Speakvora vs Deepgram
Deepgram started in speech recognition and added text to speech and agents. Speakvora started from the other side: ready-made prompt audio, then transcription. The honest question is which direction your product leans.
Short answer. Pick Deepgram when live, streaming voice conversations are the product. Pick Speakvora when most of your speech is repeated prompts and you transcribe recordings, because both are cheaper per unit in our list-price comparison.
The price, read carefully
Deepgram bills text to speech per 1,000 characters (Aura-1 $0.0150, Aura-2 $0.030 on Pay As You Go; Growth plan $0.0135 and $0.027) and speech to text per minute. Speakvora bills catalog voices at $0.70 per 1,000,000 characters, which is $0.0007 per 1,000. That is a list-price gap of about 95% against Aura-1 and 98% against Aura-2.
The speech-to-text gap is smaller in absolute terms but still large: Speakvora lists $0.0015 per minute. Deepgram's Nova-3 monolingual is shown at a promotional $0.0043 per minute pre-recorded and $0.0048 streaming, with a regular price of $0.0077 listed on the same page. Against the promotion Speakvora is about 65% lower; against the regular price about 81% lower. If the promotion ends, the comparison changes in Speakvora's favour; if Deepgram cuts prices, it changes the other way, so recheck before you commit.
Deepgram's $200 free credit is larger in dollar terms than Speakvora's allowance (100,000 characters, 60 minutes of transcription, 200 agent turns), but credit only delays the bill. What matters after the credit runs out is the rate.
Deepgram official pricing (as read)
Source: https://deepgram.com/pricing · checked 2026-10-08. Prices change; confirm on the source.
| Product / model | Price | Native unit | Notes and restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text to speech, Aura-1 | $0.0150 | per 1,000 characters | Growth plan $0.0135 |
| Text to speech, Aura-2 | $0.030 | per 1,000 characters | Growth plan $0.027 |
| Speech to text, Nova-3 monolingual | $0.0043 pre-recorded, $0.0048 streaming | per minute | Shown as a current promotion; the page lists a regular price of $0.0077 |
| Speech to text, Nova-3 multilingual | $0.0052 pre-recorded, $0.0058 streaming | per minute | Promotional; regular price $0.0092 listed |
| Voice Agent API, Standard | $0.075 | per minute | Billed on WebSocket connection time |
| Free credit | $200 | one time | Then pay as you go |
Speakvora list prices (early access)
| Product | List price | Native unit | Free allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catalog voices (Kokoro) | $0.70 | per 1M characters | 100,000 characters |
| Your own voice | $6 | per 1M characters | same pool |
| Speech to text | $0.0015 | per minute, billed per second | 60 minutes |
| Voice agents (beta) | $10 | per 1,000 turns | 200 turns |
| Industry packs | Coming | one time, per pack | priced when published |
Where Deepgram is stronger
- A Voice Agent API billed per connection minute ($0.075 Standard) over a WebSocket, built for live conversation
- Streaming speech to text with multilingual models
- A $200 starting credit and prepaid Growth plans with lower rates
- A text-to-speech request limit of 2,000 characters, four times Speakvora's 500
Where Speakvora is stronger
- Checked, ready-generated prompt audio that already exists, with industry packs (47 live across 23 industries today, more being built for every industry)
- Per-minute transcription at $0.0015 with no minimum
- Your own voice through the same speak call
- Pricing that does not depend on a promotion
Three situations, three different answers
A phone-menu app that speaks the same 200 prompts all day
These are repeated lines. Speakvora's phrase library already contains many support lines, so you may not need to generate anything. Aura voices are billed each time you synthesise unless you cache the audio yourself.
A call-recording tool that transcribes 20,000 minutes a month
At list prices that is $30.00 on Speakvora and $86.00 against Deepgram's promotional pre-recorded rate (or $154.00 at the regular $0.0077). Check accuracy on your own audio first; we have not published a benchmark.
A real-time voice agent that must interrupt and answer in under two seconds
Deepgram's Voice Agent API is built for this. Speakvora's agents are beta, return audio as links per sentence rather than a raw stream, and do not offer phone numbers. In our 2026-10-08 production run the first audio of an agent turn arrived in about 1.5 s with a warm worker (see the speed page); that is a measurement, not a guarantee.
What we did not find at Deepgram
- Curated industry phrase packs
- Voice cloning or voice design in the pricing material reviewed
- Searchable phrase library with stable identifiers
"Not found" means we did not see it in the official material reviewed. It is not a claim that the provider lacks it.
What we are not claiming
We have not benchmarked audio quality, accuracy or uptime against Deepgram. Speakvora has no SLA and is in early access with billing is live. Our own timings are on the speed page, with the method.
Questions people ask
Is Speakvora cheaper than Deepgram?
On list prices yes for the products we compared: $0.0015 per minute for transcription against $0.0043 promotional or $0.0077 regular for Nova-3 monolingual, and $0.0007 per 1,000 characters against $0.015 for Aura-1. Different models, so this is a cost comparison, not a quality one.
Does Speakvora have a voice agent like Deepgram's?
Speakvora has voice agents in beta at $10 per 1,000 turns. A turn is one question and one answer, so it is not convertible to Deepgram's per-minute price. Deepgram's product is built for continuous real-time audio; ours is turn-based.
Can I transcribe with Speakvora and speak with Deepgram, or the reverse?
Yes. The two are separate APIs. Many teams will pick the cheaper side for each job.
What can Deepgram do that Speakvora cannot?
Streaming at scale, a longer text-to-speech request limit (2,000 characters), enterprise plans and a larger language set for transcription. Speakvora has no word timestamps or speaker labels yet.
Switching? See the Deepgram alternative guide with the code change. Prices side by side: text to speech · speech to text.