Deepgram vs Whisper (OpenAI)
AI Transcription APIs pricing comparison · 2026
Deepgram pricing ranges from $0–$4000/minute, while Whisper (OpenAI) ranges from $0.003–$0.006/minute. Whisper (OpenAI) is typically 100% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.
Deepgram
Deepgram is a real-time speech recognition platform designed for developers building voice
verified 5w ago
$169
$43K
Verdict · Vendr median · year 1
Whisper
saves
$43K
vs
Deepgram
· 25 seats
Cheapest
$169
Spread
100%
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
Usage-based
$0.0077 per minute
see vendor pricing for volume tiers
Usage-based
$0.003 per minute
see vendor pricing for volume tiers
What buyers actually pay
median, annual
Vendr deal-flow data. The real benchmark, not list price.
Median annual
$43K/yr
Vendr · n=42
↓ Lowest median
Median annual
$169/yr
Vendr · n=8 · limited data
REF · 01
Sources & confidence
Every dollar amount and contract clause below traces back to a sourced fact. We don't manufacture composite scores.
Where this data comes from
Vendr · TrustRadius · Reddit · BBB · official docs
Sources
8 sourced facts
5 hidden-cost · 1 contract · Vendr median · 1 review platform
Last verified
1mo ago
Confidence
High confidence
Sources
1 sourced fact
Vendr median
Last verified
2w ago
Confidence
High confidence
REF · 02
Plans at a glance
Every tier per product. Lock one to drive the cost row above and reveal a tier-specific outbound CTA.
Tier ladder
Click a tier to lock the cost row to it. Locking surfaces a tier-specific Visit CTA.
REF · 05
What users say
Aggregated, with sample sizes. We use whichever review platform has data.
User reviews
TrustRadius · Trustpilot · G2
Decide
Get a quote from each vendor
Each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
License cost is computed from publicly listed plans (real math, list price × seats).
Median annual cost is from Vendr's deal flow when available — see source badges.
Hidden costs and contract terms each cite their own sources. We do not invent composite scores.
VS
Deepgram and Whisper (OpenAI) both operate in the ai transcription apis category. This page compares their published pricing.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | Deepgram | Whisper (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Pay As You Go | Custom | Free /minute |
| Growth | Custom | Free /minute |
| Enterprise | Custom | Free |
Cost at Scale
Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.
Deepgram
10 scenarios$46.20/month ($554.40/year)
Live Captioning for Webinars (100 hours/month)
100 hours × 60 min/hr × $0.0077/min. Real-time streaming costs the same per-minute rate as batch processing. Total annual cost: $554.40 for 1,200 hours.
$231/month ($2,772/year)
Customer Call Analytics (500 hours/month)
500 hours × 60 min/hr × $0.0077/min. Switching to Growth plan with $4,000 prepayment reduces Nova-3 to $0.0065/min, saving $216/year (7.8% savings). Growth plan cost: $195/month ($2,340/year + $4,000 prepayment = $6,340 total for first year).
$4,800/month ($57,600/year estimate)
Enterprise Voice Agent Platform (10,000 hours/month)
10,000 hours × 60 min/hr × $0.08/min for Voice Agent API (10x more than transcription alone). Enterprise plan with 30-40% volume discount reduces this to ~$3,360-$4,032/month ($40,320-$48,384/year). Minimum Enterprise commitment typically $15,000-$30,000 annually.
Whisper (OpenAI)
3 scenarios$36/month ($432/year)
Startup Podcast Transcription (100 hours/month)
6,000 minutes at $0.006/min. With GPT-4o Mini Transcribe at $0.003/min, cost drops to $18/month ($216/year). No add-on fees for diarization. First month partially offset by $5 free credit.
$180/month ($2,160/year)
SaaS Meeting Recorder (500 hours/month)
30,000 minutes at $0.006/min with diarization included. Using GPT-4o Mini Transcribe reduces to $90/month ($1,080/year). At this volume, self-hosting open-source Whisper on GPU infrastructure ($276/month fixed) becomes cost-comparable and may be cheaper with dedicated hardware.
$1,800/month ($21,600/year)
Enterprise Call Center (5,000 hours/month)
300,000 minutes at $0.006/min. At this volume, self-hosting Whisper on dedicated GPU clusters ($500-$800/month) offers 55-70% savings but requires DevOps investment. Enterprise API pricing with volume discounts may be available through OpenAI sales.
Market Intelligence
Deepgram
- Median annual cost
- $43,000
- Based on
- 42 deals
Whisper (OpenAI)
- Median annual cost
- $169
- Based on
- 8 deals