Arabic Speech-to-Text Comparison

ElevenLabs Scribe v2vsSoniox STT RT v3

Head-to-head comparison based on real production benchmarks with Gulf Arabic callers.

Overview

ElevenLabs Scribe v2

Not Recommended

ElevenLabs' realtime STT offering — poor quality and slow for Arabic.

production testedscribe_v2_realtime

Soniox STT RT v3

Good

High-quality Arabic STT with 44% lower WER than Google Chirp 3.

production testedstt-rt-v3

Latency

ElevenLabs Scribe v2

Avg EOU Delay2000ms–2500ms
Best Case2000ms
Worst Case2500ms

Soniox STT RT v3

Avg EOU Delay1678ms
Best Case773ms
Worst Case2718ms
Full turn time: 6000ms–8000ms

Quality

ElevenLabs Scribe v2

Poor

Described as 'shit quality' in production testing. Not viable for Arabic.

Saudi Arabic

Soniox STT RT v3

Excellent
WER: 16.2%

Great quality transcription confirmed by user feedback. No repetitions needed. 44% more accurate than Google Chirp 3.

Gulf ArabicMSA

Features

FeatureElevenLabs Scribe v2Soniox STT RT v3
Real-time streaming transcription✓✓
Multiple language support✓✗
LiveKit inference integration✓✗
Language hints✗✓
Low word error rate✗✓
End-of-utterance detection✗✓

Pricing

ElevenLabs Scribe v2

Free tier
StarterIncludes STT credits
$5per month

Soniox STT RT v3

Free tier
StandardReal-time streaming
$0.005per minute

Streaming & Integration

CapabilityElevenLabs Scribe v2Soniox STT RT v3
Streaming support✓✓
LiveKit plugin✓✗
Self-hostable✗✗
API styleWebSocket streamingWebSocket streaming
SDKsPython, Node.jsPython, Node.js

Verdict

Not Recommended

ElevenLabs Scribe v2

Poor quality and poor latency for Arabic. Not recommended for any Arabic STT use case.

Choose ElevenLabs Scribe v2 if you need:

    Pros
    • +LiveKit plugin available
    • +Part of ElevenLabs ecosystem (TTS bundle)
    Cons
    • -Poor Arabic transcription quality
    • -High latency (2-2.5s EOU)
    • -No advantage over better alternatives
    Good

    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 Excellent quality with 16.2% WER, but superseded by Deepgram Nova-3 which is 75% faster with comparable quality.

    Choose Soniox STT RT v3 if you need:

    • Accuracy-critical applications
    • Arabic transcription quality
    Pros
    • +Lowest WER for Arabic (16.2%)
    • +No user repetitions needed
    • +30% faster than Google Chirp 3
    Cons
    • -Higher latency than Deepgram Nova-3 (1.7s vs 0.4s)
    • -No LiveKit plugin
    • -Limited SDK support

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Which is faster for Arabic speech-to-text, ElevenLabs Scribe v2 or Soniox STT RT v3?

    Soniox STT RT v3 is faster with an average end-of-utterance delay of 1678ms, which is 322ms faster than ElevenLabs Scribe v2.

    Which has better Arabic transcription quality, ElevenLabs Scribe v2 or Soniox STT RT v3?

    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.

    Is ElevenLabs Scribe v2 or Soniox STT RT v3 better for production voice agents?

    Both providers are viable options. ElevenLabs Scribe v2: Poor quality and poor latency for Arabic. Not recommended for any Arabic STT use case. 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.

    How does ElevenLabs Scribe v2 pricing compare to Soniox STT RT v3?

    ElevenLabs Scribe v2 starts at $5 per month (Includes STT credits). Soniox STT RT v3 starts at $0.005 per minute (Real-time streaming).