Assemblyai cuts flagship STT price 22% with Universal-3 Pro rebrand
What happened
Between the Dec 29, 2025 and Mar 30, 2026 captures of Assemblyai's pricing page, Pulse recorded 3 changes: New Whisper-Streaming model added at $0.30/hr. Supports 99+ languages. Includes Keyterms Prompting add-on ($0.04/hr) and Speaker Diarization add-on ($0.12/hr); Multiple new LLM Gateway models added: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite ($0.10/$0.40 per 1m tokens), Claude 4.6 Sonnet ($3.00/$15.00), Claude 4.6 Opus ($5.00/$25.00), Claude 4.5 Opus ($5.00/$25.00), Qwen3 Next 80B A3B ($0.15/$1.20), Qwen3 32B ($0.15/$0.60), Kimi K2.5 ($0.60/$3.00 per 1m tokens); Pre-recorded STT models restructured: 'Universal' renamed to 'Universal-2' (price unchanged at $0.15/hr); 'Slam-1 Beta' renamed to 'Universal-3 Pro Default' with price reduced from $0.27/hr to $0.21/hr. Universal-3 Pro is now the flagship model. Pulse files it as a packaging change (new add-on, package change) with an upward direction. Pulse's latest capture (Aug 24, 2026) lists Voice Agent API at $4.5 per hour + $4.5 per hour, Universal-3 Pro at $0.21 per hour of audio, Universal-Streaming Multilingual at $0.15 per hour of audio, Universal-3 Pro Streaming at $0.45 per hour of audio and Universal-2 at $0.15 per hour of audio.
It lands 19 days after Assemblyai's previous change, "AssemblyAI adds Claude 4.6 Sonnet, Opus models to LLM Gateway" (Mar 16, 2026). Before that Pulse recorded "Assemblyai launches Universal-3 Pro Streaming at $0.45/hr for voice agents" (Mar 10, 2026), "Assemblyai rebrands Audio Intelligence as Speech Understanding" (Week 7, 2026) and "Assemblyai unveils Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite model at competitive pricing" (Feb 9, 2026). Assemblyai has been tracked since 2023-11-14.
In the same window Deepgram and Otter also changed their AI & Machine Learning pricing pages. Those moves are listed further down, and the Pulse Agent can compare them side by side.
- — · Add-onAdded
BeforeNo Whisper-Streaming model
AfterWhisper-Streaming model
- LLM Gateway · Add-onAdded
BeforeNot listed
AfterMultiple new LLM Gateway models
- Universal-3 Pro · Packaging−22%$0.27/hr$0.21/hr
| Plan | Field | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Add-on | No Whisper-Streaming model | Whisper-Streaming model | Added |
| LLM Gateway | Add-on | Not listed | Multiple new LLM Gateway models | Added |
| Universal-3 Pro | Packaging | $0.27/hr | $0.21/hr | −22% |
Values as written on Assemblyai's public pricing page in the two captures Pulse compared; where the page states no number, the cells give the wording before and after.
Evidence
The two captures Pulse comparedFull-page captures of Assemblyai's pricing page (assemblyai.com) from Dec 29, 2025 and Mar 30, 2026; the change is marked around the middle of the page, where Whisper-Streaming model now appears.
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Assemblyai, the last 90 days
Full history- Jun 29, 2026packagingAssemblyai upgrades realtime STT to Universal-3.5 with 18-language support
- Apr 9, 2026improvedAssemblyai unifies audio limits with expanded 333h free allowance
- Apr 1, 2026packagingAssemblyai Launches Medical Mode for Healthcare Transcription
- Apr 4, 2026packagingAssemblyai cuts flagship STT price 22% with Universal-3 Pro rebrand · this change
- Mar 16, 2026packagingAssemblyAI adds Claude 4.6 Sonnet, Opus models to LLM Gateway
- Mar 10, 2026packagingAssemblyai launches Universal-3 Pro Streaming at $0.45/hr for voice agents
- Week 7, 2026packagingAssemblyai rebrands Audio Intelligence as Speech Understanding
- Feb 9, 2026packagingAssemblyai unveils Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite model at competitive pricing
- Jan 11, 2026packagingAssemblyai Introduces Guardrails: New Product Category Consolidating Safety Features for Enhanced Transcription Security
Across AI & Machine Learning in the same window
All AI & Machine Learning changes- DeepgramApr 3Deepgram Cuts Voice Agent API Rates, Triples Concurrency Limits
- OtterApr 2Otter expands Pro integrations to Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier
- OtterApr 2Otter Strips HIPAA From Enterprise, Shifts to Paid Add-On
- DeepgramApr 1Deepgram slashes Voice Agent API prices across all tiers
- DeepgramFeb 16Deepgram triples concurrency limits across all API tiers
Questions about this change
Did Assemblyai raise prices in March 2026?
No list-price increase was recorded between Dec 29, 2025 and Mar 30, 2026. The change Pulse detected was a packaging change: new add-on, package change.
What changed on Assemblyai's pricing page between Dec 29, 2025 and Mar 30, 2026?
Add-on: No Whisper-Streaming model → Whisper-Streaming model, added; LLM Gateway add-on: Not listed → Multiple new LLM Gateway models, added; Universal-3 Pro packaging: $0.27/hr → $0.21/hr (−22%). Pulse compared the captures it took on Dec 29, 2025 and Mar 30, 2026; the before/after table above lists each item as written on the page.
How often does Assemblyai change its pricing?
Pulse recorded 6 other pricing-page changes for Assemblyai in the 90 days before this one; the previous change was "AssemblyAI adds Claude 4.6 Sonnet, Opus models to LLM Gateway" on Mar 16, 2026; Assemblyai has been tracked since 2023-11-14.