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Gladia
Speech-to-text API from Paris that transcribes and enriches audio in real time or in batch across 100+ languages, with EU data residency.
Meeting assistants, contact center software, and media platforms that need multilingual transcription with accurate names and timings at volume.
Teams that want text-to-speech or a full voice agent stack from one vendor, or buyers needing on-device transcription.
Verdict
Gladia is a speech recognition company in Paris, France, founded in 2022 by chief executive Jean-Louis Quéguiner and chief technology officer Jonathan Soto. Its API records, transcribes, and enriches audio from uploads, live streams, phone calls, and meeting bots with its Solaria models, supporting 100+ languages with automatic language switching, and customers include Aircall, VEED, and Carv. It matters because transcription errors corrupt every summary and CRM entry built on top, and many voice products serve users who do not speak only English.
Score Breakdown
How Gladia scores in the categories that matter to its buyers.
Pricing
Gladia prices per hour of audio. Every language and core feature is included on all plans.
| Plan | Price | What stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0.61 / hr async, $0.75 / hr real-time | Pay as you go with 50€ in free credits; 30 real-time concurrent requests |
| Growth | From $0.20 / hr async, $0.25 / hr real-time | Upfront commitment, custom volume discounts, training opt-out |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom models, zero data retention, SLAs, custom hosting |
The Field at a Glance
How Gladia compares with other Voice, speech & multimodal pipelines vendors we reviewed, by Overall Score and relative typical engagement cost.
Gladia scores 7.9 in Voice, speech & multimodal pipelines, under Deepgram (8.0), level with AssemblyAI (7.9) and Rime (7.9), and ahead of ElevenLabs (7.8). Relative cost lands lower for this subcategory.
Use-case matrix
| Use case | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Multilingual meetings | Strong | Code-switching across 100+ languages. |
| Contact center calls | Strong | Aircall cut transcription time by 95%. |
| Subtitling pipelines | Strong | Precise word timings for captions. |
| EU data sovereignty | Strong | 100% EU data residency option. |
| Text-to-speech | Weak | Gladia focuses on speech-to-text and audio intelligence. |
| Offline or on-device use | Weak | Delivered as a cloud API. |
Who it’s for
Good fit
- Meeting assistant builders
- Contact center platforms
- European companies with data residency rules
Poor fit
- Teams needing voice synthesis
- On-device apps
- Single-language hobby projects
Review Excerpts
Below are excerpts from public reviews. Our team scoured public reviews, forums, and chat rooms to get a balanced view of customers' experience with this company. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch were excluded.
“The speed and accuracy improvements were game-changers. We cut transcription time by 95% and the multilingual support is unmatched.”
“Everything we do based on transcription became better after we switched to Gladia. The accuracy across European languages has been transformative.”
“We are 100% benchmark & evaluation driven. Gladia was one of the best providers selected on merit to transcribe user videos.”
The pay-as-you-go Starter plan caps usage at 30 real-time and 25 async concurrent requests, and model training opt-out is automatic only from the Growth plan up.
Company Facts
- Founded
- 2022 (CB Insights)
- Total funding raised
- $20.03M (CB Insights)
- Status
- Acquired by OVHcloud in July 2026 (CB Insights, OVHcloud)
- Key investors
- OVHcloud, XTX Ventures, XAnge, Roosh Ventures, Soma Capital (CB Insights)
- Website
- gladia.io
Key Leadership
Jean-Louis Quéguiner
Founder and CEO
Methodology
This page is an independent evaluation of Gladia for buyers comparing options in voice, speech & multimodal pipelines. AI Industry Reviews accepts no sponsorships, advertising, or pay-for-placement fees. Gladia did not pay for this review.
What we scored
The headline number is an Overall Score on a 0-10 scale. Eight criteria sit under it in two groups.
- Buyer outcomes (for voice, speech & multimodal pipelines)
- Multilingual accuracy
- Real-time latency
- EU data residency
- Breadth beyond transcription
- Company & commercial
- Innovation & product leadership
- Project management & communication
- Pricing
- Contract fairness
Pricing measures whether the price looks fair for the value delivered, including packaging and renewal friction that show up in real buying cycles.
Score Composition
| Input | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 40% | A proprietary read of what practitioners say about likes, complaints, and day-to-day use, including public review sites, forums, and private chat rooms. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch are out of scope. |
| Product | 35% | Hands-on look at screens and workflows. |
| Pricing | 15% | Whether the price looks fair for what you get. |
| Docs & training | 10% | Docs, tutorials, and training material. |
How we balanced the evidence
The Overall Score is the simple average of the eight criteria. Recommendation language follows that score and the fit pattern described above.
Scope
Gladia is graded here as voice, speech & multimodal pipelines. Criteria scores can move as more review volume and product checks are added.