Deepgram Pricing Breakdown: And How Open Source Saves 70%

Deepgram pricing structure includes three tiers: Pay-as-you-Go, Growth, and Enterprise. The Pay-as-you-Go plan offers a free option that comes with $200 off credits. The Growth Plan starts at $4,000 per year and provides pre-paid credits that can be redeemed based on actual usage. According to Trustpilot, the company currently holds an average rating of 3.0.

Deepgram’s pricing bills usage by the exact second of audio no rounding (so 61 seconds is charged as 61 seconds). Costs are based entirely on usage rather than the number of seats.

On Reddit users complain “Deepgram is indeed the fastest and cheapest, but it's so terrible in terms of accuracy.” This blog explains Deepgram pricing and compares it with leading alternatives like Dograh AI, helping you choose the right AI phone agent platform for your business.

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Deepgram Pricing at a Glance

Deepgram offers three plans: Free, Growth, and Enterprise. The Free plan includes $200 in credits followed by pay-as-you-go billing and it provides access to all endpoints in the public models.

Core Pricing Structure

• Pay As You Go : After the $200 free credits, the plan shifts to pay-as-you-go and provides access to all public model endpoints. Concurrency limits include up to 100 Speech-to-Text requests via REST, 50 via WSS and 5 through Deepgram Whisper Cloud, up to 15 Text-to-Speech requests across REST and WSS, up to 15 for the Voice Agent API via WSS, and up to 10 for Audio Intelligence via REST. Support is available through Discord and community help.
• Growth : The Growth plan uses pre-paid annual credits that are applied to actual usage and provides access to all public model endpoints. It includes concurrency limits of up to 100 Speech-to-Text requests via REST, 50 via WSS, and 5 through Deepgram Whisper Cloud, up to 15 Text-to-Speech requests across REST and WSS, up to 15 for the Voice Agent API via WSS, and up to 10 for Audio Intelligence via REST. Support is available through Discord and community channels.
• Enterprise Plan : The Enterprise plan is designed for businesses with high volumes, advanced data or deployment needs, or enhanced support requirements. It offers access to all public model endpoints with the highest available discounts, along with custom-trained speech-to-text models and priority access to new endpoints and features. Customers receive the highest concurrency limits, optional self-hosted deployment, and the availability of paid support plans, with additional help through Discord and community channels.

How Deepgram Pricing Works and Tiers Comparison

Deepgram’s voice agent tiers include Standard, Standard - BYO TTS, Custom - BYO LLM, Custom - BYO LLM + TTS, Advanced and Advanced - BYO TTS.

How Deepgram Voice Agent API Pricing Works

• Standard : For the Standard tier, pricing is $0.0800 per minute on Pay-as-you-Go and $0.0700 per minute on the Growth plan.
• Standard - BYO TTS : For the Standard - BYO TTS tier, pricing is $0.0600 per minute on Pay-as-you-Go and $0.0500 per minute on the Growth plan.
• Custom - BYO LLM : For the Custom - BYO LLM tier, pricing is $0.0700 per minute on Pay-as-you-Go and $0.0600 per minute on the Growth plan.
• Custom - BYO LLM + TTS : For the Custom - BYO LLM + TTS tier, pricing is $0.0500 per minute on Pay-as-you-Go and $0.0400 per minute on the Growth plan.
• Advanced : For the Advanced tier, pricing is $0.1600 per minute on Pay-as-you-Go and $0.1500 per minute on the Growth plan.
• Advanced - BYO TTS : The Advanced - BYO TTS plan charges $0.12/min for Pay-As-You-Go and $0.11/min for Growth, offering flexible, usage-based pricing.

Deepgram Pricing and Tiers Comparison

How to Reduce Voice Agent Costs ?

1. Choose lower-cost models/tier where acceptable

• Nova is often more affordable than both Enhanced and Base, and is also the recommended model.
• Enhanced models can cost up to three times more than Nova, so choose Nova or Base if they meet your accuracy requirements.
• Billing is calculated per second of audio rather than rounded to full minutes, so removing silence from your inputs can directly reduce costs.

2. Be selective with add-ons and features

• Features such as language detection, topic detection, and summarization add to the cost, enabling only the ones you actually need.

3. Voice Agent / Flux: tune for shorter connection time and fewer LLM calls

• Voice Agent API pricing is based on WebSocket connection time, so minimizing call length and idle periods helps lower costs.
• With Flux, turning on EagerEndOfTurn can make responses faster but may increase LLM usage by 50-70%.

Real Cost Breakdown

Deepgram offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model billed per audio minute or hour, with automatic volume discounts and $200 in free starter credits. The Voice Agent API is approximately $4.50/hour (~$0.075/min), covering STT, LLM, and TTS.

Suppose you run 1,000 minutes of real-time voice agent audio in a month on the Voice Agent API :

Voice Agent API cost : 1,000 min × $0.075 = $75

Total estimated monthly cost : Around $75

How to calculate your monthly bill with Deepgram

You can calculate your monthly Deepgram bill using their pricing calculator. Enter your estimated usage, such as audio hours and model type, into the calculator. It will provide an estimated monthly cost based on your selections and usage.

Pros and Cons of Deepgram Pricing

Pros

• Flexible, usage-based billing : Deepgram offers a pay-as-you-go model (with an initial free credit), so you only pay for what you use. There’s no long-term commitment required, making it ideal for getting started.
• Generous free credits : Get $200 upon signup to try batch or streaming transcription before committing, perfect for new users or small experiments.
• Volume discounts : Growth and Enterprise plans offer lower per-minute rates and enhanced support for heavy or frequent usage, ideal for large workloads.

Cons

• Costs after free credit : The $200 signup credit is one-time, continued usage, especially for long audio, incurs ongoing charges.
• Extra features add to cost : Advanced options like speaker diarization, key-term prompting, or multi-channel audio are billed separately, increasing overall expenses compared to basic transcription.

The Bottom Line: Is Deepgram Worth It ?

Deepgram is a strong option for developers and enterprises seeking top-tier accuracy, although some Reddit users have reported occasional accuracy issues. Its Voice Agent pricing, at around ~$0.075/min, remains significantly higher than typical batch STT rates and total costs can vary depending on the third-party models integrated, such as OpenAI or ElevenLabs.

Getting started with Dograh

Interested in leveraging Dograh for lead generation, cold calling or business automation ? Here’s a streamlined path to getting started, along with direct links to essential resources :

1. Dograh AI: Quick Start Demo

2. Run Docker Command

Download and Start Dograh first startup may take 2-3 mins to download all images

Docker

3. Quick Start Instructions

Describe use case

Create Workflow Dashboard

Auto-generated templates - test your bot and customize quickly

Dograh AI Dashboard

Step by step written guide to building and deploying your first voice AI Agent

• Open Dashboard: Launch http://localhost:3000 on your browser.
• Choose Call Type: Select Inbound or Outbound calling.
• Name Your Bot: Use a short two-word name (e.g., Lead Qualification).
• Describe Use Case: In 5–10 words (e.g., Screen insurance form submissions for purchase intent).
• Launch: Your bot is ready! Open the bot and click Web Call to talk to it.

4. Community & Support

Join Slack Community and discuss issue with Dograh experts :

Join Slack Community

5. Additional Resource

Cost Optimization Strategies

A key cost-optimization strategy with Deepgram is to use the Nova model, which is more affordable than both Enhanced and Base while still offering strong accuracy. Since Enhanced models can cost up to three times more, choosing Nova or Base when they meet your accuracy needs helps keep overall pricing low.

Final Thoughts

Deepgram’s pricing is a good deal for companies that need accurate, scalable real-time or batch transcription, especially for large volumes or advanced voice AI tasks. But for simpler or smaller voice-agent needs where low cost matters most, other platforms may be more budget-friendly.

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