Rev.ai Charges $1.20/hr for Machine Transcription
Rev.ai's machine tier is $0.02/minute — that is $1.20/hr — and their API is an async job-and-polling flow. SpeakEasy is $0.20/hr, one HTTP call, OpenAI SDK. 83% cheaper, a fraction of the code.
Feature-by-feature comparison
Rev.ai was built for human transcription and retrofitted for machines. We built for developers from day one.
| Feature | SpeakEasy | Rev.ai |
|---|---|---|
| STT Price per Hour | $0.20 | $1.20 (machine) |
| Human Transcription | N/A | $1.50/min ($90/hr) |
| Monthly Plan | $10/mo (50 hrs included) | Pay-as-you-go |
| Free Tier | $1 first month | 5 hours free |
| Languages | 99+ | 36 |
| Speaker Diarization | Yes | Yes |
| Word-level Timestamps | Yes | Yes |
| API Model | Sync single call | Async job + polling |
| OpenAI SDK Compatible | Yes | No (custom REST) |
| Text-to-Speech | Yes | No |
| Streaming | Yes | Yes (WebSocket) |
| Pricing Model | Simple flat rate | Per-minute + add-ons |
Pricing breakdown
At Rev.ai pricing, 100 hours of audio costs $120. At SpeakEasy pricing, it costs $22.50.
SpeakEasy
- ✓STT at $0.20/hour (50 hrs included)
- ✓One synchronous API call — no polling
- ✓99+ languages vs 36
- ✓Includes TTS for voice agents
- ✓OpenAI SDK — no vendor lock-in
Rev.ai
- ✕Pay-as-you-go only (no monthly plan)
- ✕Async job submission + polling loop
- ✕36 languages (Whisper models)
- ✕No Text-to-Speech
- ✓5 hours free to start
Save ~$1/hour — 83% less every transcript
100 hrs/month on Rev.ai machine tier: $120. On SpeakEasy: $22.50 ($10 plan + $12.50 overage). Worth a morning of migration work.
One call vs submit-and-poll
Rev.ai makes you submit an async job, then poll for completion, then fetch the transcript separately. SpeakEasy returns the transcript in the response.
# Rev.ai — custom REST API, priced per minute
import requests
files = {"media": open("meeting.mp3", "rb")}
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_REVAI_KEY"}
# Submit async job
job = requests.post(
"https://api.rev.ai/speechtotext/v1/jobs",
files=files,
headers=headers,
).json()
# Poll job status, then fetch transcript
# (full example requires polling loop — omitted here)
transcript = requests.get(
f"https://api.rev.ai/speechtotext/v1/jobs/{job['id']}/transcript",
headers={**headers, "Accept": "application/vnd.rev.transcript.v1.0+json"},
).json()# SpeakEasy — one call, standard OpenAI SDK
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key="YOUR_SPEAKEASY_KEY",
base_url="https://www.tryspeakeasy.io/api/v1"
)
transcript = client.audio.transcriptions.create(
model="whisper-large-v3",
file=open("meeting.mp3", "rb")
)
print(transcript.text)The verdict
Rev.ai is a human-transcription service bolted onto a machine API. That legacy shows in the pricing ($1.20/hr is 6x modern market rate) and the developer experience (submit-job, poll, fetch — three calls for what should be one).
If you genuinely need Rev's 99% human-verified accuracy tier, nobody else sells that at their price. But if you just need a transcript of recorded audio, you are paying for infrastructure you do not use.
SpeakEasy runs the Whisper large-v3 stack at $0.20/hr, returns in one synchronous call, and speaks the OpenAI SDK your team already knows. 83% cheaper, one-sixth the code.
$1 for your first month. Full 50 hours included.
Also compare SpeakEasy with:
$1. 50 hours. Both STT and TTS.
Your current speech API provider is charging you too much. Switch in one line of code.