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Azure Speech vs Speechmatics Standard

2 models compared on the same benchmark — accuracy, latency, price, language coverage and capabilities. Speechmatics Standard leads on raw accuracy; Azure Speech is fastest; Speechmatics Standard covers the most languages; Speechmatics Standard is cheapest.

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Verdict · who wins what

Most accurate

Speechmatics Standard

14.7% WER

Speechmatics

Fastest

Azure Speech

0.3× realtime

Microsoft Azure

Most languages

Speechmatics Standard

48 languages

Speechmatics

Cheapest

Speechmatics Standard

$0.0050/min

Speechmatics

Comparing

2 models · same benchmark

1

Batch & Realtime

Azure Speech

Microsoft Azure

$0.0060/min
#18 · 74.4

Azure default STT model — 140+ languages, diarization, word timestamps

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2

Batch

Speechmatics Standard

Speechmatics

$0.0050/min
#15 · 60.9

Cost-effective model — fast turnaround, 55+ languages

Use This ModelDetails →

Overview

30-day benchmark average

Overall score

0–100

74.4

60.9

Accuracy rank

of 36

#18

#15

Word error rate

WER

15.3%

14.7%

Character error rate

CER

10.7%

9.8%

Match error rate

MER

14.9%

13.8%

Word info lost

WIL

18.8%

19.3%

Languages

19

48

Cost vs. accuracy

overall WER vs price

Azure Speech

Speechmatics Standard

field · 34 models

lower-left is better

Accuracy by category

WER · lower is better

code_switching

60.1%
54.2%

conversational

9.6%
7.3%

finance

7.1%
7.9%

general

10.5%
7.4%

legal

1.7%
4.0%

medical

2.8%
7.8%

noisy

40.0%
50.3%

technical

7.0%
4.6%

Accuracy by accent

WER · English

african

23.1%
13.9%

australian

23.1%
13.9%

indian

41.3%
6.3%

uk

14.9%
0.0%

us

11.3%
3.8%

Speed & latency

p50 → p99

Processing speed

× realtime

0.3×

0.1×

Latency p50

2.0s

7.1s

Latency p90

2.0s

7.3s

Latency p99

2.0s

7.3s

Realtime / streaming

Streaming benchmark averages

Realtime rank

of 15

#12

—

Realtime score

0–100

72.4

—

Time to first word

2.1s

—

Final drain

0ms

—

Real-time factor

1.01×

—

Flicker

13.2%

—

Cadence

1.7/s

—

Reliability

Rolling 30 days

Uptime

100.00%

100.00%

Error rate

0.00%

0.00%

Pricing

billed per second

Rate

per minute

$0.0060

$0.0050

Billing granularity

per 60s

per 1s

1 hour of audio

$0.36

$0.30

100 hours

$36.00

$29.88

1,000 hours

$360.00

$298.80

Capabilities

Feature support

Speaker diarization

Yes

Yes

Word-level timestamps

Yes

Yes

Code-switching

No

Yes

Auto-detect language

No

Yes

Live / streaming

Yes

No

Custom vocabulary

No

Yes

Coverage & deployment

Languages · formats · regions

Languages

19

48

Mode

Batch & Realtime

Batch

Region

United States

Europe

Audio formats

mp3
wav
flac
ogg
wma
aac
webm
mp3
wav
flac
m4a
ogg

Max file size

1 GB

1 GB

Max duration

4 h

No limit

Compliance

HIPAA
SOC2
GDPR
SOC2
GDPR

Frequently asked questions

Is Azure Speech or Speechmatics Standard more accurate?

Speechmatics Standard is more accurate, with a 14.7% word error rate versus 15.3% for Azure Speech, on our standardized benchmark.

Which is cheaper, Azure Speech or Speechmatics Standard?

Speechmatics Standard is cheaper at $0.0050/min versus $0.0060/min for Azure Speech.

Should you choose Azure Speech or Speechmatics Standard?

Choose Azure Speech for speed; choose Speechmatics Standard for accuracy, lower cost, and language coverage.