AssemblyAI vs Kagi Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| AssemblyAI | Kagi | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Custom | $5/mo |
| Number of plans | 2 | 4 |
| Free plan | ||
| Free trial | ||
| Pricing model | usage-based | flat-rate |
Pay as you go
- Universal-3.5 Pro ($0.21/hr)
- Universal-2 ($0.15/hr)
- Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime ($0.45/hr)
- Universal-Streaming ($0.15/hr)
- Universal-Streaming Multilingual ($0.15/hr)
- Sync API ($0.45/hr)
- Voice Agent API ($4.50/hr)
- Speaker Diarization ($0.02/hr pre-recorded, $0.12/hr realtime)
- Medical Mode ($0.15/hr)
- Keyterms Prompting
- Prompting ($0.05/hr)
- Speaker Identification ($0.02/hr)
- Translation ($0.06/hr)
- Custom Formatting ($0.03/hr)
- Entity Detection ($0.08/hr)
- Sentiment Analysis ($0.02/hr)
- Auto Chapters ($0.08/hr)
- Key Phrases ($0.01/hr)
- Topic Detection ($0.15/hr)
- Summarization ($0.03/hr)
- Profanity Filtering ($0.01/hr)
- PII Audio Redaction ($0.05/hr)
- PII Text Redaction ($0.08/hr)
- Content Moderation ($0.15/hr)
- LLM Gateway
- No minimum commitments
- No credit card required to start
Custom
- Custom rate limits
- Enhanced concurrency
- Enterprise-grade flexibility
- Volume-based pricing
- Custom starting concurrency limits
Trial
- Explore Kagi Search and Assistant with privacy-first tech
- Enough to feel the difference
- Upgrade anytime
Starter
- Enough searches to get you going
- Kagi Assistant with Quick mode and plenty of interactions
Professional
- Unlimited Kagi Search
- Kagi Assistant with Quick mode and a larger monthly usage allowance
Ultimate
- Kagi Assistant with Research mode and flagship models
- Highest level support for Kagi's mission
AssemblyAI vs Kagi FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. AssemblyAI uses usage-based pricing, while Kagi goes with flat-rate. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. AssemblyAI: They're positioning as the developer-friendly, API-first alternative to Deepgram and Rev AI — competitive on price at scale but differentiated by the breadth of AI features (LLM Gateway, multichannel, etc.). The AWS Marketplace listing signals they're actively chasing enterprise procurement budgets. Kagi: Kagi is a premium play in a category where the dominant competitors are literally free (Google, Bing). They're not competing on price — they're betting on a segment of privacy-conscious, quality-obsessed users willing to pay for an ad-free experience. $10/mo positions them as 'less than Netflix' to justify the switch.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for AssemblyAI and Kagi and let you know when something moves.