Soniox vs Google
for Japanese speech-to-text

Higher accuracy, real-time features, and up to 7x lower cost than Google for Japanese transcription.

Developers choose Soniox for accuracy that scales in Japanese

Japanese is spoken by 125 million people worldwide — primarily in Japan, with speakers around the world. Soniox delivers production-ready transcription and translation for Japanese, handling regional accents, code-switching, and real-world audio conditions.

Google Cloud Speech-to-Text supports 100+ languages, including Japanese, and integrates with Google Cloud, but accuracy drops in noisy or overlapping speech. Streaming feels laggy, and developers often juggle multiple models or pair it with the Translation API to fill gaps. Soniox delivers higher accuracy, faster streaming, and all features in one API at up to 7x lower cost.

Top accuracy in Japanese on real-world speech

Japanese Word Error Rate 8.7% for Soniox vs 14.2% 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 2-7x cheaper than Google (~$0.10–0.12/hr vs ~$0.24–0.72/hr)

Helping startups and enterprises ship real world voice apps

See the difference for yourself

Don't just take our word for it. Run the same Japanese audio through Soniox and Google in real-time and compare live results, side by side.

This demo isn't pre-recorded. It makes real API calls to Google and Soniox in real-time, with each service tuned for its best performance. The framework is open source, so you can inspect or run it yourself.

SONIOX VS GOOGLE AT A GLANCE

The benchmarks back it up

In a 2025 study across 60 languages and real-world YouTube audio, Soniox reached 8.7% WER in Japanese vs 14.2% for Google.

View the full benchmark report

Feature	Sonioxstt-rt-v3	Googlechirp_2
open_in_newSingle Multilingual Model	check	check
open_in_newLanguage Hints	check	close
open_in_newLanguage Identification	check	close
open_in_newSpeaker Diarization	check	close
open_in_newCustomization	check	close
open_in_newTimestamps	check	check
open_in_newConfidence Scores	check	check
open_in_newTranslation One Way	check	check
open_in_newTranslation Two Way	check	close
open_in_newEndpoint Detection	check	warning^*
open_in_newManual Finalization	check	close

Pay 2-7x less than Google

With Soniox, everything is included in one price: transcription, streaming, diarization, translation, timestamps, and confidence. Google charges more per hour, and enhanced models cost even more.

Effective hourly cost

(typical speech)

Soniox

~$0.10/hour (async)
~$0.12/hour (streaming)

Google

~$0.24–0.36/hour (standard), ~$0.72/hour (enhanced)

100 hours

1,000 hours

10,000 hours

Soniox (async)

~$10

~$100

~$1,000

Soniox (streaming)

~$12

~$120

~$1,200

Google standard

~$24-36

~$240-360

~$2,400-3,600

Google enhanced

~$72

~$720

~$7,200

Takeaway

Soniox costs 2–7x less than Google, while delivering higher accuracy and richer features. At enterprise scale, the savings are even clearer: over 3 years, Soniox can save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars compared to Google.

Soniox bills per token, which works out to the effective hourly rates above for typical speech. Google's pricing varies by model and region, and "enhanced" models cost significantly more.

Why teams choose Soniox over Google for Japanese

Native fluency in real-world Japanese.

Soniox delivers native-speaker level accuracy in Japanese 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

Google supports 100+ languages but struggles with real-world inputs: overlapping speakers, dialects, accents, and language shifts mid-sentence.

Real time translation from Japanese to English

Transcribe and translate Japanese 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

Google streams in laggy chunks, causing transcripts to jump and delay. No token-level updates. No real-time finalization. No intelligent endpoint detection.

Understand conversations, not just words.

Soniox separates speakers, detects sentence boundaries, and structures transcripts like natural conversation — even in Japanese 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

Google lacks real-time diarization, and doesn’t natively support turn-taking or sentence boundary detection in real time.

One model that works everywhere.

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

Google splits features across multiple APIs and requires upfront language selection. No auto-detect, no unified endpoint, just fragmentation.

Built-in domain intelligence.

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

"Soniox's ability to accurately transcribe complex medical terminology means our physician-customers spend significantly less time editing. This allows them to finalize their notes faster and focus on what matters most: patient care."

Max Malyk,
Vice President at DeliverHealth

Google doesn’t support real-time domain adaptation or user-guided terminology control.

Fluent at any speed

Watch Soniox keep up with fast speech in any language

Chinese to English in real-time

Very fast speaking Spanish translated in real-time in English

Real time translation from Japanese to English

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Korean to English in real-time

Real-Time from Slovenian to English

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Frequently asked questions about Soniox vs Google

1.How accurate is Soniox vs Google for Japanese?arrow_downward

Soniox: 8.7% WER vs Google: 14.2% WER (real-world Japanese audio).

2.Is Soniox cheaper than Google Speech-to-Text?arrow_downward

Yes. Soniox costs ~$0.10–0.12/hr. Google charges $0.24–0.36/hr (standard) and $0.72/hr (enhanced). That means Soniox is typically 2–7x less expensive.

3.Does Google support more languages than Soniox?arrow_downward

Google lists 100+ languages, but accuracy varies widely. Soniox supports 60+ with consistent, production-ready accuracy and any-to-any translation in one API.

4.Does Google support diarization and timestamps?arrow_downward

Yes, but Soniox provides them faster and in real time.

5.Can Soniox handle multiple languages in one stream?arrow_downward

Yes. Soniox auto-detects and supports mid-conversation shifts. Google requires you to pre-select a single language for each request.

6.Can Soniox handle multiple Japanese dialects?arrow_downward

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

7.How does Soniox streaming compare to Google's?arrow_downward

Soniox streams token-by-token in milliseconds, with non-final → final refinements, manual finalization, and endpoint detection. Google's streaming works in larger segments, which adds latency and makes transcripts "jump" or lag.

8.Do I need multiple APIs with Google?arrow_downward

Yes. With Google you often need Speech-to-Text for transcription, Translation API for multilingual support, and different model "variants" (video, phone, command & search). Soniox includes transcription, diarization, translation, timestamps, and confidence scores in one API call.

9.Does Google support two-way translation?arrow_downward

No. Google requires separate use of the Translation API, and typically handles one-way source → target. Soniox supports real-time two-way translation directly in the same stream.

Soniox surpasses Google in any language

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Soniox vs Googlefor Japanese speech-to-text