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AssemblyAI vs Tunk

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Both ship a public API.

AssemblyAISpeech-to-text API priced by the hour of audioTunkSpeech-to-text and voice-agent APIs from an Indian vendor, with browser playgrounds for both

Side by side

FactAssemblyAITunk
CategorySpeech-to-Text & TranscriptionSpeech-to-Text & Transcription
Pricing modelPaidPaid
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsAPIWeb, API
CompanyAssemblyAI, Inc.LogicNimbus Private Limited
Launched2017—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

AssemblyAI

The transcription API to reach for when accuracy and per-hour pricing matter more than a user interface, but the headline rate is a base rate and every label you actually want adds to it.

Pros

  • $50 of credits at signup with no card required
  • Per-hour rates are published plainly and undercut most incumbents
  • Add-ons cover diarisation, redaction, summarisation and medical vocabulary
  • Voice Agent API is one flat $0.075/min covering model and speech too

Cons

  • No product surface at all — everything is code
  • Add-ons stack, so the real rate usually lands well above $0.15/hr
  • Streaming diarisation costs six times the async equivalent
  • No volume discounts published on the pricing page

Tunk

A small Indian voice-AI vendor covering both halves of the stack — recognition and agents — with playgrounds you can poke at before wiring anything up. What we could not establish is the thing that decides whether it is worth trying: the rate. Nothing on the site rendered a price for us, and there is little third-party coverage to check it against.

Pros

  • Covers both speech-to-text and voice agent building from one account
  • Interactive playgrounds for both products, not just API documentation
  • Names a real legal entity and registered Indian address on the site

Cons

  • Pricing page renders no figures, so the rate is unknown until you sign up
  • No published accuracy or latency benchmarks
  • Small vendor with thin third-party coverage to corroborate its claims

Which one fits

Choose AssemblyAI if you need

  • Developers embedding transcription into call, meeting or media products
  • Teams needing speaker labels, redaction and summaries from one vendor
  • Voice-agent builders who want recognition, reasoning and speech on a single bill

Choose Tunk if you need

  • Teams evaluating speech APIs from an India-based vendor
  • Building voice agents and transcription against a single provider
  • Trying real-time recognition in a browser playground before integrating

More comparisons

All Tunk alternatives →Browse all Speech-to-Text & Transcription →