AssemblyAI vs Qdrant 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 pricing Qdrant pricing
Starts at Custom Custom
Number of plans 2 5
Free plan
Free trial —
Pricing model usage-based usage-based

Price is one row. To weigh the features too, use our feature comparison template →

Pay as you go

$0/mo
  • 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
  • Custom rate limits
  • Enhanced concurrency
  • Enterprise-grade flexibility
  • Volume-based pricing
  • Custom starting concurrency limits

Free Tier

$0/mo
  • Single Node Cluster
  • 0.5 vCPU / 1GB RAM/ 4 GB Disk.
  • Free Cloud Inference With Selected Models

Standard Tier

Custom
  • Dedicated Resources
  • Flexible Vertical and Horizontal Scaling
  • Highly Available Setups
  • Backup & Disaster Recovery
  • Free Tokens for Paid Inference Models
  • 99.5% Uptime SLA

Premium Tier

Custom
  • SSO
  • Private VPC Links
  • 99.9% Uptime SLA
  • Extra Support

Hybrid Cloud

Custom
  • Local Data Residency
  • Regulated Workloads
  • Easy Operations in Your Own Cloud
  • Data Stays in Your Network
  • Fully Managed Through Qdrant Cloud
  • Production-Grade Uptime

Private Cloud

Custom
  • Large Enterprises
  • Sensitive Workloads
  • Air-Gapped Setups
  • Custom SLAs
  • Full Isolation

AssemblyAI vs Qdrant 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?
Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
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. Qdrant: Qdrant sits in the middle-to-premium zone of the vector DB pack — pricier to evaluate than Pinecone's transparent self-serve tiers since everything's quote-based past free, but that opacity signals they're chasing enterprise deals over indie developers. They're clearly trying to win teams already committed to open-source Qdrant who need a managed or hybrid path without switching engines.

Still deciding? See the best AssemblyAI alternatives or the best Qdrant alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.

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