Choosing a Speech-to-Text Provider: A Requirements Template

Evaluating STT providers without clear requirements is a recipe for bad decisions. You'll be swayed by impressive demos, distracted by features you don't need, and surprised by limitations that matter.

This template helps you document requirements before you start evaluating—so you know what to look for and can make apples-to-apples comparisons.

Core requirements

Use case definition

Primary use case: Describe the main way speech-to-text will be used in your product

Secondary use cases: Other applications if any

User context:

• Who speaks? (End users? Specific roles? Multiple speakers?)
• What environment? (Quiet office? Noisy warehouse? Phone calls?)
• What devices? (Mobile? Desktop? Browser? Embedded?)

Language requirements

Primary languages: List the must-have languages

Secondary languages: Nice-to-have or future expansion

Accent/dialect requirements: Specific regional variants needed—see our guide on why accents matter

Code-switching needs: Do users switch between languages?

Accuracy requirements

Target WER: What error rate is acceptable for your use case? See our WER explainer for benchmarks

Critical vocabulary: Terms that must be recognized correctly (names, products, technical terms)

Custom vocabulary support needed?

• Yes
• No

Punctuation requirements:

• Auto-punctuation required
• Spoken punctuation acceptable
• No punctuation needed

Technical requirements

Latency

Maximum acceptable latency:

• Real-time (<500ms)
• Near-real-time (500ms-2s)
• Batch acceptable (minutes)

See our guide on real-time vs. batch transcription for architectural tradeoffs.

Streaming required?

• Yes, must see words as spoken
• No, final transcript is fine

Integration

Deployment model:

• Cloud API
• On-premise
• On-device—see on-device vs. cloud tradeoffs
• Hybrid

Integration method:

• REST API
• WebSocket
• SDK
• Other: _

Platform requirements:

• iOS
• Android
• Web browser
• Windows
• macOS
• Linux
• Other: _

Volume and scaling

Expected volume:

• Audio hours per day: _
• Peak concurrent requests: _
• Growth expectations: _

Scaling requirements:

• Auto-scaling needed
• Predictable load
• Spiky/unpredictable demand

Privacy and compliance

Data sensitivity:

• Public/non-sensitive
• Business confidential
• Personal data (GDPR relevant)
• Health data (HIPAA relevant)
• Other regulated data: _

The NIST Privacy Framework provides useful guidance for evaluating data handling practices.

Data residency requirements:

• No restriction
• Must stay in region: _
• On-premise only

Audio retention policy:

• No storage acceptable
• Temporary storage OK (how long? _)
• Permanent storage OK

Compliance certifications needed:

• SOC 2
• HIPAA
• GDPR
• Other: _

Operational requirements

Availability requirements:

• Target uptime: _%
• Maximum acceptable downtime: _

Support requirements:

• Self-service/documentation sufficient
• Email support needed
• Phone support needed
• Dedicated account manager needed

SLA requirements:

• No formal SLA needed
• SLA required (specify: _)

Budget

Budget model:

• Fixed monthly budget: $_
• Per-minute/per-hour acceptable
• Needs to scale with usage

Maximum per-minute cost: $_ per minute of audio

Annual budget ceiling: $_

Evaluation criteria (weighted)

Using this template

1. Fill it out before evaluating providers — Having requirements documented prevents scope creep and demo-driven decisions
2. Get stakeholder sign-off — Make sure product, engineering, legal, and security agree on requirements
3. Use it to structure vendor conversations — Walk through each section with potential providers
4. Score providers against it — Create a comparison matrix using your weighted criteria

Once your requirements are clear, our STT API comparison guide walks through how to evaluate the major providers.