Deepgram vs SeaLink: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Deepgram and SeaLink — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
Deepgram
Nova-3 speech-to-text API — real-time and batch transcription at low latency
Deepgram is a speech-to-text API provider specialising in low-latency audio transcription. Its Nova-3 model delivers real-time streaming transcription with high accuracy across accents and domains. Nova-3 Medical is tuned for clinical vocabulary. Deepgram also hosts Whisper Large for teams that need an open-weights baseline. Pricing is per audio hour rather than per token.
SeaLink
Embeddings API gateway (Singapore) — Gemini Embedding models, USD pricing, no chat completions
SeaLink is a Singapore-based embeddings API gateway providing access to Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2. Pricing is in USD per 1M input tokens with no output charge. SeaLink does not offer chat completions — it is an embeddings-only service. Billing is in USD.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
Deepgram
SeaLink
Key differentiators
Purpose-built speech-to-text API with Nova-3 at ~300 ms latency and a medical-domain variant — priced per audio hour rather than per token.
Embeddings-only API gateway in Singapore — Gemini Embedding 001 ($0.135/1M) and Gemini Embedding 2 ($0.18/1M) with USD billing and no output charge.
Frequently asked questions
Deepgram FAQs
How is Deepgram priced?
Deepgram charges per audio hour rather than per token. Nova-3 is $0.218/hour, Nova-3 Medical is $0.435/hour, and Whisper Large is $0.218/hour. See deepgram.com/pricing for current rates.
What is Deepgram Nova-3?
Nova-3 is Deepgram's latest speech recognition model, offering high accuracy with approximately 300 ms P50 latency for real-time streaming. It supports 30+ languages and is optimised for conversational and call-centre audio.
Does Deepgram support real-time transcription?
Yes. Deepgram's streaming API delivers transcription results with ~300 ms latency, making it suitable for live captions, voice agents, and real-time call analytics.
SeaLink FAQs
What is SeaLink?
SeaLink is a Singapore-based embeddings API gateway providing access to Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2. It does not offer chat completions. See sealink.io/pricing for current rates.
Does SeaLink offer chat completions?
No. SeaLink is an embeddings-only service. It provides Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2 for vector generation workloads such as semantic search and RAG pipelines. It does not offer chat, reasoning, or other completion modalities.
How much does SeaLink cost?
As of October 2026: Gemini Embedding 001 is USD 0.135 per 1M input tokens; Gemini Embedding 2 is USD 0.18 per 1M input tokens. There is no output charge for embeddings. See sealink.io/pricing for current rates.
Provider resources
Deepgram — Nova-3 speech-to-text API — real-time and batch transcription at low latency
Deepgram is a speech-to-text API provider specialising in low-latency audio transcription. Its Nova-3 model delivers real-time streaming transcription with high accuracy across accents and domains. Nova-3 Medical is tuned for clinical vocabulary. Deepgram also hosts Whisper Large for teams that need an open-weights baseline. Pricing is per audio hour rather than per token.
Purpose-built speech-to-text API with Nova-3 at ~300 ms latency and a medical-domain variant — priced per audio hour rather than per token.
SeaLink — Embeddings API gateway (Singapore) — Gemini Embedding models, USD pricing, no chat completions
SeaLink is a Singapore-based embeddings API gateway providing access to Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2. Pricing is in USD per 1M input tokens with no output charge. SeaLink does not offer chat completions — it is an embeddings-only service. Billing is in USD.
Embeddings-only API gateway in Singapore — Gemini Embedding 001 ($0.135/1M) and Gemini Embedding 2 ($0.18/1M) with USD billing and no output charge.
Key strengths compared
Deepgram
- Nova-3 delivers industry-leading accuracy with ~300 ms P50 latency for real-time streaming
- Nova-3 Medical tuned for clinical and healthcare vocabulary
- Per-audio-hour pricing is predictable for high-volume transcription workloads
- Speech-to-text only — no LLM chat, image, or embedding models
- No per-token pricing; cost structure differs from general-purpose LLM APIs
SeaLink
- Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2 at competitive USD rates
- Singapore-based — low latency for Southeast Asia workloads
- Simple USD billing with no output charge for embeddings
- Embeddings only — no chat completions or other modalities
- Small catalog limited to Gemini Embedding models
Key weaknesses compared
Deepgram
- Speech-to-text only — no LLM chat, image, or embedding models
- No per-token pricing; cost structure differs from general-purpose LLM APIs
- Smaller ecosystem than general-purpose providers
SeaLink
- Embeddings only — no chat completions or other modalities
- Small catalog limited to Gemini Embedding models
- Newer provider with limited public track record
Provider category context
Deepgram is a frontier lab, founded in 2015. SeaLink is a inference api, founded in 2024. Deepgram as a frontier lab trains and serves its own proprietary models. SeaLink 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 Deepgram if you need Real-time transcription. Choose SeaLink if you need gemini embedding 001 and gemini embedding 2 at competitive usd rates. 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.