Head-to-head comparison based on real production benchmarks with Gulf Arabic callers.
Mistral's speech model — completely non-functional for Arabic.
Fast Whisper inference on Groq hardware — poor Arabic quality with inconsistent latency.
Produced zero transcriptions for Arabic audio. Tested with and without explicit language parameter.
Described as 'horrible' transcription quality for Arabic in production testing.
| Feature | Mistral Voxtral Mini | Groq Whisper Large v3 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Multilingual speech recognition (claimed) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Audio understanding | ✓ | ✗ |
| Hardware-accelerated inference | ✗ | ✓ |
| Whisper model compatibility | ✗ | ✓ |
| Batch and real-time modes | ✗ | ✓ |
| Capability | Mistral Voxtral Mini | Groq Whisper Large v3 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming support | ✗ | ✗ |
| LiveKit plugin | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| API style | REST | REST (OpenAI-compatible) |
| SDKs | Python, Node.js | Python, Node.js |
Does not work for Arabic at all. Zero transcriptions produced in testing despite claiming multilingual support.
Groq's fast hardware can't compensate for Whisper's poor Arabic handling. Quality is unacceptable and latency is too inconsistent for voice agents.
Mistral Voxtral Mini has a quality rating of 1/5 (Non-functional). Produced zero transcriptions for Arabic audio. Tested with and without explicit language parameter.
Both providers are viable options. Mistral Voxtral Mini: Does not work for Arabic at all. Zero transcriptions produced in testing despite claiming multilingual support. Groq Whisper Large v3 Turbo: Groq's fast hardware can't compensate for Whisper's poor Arabic handling. Quality is unacceptable and latency is too inconsistent for voice agents.
Mistral Voxtral Mini starts at Usage-based per request (Mistral API pricing). Groq Whisper Large v3 Turbo starts at $0 per minute (Rate-limited free tier).