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AI Voice & Speech Comparison

AssemblyAI vs. Fish Audio

At a glance

At a glance

AssemblyAI

Best for

Best for developers who need accurate transcription, speech insights or voice agents behind a pay-as-you-go API.

  • Small and mid-sized
  • Enterprise

Fish Audio

Best for

Best for developers and creators who want expressive text-to-speech and quick voice cloning, including open-source models.

  • Freelancers
  • Small and mid-sized

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion AssemblyAI Fish Audio
Starting price lower value From $0.15 / hour of audio Pay-as-you-go, no subscription tiers. Pre-recorded speech-to-text is $0.15 / hour on Universal-2 and $0.21 / hour on Universal-3.5 Pro; streaming is $0.15 / hour on Universal-Streaming and $0.45 / hour on Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime; the Voice Agent API is $4.50 / hour, billed per second of connected conversation. Add-ons such as speaker diarization ($0.02 / hour) and medical mode ($0.15 / hour) are charged on top. Free tier; Plus from $15 / month Credit-based. Plus adds 250,000 credits per month, commercial use and API access; 33% off with annual billing.
Free trial $50 in free credits, no credit card required, covering up to 185 hours of pre-recorded or 333 hours of streaming transcription Free tier with 8,000 credits per month (about 7 minutes)
Commercial use Yes, usage-based Not stated
Output Transcripts, structured speech insights and live voice agent conversations Text-to-speech, speech-to-text and voice cloning (S2.1 Pro model)
API Yes, REST APIs and SDKs Yes, REST API and SDKs
Voice cloning No, the platform covers speech recognition and voice agents rather than voice creation Yes, from about 15 seconds of audio
Real-time use Yes, streaming speech-to-text and a Voice Agent API, alongside batch transcription of pre-recorded files Yes, real-time with low latency
Languages 99 languages for pre-recorded audio on Universal-2, 18 on Universal-3.5 Pro; six on Universal-Streaming Multilingual and 18 on Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime; translation across 100+ languages 30+ languages
Speech-to-speech and dubbing Yes, the Voice Agent API runs speech-to-speech conversations by orchestrating speech-to-text, an LLM and text-to-speech at one all-inclusive rate Yes, a Voice Changer transforms existing audio into a different voice
Editing and controls Speaker identification, diarization, custom formatting, key phrase extraction and guardrails for PII redaction, profanity filtering and content moderation Emotion tags and effects such as angry, sad, excited, whispering, laughing and pauses
Consent and trust SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS and a HIPAA BAA included at no premium; EU region available at identical US pricing for GDPR Professional clones require a live voiceprint check: the speaker reads a randomised passage that is matched against the training audio. Instant clones are unverified. The terms forbid using another person's voice without permission, with a voice ownership dispute process
MCP-ready stated Yes No
Deployment Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support Not stated Email helpdesk, Community forum
Onboarding Documentation and knowledge base Documentation and knowledge base
Company size Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Freelancers, Small and mid-sized

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

  • Starting price AssemblyAI From $0.15 / hour of audio Fish Audio Free tier; Plus from $15 / month
  • Free trial AssemblyAI $50 in free credits, no credit card required, covering up to 185 hours of pre-recorded or 333 hours of streaming transcription Fish Audio Free tier with 8,000 credits per month (about 7 minutes)
  • Company size AssemblyAI Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Fish Audio Freelancers, Small and mid-sized
  • MCP-ready AssemblyAI Yes Fish Audio No
  • Output AssemblyAI Transcripts, structured speech insights and live voice agent conversations Fish Audio Text-to-speech, speech-to-text and voice cloning (S2.1 Pro model)

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

AssemblyAI

Strengths

  • Pay-as-you-go with no subscription and $50 in free credits to start
  • 99 languages for pre-recorded transcription on Universal-2
  • Compliance certifications and an EU region at no price premium
  • Official MCP server exposes transcription and transcript search to AI agents

Limitations

  • A developer API, not a ready-made studio or editor
  • No voice cloning or voice creation
  • Speech Understanding add-ons are billed on top of the base rate, so cost stacks per request
  • Streaming is billed for as long as the connection stays open, not for the audio sent, and multichannel files are billed per channel
  • Universal-3.5 Pro covers 18 languages against 99 on the older Universal-2

Fish Audio

Strengths

  • Fast voice cloning and expressive emotion control
  • Open-source models (Fish Speech and Fish Audio S2)
  • Large community voice library and a developer API

Limitations

  • API access and commercial use require a paid plan
  • Cloned and community voices raise consent questions

Plans

Pricing

AssemblyAI

  • Pay-as-you-go From $0.15 / hour No subscription. Pre-recorded transcription $0.15 / hour on Universal-2 and $0.21 / hour on Universal-3.5 Pro, streaming $0.15 / hour on Universal-Streaming and $0.45 / hour on Universal-3.5 Pro Realtime, Voice Agent API $4.50 / hour. Add-ons are billed on top: speaker diarization $0.02 / hour, medical mode $0.15 / hour, keyterms prompting $0.05 / hour on Universal-3.5 Pro and included on Universal-2. Free accounts get 5 new streams per minute, pay-as-you-go accounts 100.
  • Custom Not stated Contact sales for custom rate limits, higher concurrency and volume discounts. HIPAA BAA, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance at no premium, and an EU region at identical US pricing.
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Fish Audio

  • Free $0 8,000 credits per month (about 7 minutes) and 3 public voice slots. No API access.
  • Plus $15 / month 250,000 credits (about 200 minutes), commercial use, API access and one professional voice slot. 33% off billed annually.
  • Pro $100 / month 2,000,000 credits, 3 team seats and five professional voice slots. 33% off billed annually.
  • Max $999 / month 25,000,000 credits, 10 team seats and 15 professional voice slots.
  • Enterprise Not stated Custom terms with zero data retention, on-premise deployment and SOC 2 compliance.
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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

AssemblyAI

Ease of use
Not rated yet
User interface
Not rated yet
Onboarding
Not rated yet
Support and service
Not rated yet
Value for money
Not rated yet
Features
Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Fish Audio

Ease of use
Not rated yet
User interface
Not rated yet
Onboarding
Not rated yet
Support and service
Not rated yet
Value for money
Not rated yet
Features
Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.

Where this comes from

Where this comes from

AssemblyAI https://www.assemblyai.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-30

Fish Audio https://fish.audio · no check date recorded yet

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.