AssemblyAI vs TensorX: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of AssemblyAI and TensorX — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
AssemblyAI
Universal-2 speech-to-text with speaker diarisation and audio intelligence
AssemblyAI provides a speech-to-text and audio intelligence API. Its Universal-2 model offers high-accuracy transcription with built-in speaker diarisation, sentiment analysis, topic detection, and PII redaction. The Nano model targets cost-sensitive batch workloads. Pricing is per audio hour.
TensorX
EU inference — Dublin, Helsinki, Paris — GLM-5.3, Kimi K3, zero data retention
TensorX is an EU inference provider with nodes in Dublin, Helsinki, and Paris. It offers GLM-5.3, Kimi K3, and GLM-5.3 Flash with zero data retention and prepaid credits. USD pricing. Suited for EU workloads that need geographic diversity within Europe and a zero-retention policy.
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
AssemblyAI
TensorX
Key differentiators
Universal-2 bundles transcription with speaker diarisation, sentiment, topic detection, and PII redaction — plus LeMUR for LLM-powered audio Q&A — in a single API call.
EU inference with nodes in Dublin, Helsinki, and Paris, zero data retention, and prompt caching on GLM-5.3.
Frequently asked questions
AssemblyAI FAQs
How is AssemblyAI priced?
AssemblyAI charges per audio hour. Universal-2 is $0.37/hour and Nano is $0.10/hour. Additional audio intelligence features (diarisation, sentiment, PII redaction) are priced separately. See assemblyai.com/pricing for current rates.
What is Universal-2?
Universal-2 is AssemblyAI's flagship transcription model with built-in speaker diarisation, sentiment analysis, topic detection, and PII redaction. It is designed for meeting intelligence and call analytics use cases.
What is LeMUR?
LeMUR (Leveraging Large Language Models to Understand Recorded Audio) is an AssemblyAI feature that lets you run LLM-powered Q&A, summarisation, and action-item extraction directly over transcribed audio without building a separate pipeline.
TensorX FAQs
What is TensorX?
TensorX is an EU inference provider with nodes in Dublin, Helsinki, and Paris. It offers GLM-5.3, Kimi K3, and GLM-5.3 Flash with zero data retention and prepaid credits. See tensorx.ai/pricing for current rates.
Does TensorX retain my data?
No. TensorX operates a zero data retention policy.
Provider resources
AssemblyAI — Universal-2 speech-to-text with speaker diarisation and audio intelligence
AssemblyAI provides a speech-to-text and audio intelligence API. Its Universal-2 model offers high-accuracy transcription with built-in speaker diarisation, sentiment analysis, topic detection, and PII redaction. The Nano model targets cost-sensitive batch workloads. Pricing is per audio hour.
Universal-2 bundles transcription with speaker diarisation, sentiment, topic detection, and PII redaction — plus LeMUR for LLM-powered audio Q&A — in a single API call.
TensorX — EU inference — Dublin, Helsinki, Paris — GLM-5.3, Kimi K3, zero data retention
TensorX is an EU inference provider with nodes in Dublin, Helsinki, and Paris. It offers GLM-5.3, Kimi K3, and GLM-5.3 Flash with zero data retention and prepaid credits. USD pricing. Suited for EU workloads that need geographic diversity within Europe and a zero-retention policy.
EU inference with nodes in Dublin, Helsinki, and Paris, zero data retention, and prompt caching on GLM-5.3.
Key strengths compared
AssemblyAI
- Universal-2 includes speaker diarisation, sentiment, topics, and PII redaction out of the box
- Audio intelligence features reduce need for post-processing pipelines
- Nano tier at $0.10/hour for cost-sensitive batch transcription
- Speech and audio only — no general-purpose LLM or image models
- Per-hour pricing model differs from token-based LLM APIs
TensorX
- EU nodes in Dublin, Helsinki, and Paris — geographic diversity
- Zero data retention policy
- Prompt caching on GLM-5.3 (cached $0.44/1M vs $1.75/1M standard)
- Small model catalog
- Prepaid credits only — no post-pay billing
Key weaknesses compared
AssemblyAI
- Speech and audio only — no general-purpose LLM or image models
- Per-hour pricing model differs from token-based LLM APIs
- Advanced audio intelligence features add cost on top of base transcription
TensorX
- Small model catalog
- Prepaid credits only — no post-pay billing
- Newer provider — limited third-party benchmark transparency
Provider category context
AssemblyAI is a frontier lab, founded in 2017. TensorX is a inference api, founded in 2024. AssemblyAI as a frontier lab trains and serves its own proprietary models. TensorX as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers but without access to proprietary frontier models.
How to choose between them
Choose AssemblyAI if you need Meeting intelligence. Choose TensorX if you need EU inference. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.