ElevenLabs vs AssemblyAI
ElevenLabs Scribe v2 vs AssemblyAI Universal-3 Pro for transcription. Price: $3.67 per 1000 min vs $3.5 per 1000 min — edge AssemblyAI WER: 2.2% vs 3.1% — edge ElevenLabs Langs: 90 vs 99 — edge AssemblyAI Computed from public benchmarks with dated sources; updated 2026-08-20.
Head to head
| Axis | ElevenLabs Scribe v2 | AssemblyAI Universal-3 Pro | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.67 per 1000 min | $3.5 per 1000 min | AssemblyAI |
| WER | 2.2% | 3.1% | ElevenLabs |
| Langs | 90 | 99 | AssemblyAI |
| Latency | 150 ms | 150 ms | — |
| diarization | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| timestamps | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| vocab | ✓ | ✓ | — |
Strengths & caveats
ElevenLabsHighest accuracy on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard (2.2% WER, an English-leaning aggregate); broad language coverage with full diarization, word-level timestamps and custom vocabulary. Not the cheapest comparable option; low-latency streaming runs on a separate Scribe v2 Realtime mode that is billed higher at $0.39/hr.AssemblyAICheapest of the directly-comparable dedicated APIs ($3.50/1000 min) with the widest language coverage (99) and full diarization, timestamps and custom vocabulary; ~150 ms P50 streaming. Accuracy (3.1% WER) trails the leaders; the cheaper legacy Universal-2 tier is less accurate still. AssemblyAI now lists Universal-3.5 Pro as its flagship at the same $3.50/1000 min, but no independent leaderboard score exists for it yet, so the WER here still refers to Universal-3 Pro.
Sources
- Artificial Analysis — Speech to Text2026-08-20
- Open ASR Leaderboard2026-06-19