# The cheapest transcription APIs in 2026

Transcription on the catalog starts at $0.0015 per minute of audio (Deepgram Flux). At that rate 1,000 hours of audio, 60,000 minutes, transcribes for $90 at list. All 7 transcription models are compared below.

## Ranked list

1. **Deepgram Flux**. Deepgram · 0K context · $0.0015 per minute · Proprietary API. https://allocate.network/models/deepgram-flux
2. **Deepgram Nova 3**. Deepgram · 0K context · $0.0015 per minute · Proprietary API. https://allocate.network/models/deepgram-nova-3-en
3. **Deepgram Nova 3 Multilingual**. Deepgram · 0K context · $0.0015 per minute · Proprietary API. https://allocate.network/models/deepgram-nova-3-multi
4. **Nvidia Nemotron 3 ASR Streaming 0.6B**. Nvidia · 0K context · $0.0015 per minute · Apache 2.0. https://allocate.network/models/nvidia-nemotron-3-asr-streaming-0-6b
5. **Nvidia Nemotron 3.5 ASR Streaming 0.6B**. Nvidia · 0K context · $0.0015 per minute · Apache 2.0. https://allocate.network/models/nvidia-nemotron-3-5-asr-streaming-0-6b
6. **Nvidia Parakeet TDT 0.6B V3**. Nvidia · 0K context · $0.0015 per minute · Not listed. https://allocate.network/models/nvidia-parakeet-tdt-0-6b-v3
7. **Whisper large-v3**. OpenAI · $0.0015 per minute · Apache 2.0. https://allocate.network/models/openai-whisper-large-v3

## Data table

| Rank | Model | Price | Page |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Deepgram Flux | $0.0015 | https://allocate.network/models/deepgram-flux.md |
| 2 | Deepgram Nova 3 | $0.0015 | https://allocate.network/models/deepgram-nova-3-en.md |
| 3 | Deepgram Nova 3 Multilingual | $0.0015 | https://allocate.network/models/deepgram-nova-3-multi.md |
| 4 | Nvidia Nemotron 3 ASR Streaming 0.6B | $0.0015 | https://allocate.network/models/nvidia-nemotron-3-asr-streaming-0-6b.md |
| 5 | Nvidia Nemotron 3.5 ASR Streaming 0.6B | $0.0015 | https://allocate.network/models/nvidia-nemotron-3-5-asr-streaming-0-6b.md |
| 6 | Nvidia Parakeet TDT 0.6B V3 | $0.0015 | https://allocate.network/models/nvidia-parakeet-tdt-0-6b-v3.md |
| 7 | Whisper large-v3 | $0.0015 | https://allocate.network/models/openai-whisper-large-v3.md |

Provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-08. Billed price is list plus the 7% transaction fee.

## Per-minute pricing in practice

Transcription bills on audio duration, not words produced, so cost forecasting is simple: minutes in, dollars out. Streaming and batch modes of the same model usually share a price; latency requirements, language coverage, and diarization decide between models more than price does at these levels.

For downstream LLM work, remember the second bill: an hour of speech is roughly 9,000 words, about 12,000 tokens, of input to whatever model reads the transcript.

## Common questions

### What does transcription cost per hour?

$0.09 per hour at list on Deepgram Flux ($0.0015 per minute). On Allocate, list plus the 7% transaction fee.

### Does audio quality change the price?

No; billing is per minute of input audio regardless of quality. It changes accuracy instead, which is why noisy-channel workloads are worth testing across models before committing volume.

## Related

- [The model catalog](https://allocate.network/models)
- [LLM token counter](https://allocate.network/tools/llm-token-counter)
- [Cheapest image generation models](https://allocate.network/best/cheapest-image-generation-models)

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