AssemblyAI vs PolyAI — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
AssemblyAI starts at Free. PolyAI uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
See price history: AssemblyAI · PolyAI
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- AssemblyAI (Per Usage) — AssemblyAI bills purely on usage. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
- PolyAI (Per Usage) — PolyAI bills purely on usage. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Speech AI platform for developers — long-form audio transcription, speaker diarization, and Universal-2 speech understanding models. Usage-based pricing: Best model at $0.37/hr audio, Nano tier at $0.12/hr. Pay-as-you-go with $50 free credit. Popular with podcast platforms, meeting recorders, and companies building on top of long-form audio.
Enterprise voice AI for customer-facing conversational agents in contact centers. Enterprise-only, all pricing custom-quoted. Focus on large enterprises (banks, retail, healthcare) replacing IVR trees with conversational voice agents. Deployed by JetBlue, Marks & Spencer, PG&E and other Fortune 500 brands.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | AssemblyAI monthly | AssemblyAI annual | PolyAI monthly | PolyAI annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Pay-as-you-go: Universal-2 (async) / — | Free | Free | — | — |
| Enterprise | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
AssemblyAI is worth it if… developers processing long-form audio at scale — podcasts, recorded meetings, call recordings. The per-hour pricing works out cheaper than Deepgram for batch transcription (as opposed to real-time streaming).
PolyAI is worth it if… enterprises replacing legacy IVR (press 1 for support) with natural-language voice agents that can handle multi-turn conversations. Deals typically start at $250K/year and go into the millions for high-volume deployments.
Bottom line: Similar positioning, closer to a preference call than a strategic one.
Choose AssemblyAI over PolyAI if…
Choose AssemblyAI if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, a free entry tier).
- You match the profile AssemblyAI is built for: developers processing long-form audio at scale — podcasts, recorded meetings, call recordings.
- You need a general-purpose voice agents & speech/audio option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose PolyAI if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, custom pricing).
- You match the profile PolyAI is built for: enterprises replacing legacy IVR (press 1 for support) with natural-language voice agents that can handle multi-turn conversations.
- You're building for healthcare and contact centers.
At a glance
| AssemblyAI | PolyAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Entry price | Free | Custom |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 20, 2026 | September 20, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 20, 2026. Tracked daily.