Gladia

Gladia is audio infrastructure for teams that want to build transcription and audio analysis into a product or workflow. It suits developers who need both live and uploaded-audio processing, while GladiaFlow offers a separate desktop dictation option. The breadth is compelling, but the right tier depends on call volume, concurrency and whether upfront commitments make sense.

Overview

Gladia handles asynchronous transcription and real-time speech, including live streaming, and adds tools for turning audio into more useful data. Its 100+ language support and developer interfaces give product teams room to build multilingual speech features. The API-first focus is less compelling for someone who simply wants a standalone meeting-notes app.

Key features

• Live and asynchronous transcription: Use real-time streaming for live speech or asynchronous processing for recordings. Starter includes automatic language detection and switching across 100+ languages, which is useful for multilingual workloads.
• Audio analysis: Speaker diarization and labeling, sentiment analysis, PII redaction, entity detection and audio-to-LLM processing extend the service beyond raw transcripts. That breadth suits workflows that need structured or privacy-conscious outputs, though each capability should be matched to the application’s requirements.
• Developer integration: Python and Node.js SDKs, WebSocket streaming and REST uploads provide several implementation routes. Named integrations include Pipecat, LiveKit, Twilio and Retell; Zapier, Make and n8n connectors offer options for workflow automation.
• Security and hosting: Gladia says customer data is not used for model training by default and describes encryption at rest and in transit. It lists GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 credentials, and says EU and US workloads are hosted separately on region-specific infrastructure. Enterprise adds zero data retention and custom hosting.
• Desktop dictation: GladiaFlow is a real-time voice dictation app for Mac and Windows. Its code is available on GitHub under the MIT license, making it a separate option from the API service for desktop users.

Pricing

The free Starter tier costs nothing and uses pay-as-you-go rates of $0.61/hr for asynchronous processing and $0.75/hr for real-time. It includes 50€ in one-time credits, 30 concurrent real-time requests and 25 concurrent async requests. The credits do not expire or reset monthly, so occasional users can try the service without a recurring allowance; sustained workloads will need to account for hourly charges and tier-dependent service limits.

Paid Starter rates are $0.61 a month for Starter - asynchronous and $0.75 a month for Starter - real-time, both billed Flexible pay-as-you-go. Each includes 30 real-time and 25 async concurrent requests and 100+ languages. These tiers suit workloads that need those concurrency limits without committing upfront, but buyers should distinguish the per-month plan figures from the hourly usage rates shown for the free Starter tier.

Growth - asynchronous is $0.20 a month and Growth - real-time is $0.25 a month, billed at rates described as “as low as” $0.20/hr and $0.25/hr respectively. Both require an upfront commitment to unlock savings and support flexible concurrent request limits and 100+ languages. Growth is the better fit for predictable, larger workloads that can commit; its lower starting hourly rates are not the same as a commitment-free price.

The Growth plan has custom pricing, with custom volume discounts, flexible concurrency and automatic model training opt-out. Enterprise also has custom pricing and adds unlimited concurrent requests, zero data retention, custom hosting, SLAs, limitless scaling and premium support through dedicated Slack and an account manager. Starter and Growth include help-center and Discord support. Enterprise is aimed at organizations that need contractual support or hosting controls rather than a published self-serve rate.

Platforms

Gladia supports API, web, macOS and Windows. The API is the core route for application integrations, while GladiaFlow provides desktop dictation downloads for Mac and Windows. Python and Node.js SDKs, WebSocket streaming and REST uploads support developer implementations.

Who it's for

Gladia is best for developers and businesses building speech transcription or audio-enrichment features into products, especially when they need both live and batch processing, multilingual handling or integrations with existing communications and automation tools. It is also a reasonable fit for teams with variable usage that want pay-as-you-go Starter, or predictable volume that can justify Growth commitments. People chiefly seeking a ready-made meeting transcription experience should compare dedicated apps instead.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Live streaming and asynchronous transcription cover both real-time and recorded-audio workflows.
• Pro: Starter supports 100+ languages, automatic language detection and switching, with meaningful concurrency allowances and non-expiring one-time credits.
• Pro: Audio analysis, developer SDKs, streaming and REST interfaces, and named integrations make it adaptable to product and workflow builds.
• Pro: Enterprise includes zero data retention, custom hosting, SLAs and dedicated account support.
• Con: Growth savings require an upfront commitment, so the lower “as low as” hourly rates may not suit uncertain or intermittent workloads.
• Con: Hourly-call and transcription-volume limits depend on tier, requiring buyers to match capacity to usage rather than assume a single universal allowance.
• Con: The API-led product is a less direct choice for users who mainly want a finished meeting-notes application.

Alternatives

For a free plan with 1 seat and 120 transcription minutes per month across Android, iOS, browser extension, desktop and web, consider Notta. Happy Scribe may suit readers who want unlimited meeting recordings with a 45-minute per-recording limit and a 10-minute AI trial. Choose Speechmatics if its free offer of $100 in credits, two concurrent real-time sessions and ten pre-recorded files per second better fits a capped evaluation.

Grain has a free option with one Notetaker seat, 45-minute meetings and 20 bot-recorded meetings for personal email users. noScribe is a free, open-source alternative for Linux, macOS and Windows. Rev may fit users who can work with English-only transcription and a 45-minute monthly AI transcription and caption allowance on its free plan. tl;dv offers unlimited recordings and transcriptions on its free plan. AssemblyAI is another API-oriented option, with $50 in free audio credits, five new streaming connections per minute and five concurrent prerecorded transcriptions.

Browse our Audio Transcription Software, Speech-to-Text Software, Transcription Software and Speech Recognition Software lists to compare category options.

Verdict

Choose Gladia if you are building an audio product or workflow and want live and asynchronous transcription, broad language coverage and audio analysis behind developer-facing tools. Its strongest case is the range of processing and integration options, backed by an enterprise tier with hosting and support controls. Look elsewhere if you want a ready-made meeting-notes app, or if Growth’s upfront commitment does not suit your expected usage.