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    Voice & Accessibility

    AssemblyAI: Speech-to-Text API for Developers

    Turn hours of manual meeting notes, podcast transcripts, and accessibility captioning into automated workflows—with industry-leading 95%+ accuracy in 99+ languages. AssemblyAI's developer-friendly API processes 40+ terabytes of audio daily, delivering real-time transcriptions in ~300ms for live events, plus advanced features like speaker identification, sentiment analysis, and automatic content moderation.

    Visit AssemblyAIGet Implementation Help

    What It Does (The Problem It Solves)

    Spending 3 hours manually transcribing a 1-hour board meeting? Paying $1.50-$3.00 per audio minute for professional transcription services? Need live captions for multilingual community events but don't have the budget for CART services?

    AssemblyAI transforms audio and video into searchable, actionable text using AI-powered speech recognition that's trained on billions of voice interactions. Unlike generic transcription tools that struggle with technical terminology or diverse accents, AssemblyAI achieves up to 95% accuracy even with noisy recordings, producing 30% fewer "hallucinations" (made-up words) than competitors.

    More importantly, AssemblyAI is an API service designed for developers to build custom transcription workflows. This means your technical team or developer volunteers can integrate automatic transcription into your existing systems—whether that's captioning recorded webinars on your website, analyzing sentiment in donor feedback calls, or creating searchable archives of oral history interviews. The generous free tier (185 hours of transcription) makes it accessible for small nonprofits, while the $0.15/hour pay-as-you-go pricing is 50-90% cheaper than traditional transcription services.

    Best For

    Organization Size & Technical Resources

    • Nonprofits with developer resources: In-house technical staff, volunteer developers, or partnerships with tech-for-good organizations
    • Organizations processing high volumes: 10+ hours of audio/video content per month (where manual transcription becomes prohibitively expensive)
    • Tech-savvy teams: Comfortable with APIs, webhooks, and basic programming (Python, JavaScript, or similar)

    Ideal Use Cases

    • Accessibility compliance: Automatically generate captions for videos, webinars, and live events to meet ADA requirements
    • Meeting documentation: Transcribe board meetings, staff meetings, and stakeholder interviews for searchable archives
    • Content repurposing: Turn podcast episodes, conference sessions, or video testimonials into blog posts, social media content, and reports
    • Multilingual communities: Transcribe and analyze content in 99+ languages without hiring translators for initial transcription
    • Research and analysis: Transcribe qualitative research interviews, focus groups, or oral histories for analysis and reporting
    • Call center analytics: Analyze sentiment and topics in donor hotline calls, volunteer check-ins, or beneficiary feedback

    Ideal For (Roles)

    • Chief Technology Officers / IT Directors: Building or enhancing nonprofit tech infrastructure
    • Developer Teams: Integrating transcription into websites, apps, or internal tools
    • Communications Directors: Automating content creation workflows and improving accessibility
    • Research Teams: Processing large volumes of interview audio for qualitative analysis

    Key Features for Nonprofits

    Multilingual Support (99+ Languages)

    Transcribe audio in 99+ languages with automatic language detection—no need to specify the language upfront. Ideal for nonprofits serving diverse immigrant communities, international organizations, or multilingual events.

    • Global English recognizes all English accents (American, British, Indian, Nigerian, Australian, etc.)
    • Real-time streaming for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese
    • Optional translation feature ($0.06/hour) to convert transcripts into other languages

    Speaker Diarization ("Who Said What")

    Automatically identifies different speakers and labels their contributions—essential for board meetings, panel discussions, or interviews where you need to know who said what.

    • Detects unlimited speakers with no prior training
    • Provides word-level timestamps for precise navigation
    • Works even with overlapping speech and background noise

    Real-Time Streaming Transcription

    Ultra-low latency (~300ms) transcription for live events, webinars, and meetings—enabling real-time captions for accessibility or instant searchable archives of virtual board meetings.

    • Unlimited concurrent streams with automatic scaling
    • Integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams via Recall.ai
    • Same $0.15/hour pricing as pre-recorded transcription

    AI-Powered Speech Understanding

    Beyond transcription: analyze sentiment, detect topics, identify key phrases, summarize conversations, and extract actionable insights from audio content automatically.

    • Sentiment Analysis ($0.02/hr): Detect positive, negative, or neutral tone in conversations
    • Topic Detection ($0.15/hr): Auto-categorize content by subject matter
    • Summarization ($0.03/hr): Generate concise summaries of long recordings
    • Entity Detection ($0.08/hr): Extract names, organizations, locations, dates

    Privacy & Content Moderation

    Protect sensitive information and ensure content safety with AI-powered guardrails—essential for nonprofits handling confidential beneficiary data or community forum recordings.

    • PII Redaction ($0.08/hr): Auto-remove names, SSNs, credit cards, addresses, phone numbers
    • Profanity Filtering ($0.01/hr): Detect and mask inappropriate language
    • Content Moderation ($0.15/hr): Flag harmful or sensitive topics
    • HIPAA/BAA compliance available (Enterprise tier)

    Developer-Friendly Integration

    Seamless integration with existing workflows through well-documented APIs, SDKs in multiple languages, and pre-built integrations with popular platforms.

    • Official SDKs: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Ruby, Java, C#
    • Integrates with Zapier, Make, Pipedream (no-code automation)
    • Works with LangChain, LlamaIndex for AI agent workflows
    • Available on AWS Marketplace for simplified billing

    How This Tool Uses AI

    AssemblyAI is built entirely on advanced AI/machine learning technology. Unlike older speech recognition systems that rely on rigid rule-based algorithms, AssemblyAI uses deep neural networks trained on billions of audio samples to understand human speech patterns, accents, and context.

    What's Actually AI-Powered

    Universal Speech Recognition Model

    Type of AI: Deep learning neural networks (specifically, transformer-based architecture similar to GPT but optimized for audio)

    What it does: Converts raw audio waveforms into text by learning patterns in how humans speak. It understands context ("their" vs. "there" vs. "they're" based on surrounding words), handles diverse accents, and adapts to technical terminology.

    How it learns: Pre-trained on billions of hours of human speech across 99+ languages. The model is continuously improved by AssemblyAI's team but doesn't use your specific audio to train (your data stays private).

    Practical impact: A 2-hour multilingual community forum gets transcribed in 2-3 minutes (pre-recorded) or in real-time (streaming), with 95%+ accuracy even when speakers have strong accents or use nonprofit-specific terminology.

    Speaker Diarization (AI-Powered)

    Type of AI: Acoustic analysis neural networks + clustering algorithms

    What it does: Analyzes voice characteristics (pitch, tone, speaking patterns) to distinguish between different speakers and group their utterances, even without knowing their names beforehand.

    How it learns: The AI identifies unique "voice fingerprints" in real-time; no prior training on your speakers required.

    Practical impact: A 90-minute board meeting with 8 participants gets automatically segmented by speaker ("Speaker A: Motion to approve...", "Speaker B: I second that motion..."), saving hours of manual labeling.

    Sentiment Analysis (AI-Powered)

    Type of AI: Natural language understanding (NLU) model trained on emotional context

    What it does: Analyzes the emotional tone of spoken words—detecting whether a speaker sounds positive, negative, or neutral at sentence-level granularity.

    Practical impact: Analyze 50 donor feedback calls to identify common frustrations (negative sentiment spikes around "donation process" mentions) or satisfaction drivers (positive sentiment when discussing "program impact").

    PII Redaction (AI-Powered)

    Type of AI: Named entity recognition (NER) neural networks

    What it does: Automatically detects and redacts personally identifiable information like names, addresses, phone numbers, SSNs, credit card numbers, and email addresses from transcripts.

    Practical impact: Transcribe beneficiary intake interviews while automatically protecting privacy—the transcript shows "My name is [PII]" instead of actual names, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

    AI Transparency & Limitations

    ⚠️ Data Quality Requirements

    • • AI accuracy depends heavily on audio quality—aim for clear recordings with minimal background noise
    • • Accuracy drops significantly with heavy accents the model hasn't seen often, or highly technical jargon specific to your field
    • • Real-time streaming works best with consistent internet connection (100+ kbps upload speed recommended)
    • • Multiple overlapping speakers reduce diarization accuracy

    ⚠️ Human Oversight Still Required

    • • AI-generated transcripts should be reviewed for critical documents (legal filings, grant applications, public statements)
    • • Sentiment analysis detects tone but doesn't understand organizational context or cultural nuances
    • • PII redaction catches most cases but isn't 100%—always review transcripts containing sensitive information

    ⚠️ Known Limitations

    • • Model is optimized for conversational speech; may struggle with singing, whispering, or dramatic voice modulation
    • • Speaker diarization can confuse speakers with similar voices or if multiple people speak at once
    • • Translation feature is accurate but not as nuanced as professional human translation—use for understanding, not legal documents
    • • Real-time streaming may have slight delays if processing multiple concurrent streams

    🔒 Data Privacy

    • • Your audio data is NOT used to train AI models for other organizations (unlike some free services)
    • • All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES-256)
    • • SOC 2 Type II certified for security and compliance
    • • GDPR compliant with data processing agreements available
    • • HIPAA/BAA compliance available on Enterprise tier for healthcare nonprofits
    • • Full data portability—export all transcripts and delete your data anytime

    When AI Adds Real Value vs. When It's Just Marketing

    ✅ Genuinely useful AI:

    • • Transcribing 10+ hours of audio monthly (would cost $150-300+ with human services; AssemblyAI costs $1.50)
    • • Real-time captioning for live events (traditional CART services cost $150-300/hour; AssemblyAI costs $0.15/hour)
    • • Processing multilingual content (human translation+transcription costs $0.25-$1.50/minute; AI costs $0.0025-$0.0035/min)
    • • Analyzing sentiment across dozens of calls to identify patterns (impossible to do manually at scale)

    ⚠️ AI that's nice but not essential:

    • • Automatic summarization—helpful but you'll likely skim the full transcript anyway for important details
    • • Topic detection—convenient but you probably already know what topics were discussed

    ❌ When you don't need AI transcription:

    • • Processing less than 2-3 hours of audio per month (manual note-taking may be faster and sufficient)
    • • Audio quality is extremely poor (heavy background noise, multiple people talking over each other constantly)
    • • You need legally certified transcripts (court proceedings, depositions)—use certified human transcription
    • • No technical resources to implement the API (use consumer tools like Otter.ai or Rev.com instead)

    Bottom Line: AssemblyAI uses production-grade AI that genuinely delivers value—industry-leading accuracy, real-time performance, and advanced features like sentiment analysis that would be impossible to replicate manually. It's not using "AI" as a marketing buzzword; the entire service is built on deep learning models that process 40+ terabytes of audio daily with measurable accuracy improvements over competitors (30% fewer hallucinations, preferred by 73% of users in blind tests).

    Real-World Nonprofit Use Case

    Scenario: Regional Health Equity Nonprofit

    A regional health equity nonprofit conducted 40+ community listening sessions in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali to inform their advocacy strategy. Previously, they paid $1.25/minute for professional transcription services, costing $6,000+ for 80 hours of recordings—and receiving transcripts 1-2 weeks after each session, delaying analysis.

    The Solution: Their volunteer developer integrated AssemblyAI's API into a simple Python script. After each listening session, the audio file was automatically uploaded to AssemblyAI for transcription with speaker diarization, sentiment analysis, and entity detection (identifying frequently mentioned health clinics, barriers to care, and community leaders).

    The Results:

    • 95%+ cost savings: 80 hours of transcription cost $12 (at $0.15/hour) instead of $6,000—saving $5,988
    • Same-day turnaround: Transcripts available within 2-3 minutes of session completion, enabling immediate analysis
    • Actionable insights: Sentiment analysis automatically flagged 23 instances of frustration with "clinic wait times" and 31 positive mentions of "community health workers"—patterns that would have taken days to identify manually
    • Multilingual accessibility: All 4 languages transcribed with the same accuracy and pricing, eliminating the need to budget separately for translation services
    • Privacy compliance: PII redaction automatically protected participant identities in transcripts shared with board and funders

    The nonprofit's 3-person research team could now spend their time analyzing community needs instead of manually transcribing audio, accelerating their advocacy report from a 6-month to 3-month timeline. The $5,988 in savings funded two additional community forums and a part-time community organizer for 3 months.

    Pricing

    Free Tier (Perfect for Small Nonprofits)

    No credit card required

    • 185 hours of pre-recorded audio transcription (~$27.75 equivalent value)
    • 333 hours of streaming audio transcription (~$50 equivalent value)
    • Up to 5 new concurrent streams per minute
    • Access to all Speech-to-Text and Audio Intelligence models
    • Community support and developer resources

    Who this works for: Nonprofits processing 10-15 hours of audio per month can stay on the free tier indefinitely (185 hours = ~12 months of usage at that rate).

    Pay-As-You-Go Pricing

    Only pay for what you use—no contracts or monthly minimums

    Core Transcription Services

    • Universal Speech-to-Text: $0.15/hour ($0.0025/minute) for 99+ languages, both pre-recorded and streaming
    • Slam-1 (Beta): $0.27/hour ($0.0045/minute) for LLM-powered contextual transcription (English only, highest accuracy)

    Add-On Features (Per Hour)

    Speaker Diarization$0.02/hour
    Sentiment Analysis$0.02/hour
    Summarization$0.03/hour
    Keyterms Prompting$0.04/hour
    Translation$0.06/hour
    Entity Detection$0.08/hour
    PII Redaction$0.08/hour
    Profanity Filtering$0.01/hour
    Topic Detection$0.15/hour
    Content Moderation$0.15/hour

    Example Cost Calculation: Transcribing a 2-hour board meeting with speaker diarization and PII redaction = (2 hours × $0.15) + (2 hours × $0.02) + (2 hours × $0.08) = $0.50 total. Compare to human transcription at $1.25-3.00/minute = $150-360 for the same meeting.

    Volume Discounts & Enterprise

    • Volume Discounts: Available for organizations processing large volumes (contact sales for qualification and custom rates)
    • Enterprise Options: Custom rate limits, enhanced concurrency, BAA/HIPAA compliance, EU data residency, dedicated support

    Note: Pricing information is subject to change. Please verify current pricing directly with AssemblyAI at assemblyai.com/pricing.

    Nonprofit Discount / Special Offers

    No Official Nonprofit Discount Program (Yet)

    AssemblyAI does not currently offer a specific nonprofit discount or special pricing program. However, the generous free tier and low pay-as-you-go pricing make it accessible for most nonprofit budgets:

    • 185 hours free tier = sufficient for small nonprofits processing 10-15 hours per month to operate indefinitely at no cost
    • $0.15/hour pricing = 50-95% cheaper than traditional human transcription services ($1.25-$3.00/minute)
    • No contracts or monthly fees = only pay for what you use, making it risk-free to test and scale up/down as needed

    💡 Pro Tip: Contact AssemblyAI directly to inquire about potential nonprofit pricing or credits.

    Email: [email protected]

    Mention your nonprofit status, typical monthly usage volume, and use cases. Some API-first companies offer custom pricing or credit packages for nonprofits on a case-by-case basis, especially for organizations with predictable, high-volume usage.

    Cost Comparison: AssemblyAI vs. Traditional Services

    For a nonprofit processing 20 hours of audio per month:

    • • Human transcription ($1.50/min): $1,800/month
    • • Rev.com automated ($0.25/min): $300/month
    • • AssemblyAI ($0.15/hr with diarization): $3.40/month

    Annual savings with AssemblyAI: $3,560-$21,560 compared to alternatives.

    Learning Curve

    Learning Curve: Intermediate to Advanced

    Requires technical/developer skills for implementation

    Time to First Value

    • Account setup: 5 minutes (sign up, get API key)
    • First transcription (using pre-built SDK): 30-60 minutes for developers familiar with Python, JavaScript, or similar
    • Custom workflow integration: 2-8 hours depending on complexity (automating uploads, storing results, processing add-on features)
    • Production deployment: 1-2 days (error handling, security, monitoring)

    Technical Requirements

    • Coding skills required: This is an API service, not a consumer app—you need a developer who can write Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Ruby, Java, or C#
    • Beginner-friendly for developers: Well-documented API, official SDKs, clear examples, comprehensive guides
    • No infrastructure management: AssemblyAI handles all the AI model hosting, scaling, and optimization—you just call the API
    • No-code options available: Integration with Zapier, Make, and Pipedream for non-developers to create simple automation workflows

    Support Available

    • Comprehensive documentation: API reference, step-by-step tutorials, code examples in 6+ languages
    • Community support: Discord community, GitHub discussions, Stack Overflow
    • Email support: Available for all users including free tier
    • Dedicated support: Available for Enterprise customers

    Important Consideration

    If you don't have a developer on staff or volunteer: AssemblyAI may not be the right tool. Consider user-friendly alternatives like Otter.ai (web-based interface, no coding required) or Rev.com (upload files through a website, receive transcripts via email). AssemblyAI is best for nonprofits that want to integrate transcription into custom workflows or build transcription features into their own applications.

    Integration & Compatibility

    Direct API Integrations

    Official SDKs (Software Development Kits)

    • • Python (most popular for data science/research)
    • • JavaScript/TypeScript (for web apps and Node.js backends)
    • • Go, Ruby, Java, C# (for various backend systems)

    Meeting Platforms (via Recall.ai)

    • • Zoom
    • • Google Meet
    • • Microsoft Teams
    • • Other platforms supported by Recall.ai's unified API

    Communication APIs

    • • Twilio: Transcribe phone calls in real-time
    • • Voice agent frameworks (LiveKit, Pipecat, Vapi)

    No-Code / Low-Code Integrations

    For nonprofits without developers

    • Zapier: Connect AssemblyAI with 5,000+ apps—auto-transcribe files uploaded to Google Drive, Dropbox, or email attachments
    • Make (formerly Integromat): Build visual automation workflows with more advanced logic and data manipulation
    • Pipedream: Developer-friendly automation with code support for custom logic
    • Bubble.io: Add speech-to-text capabilities to no-code web applications

    AI/ML Framework Integrations

    • LangChain: Build AI agents that can transcribe and analyze audio as part of multi-step workflows
    • LlamaIndex: Create searchable knowledge bases from audio/video content
    • Haystack: Integrate transcription into AI-powered analytics pipelines
    • Semantic Kernel: Microsoft's AI orchestration framework

    Cloud Platforms

    • AWS Marketplace: Subscribe and pay through existing AWS account for simplified billing and compliance
    • Cloudflare: Deploy AssemblyAI integrations at the edge for low-latency transcription

    Data Portability

    • ✅ Full transcript export: JSON, TXT, SRT (subtitle format), VTT (WebVTT captions)
    • ✅ Word-level timestamps: Precise timing data for video editing and navigation
    • ✅ API access: Retrieve all data programmatically via REST API
    • ✅ No vendor lock-in: Export all your data and delete your account anytime

    Pros & Cons

    Pros

    • Industry-leading accuracy: Up to 95% accuracy with 30% fewer hallucinations than competitors—handles technical terminology and diverse accents exceptionally well
    • Generous free tier: 185 hours of transcription is sufficient for many small nonprofits to operate indefinitely at no cost
    • Exceptional cost-effectiveness: 50-95% cheaper than traditional transcription services ($0.15/hr vs $1.25-3.00/min)
    • Developer-friendly: Well-documented API, official SDKs in 6+ languages, clear examples, active community support
    • Truly multilingual: 99+ languages with automatic language detection—no need to specify language upfront
    • Real-time capability: Ultra-low latency streaming (~300ms) with unlimited concurrent streams for live events
    • Advanced features: Speaker diarization, sentiment analysis, PII redaction, summarization—capabilities most competitors charge significantly more for
    • No vendor lock-in: Full data portability with multiple export formats; cancel anytime with no contracts

    Cons

    • Requires technical expertise: This is an API service for developers, not a consumer app—you need coding skills to implement it
    • No nonprofit discount: While pricing is affordable, there's no official nonprofit pricing program (though you can inquire)
    • Add-on costs accumulate: Advanced features (sentiment analysis, PII redaction, topic detection) each add $0.01-0.15/hour—can increase costs significantly if using multiple features
    • No visual interface: Unlike Otter.ai or Rev, there's no web dashboard to upload files and view transcripts—everything is done through code
    • Learning curve for non-developers: Even with no-code tools like Zapier, setting up effective workflows requires some technical comfort
    • Not suitable for legal/certified transcripts: While highly accurate, it's not a substitute for certified court reporters or CART services required for legal proceedings

    Alternatives to Consider

    If AssemblyAI doesn't feel like the right fit, consider these alternatives:

    OpenAI Whisper (Open Source)

    Free but requires technical setup and hosting

    Whisper is an open-source speech recognition model you can run on your own servers or cloud infrastructure—completely free. It supports 99+ languages and achieves excellent accuracy.

    Best if: You have DevOps expertise and want full control over your transcription pipeline, or you need to process audio offline without internet connectivity.

    Why choose AssemblyAI instead: Production-ready API with no infrastructure management, better accuracy (fewer hallucinations), real-time streaming capabilities, and advanced features (sentiment analysis, PII redaction) not available in base Whisper. AssemblyAI saves 10-20 hours of setup/maintenance time per month.

    Rev.com Automated Transcription

    $0.25/minute, web-based interface

    Rev offers a user-friendly web dashboard where you upload audio files and receive transcripts via email—no coding required. Automated transcription costs $0.25/minute; human transcription costs $1.50/minute.

    Best if: You need occasional transcription and don't have developer resources. Rev's interface is ideal for non-technical staff.

    Why choose AssemblyAI instead: 90% cost savings ($0.0025/min vs $0.25/min), ability to integrate into custom workflows, real-time streaming for live events, and advanced AI features. AssemblyAI is the better choice if you have technical staff and process 10+ hours monthly.

    Google Cloud Speech-to-Text

    $0.006-0.024/minute, enterprise-grade API

    Google's speech recognition API offers similar capabilities with tight integration into Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services. Pricing is competitive and scales well for enterprise volumes.

    Best if: You're already heavily invested in Google Cloud infrastructure and want a single vendor for all cloud services.

    Why choose AssemblyAI instead: Better accuracy (30% fewer hallucinations in benchmarks), more intuitive developer experience, better documentation, and no complex GCP setup required. AssemblyAI is purpose-built for transcription while Google's is a general-purpose API.

    AWS Transcribe

    $0.024/minute, AWS ecosystem integration

    Amazon's transcription service integrates seamlessly with AWS services like S3, Lambda, and Comprehend. Good for organizations standardized on AWS infrastructure.

    Best if: Your entire tech stack runs on AWS and you want native integration with other AWS services.

    Why choose AssemblyAI instead: 10x better pricing ($0.0025/min vs $0.024/min), superior accuracy, simpler API, and platform-agnostic (works anywhere, not locked to AWS). Unless you have a strategic AWS-only requirement, AssemblyAI provides better value and developer experience.

    Getting Started

    Your first steps with AssemblyAI (for developers):

    Step 1: Sign Up & Get API Key (5 minutes)

    • Visit AssemblyAI.com and click "Start Building for Free"
    • Create an account (no credit card required for free tier)
    • Copy your API key from the dashboard

    Step 2: Run Your First Transcription (30-60 minutes)

    Easiest approach: Use the official Python or JavaScript SDK

    • Install SDK: pip install assemblyai (Python) or npm install assemblyai (JavaScript)
    • Follow the Quick Start Guide with copy-paste code examples
    • Upload a test audio file (MP3, WAV, M4A, or any common format) and receive a JSON transcript

    Pro tip: Start with a short, clear audio file (1-2 minutes) to validate the workflow before processing longer content.

    Step 3: Add Advanced Features (1-2 hours)

    Once basic transcription works, experiment with add-on features:

    • Enable speaker diarization to identify who said what in meetings
    • Try sentiment analysis on donor feedback calls
    • Test PII redaction on recordings containing sensitive information
    • Explore real-time streaming for live event captioning

    Pro tip: Each feature is a simple boolean flag or parameter in your API request—no complex configuration required.

    Step 4: Build Your Production Workflow (1-2 days)

    Integrate AssemblyAI into your nonprofit's workflows:

    • Set up automatic transcription when audio files are uploaded to Google Drive, Dropbox, or your website
    • Store transcripts in your database or content management system
    • Add error handling and monitoring to track transcription success rates
    • Implement webhooks to receive notifications when transcriptions complete

    Need Help with Implementation?

    Setting up API integrations can feel overwhelming, especially when you're already stretched thin. If you'd like expert guidance getting started with AssemblyAI—or building custom transcription workflows for your nonprofit—we're here to help.

    One Hundred Nights offers implementation support, from quick setup assistance to full-service integration and custom workflow development.

    Contact Us to Learn More

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Is AssemblyAI free for nonprofits?

    AssemblyAI offers a generous free tier with 185 hours of pre-recorded audio transcription and 333 hours of streaming transcription—enough for many small nonprofits to use indefinitely. However, there's no specific nonprofit discount program. After the free tier, pay-as-you-go pricing starts at $0.15 per hour ($0.0025 per minute), making it affordable for organizations processing moderate volumes of audio. Contact AssemblyAI directly to inquire about potential nonprofit pricing.

    What languages does AssemblyAI support?

    AssemblyAI supports 99+ languages including Global English (all English accents), Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, and many more. The Universal model automatically detects the language being spoken and transcribes accordingly. Real-time streaming multilingual support is available for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese, with additional languages planned for 2026.

    Do I need a developer to use AssemblyAI?

    Yes, AssemblyAI is an API-first service designed for developers to integrate into applications and workflows. It's not a ready-to-use consumer app with a visual interface. You'll need someone with coding skills (Python, JavaScript, or similar) to implement it. If your nonprofit has technical staff or volunteers with programming experience, AssemblyAI is an excellent choice. If not, consider user-friendly alternatives like Otter.ai or Rev.com that offer web-based interfaces.

    How accurate is AssemblyAI compared to other transcription services?

    AssemblyAI claims the industry's lowest Word Error Rate (WER) with up to 95% accuracy, producing up to 30% fewer hallucinations than competitors. The accuracy is particularly strong with technical terms and noisy audio. In unbiased user evaluations, 73% of end users preferred AssemblyAI. Real-world accuracy depends on audio quality, accents, and background noise—the clearer your audio, the better the transcription.

    Can AssemblyAI transcribe live meetings and events?

    Yes, AssemblyAI's real-time streaming transcription delivers transcripts within ~300 milliseconds with unlimited concurrent streams. This makes it ideal for live captioning of webinars, virtual events, board meetings, and community forums. It integrates with platforms like Zoom (via Recall.ai), Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Twilio for phone calls. The streaming API automatically scales to handle any number of simultaneous streams.

    What's the difference between AssemblyAI and OpenAI Whisper?

    OpenAI Whisper is an open-source speech recognition model you can run yourself (free but requires technical setup and hosting). AssemblyAI is a managed API service with enterprise-grade infrastructure, better accuracy (fewer hallucinations), real-time streaming capabilities, speaker identification, and advanced features like sentiment analysis and PII redaction. Choose Whisper if you have DevOps resources and want full control; choose AssemblyAI for production-ready transcription without managing infrastructure.