Head-to-head comparison based on real production benchmarks with Gulf Arabic callers.
Mistral's speech model — completely non-functional for Arabic.
High-quality Arabic STT with 44% lower WER than Google Chirp 3.
Produced zero transcriptions for Arabic audio. Tested with and without explicit language parameter.
Great quality transcription confirmed by user feedback. No repetitions needed. 44% more accurate than Google Chirp 3.
| Feature | Mistral Voxtral Mini | Soniox STT RT v3 |
|---|---|---|
| Multilingual speech recognition (claimed) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Audio understanding | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real-time streaming transcription | ✗ | ✓ |
| Language hints | ✗ | ✓ |
| Low word error rate | ✗ | ✓ |
| End-of-utterance detection | ✗ | ✓ |
| Capability | Mistral Voxtral Mini | Soniox STT RT v3 |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming support | ✗ | ✓ |
| LiveKit plugin | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✗ | ✗ |
| API style | REST | WebSocket streaming |
| SDKs | Python, Node.js | Python, Node.js |
Does not work for Arabic at all. Zero transcriptions produced in testing despite claiming multilingual support.
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 Excellent quality with 16.2% WER, but superseded by Deepgram Nova-3 which is 75% faster with comparable quality.
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. Mistral Voxtral Mini: Does not work for Arabic at all. Zero transcriptions produced in testing despite claiming multilingual support. 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 Excellent quality with 16.2% WER, but superseded by Deepgram Nova-3 which is 75% faster with comparable quality.
Mistral Voxtral Mini starts at Usage-based per request (Mistral API pricing). Soniox STT RT v3 starts at $0.005 per minute (Real-time streaming).