Head-to-head comparison based on real production benchmarks with Gulf Arabic callers.
High-quality Arabic STT with 44% lower WER than Google Chirp 3.
High-quality Arabic STT from Google Cloud, but with significant latency.
Great quality transcription confirmed by user feedback. No repetitions needed. 44% more accurate than Google Chirp 3.
High quality transcription. Broad Arabic dialect support through ar-XA language code.
| Feature | Soniox STT RT v3 | Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time streaming transcription | ✓ | ✓ |
| Language hints | ✓ | ✗ |
| Low word error rate | ✓ | ✗ |
| End-of-utterance detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| 120+ language support | ✗ | ✓ |
| Automatic punctuation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Word-level timestamps | ✗ | ✓ |
| Speaker diarization | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom vocabulary | ✗ | ✓ |
| Medical and telephony models | ✗ | ✓ |
| Capability | Soniox STT RT v3 | Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming support | ✓ | ✓ |
| LiveKit plugin | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| API style | WebSocket streaming | gRPC streaming + REST |
| SDKs | Python, Node.js | Python, Node.js, Go, Java, C#, Ruby, PHP |
Previously the best option for Arabic STT. Excellent quality with 16.2% WER, but superseded by Deepgram Nova-3 which is 75% faster with comparable quality.
Excellent quality but too slow for real-time voice agents. Best suited for batch transcription or applications where latency isn't critical.
Soniox STT RT v3 is faster with an average end-of-utterance delay of 1678ms, which is 698ms faster than Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3.
Soniox STT RT v3 has a quality rating of 5/5 (Excellent). Great quality transcription confirmed by user feedback. No repetitions needed. 44% more accurate than Google Chirp 3.
Both providers are viable options. Soniox STT RT v3: Previously the best option for Arabic STT. Excellent quality with 16.2% WER, but superseded by Deepgram Nova-3 which is 75% faster with comparable quality. Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3: Excellent quality but too slow for real-time voice agents. Best suited for batch transcription or applications where latency isn't critical.
Soniox STT RT v3 starts at $0.005 per minute (Real-time streaming). Google Cloud STT — Chirp 3 starts at $0.016 per 15 seconds (Chirp 3 model).