Why voice-first companies make the switch: ElevenLabs was tuned for studio audio. Gladia was tuned for real conversations: customer calls, overlapping speakers, accents, and languages switching mid-sentence.
Both platforms transcribe 90+ languages, in batch and in real time. But they serve different priorities: ElevenLabs speech-to-text is one product among text-to-speech, dubbing, and voice agents, and Scribe performs best on clean, formal audio. Gladia is an end-to-end audio intelligence platform, built for real conversations, live code-switching across 100+ languages, and EU data jurisdiction by default.
Choose Gladia if…
Choose ElevenLabs if…
| Criterion |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | ||
| Core focus | End-to-end speech-to-text and audio intelligence infrastructure | Voice AI platform: text-to-speech, music, dubbing, voice cloning, voice agents;speech-to-text (Scribe) is one capability |
| Models | Solaria-1 (real-time, 100+ languages) ·Solaria-3 (async, real-world EN/EU audio) | Scribe v2 (batch) ·Scribe v2 Realtime |
| Accuracy & speed | ||
| WER, conversational¹ | 33.9% (Solaria-3) ·37.3% (Solaria-1) | 55.2% (Scribe v2) |
| WER, real customer calls¹ | 9.6% (Solaria-3) | 9.9% (Scribe v2) |
| WER, noisy audio¹ | 1.4% (Solaria-3) | 4.0% (Scribe v2) |
| Hugging Face Open ASR (private) | 14.18% (Solaria-3) ·8.26% average WER, #1 commercial model | 15.76% (Scribe v2) ·9.11% average WER, #14 commercial model |
| Diarization error rates¹ ² | 16.6% | 39.5% (Scribe v1) |
| Real-time latency | <300ms streaming (Solaria-1) | ~150ms self-reported (Scribe v2 Realtime), excludes network latency;no independent benchmark |
| Async throughput¹ | 39× real-time (Solaria-1) | 32× real-time (Scribe v2) |
| Product scope | ||
| Languages | 100+, live code-switching on all of them | 90+ (Scribe v2, batch + realtime);code-switching not documented |
| Live audio intelligence | Sentiment, entity detection, and translation stream live | Keyterm prompting live;diarization and entity detection batch only |
| Audio intelligence pricing | Diarization and custom vocabulary included;summarization, sentiment, translation, NER, and PII redaction are per-hour add-ons ($0.02–$0.08/hr) | Diarization included (batch, up to 32 speakers);entity detection +$0.07/hr and keyterm prompting +$0.05/hr; sentiment, summarization, and translation not documented |
| Audio-to-LLM | 400+ models via OpenRouter, in the same call (async) | No standalone equivalent;LLM features live in the separate Agents platform |
| Voice-agent integrations | LiveKit ·Pipecat ·Vapi ·Jambonz ·Twilio ·Recall.ai | Built into ElevenLabs Agents;no published third-party STT integrations |
| Deployment & data | ||
| Trains on your audio | Opt-in by default (Self-serve plan), with opt-out at no extra cost | By default on non-Enterprise plans, opt-out applies only going forward;off by default on Enterprise |
| Certifications | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA (both renewed May 2026), HDS, GDPR, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS Level 1, HIPAA (BAA via Sales), GDPR;no HDS documented |
| Data residency | French company -EU/GDPR jurisdiction by default | EU data residency on Enterprise plans only |
| Pricing | ||
| Starting price | Async from $0.18/hr (Solaria-3) ·$0.30/hr (Solaria-1) ·real-time $0.75/hr | $0.22/hr (Scribe v2) ·$0.39/hr (Scribe v2 Realtime), from credits shared across the ElevenLabs platform |
¹ Gladia open benchmark, same audio for every provider. Methodology and code on GitHub · ² ElevenLabs diarization tested on Scribe v1 (deprecated July 2026); Scribe v2 not yet benchmarked · Gladia pricing effective Oct 14, 2026; ElevenLabs pricing as published Oct 8, 2026.
ElevenLabs offers a full voice platform, from text-to-speech and dubbing to voice cloning and agents, with Scribe as one product among many. Gladia is an audio AI infrastructure platform built listening-first: speech-to-text and audio intelligence.
01 · Accuracy & benchmarks
It depends on the audio. On real-world conversational speech, Gladia is more accurate: Solaria-3 beats ElevenLabs Scribe v2 on Switchboard (33.9% vs 55.2% WER), real customer calls (9.6% vs 9.9%), financial earnings calls (6.4% vs 7.7%), and noisy audio (1.4% vs 4.0%).
ElevenLabs leads on formal speech (VoxPopuli 1.7% vs 2.2%), clean read speech (Common Voice 3.9% vs 6.9%), and long financial calls (Earnings22 Full 9.4% vs 11.8%).
Switchboard WER
Customer calls WER
Earnings22 WER
Noisy audio WER
Diarization DER (DIHARD III)
Source: Gladia open benchmark, identical audio per provider. ElevenLabs tested on Scribe v2; diarization tested on Scribe v1 (deprecated July 2026).
02 · Real-time latency
Solaria-1 streams in under 300ms. ElevenLabs reports about 150ms for Scribe v2 Realtime, a self-reported figure that excludes network and application latency and has no independent benchmark.
On the Pipecat benchmark, Scribe v2 scores a lower WER (2.2% vs 2.7%), though that result is for its batch model, not Scribe v2 Realtime.
Scribe v2 Realtime also predicts upcoming words from buffered audio, so its partials can be corrected later; Solaria-1's partials are confirmed from the audio signal, with no corrections for your LLM pipeline to handle.
For async jobs, Solaria-1 is faster: 39× real-time vs 32× on Earnings22.
WER (Pipecat) · lower is better+0.5 pts
Solaria-1
Scribe v2, batch model
Async throughput (RTFx) · higher is faster1.2× faster
Solaria-1
Scribe v2
Code-switching, translation, entity detection, and sentiment analysis (per-hour add-ons) stream live over the same WebSocket connection. Scribe v2 Realtime offers keyterm prompting live; diarization and entity detection are batch only.
03 · Languages & code-switching
Gladia supports more languages, with live code-switching on all of them: Solaria-1 tracks speakers switching languages mid-sentence and translates as it happens, across 100+ languages.
ElevenLabs Scribe v2 supports 90+ languages with automatic language detection, but doesn't document code-switching.
Solaria-1all with live code-switching
Scribe v2
Scribe v2languages with documented code-switching
ElevenLabs Scribe v2 is more accurate on European languages in clean, audiobook-style recordings (Multilingual LibriSpeech). Gladia's edge is breadth: live code-switching across 100+ languages in one model.
04 · Audio intelligence
Summaries, sentiment, entities, translation, and LLM-ready output come back in the same API call as the transcript, with your choice of 400+ models.
ElevenLabs' LLM layer lives inside its separate Agents product: a different product, a different integration, a different bill.
Diarization and custom vocabulary are included; everything else is a per-hour add-on, so you pay only for what you switch on.
| Feature | |
|
|---|---|---|
| Speaker diarization | Included (Async) | Included (Batch only · up to 32 speakers) |
| Custom vocabulary | Included (Real-time + async) | +$0.05/hr (Up to 1,000 keyterms) |
| PII redaction | $0.08/hr (Async) | Not documented |
| Named entity recognition | $0.08/hr (Real-time + async) | +$0.07/hr (Batch only · 65 categories) |
| Sentiment analysis | $0.02/hr (Real-time + async) | Not documented |
| Summarization | $0.03/hr (Post-session) | Not documented |
| Translation | $0.06/hr (Real-time + async) | Not documented |
| Audio-to-LLM (400+ models) | Per token (Async) | Agents only (Separate platform) |
05 · Pricing
For async transcription, yes. Solaria-3 starts at $0.18/hr with diarization and custom vocabulary included; ElevenLabs Scribe v2 costs $0.22/hr, or $0.34/hr with keyterm prompting and entity detection added.
For real-time, Scribe v2 Realtime is lower at $0.39/hr vs Gladia's $0.75/hr, though ElevenLabs bills transcription from credits shared with text-to-speech, dubbing, and music.
Async (pre-recorded)
Gladia Solaria-3 · asyncStarting rate · drops further as monthly volume grows
Gladia Solaria-1 · asyncStarting rate · 100+ languages with code-switching
ElevenLabs Scribe v2 · batch$0.34/hr with keyterms and entity detection · platform credits shared with TTS, dubbing, and music
Included in every request: diarization (async) · custom vocabulary · enhanced punctuation (async) · names consistency. New accounts get 50€ in free credits, valid 1 year.
Teams that move their transcription workload from ElevenLabs to Gladia see sharper accuracy on real conversations, code-switching that works live, and an STT bill that isn't competing with their TTS spend.
Gladia's REST and WebSocket APIs are built for straightforward parameter mapping, and Gladia's team can walk you through moving a Scribe integration to Gladia without restructuring the rest of your voice stack.
Yes, especially if your audio is real conversations rather than clean or scripted recordings.
On Switchboard's conversational speech benchmark, Solaria-3 scores 33.9% WER against ElevenLabs Scribe v2's 55.2%, the widest gap in Gladia's open benchmark suite.
If your primary use case is transcribing audiobooks, parliamentary recordings, or other clean formal speech, ElevenLabs Scribe performs very well on those benchmarks.
Not to the same degree. ElevenLabs includes diarization for up to 32 speakers on Scribe v2 batch, but not on Scribe v2 Realtime.
Gladia's diarization is also an async feature, but it's more accurate: 16.6% diarization error on DIHARD III vs 39.5% for ElevenLabs Scribe v1.
Code-switching is the bigger difference: mid-sentence language switching isn't a documented Scribe feature, while all of Gladia's 100+ supported languages handle live code-switching and translation.
Yes, you can pair Gladia's speech-to-text with ElevenLabs' text-to-speech, or with any other provider. Both expose standard REST and WebSocket interfaces.
ElevenLabs' own Scribe v2 Realtime model is built into its Agents platform by default, while Gladia plugs into voice-agent stacks through integrations like LiveKit, Pipecat, Vapi, Jambonz, and Twilio.
Gladia is a French company, so it falls under EU and GDPR jurisdiction by default. It holds SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA (both renewed May 2026), ISO 27001, ISO 27701, and HDS (French healthcare data hosting), and offers zero data retention.
ElevenLabs holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS Level 1, and HIPAA (BAA via Sales), and offers a Zero Retention Mode, but EU data residency is available only on Enterprise plans.
On non-Enterprise plans, ElevenLabs may use your audio to improve its models by default, and opting out applies only going forward. Gladia's standard rates assume opt-in to model improvement under the Self-serve plan, with opt-out available at no extra cost.
Scribe v2 and Scribe v2 Realtime are ElevenLabs' speech-to-text models, supporting 90+ languages with automatic language detection.
Gladia's equivalents are Solaria-1 (real-time, 100+ languages with live code-switching) and Solaria-3 (async, tuned for real-world English and European-language audio).
On Gladia's open benchmarks, Solaria models outperform Scribe on conversational speech, noisy audio, and diarization; Scribe v2 outperforms Solaria on clean, formal-speech datasets like VoxPopuli and Multilingual LibriSpeech.
Yes. New Gladia accounts get 50€ in free credits, valid for one year: over 250 hours of async transcription at Solaria-3's $0.18/hr starting rate.
Generate an API key in the developer console and make your first transcription call with a single request, the same way you would with an ElevenLabs API key.
Test Solaria-1 or Solaria-3 against your own audio at real volume before committing to a plan.
