Head-to-head comparison based on real production benchmarks with Gulf Arabic callers.
Best-in-class Arabic STT with ultra-low latency. Production-tested winner.
High-quality Arabic STT from Google Cloud, but with significant latency.
Accurately captures Gulf Arabic phrases. No user repetitions needed in production calls.
High quality transcription. Broad Arabic dialect support through ar-XA language code.
| Feature | Deepgram Nova-3 | Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time streaming transcription | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic language detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Endpointing / end-of-utterance detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Punctuation and formatting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Word-level timestamps | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom vocabulary | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multichannel support | ✓ | ✗ |
| 120+ language support | ✗ | ✓ |
| Automatic punctuation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Speaker diarization | ✗ | ✓ |
| Medical and telephony models | ✗ | ✓ |
| Capability | Deepgram Nova-3 | Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming support | ✓ | ✓ |
| LiveKit plugin | ✓ | ✓ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| API style | WebSocket streaming + REST | gRPC streaming + REST |
| SDKs | Python, Node.js, Go, .NET, Rust | Python, Node.js, Go, Java, C#, Ruby, PHP |
The clear winner for Arabic STT. Deepgram Nova-3 delivers excellent quality at 424ms average EOU delay — fast enough for real-time voice agents.
Excellent quality but too slow for real-time voice agents. Best suited for batch transcription or applications where latency isn't critical.
Deepgram Nova-3 is faster with an average end-of-utterance delay of 424ms, which is 1952ms faster than Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3.
Deepgram Nova-3 has a quality rating of 5/5 (Excellent). Accurately captures Gulf Arabic phrases. No user repetitions needed in production calls.
Deepgram Nova-3 is recommended for production use. The clear winner for Arabic STT. Deepgram Nova-3 delivers excellent quality at 424ms average EOU delay — fast enough for real-time voice agents.
Deepgram Nova-3 starts at $0.0043 per minute (Nova-3 streaming). Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3 starts at $0.016 per 15 seconds (Chirp 3 model).