29 Real-time / live transcription (WebSocket)Yes
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+ 30 Automatic language detectionYes
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+ 31 Code-switching (mid-sentence language change across 100+ languages)Yes
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+ 32 Speaker diarization (who said what)Yes
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+ 33 Word-level timestampsYes
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+ 34 Solaria-1 model (~103 ms partial latency)Yes
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+ 35 Translation (beta) in 99 languagesYes
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+ 36 Named entity recognition, sentiment, summarizationYes (audio intelligence add-ons)
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+ 37 Concurrency limit30 real-time / 25 async concurrent requests (Starter cap)
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+ 38 Compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001)Yes — Gladia is compliant across all paid plans; the platform is the same on free
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+ 39
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+ 40 Source: Gladia Pricing and Gladia model docs / Solaria-1 announcement.
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+ 46 100+ languages and dialects with native code-switching, including 42 languages that no other API-level STT provider covers. Real-world use case: you can stream French/English bilingual meetings, Hindi/English calls, or Arabic/French conversations and Solaria will switch transcription mid-utterance without you sending a hint.
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• Async (file upload): POST https://api.gladia.io/v2/pre-recorded/ — pass an audio URL or upload, poll the result endpoint
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• Real-time: open a WebSocket session via POST https://api.gladia.io/v2/live to get a session URL, then stream PCM audio chunks
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• Auth header: x-gladia-key: <YOUR_API_KEY>
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+ 55 • Full API reference: docs.gladia.io
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+ 61 • You don't get cut off mid-call without warning if you've added a payment method — it transitions to the paid Starter rate.
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+ 62 • Without a payment method, the API will start returning quota errors when you exceed 10 h/month. No surprise charges.
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+ 63 • Starter pay-as-you-go rates (post-free-quota):
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+ 64 • Async transcription: $0.61 / hour (Solaria base rate is $0.55/h, Starter is slightly higher)
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+ 65 • Real-time streaming: $0.75 / hour
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+ 66 • All features (diarization, language detection, code-switching) bundled — no add-on fees
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+ 67 • Growth tier (volume): async as low as $0.20/hr, real-time as low as $0.25/hr — only worth it if you're burning through hundreds of hours/month.
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+ 68 • Enterprise: custom pricing, unlimited concurrency, zero data retention, dedicated infra.
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+ 74 • GDPR, HIPAA, AICPA SOC 2 Type 2, and ISO 27001 compliant — relevant if you're building for healthcare, finance, or EU-regulated verticals on the free tier already.
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+ 75 • Default behavior may use audio for model improvement on Starter; Growth and Enterprise offer automatic opt-out, Enterprise adds zero data retention.
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+ 76 • EU-headquartered company (France) — useful if data residency in Europe matters for your customers.
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• Solaria-1 is the only model on the platform now — older Whisper-based endpoints have been deprecated. If you're following an outdated tutorial referencing model names like accurate / fast, ignore it; you don't pick a model anymore.
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+ 83 • Real-time uses WebSockets, not HTTP streaming — make sure your hosting environment (e.g. some serverless platforms) supports persistent connections.
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+ 84 • "10 hours" means audio duration, not wall-clock time. A 1-hour file processed async still counts as 1 hour.
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+ 85 • Concurrent request limits (30 real-time / 25 async) apply on the free tier — fine for a prototype, watch out if you load-test.
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+ 86 • For comparison: AssemblyAI gives ~$50 in credits (~238 hours of async STT, no real-time), Speechmatics gives 8 h/month, Deepgram gives $200 of credits. Gladia's pitch is "all features bundled, no card."
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+ 87 • No referral / bonus program is publicly documented — the 10 h/month is what you get.
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+ 90
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+ 91 Sources:
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+ 92 • Gladia Pricing
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+ 93 • Gladia — Get started: Transcribe an audio file
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+ 94 • Gladia — Code-switching across 100+ languages (Solaria-1)
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+ 95 • Gladia — Best Speech-to-Text APIs in 2026
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+ 96 • Gladia — From Speech to Knowledge: Audio Intelligence API
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