2 models compared on the same benchmark — accuracy, latency, price, language coverage and capabilities. Whisper Large V3 Turbo leads on raw accuracy; Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime is fastest; Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime covers the most languages; Whisper Large V3 Turbo is cheapest.
Verdict · who wins what
Most accurate
Whisper Large V3 Turbo
14.3% WER
Groq
Fastest
Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime
0.1× realtime
AssemblyAI
Most languages
Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime
18 languages
AssemblyAI
Cheapest
Whisper Large V3 Turbo
$0.0007/min
Groq
Comparing
2 models · same benchmark
1
Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime
AssemblyAI
AssemblyAI Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime — the flagship streaming model, with native mid-sentence code-switching across 18 languages and conversation context carried across turns. Word-level timestamps and stable partials that are not rewritten as they arrive; speaker diarization is available on the batch model, not this streaming one.
2
Whisper Large V3 Turbo
Groq
OpenAI Whisper large-v3-turbo served on Groq's LPU hardware — very fast, very low cost batch transcription with word-level timestamps and automatic language detection.
30-day benchmark average
overall WER vs price
field · 27 models
lower-left is better
WER · lower is better
WER · English
p50 → p99
Streaming benchmark averages
Rolling 30 days
billed per second
Feature support
Languages · formats · regions
general
—
legal
—
medical
—
noisy
—
technical
—
uk
—
us
—
—
3.4s
Final drain
109ms
—
Real-time factor
1.02×
—
Flicker
15.7%
—
Cadence
0.8/s
—
$3.96
1,000 hours
$450.00
$39.60
No
Auto-detect language
Yes
Yes
Live / streaming
Yes
No
Custom vocabulary
No
No
Compliance
—
Is Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime or Whisper Large V3 Turbo more accurate?
Whisper Large V3 Turbo has a published benchmark at 14.3% word error rate. Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime has not been benchmarked yet.
Which is cheaper, Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime or Whisper Large V3 Turbo?
Whisper Large V3 Turbo is cheaper at $0.0007/min versus $0.0075/min for Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime.
Should you choose Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime or Whisper Large V3 Turbo?
Choose Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime for speed and language coverage; choose Whisper Large V3 Turbo for accuracy and lower cost.
