See how Speechmatics compares vs Gladia on your audio
See how Speechmatics compares vs Gladia on your audio
Choose from live radio, your own voice, or sample audio to see side-by-side comparisons of Speechmatics vs Gladia.
Why enterprises choose Speechmatics over Gladia
Why enterprises choose Speechmatics over Gladia
Accuracy on the audio that actually matters
Your users don't speak in quiet studios. Speechmatics' Ursa 2 model is trained on over one million hours of noisy, accented, real-world audio — and it shows. G2 reviewers score Speechmatics 84% for speaker identification vs Gladia's 75%, and 94% for noise adaptation. When your pipeline hits Scottish accents over a bad VoIP line, that gap matters.
Real-time diarisation, included
Speechmatics delivers real-time speaker diarisation at no extra charge. Gladia does not offer speaker diarisation in real-time streaming — only in batch mode. If you're building voice agents or live call analytics, you need to know who is speaking now, not after the call ends.
On-prem, on-device, air-gapped
Speechmatics offers mature on-premises, on-device, and air-gapped deployment. Gladia states its deployment is cloud-only, with no on-premises, on-device or air-gapped option — limiting choices for regulated industries.
Speechmatics vs Gladia speech-to-text API: feature-by-feature comparison
Speechmatics vs Gladia speech-to-text API: feature-by-feature comparison
A detailed look at how the two platforms stack up across core capabilities, advanced features, and verified public reviews.
Feature | Speechmatics ★ | Gladia |
|---|---|---|
Flagship Model | Ursa 2 (Standard and Enhanced Accuracy) | Solaria-3 (batch) / Solaria-1 (real-time + batch) |
Supported Languages | 100+ languages (claimed) | |
Real-Time Speaker Diarisation | ✓ Yes, included at no extra charge | ✗ Not available in real-time (batch only) |
Custom Dictionary | 1,000 words (included at no extra charge) | Included (custom vocabulary) |
✓ Mature, production-ready | ✗ Not available (cloud-only) | |
On-Device Deployment | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
Air-Gapped Deployment | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
Pricing Model | Simple per-hour, all-inclusive | Per-hour; audio-intelligence add-ons billed separately |
Pricing (from) | From $0.12/hr (Melia batch), diarisation included | From €0.16/hr batch (Solaria-3); €0.68/hr real-time |
ISO 27001 / SOC2 / HIPAA / GDPR | ✓ All four | ✓ All four |
G2 Spring 2026 — Head-to-Head
Metric | Speechmatics ★ | Gladia |
|---|---|---|
Overall G2 Rating | 4.8 / 5 (52 reviews) | 4.8 / 5 (23 reviews) |
Speaker Identification | 84% | 75% |
Environmental Noise Adaptation | 94% | 93% |
Installation & Setup Ease | 97% | 93% |
Secure Communication | 93% | 88% |
Regulatory Compliance | 95% | 93% |
Average Time to ROI | 3 months | 5 months |
Ease of Use | 94% | 92% |
Where Speechmatics outperforms Gladia
Where Speechmatics outperforms Gladia
Real-Time ASR | Enterprise Differentiation | Competitive Positioning
Trained for real-world audio
G2 reviewers rate Speechmatics at 84% for speaker identification, nine points above Gladia, and 94% for noise adaptation. The platform is specifically trained on difficult audio: call-centre noise, accented speech, VoIP, and crosstalk.
Real-time speaker diarisation
Gladia offers diarisation in batch mode only, with no real-time streaming option. Speechmatics delivers real-time speaker diarisation at no extra charge, available for voice agents, live call analytics, and meeting transcription.
Faster time to ROI
G2 reviewers report an average 3-month time to ROI with Speechmatics versus 5 months with Gladia. Installation and setup ease scores 97% versus 93%, which helps explain the difference.
Stronger speaker identification
Speechmatics scores 84% vs Gladia's 75% for speaker identification in verified G2 reviews. For meetings, call centres, and voice agent pipelines, a 9-point gap has real downstream effects on transcript quality.
Enterprise security confidence
Speechmatics scores 93% for secure communication on G2, against Gladia's 88%. With 95% regulatory compliance and mature air-gapped deployment options, it's a more complete fit for security-sensitive enterprise procurement.
Transparent, all-inclusive pricing
Speechmatics prices per audio hour with diarisation (including real-time), custom vocabulary, and support included. Gladia bills audio-intelligence add-ons separately (summarisation, sentiment, translation, PII redaction), and its diarisation is batch only.
What our customers say
“We teamed up with Speechmatics to ensure we deliver the best speech technology on the market.”
“We're delighted to work with Speechmatics to drive our live and batch captioning processes – they continue to be ahead of the pack for all our key quality metrics.”
“Speechmatics strives to push boundaries, playing a pivotal role in the development of our workspace. They consistently outperform other vendors for word error rate, speaker segmentation and punctuation.”
![[alt: G2 logo.]](https://images.ctfassets.net/yze1aysi0225/79SHrcFwRGwSc1IeH3djRn/5488845310d7c6b9f676272bbb7e8f3f/g2-logo.svg){kind=logo}
“Speechmatics has been a fantastic business partner. We use Speechmatics as the “ears” for our ChatGPT-powered robots that keep telemarketer scammers busy… The account team is responsive and support is prompt, helpful, and human.”
“Great customer support. Great product. We implemented a custom dictionary and found Speechmatics incredibly accurate and easy to use.”
“Real-time diarization is a challenge that the product beautifully solved… [It] is part of the base price, we didn't need a separate speaker-separation step.”
“Of all the systems and services I experimented with, Speechmatics' accuracy was the clear leader…”
“It has a very high yield on accuracy of transcriptions - much better than any other offering we have reviewed.”
Frequently Asked Questions: Speechmatics vs Gladia
Both platforms share a 4.8 out of 5 G2 rating. In head-to-head G2 Spring 2026 metrics, Speechmatics leads on speaker identification (84% vs 75%), installation and setup ease (97% vs 93%), secure communication (93% vs 88%), regulatory compliance (95% vs 93%), ease of use (94% vs 92%), and average time to ROI (3 months vs 5 months).
No. Gladia's speaker diarisation is available in batch mode only, not in real-time streaming. With Gladia in real time, multi-channel audio can be used to separate speakers. Speechmatics offers real-time speaker diarisation at no extra charge — critical for voice agents, live meeting transcription, and real-time call analytics.
Gladia states that its deployment is cloud-only (dedicated EU and US clusters), with no on-premises or air-gapped hosting on any plan. Speechmatics offers mature, production-ready on-premises deployment alongside on-device and fully air-gapped options. This is essential for enterprises in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, defence, and government that need full data sovereignty.
Speechmatics starts from $0.12/hr for Melia batch, with features like speaker diarisation and custom dictionary included at no extra charge. Gladia prices in euros: batch (async) transcription from €0.16/hr with Solaria-3 or €0.27/hr with Solaria-1, and real-time from €0.68/hr, with custom vocabulary and batch diarisation included. Audio-intelligence add-ons such as summarisation, sentiment, translation and PII redaction cost €0.02–0.07/hr each on top.
Speechmatics supports 55+ production-proven languages with the Ursa 2 model covering all accents and dialects. Gladia claims 100+ languages with code-switching support. Speechmatics' language support is backed by G2-verified enterprise reviews and proven across diverse production deployments worldwide.
Both platforms hold ISO 27001, SOC2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance. However, Speechmatics scores higher on G2 for secure communication (93% vs 88%) and regulatory compliance (95% vs 93%). Speechmatics also offers air-gapped and on-device deployment for environments requiring the highest level of security and data isolation.
Yes. Speechmatics offers a straightforward REST API and WebSocket interface for real-time transcription. New accounts get $100 in credit to get started, plus hands-on migration support from our customer success team. G2 reviewers rate Speechmatics 97% for installation and setup ease versus Gladia's 93%.
Yes. Speechmatics includes a dedicated Medical Model purpose-built for clinical documentation — trained on SNOMED CT terminology, FDA/MHRA drug names, and real clinical audio. It delivers up to 50% fewer critical errors compared to general models, with 96% medical term recall, available for real-time transcription across English, French, German, Spanish, Danish, and Norwegian. Gladia has no dedicated medical speech model. See the Medical Model launch announcement and the Humetrix case study — where Speechmatics replaced Whisper for multilingual clinical transcription across 27 languages at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Melia is Speechmatics’ new multilingual speech-to-text model with native code-switching across all 55+ supported languages in a single pass — no per-language model selection needed. It outperforms Deepgram, Microsoft, and AssemblyAI on most FLEURS language benchmarks, which makes it a strong fit for multilingual content, accented speakers, and global deployments. Priced from $0.12/hr for batch, it’s also the most affordable model in the Speechmatics range, and new accounts get $100 in credit to get started.
All three offer real-time and batch transcription APIs. Speechmatics and Deepgram both offer real-time speaker diarization (Deepgram charges extra for it), while Gladia's diarization is for pre-recorded audio only. Speechmatics also offers on-premises, on-device and air-gapped deployment, where Gladia is cloud-only. For a detailed Deepgram comparison, see Speechmatics vs Deepgram.
Gladia's current models are Solaria-1 (real-time and batch, 100+ languages, code-switching) and Solaria-3 (batch only, optimized for English, French, German, Spanish and Italian). Speechmatics' equivalents are Ursa 2 for real-time and batch transcription, and Melia 1 for multilingual batch transcription with native code-switching across 55+ languages. Unlike Gladia, Speechmatics also offers speaker diarization in real time.
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