Is Google Speech-to-Text free?

On Google's V1 price table, Speech-to-Text is free for the first hour of audio each month, and it is billed after that ¹. The price is per minute of automatic speech recognition audio, so the cost depends on how many minutes you send and which price table your code uses. For a trial, the free minutes and the credit cover a lot. For a service that transcribes every day, the free minutes are a small part of the bill. The speech-to-text API guide puts Google next to the other providers, and the overview of speech recognition covers the subject more broadly.

Each account gets 60 free minutes a month

Google's V1 price table lists 0 to 60 minutes of standard recognition at $0.00 each month, per account ¹. Past 60 minutes, the V1 rate is $0.016 per minute with data logging ² and $0.024 per minute without it ³.

The free minutes are used before any charge applies. A month with less audio than the allowance costs nothing on V1. The allowance is per account per month, so a team that shares one account shares the 60 minutes.

Data logging decides which rate you pay

Opting into data logging lowers the V1 price by about one third ⁴. Logging is off by default. Google says Cloud Speech-to-Text does not log customer audio or transcripts unless the customer opts in ⁵. The cheaper rate therefore comes with a choice about who can use your recordings. For sensitive audio, that choice can matter more than the saving. Read the data logging terms before you opt in.

The V2 table has no free minutes, and its rate falls with volume

Google lists its V2 standard recognition at $0.016 per minute for the first 500,000 minutes each month ⁶. The V2 table we read has no free row. Its rate drops at higher volumes, to $0.004 per minute at 2,000,000 minutes a month and above ⁷.

The V1 and V2 price tables are separate, so the same audio can be billed at different rates depending on which API version your code calls.

A $300 credit can pay for a trial

Google Cloud's pricing page advertises a free program with $300 in free credits ⁸. The credit is a general platform offer, not a Speech-to-Text allowance. The program terms decide who qualifies and for how long, so read them before you plan around the credit.

What to do

1. Check which API version your code calls. A V1 call and a V2 call are billed from different tables, and only the V1 table has the free 60 minutes.
2. Use the 60 free minutes to test. Send the same few minutes of your own audio to the service, and measure accuracy with word error rate before you commit.
3. Work out the monthly bill. Take your monthly minutes, subtract the free 60 on V1, and multiply by the rate for your logging choice and version.
4. Set up the service. The how-to guide for the Google API covers the project, the credentials and a first call.

If you are choosing between providers, the free options for speech-to-text APIs and the OpenAI price question compare the other rows on the same basis.