Compare Lab
Deepgram vs PolyAI
Deepgram is positioned as speech recognition models with separate speech generation and managed voice-agent APIs. PolyAI is positioned as enterprise dialog-agent platform with a builder, developer tooling and system integrations.
Deepgram is positioned as speech recognition models with separate speech generation and managed voice-agent APIs. PolyAI is positioned as enterprise dialog-agent platform with a builder, developer tooling and system integrations. Start by deciding who owns the missing layers, then inspect the documented differences below.
STT and Enterprise Platforms are different product categories. An underlying engine or framework is not a complete substitute for a deployed agent workflow.
11 jointly documented catalog fields. This measures evidence coverage, not equivalent quality or an overall winner.
Test opening hours, booking conflicts and an unanswered transfer.
Start where the records differ.
Values and evidence states are compared together. Shared facts follow the differences; Unknown never means No.
| Decision point | Deepgram | PolyAI |
|---|---|---|
| Billing modelDifferent records | component-stack | per-minute |
| Billing unitDifferent records | STT audio minute; TTS thousand characters; agent WebSocket connection minute | Voice agent minute |
| Bring your modelDifferent records | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your telephonyShared state | Yes | Yes |
| Warm transferShared state | Unknown | Unknown |
| HIPAA pathShared state | Yes | Yes |
Your requirements & next steps
Your requirements
Ready-made / AI receptionist · Strict evidence mode
No personal requirements yet. Add criteria in Advanced Filter to prioritize this comparison.
STT audio minutes, TTS characters and Voice Agent connection minutes are distinct.
Sales-led per-minute contract rate, not a public numerical rate.
External provider and telephony bills excluded where applicable. Do not infer a complete monthly ceiling.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
Billable open connection time is not just spoken audio.
Published unit; precise fee and minimum quote unresolved.
Growth is annual prepaid commitment, not invented monthly subscription.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
No fixed included agent minutes inferred from credit dollars.
No included minute allowance published in reviewed page.
Initial credits, Growth commitments and tier rates are documented; no recurring free plan or universal rounding/contract terms inferred.
Sales-led per-minute service and build credits are documented; no public complete rate/commitment, recurring free entitlement or provider cost inclusions established.
Agent pricing covers selected tier and components; full workload determines bill.
Sales-led per-minute service and build credits are documented; no public complete rate/commitment, recurring free entitlement or provider cost inclusions established.
Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.
Not yet researched against this buyer-critical field standard.
Carrier, hosting, model tier and BYO usage prevent a universal full monthly or per-minute ceiling.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
Carrier, hosting, model tier and BYO usage prevent a universal full monthly or per-minute ceiling.
Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling.
Anyone with this link can view the encoded decision criteria.
Vendor documentation establishes a claim. Public model benchmarks are separate context, not measurements of these platforms.
Open saved comparison ↗What to verify together.
Deepgram
The current Nova-3 streaming rate is promotional.
Voice Agent Standard $0.075/min; BYO TTS $0.065/min; BYO LLM + TTS $0.050/min; Advanced $0.163/min (PAYG) · V3.3 evidence review · Voice Agent Standard PAYG WebSocket connection minutes; other tiers/BYO variants differ
Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. Carrier, hosting, model tier and BYO usage prevent a universal full monthly or per-minute ceiling. · BYO model/TTS charges, carrier and customer transport hosting
STT audio minutes, TTS characters and Voice Agent connection minutes are distinct.
PolyAI
The public pricing page gives a billing basis, not a numeric quote.
Custom quote / current rate unresolved · V3.3 evidence review · Contract-defined minute billing; no public numeric quote
Excluded / confirm: Complete cost cannot be established from this reference. Commercial rate, commitment and workload exceptions require quote; no fabricated all-in ceiling. · Provider, carrier and custom contract terms require separate verification
Sales-led per-minute contract rate, not a public numerical rate.
The evidence overlap.
Both records have documented values for Product type, Technical setup, Pricing model, Bring your TTS, Cartesia TTS, OpenAI models, Anthropic models, Function / tool calling, Transcripts, Checked within 30 days, Retained price snapshot. Matching availability does not measure behavior under your call conditions.
Run the same booking, tool failure and unsuccessful human-transfer cases. Record both outcomes and billable units before signing a deployment agreement.
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