Speechmatics hands every new account $100 in free credits — no credit card, valid 12 months.
What $100 buys at Melia's $0.12/hr batch rate: ~800 hours of transcription.
Plus:
• 55+ languages, native code-switching in a single pass
• First 1M text-to-speech characters free
• 2 concurrent real-time sessions on the free plan
The number that sold me: in Pipecat's independent Aug 2026 benchmark, Speechmatics posted a 1.07% pooled word error rate — lowest of the 12 services tested, ahead of Deepgram, AWS and Azure.
The catch: free API access pauses when the credits run out. Add a card and you upgrade to Pro — granted credits are spent first, then pay-as-you-go.
For context: Deepgram gives new accounts $200, AssemblyAI $50. Speechmatics sits in the middle on dollars, but 12 months to spend it and the top accuracy score make it the one I'd prototype on first.
What would you build with 800 free hours of transcription?
SpeechmaticsSpeechmatics $100 free creditsModel APIs
$100 in free credits on sign-up, no card required
Speechmatics makes speech-to-text and text-to-speech APIs for pre-recorded and real-time audio. New self-serve accounts start free with $100 in credits and no card required, and sign-up bonus credits last 12 months.
LiveVerified Nov 4, 2026 against the official page
- Who qualifies
- New Speechmatics self-serve accounts
- How to claim
- Sign up for a free account from the Speechmatics pricing page; the $100 in credits is added to the new account.
- Expiry
- ongoing
Heads up. Credits last 12 months. On the free tier API access pauses when credits run out, and the free tier is limited to 2 concurrent real-time sessions. The post's 800-hour figure uses a discounted rate; at the $0.24/hr base rate $100 is about 416 hours of pre-recorded transcription.
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Added Nov 4, 2026 · Updated Nov 4, 2026, 12:53 UTC
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