Speech to Text: 7 Tools You MUST Know

I recently spent some time researching the best Speech to Text tools available on the web, and I've narrowed it down to 7 favorites that I think you should consider.

Each of these tools has its own unique benefits when it comes to converting speech into searchable text, so let's take a closer look at them.

SpeechFlow

First off, we have what I like to call the "ChatGPT" of transcription tools: SpeechFlow. This software offers a simple, user-friendly interface, combined with impressive, near-perfect results.

I tested it out using an iPhone recording in English, but it's capable of transcribing speech in 14 languages.

Another great feature of SpeechFlow is its processing speed. When I tested it out, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was able to transcribe a 14-minute video in about 1 minute. That's one of the fastest Speech to Text tools I've ever used!

So, what's the cost of this simple, accurate, and fast tool? You pay on demand, at a rate of approximately $0.72 per hour of transcription. That's also one of the cheaper options when it comes to Speech to Text tools.

The primary selling point of SpeechFlow is its accuracy. The makers of this tool claim to have a 20% higher accuracy rate than other market players, so you can be sure that you're getting the best possible results.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud Speech to Text engine is without a doubt one of the most accurate transcription engines on the market today.According to G2, they have a score of 4.5 from 147 reviews, showing that this platform is highly rated by users.

I've tried out the Enhanced version of the engine and it worked perfectly for me - it was able to understand the context and correct words accordingly. It's also a great choice for creators as it offers an hour of free transcription every month; after this has been used up, the cost of transcription is around $1 per hour depending on the model chosen.

Despite the accuracy of Google Cloud, I find its interface to be quite technical and confusing, particularly for those who prefer a simpler approach.

You need to make a lot of decisions before you get any result, and I have experienced a couple of times where the engine failed me - although this may have been due to something I did wrong.

As such, this platform is likely to be more suitable for those who are more techy than me or have their businesses already integrated with the Google Cloud solution.

Amberscript

AmberScript also offers something called Dictionary, where you tell the tool how to spell hard-to-transcribe words such as company names or product names. An example of this would be if the audio file contains a word that is not easily recognizable, such as the name of a product.

By entering the correct spelling of the word into the Dictionary, the tool will be able to accurately transcribe it. This can save a lot of time and effort when transcribing audio and video, as it will reduce the number of errors in the resulting transcript.

AmberScript does come with a premium cost, however. They offer 10 minutes of credits to get started, but after that, you will need to pay €20 per hour. That's about 22 USD, which is a lot for a bot - and it's only worth it if you take advantage of everything it does, such as the integrations with Google Drive, DropBox, and YouTube, where your files are automatically transcribed upon upload.

One might wonder, doesn't YouTube add subtitles automatically? While it's true that YouTube does offer automatic transcription, it's often not as accurate as more premium transcriptions.

For those who have no budget, you can always upload your videos to YouTube, have the content transcribed, and download the .srt file. I’ve done this in the past, but it’s not a very flexible or scalable model - and, it’s not the most accurate either.

This is where AmberScript comes in. By taking advantage of the features of AmberScript, you can ensure that your audio and video files are transcribed accurately and quickly.

AmberScript offers an “85% precision transcription”, which is more than good enough for most applications. If you need it to be 99% accurate, you can have real people go through the transcription.

I have tested the automatic Speech to Text engine and it does a close-to-perfect job. The only downside is that it takes a while to process, even for a 30-second test sample. If you don't have the time or the attention to wait, then you may need to look for other, faster options.

Rev

For those looking for a faster, yet still accurate option, there are some heavier players in the industry.

Services like Rev.com use advanced algorithms and human editors to provide fast, accurate transcripts.

Rev is a speech-to-text transcription tool that offers a wide range of services, from simple transcripts to closed captions and subtitles. This attention to detail and the quality of their output is reflected in their “world-leading AI”, which I found to be extremely accurate - it was a 100% perfect transcription of my recording.

The interface is intuitive and the processing times are incredibly fast, with Rev promising sub 5-minute processing times, and my test transcriptions going even quicker than that.

Although the user experience of the platform isn’t all that impressive, this is because most STT platforms prioritize API integrations over the actual interface. Nevertheless, the quality of the product is second to none, and the pricing structure is quite fair, with $15 per hour of transcription (although on the higher end).

All in all, Rev is a great choice if you’re looking for a reliable speech-to-text transcription tool.

Deepgram

DeepGram is an incredibly powerful online tool for Speech to Text transcription, and it's no surprise that it has been compared to OpenAI and Google.

With an incredibly intuitive and fun user experience, as well as an onboarding process with small quests to complete, DeepGram has earned a great reputation. Of course, the most impressive feature of DeepGram is its formatting capabilities.

Not only can you add punctuation and capitalization, but you can also convert written numbers into numerical ones, break the transcript into segments based on pauses, and even recognize and list speakers. This makes it so much easier for you to quickly and easily plug and play your audio files and convert them into text without having to do any manual labor.

However, DeepGram is even more powerful than just its formatting capabilities.

It can also do advanced tasks such as sentiment analysis of chats or phone calls, summarization and classification of audio content, and language detection and translation. This makes DeepGram an incredibly powerful tool for anyone wanting to quickly and easily transcribe audio into text, and it is no surprise that many people have fallen in love with it.

With its great user experience and powerful features, DeepGram has become an indispensable tool for anyone wanting to quickly and easily transcribe audio into text, and it's what I used to transcribe the YouTube video above.

For me, as a solo creator, I used to use something much simpler than DeepGram which still did the job. 

Descript

Enter Descript, an application you can download and have on your computer.

Descript offers a Creator plan for $144 per year, and for that price, I get 10 hours of transcription credit each month. I use Descript mainly for podcast episodes so that I can add a text file to them, which should make it easier for Google to index.

Descript has been gaining more and more attention for its "AI-powered video editor" capabilities, but they started out as a transcription service, and they still do it extremely quickly and precisely. In comparison to the heavier hitters like SpeechFlow, Google Cloud, AmberScript, Rev, and DeepGram, Descript is an affordable and reliable alternative.

DeepGram is a great option if you work in a tech startup, a large enterprise, or you're a researcher. They offer a generous $200 free credit to get you started, and then you pay as you go. Their Nova modal costs about $0.25 per hour of transcription. If you need more volume and features, you can opt for the annual plan, which costs less per minute.

Eden AI

My experience with speech-to-text (STT) tools is that you usually only use a fraction of their capabilities - unless you’re a superuser.

That’s why I was so excited when I heard about EDEN AI. It’s like an AI middle man — between you and all the powerful STT engines out there, so you don’t have to sign up to 10 different tools. It’s a one-stop shop for all your STT needs.

Eden lets you upload your audio file and then they run it through all the providers; AssemblyAI, Deepgram, Google, Speechmatics, OpenAI, Microsoft, Rev, Symbol, Voci, IBM, Neuralspace, OpenAI, Amazon, and more if you request it.

You can even specify which STT engine you want to use for each file, so you get the best possible results.

And, best of all, you only pay for the number of API calls you make, either through credits or one of their plans. That means you don’t have to worry about paying for extra fees on top of the original providers.

Overall, EDEN AI is a great tool for anyone who needs the power of all the STT platforms at once. It’s easy to use, cost-effective, and can save you time and money.

It’s interesting to see the results from each individual provider and compare them head to head - now that we’ve dived deeper into several of them in this video.

Of course, you lose out on features like DeepGrams dictionary and other advanced features - you only get the raw results here. But if you’re looking for a simpler, more straightforward speech to text platform, this could be a good option.

And as you probably noticed from the interface and the results, this platform is made for developers. Yes, you can do your speech-to-text conversions on this platform, but the main idea behind Eden is that you do it with code, using their APIs.

They’ve got APIs for any AI application within text, speech, optical character recognition, translations, image and video. It’s a pretty cool repository of AI APIs.

Eden concludes the list, and I’m going to link to all 7 Speech to Text platforms here.

Conclusion

It’s clear to see that you never have to transcribe manually again - and with the right platform, you can get accurate and reliable results.

But it’s also clear that the trend moves in the direction of Speech to Text becoming more of an integrated feature in other products, like the Interactive Voice Response you meet when you call the bank, any type of voice search you find in apps or the smart assistant you have at home.

This means that having a good speech-to-text platform is becoming increasingly important - not only for businesses but for individuals as well. As the technology becomes more advanced, it’s likely that speech-to-text solutions will become more accessible, easier to use, and even more accurate.

Nowadays, more and more companies are offering transcription technology as an API, including the biggest players like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. While some companies still opt to provide a full-fledged STT platform like AmberScript, Rev and DeepGram, they often offer additional services such as a human layer or translation services, so it's not just a simple subtitle generator.

I hope this video has helped you make an informed choice about which Speech to Text provider would work best for you.

If you're looking for Text to Speech tools, I've made a video with my top 5 picks that you can check out.