AssemblyAI alternative

Our transcripts are built for Indian phone calls.

Hindi in Devanagari, English in Latin script, and speaker labels included, on our GPUs in India.

AssemblyAI’s numbers checked 25 October 2026.

Compare
The Frequency console: Agent Studio with four agents in Hinglish, Hindi, Tamil and Gujarati, and a test call in the browser.

Why switch

Why people switch to Frequency.

Everything a phone call in India needs, from one team, priced in rupees.

Fourier Transcribe

₹18 an hour.²

Recorded calls, speaker labels included, charged once, when the transcript is done.

Five languages, live.

Hindi, English, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu. And the Hinglish in between, mid-sentence.

Every call runs on our own GPUs in India.

The listening, the thinking and the voice are ours: Fourier STT, Gemma 4 26B and Fourier TTS.

Who said what.

Every transcript comes with speaker labels, and every word in its own script.

Phone agents, on the same key.

When you want the whole call, the same key and wallet run our voice agents.

AI agents from ₹1 a minute.¹

Hear it before you decide.

Real lines from Fourier TTS, one request each, unedited. Pick a language and press play.

Hear it

AssemblyAI went wide. We went deep on the Indian call.

Here is how AssemblyAI and Frequency differ.

AssemblyAI is a speech-to-text company with a published rate card, 99 languages on its older model and a free tier big enough to test with. We're narrower: recorded phone calls in India. Our transcript knows who spoke, keeps Hindi in Devanagari and English in Latin script, and costs ₹18 an hour with the speaker labels in.

AssemblyAI is a speech-to-text company first. Its newest model, Universal-3.5 Pro, covers 18 languages and follows speakers as they switch between them. The older Universal-2 covers 99. There is a streaming API, a voice agent API, medical mode, and a rate card where every line has a price.

We started from the other end: a phone call in India, recorded, that somebody has to read later. Fourier STT is our own speech recognition, and it listens on every call our agents make. For recordings, Fourier Transcribe goes over the audio several times and writes one clean transcript. Tell it who is calling and the names that matter, and it uses them. The result says who spoke, with Hindi in Devanagari and English words in Latin script, the way the call actually went.

Hear it.

Real lines from Fourier TTS. Pick one, press play.

Text149 characters

Hi, मैं नेहा बोल रही हूँ Acme Store से। आपका order dispatch हो गया है और Friday तक deliver हो जाएगा। Address में कोई change करना हो तो अभी बता दीजिए।

48 kHz · MonoReady when you are

0:00 / 0:09

voice
Neha
language
Hinglish
speech
0:09
characters
149

Fourier TTS, voice neha, rendered 16 Oct 2026. One request, not edited.

Text119 characters

नमस्ते, मैं श्रुति बोल रही हूँ, दाँतों के क्लिनिक से। कल सुबह डॉक्टर साहब से आपका मिलना तय है। क्या आप समय पर आ पाएँगे?

48 kHz · MonoReady when you are

0:00 / 0:08

voice
Shruti
language
Hindi
speech
0:08
characters
119

Fourier TTS, voice shruti, rendered 16 Oct 2026. One request, not edited.

Text117 characters

નમસ્તે, હું આશુ બોલું છું. તમારી લોનનો હપ્તો આવતા અઠવાડિયે ભરવાનો છે. તમે કહો તો હું અત્યારે જ ભરવાની રીત સમજાવી દઉં.

48 kHz · MonoReady when you are

0:00 / 0:08

voice
Ashu
language
Gujarati
speech
0:08
characters
117

Fourier TTS, voice ashu, rendered 17 Oct 2026. One request, not edited.

Text167 characters

வணக்கம், நான் நேஹா பேசுகிறேன். உங்கள் பார்சல் நாளை மாலைக்குள் வந்து சேரும். அந்த நேரத்தில் நீங்கள் வீட்டில் இல்லையென்றால் சொல்லுங்கள், வேறு நாளுக்கு மாற்றி விடுகிறோம்.

48 kHz · MonoReady when you are

0:00 / 0:10

voice
Neha
language
Tamil
speech
0:10
characters
167

Fourier TTS, voice neha, rendered 17 Oct 2026. One request, not edited.

Text114 characters

నమస్కారం, నేను సమీర్ మాట్లాడుతున్నాను. నిన్న మీరు మా కొత్త ఇళ్ళ గురించి అడిగారు. ఇప్పుడు కొంచెం సేపు మాట్లాడవచ్చా?

48 kHz · MonoReady when you are

0:00 / 0:08

voice
Sameer
language
Telugu
speech
0:08
characters
114

Fourier TTS, voice sameer, rendered 17 Oct 2026. One request, not edited.

Side by side

Here is AssemblyAI beside Frequency.

Every price in rupees³, from their own pages and ours.⁴

Price

What an hour costs

AssemblyAI prices by the hour. Universal-2 is $0.15, about ₹14.24 at the ECB rate. Universal-3.5 Pro is $0.21, about ₹19.94. Speaker labels are an add-on on both, $0.02 an hour, so a labelled hour on the newer model comes to about ₹21.84.

Ours is ₹18 an hour, speaker labels included. That is 30 paise a minute. A five-minute call costs ₹1.50, and you pay once, when the job finishes. A job that fails or comes back degraded is free.

So AssemblyAI’s older model is cheaper than us per hour, and its newer model with labels costs a little more. The difference is not the price. It is what comes back.

The languages that matter here

On Universal-3.5 Pro, Hindi is the only Indian language. Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati live on Universal-2, where AssemblyAI’s own page puts them in its moderate and fair accuracy bands. That is honest of them, and worth reading before you send a Telugu call.

We do five languages, and the Hinglish in between. The transcript keeps each word in its own script. That matters for a collections call where the amount is in English and the excuse is in Hindi.

Recorded calls, ₹ per hour of audio
Recorded calls, AssemblyAI and Frequency, in rupees per hour of audio
OptionBar₹ per hour of audio
Universal-2 99 languages ₹14.24$0.15
Universal-3.5 Pro 18 languages ₹19.94$0.21
Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime streaming ₹42.73$0.45
Fourier Transcribe recorded calls, speaker labels included ₹18
How we read these numbers

Dollar prices converted at ₹94.96, the ECB reference rate on 16 October 2026. The rate.

  • Universal-2: “$0.15”, assemblyai.com
  • Universal-3.5 Pro: “$0.21”, assemblyai.com; speaker labels $0.02 an hour extra
  • Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime: “$0.45”, assemblyai.com
  • Fourier Transcribe: 18 rupees an hour of recorded audio, speaker labels included, from our price list.

AssemblyAI already prices by the hour, so nothing is converted except the currency. Speaker labels are a separate line on its page, $0.02 an hour on recordings, and they are inside our ₹18.

From assemblyai.com/pricing, checked . Ours from our price list.

What speech costs, AssemblyAI and Frequency, in their words
DetailAssemblyAIFrequency
Pre-recorded price Universal-3.5 Pro $0.21 an hour and Universal-2 $0.15 an hour, pay as you go speaker diarization is an add-on at $0.02 an hour on both assemblyai.com ₹18 per hour of audio (₹0.30 a minute), charged once when the job completes speaker labels included
Streaming price Universal-3.6 Pro Realtime $0.45 an hour Universal-Streaming $0.15 an hour, in English or six European languages; speaker diarization $0.12 an hour on streaming assemblyai.com Streaming recognition runs inside every voice agent as a standalone API it is in private preview, on request

Languages and voices

Languages and voices, AssemblyAI and Frequency
DetailAssemblyAIFrequency
Indian languages Universal-3.5 Pro covers 18 languages with native code switching, Hindi the only Indian one Universal-2 adds Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu, which AssemblyAI's own page puts in its moderate (>25% to ≤50% WER) and fair (>50% WER) accuracy bands assemblyai.com Hindi, Gujarati, English, Tamil and Telugu, plus Hinglish Hindi in Devanagari, English in Latin script
An Indian voice The Voice Agent API bundles AssemblyAI's own text-to-speech voices at $4.50/hr ($0.075/min), billed per second the pricing page names no Indian-language voice assemblyai.com Fourier TTS: Hindi, Gujarati, English, Tamil and Telugu, ₹1.80 per 1,000 characters

Where it runs

Where it runs, AssemblyAI and Frequency
DetailAssemblyAIFrequency
Where it runs US endpoints in N. Virginia, Ohio and Oregon, EU endpoints in Frankfurt, Stockholm and Ireland no India region assemblyai.com Every call and every request runs on our own GPUs in India

Try it free

Getting started, AssemblyAI and Frequency
DetailAssemblyAIFrequency
Try it free No credit card the free tier includes up to 185 hours of pre-recorded transcription and up to 333 hours of streaming transcription assemblyai.com No sign-up to look around the sandbox ₹200 of credit once you confirm a work email

Concurrent jobs

For developers, AssemblyAI and Frequency
DetailAssemblyAIFrequency
Concurrent jobs 5 parallel transcriptions on the free plan and 200+ on paid streaming starts at 100 new sessions a minute on pay as you go assemblyai.com A shared endpoint recordings up to 2 hours each

Speaker labels

More, AssemblyAI and Frequency
DetailAssemblyAIFrequency
Speaker labels A paid add-on: $0.02 an hour on pre-recorded audio, $0.12 an hour on streaming assemblyai.com Included on every transcript, with a speaker id per voice

Spot something out of date? Tell us. Six platforms in one table: Voice AI platforms compared.

Which to pick

Which is right for you?

Sometimes it's them. We'll say so.

Choose AssemblyAI if…

  • You transcribe many languages, or mostly English, and want one vendor for all of them.
  • You need a public streaming API today. Ours is still in private preview.
  • Your security review asks for SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA BAA you can sign online.
  • You want a big free tier before you spend: 185 hours of recordings.

Choose Frequency if…

  • Your recordings are phone calls in Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu or English, often mixed.
  • You want speaker labels in the price, not as an add-on.
  • You want the audio processed in India, on our own GPUs.
  • You'd like an Indian voice, and later whole phone agents, on the same key and wallet.

Where AssemblyAI is ahead

A public streaming API, today. Far more languages. SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA agreement you sign yourself. A free tier of 185 hours. If you transcribe meetings in Spanish and podcasts in English as well as calls in Hindi, one vendor for all of it is a fair reason to stay.

Moving

Moving your code across is easy.

One request in, a transcript with speakers out.

  1. Step 1

    Open the sandbox.

    Look around with no sign-up. When you are ready, create a key in Developers.

  2. Step 2

    Send a recording.

    One POST with the file, and a line of context about the call if you have it.

  3. Step 3

    Read who said what.

    The transcript comes back with a speaker on every line, each word in its own script.

Open the sandbox

Switching

Send the recording to POST /v2/transcriptions with a line of context and the names to get right. For files over 45 MB, send an https link instead. Then poll the job until it is done. The transcription guide has Python and Node.js examples, and the Hindi STT comparison lists what other recognisers cost.

Then take twenty real calls, run them through both, and score them against a transcript a native speaker has corrected. That test settles it faster than any page.

POST /v2/transcriptions 
curl -X POST https://sandbox.voice.miraiminds.co/v2/transcriptions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MIRAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: call-2026-10-02-0412" \
  -F [email protected] \
  -F context="A call to a university admissions desk about a course and its fees" \
  -F vocabulary="Mira University, BBA, Aadhaar"

Questions

Here is what people ask before switching from AssemblyAI.

What does an hour of audio cost on each?

AssemblyAI's Universal-2 is $0.15 an hour, about ₹14.24, and Universal-3.5 Pro is $0.21, about ₹19.94. Speaker labels add $0.02 an hour on either. Ours is ₹18 an hour, speaker labels included, so a five-minute call costs ₹1.50.

Does AssemblyAI do Hindi?

Yes. Hindi is one of the 18 languages on Universal-3.5 Pro, with code switching. Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati are only on the older Universal-2, where AssemblyAI's own page rates them in its weaker accuracy bands. Test your own recordings on both before you decide.

Can I stream live audio to you?

Inside our voice agents, yes. A standalone streaming API is in private preview, so ask us for access. Recorded calls work through the public API today. AssemblyAI has a public streaming API now.

Is transcription ₹1 a minute?

No. ₹1 a minute is a whole phone agent on our volume plan. Transcribing a recording costs ₹18 an hour of audio, which is 30 paise a minute.

Still deciding? Ask us.

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  1. AI agents from ₹1 a minute: on our volume plan, ₹1,00,000 a month. Pay as you go is ₹5 a minute. Prices exclude GST.

  2. Fourier Transcribe is ₹18 an hour of recorded audio, charged per second, once, when a job completes; degraded and failed jobs are free. All prices exclude GST.

  3. Dollar prices converted at ₹94.96, the ECB reference rate on 16 October 2026. The rate.

  4. AssemblyAI’s figures are from its own pages, linked beside each one and listed under Sources, checked . Ours are from our price list and docs.