Soniox vs Google
for Kannada speech-to-text

Q: How accurate is Soniox vs Google for Kannada?

Soniox: 1.25 % WER vs Google: 2.84 % WER (real-world Kannada audio).

Higher accuracy, real-time features, and about 4.5x lower cost than Google for Kannada transcription.

Soniox vs Google pricing, side by side

Google and most speech-to-text APIs charge extra for diarization, translation, and multilingual support, so the headline rate hides the real bill. Soniox is one flat rate with all of it included. Set your monthly hours below to calculate your all-in cost per hour and see how Soniox compares to Google, side by side.

Pricing calculator

Stop overpaying for speech AI

SonioxvsGoogle

1,000 hours of audio / month

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Pricing assumptions

Based on public pay-as-you-go pricing. Enterprise discounts and committed-use contracts may differ. Some providers charge separately for certain features. The calculator uses the public price for the provider configuration that most closely matches Soniox.

Why teams choose Soniox over Google for Kannada

Native fluency in real-world Kannada.

Soniox delivers native-speaker level accuracy in Kannada and 60+ languages, including mixed-language phrases, regional accents, and spelled names and codes – even in noisy, unscripted conversations. No clean audio or tagging required. It just works.

"It just gets the words right, any language, any accent, any context. That’s what accuracy is supposed to look like."

Tony Wang,
Cofounder & Chief Revenue Officer at Agora

Gemini 3.5 Transcribe covers 85+ languages. Live streaming has no speaker attribution, and mixed-language phrases still need Soniox-style mid-sentence code-switching.

Transcribe and translate Kannada at the speed of speech.

Soniox captures every word the moment it’s spoken, with token-level updates that appear instantly. Captions stay in sync. Assistants respond in real time. Conversations never fall behind.

"It’s so fast, captions appear before people even finish talking. Zero lag. No buffering. Nothing."

Dag-Inge Aas,
Head of AI at Tana

gemini-3.5-transcribe-live streams interim and final transcripts, without token-level updates, manual finalization, or endpoint detection.

Understand conversations, not just words.

Soniox separates speakers, detects sentence boundaries, and structures transcripts like natural conversation — even in Kannada mixed with other languages. Every voice gets heard and understood.

"Soniox knows who’s speaking and when each thought ends. The real-time transcripts read like true dialogue, not data dumps."

Adam Strom,
Co-Founder & President at Mobius MD

gemini-3.5-transcribe-live has no speaker attribution. Speaker labels (up to 3 speakers) are on gemini-3.5-transcribe for pre-recorded audio only.

One model that works everywhere.

Transcribe, translate, and understand Kannada speech, all from a single API call. Soniox handles speaker separation, language detection, and any-to-any translation out of the box. Build in Kannada, deploy globally with no tuning or switching endpoints.

Google splits live transcription, pre-recorded transcription, and translation across separate models and APIs. No single unified real-time call.

Built-in domain intelligence.

Soniox understands technical terms, industry jargon, and custom phrasing in Kannada, adapting on the fly. You can even enforce terminology and steer translations to match your product and audience.

"Soniox captures complex medical terminology with high accuracy, helping physicians finalize notes faster and focus on patient care."

Max Malyk,
Vice President at DeliverHealth

Gemini 3.5 Transcribe supports custom vocabulary, but not real-time translation steering or contextual vocabulary like Soniox.

In-region performance for Kannada.

Soniox processes and stores all Kannada audio within each region, with identical model quality, native-speaker accuracy, and real-time speed across global deployments.

With Google, region selection is manual and Kannada model availability isn’t consistent across all Google Cloud regions. Real-time latency and feature parity for Kannada differ depending on where workloads run.

Trusted by teams building global voice products

Developers choose Soniox for that scales in Kannada

Kannada is spoken by 44 million people worldwide — primarily in India, with speakers around the world. Soniox delivers production-ready transcription and translation for Kannada, handling regional accents, code-switching, and real-world audio conditions.

Gemini 3.5 Transcribe supports 85+ languages, including Kannada. Developers still split live transcription, pre-recorded transcription, and translation across separate APIs. Soniox delivers higher accuracy, faster streaming, and all features in one API at about 4.5x lower cost on streaming.

Top accuracy in Kannada on real-world speech

Kannada Word Error Rate 1.25% for Soniox vs 2.84% for Google (lower is better).

Streaming that feels live

Token-level updates in milliseconds, with manual finalization and endpoint detection .

Lower cost, higher value

Soniox is about 4.5x cheaper than Google on streaming (~$0.10–0.12/hr vs ~$0.30–0.54/hr)

Soniox surpasses Google in any language

Get the most accurate, real-time speech-to-text transcription and translation in 60+ languages

Frequently asked questions about Soniox vs Google

How accurate is Soniox vs Google for Kannada?

Soniox: 1.25% WER vs Google: 2.84% WER (real-world Kannada audio).

Is Soniox cheaper than Google Speech-to-Text?

Yes. Soniox costs ~$0.10–0.12/hr. gemini-3.5-transcribe charges ~$0.30/hr (pre-recorded) and gemini-3.5-transcribe-live ~$0.54/hr (streaming). That means Soniox is about 4.5x less expensive on streaming.

Does Google support more languages than Soniox?

Gemini 3.5 Transcribe lists 85+ languages, but accuracy varies widely. Soniox supports 60+ with consistent, production-ready accuracy and any-to-any translation in one API.

Does Google support diarization and timestamps?

On pre-recorded audio, gemini-3.5-transcribe offers speaker attribution (up to 3 speakers) and word-level timestamps. gemini-3.5-transcribe-live does not. Soniox provides both in real time.

Can Soniox handle multiple languages in one stream?

Yes. Soniox auto-detects and supports mid-conversation shifts. gemini-3.5-transcribe-live auto-detects language and handles live language switches, but does not track fluid mid-sentence code-switching the way Soniox does.

Can Soniox handle multiple Kannada dialects?

Yes. Soniox is trained on real-world audio and supports dialects, slang, and code-switching.

How does Soniox streaming compare to Google's?

Soniox streams token-by-token in milliseconds, with non-final → final refinements, manual finalization, and endpoint detection. gemini-3.5-transcribe-live streams interim and final transcripts, without those token-level controls.

Do I need multiple APIs with Google?

Yes. With Google you often need gemini-3.5-transcribe-live for streaming, gemini-3.5-transcribe for pre-recorded audio with timestamps and speakers, and a separate translation product. Soniox includes transcription, diarization, translation, timestamps, and confidence scores in one API call.

Does Google support two-way translation?

No. Gemini 3.5 Transcribe is transcription only. Google translation is a separate product, typically one-way source to target. Soniox supports real-time two-way translation directly in the same stream.

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