AssemblyAI Pricing (2026)

Pure usage-based billing — you pay per hour of audio processed, with separate rates for pre-recorded vs. streaming transcription. The value metric is consumption, not seats, which means costs scale directly with how much audio you're pushing through.

2 plans usage-based Free plan Free trial Best AssemblyAI alternatives → AssemblyAI's competitors →
Pay as you go
$0/mo
Custom
Contact Sales
Verified Aug 23, 2026 Official pricing page

Keep up with your competitors, without the manual work.

Outmano tracks pricing, features, roadmaps and reviews across your market, then sends one weekly brief: what changed, and what it means for you.

Track AssemblyAI free »

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

Contact Sales
  • Custom rate limits
  • Enhanced concurrency
  • Enterprise-grade flexibility
  • Volume-based pricing
  • Custom starting concurrency limits

Does AssemblyAI have a free plan?

Yes: the Pay as you go plan is free forever, not a time-limited trial. Paid tiers also come with a free trial, no credit card required.

What the free plan includes

  • 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

AI Pricing Analysis

Pricing Model

Pure usage-based billing — you pay per hour of audio processed, with separate rates for pre-recorded vs. streaming transcription. The value metric is consumption, not seats, which means costs scale directly with how much audio you're pushing through.

Tier Strategy

The free tier is genuinely generous (185 hours pre-recorded, 333 hours streaming, no credit card) — it's built for developers prototyping and evaluating fit. The upgrade trigger is simple: when you burn through those hours or need enterprise SLAs and volume pricing, you're on the phone with sales.

Competitive Positioning

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.

Growth Lever

Usage is the entire expansion engine here — there's no feature gating to speak of, so growth comes purely from customers processing more audio over time. The 10% premium for in-region routing and per-channel billing on multichannel audio are the quiet multipliers that inflate invoices as workloads mature.

AssemblyAI Pricing FAQ

How much does AssemblyAI cost?
Pricing is custom — you'll need to talk to their sales team for a quote.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. The "Pay as you go" plan is free forever, not just a trial. You get universal-3.5 pro ($0.21/hr), universal-2 ($0.15/hr), universal-3.5 pro realtime ($0.45/hr) — plus 24 more features. It's enough to evaluate the product before upgrading.
Can I try it before paying?
Yes — there's a free trial. You don't need a credit card to start.
How does the pricing work?
Pure usage-based billing — you pay per hour of audio processed, with separate rates for pre-recorded vs. streaming transcription. The value metric is consumption, not seats, which means costs scale directly with how much audio you're pushing through.
Is there a discount for annual billing?
Volume discounts available for high-usage customers.
Which plan makes sense for me?
The free tier is genuinely generous (185 hours pre-recorded, 333 hours streaming, no credit card) — it's built for developers prototyping and evaluating fit. The upgrade trigger is simple: when you burn through those hours or need enterprise SLAs and volume pricing, you're on the phone with sales.

More AI pricing

All AI pricing →

Comparing AssemblyAI to something specific? Try AssemblyAI vs Anthropic, AssemblyAI vs Avoma, or AssemblyAI vs Baseten. Or see the best AssemblyAI alternatives, ranked.

Set it up once. Stay ahead all year.

Add the competitors you care about and Outmano does the watching, then hands you a weekly action plan with what to do next.

Track AssemblyAI free »