Arabic Speech-to-Text Comparison

Groq Whisper Large v3vsSoniox STT RT v3

Head-to-head comparison based on real production benchmarks with Gulf Arabic callers.

Overview

Groq Whisper Large v3

Not Recommended

Full Whisper v3 on Groq — same poor Arabic quality as the turbo variant.

production testedwhisper-large-v3

Soniox STT RT v3

Good

High-quality Arabic STT with 44% lower WER than Google Chirp 3.

production testedstt-rt-v3

Latency

Groq Whisper Large v3

Avg EOU Delay32ms–3494ms
Best Case32ms
Worst Case3494ms

Soniox STT RT v3

Avg EOU Delay1678ms
Best Case773ms
Worst Case2718ms
Full turn time: 6000ms–8000ms

Quality

Groq Whisper Large v3

Poor

Described as 'still shit' in production testing. Non-turbo version did not improve quality.

MSA

Soniox STT RT v3

Excellent
WER: 16.2%

Great quality transcription confirmed by user feedback. No repetitions needed. 44% more accurate than Google Chirp 3.

Gulf ArabicMSA

Features

FeatureGroq Whisper Large v3Soniox STT RT v3
Hardware-accelerated inference✓✗
Full Whisper Large v3 model✓✗
Batch and real-time modes✓✗
Real-time streaming transcription✗✓
Language hints✗✓
Low word error rate✗✓
End-of-utterance detection✗✓

Pricing

Groq Whisper Large v3

Free tier
FreeRate-limited free tier
$0per minute

Soniox STT RT v3

Free tier
StandardReal-time streaming
$0.005per minute

Streaming & Integration

CapabilityGroq Whisper Large v3Soniox STT RT v3
Streaming support✗✓
LiveKit plugin✗✗
Self-hostable✗✗
API styleREST (OpenAI-compatible)WebSocket streaming
SDKsPython, Node.jsPython, Node.js

Verdict

Not Recommended

Groq Whisper Large v3

Same poor Arabic quality as the turbo variant. Whisper models on Groq are not viable for Arabic speech recognition.

Choose Groq Whisper Large v3 if you need:

    Pros
    • +Free tier available
    • +OpenAI-compatible API
    Cons
    • -Poor Arabic transcription quality
    • -Extreme latency variance (32ms–3.5s)
    • -No improvement over turbo variant for Arabic
    Good

    Soniox STT RT v3

    Previously the best option for Arabic STT. Excellent quality with 16.2% WER, but superseded by Deepgram Nova-3 which is 75% faster with comparable quality.

    Choose Soniox STT RT v3 if you need:

    • Accuracy-critical applications
    • Arabic transcription quality
    Pros
    • +Lowest WER for Arabic (16.2%)
    • +No user repetitions needed
    • +30% faster than Google Chirp 3
    Cons
    • -Higher latency than Deepgram Nova-3 (1.7s vs 0.4s)
    • -No LiveKit plugin
    • -Limited SDK support

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Which is faster for Arabic speech-to-text, Groq Whisper Large v3 or Soniox STT RT v3?

    Groq Whisper Large v3 is faster with an average end-of-utterance delay of 32ms–3494ms, which is 1646ms faster than Soniox STT RT v3.

    Which has better Arabic transcription quality, Groq Whisper Large v3 or Soniox STT RT v3?

    Soniox STT RT v3 has a quality rating of 5/5 (Excellent). Great quality transcription confirmed by user feedback. No repetitions needed. 44% more accurate than Google Chirp 3.

    Is Groq Whisper Large v3 or Soniox STT RT v3 better for production voice agents?

    Both providers are viable options. Groq Whisper Large v3: Same poor Arabic quality as the turbo variant. Whisper models on Groq are not viable for Arabic speech recognition. Soniox STT RT v3: Previously the best option for Arabic STT. Excellent quality with 16.2% WER, but superseded by Deepgram Nova-3 which is 75% faster with comparable quality.

    How does Groq Whisper Large v3 pricing compare to Soniox STT RT v3?

    Groq Whisper Large v3 starts at $0 per minute (Rate-limited free tier). Soniox STT RT v3 starts at $0.005 per minute (Real-time streaming).