ElevenLabs vs AssemblyAI
A feature-by-feature comparison of ElevenLabs and AssemblyAI across 7 capability categories.
Modalities — ElevenLabs Wins
| Feature | ElevenLabs | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
Text Input | Yes | Partial. Prompts steer Speech Understanding. Primary input is audio. |
Image Upload / Vision | No | No. Speech platform, not vision. |
Image Generation | No | No. Does not generate images. |
Voice Mode | Yes | Yes, requires plus plan. Voice Agent WebSocket is a conversational speech product. |
Video Understanding | No | No. Audio/speech focus. |
Video Generation | No. Not a video generation product. | No. Not a video generation product. |
File Upload (PDF, DOCX) | Yes | Partial. Upload audio/video files for async transcription. |
Code Execution | No | No. STT APIs, not a code sandbox. |
Audio Input | Yes | Yes, requires plus plan. Realtime and batch STT are the core product. |
Canvas / Artifact Editor | No | No. Not a canvas product. |
Screen Sharing / Computer Use | No | No. No computer-use product. |
Memory & Context — Tie
| Feature | ElevenLabs | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
Persistent Memory | No | Partial. Voice Agent retains session context during a call. |
Large Context Window | No | Unknown. Agent context limits were not checked. |
Custom Instructions | No | Yes, requires plus plan. Configure Voice Agent prompts and guardrails. |
Conversation History | Yes | Partial. Transcripts stored per job. Realtime is per-session. |
Integrations — Tie
| Feature | ElevenLabs | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
Web Search / Browsing | No | Unknown. Web search in Voice Agent was not confirmed. |
Plugins / Extensions | No | Partial. LLM Gateway and integrations connect upstream models. |
API Access | Yes | Yes, requires plus plan. REST and WebSocket APIs for STT and Voice Agent. |
Zapier Integration | No | Unknown. Zapier listing was not checked. |
Custom GPTs / Bots | No | Yes, requires plus plan. Voice Agent is a deployable speech bot. |
Real-time Collaboration | Yes | No. No multiplayer product. |
Live Social Data Integration | No. No social firehose. | |
Live Citation Mapping | No. Not a cited-search product. |
Developer — ElevenLabs Wins
| Feature | ElevenLabs | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
Function Calling | No | Partial. Voice Agent can call tools via LLM Gateway. |
Streaming Responses | Yes | Yes, requires plus plan. Realtime STT streams partial transcripts over WebSocket. |
Fine-Tuning | Yes | Unknown. Custom STT was not confirmed on homepage. |
Embeddings API | No | No. Not an embeddings product. |
Structured Output (JSON) | No | Partial. Speech Understanding returns structured entities and summaries. |
Reasoning / Thinking Mode | No | No. Not a reasoning LLM. |
Local Execution | No. Cloud-only STT. Distinct from self-hosted Whisper. | |
Open Weights | No. Proprietary models and APIs. | |
Multi-Agent Orchestration | No. Single voice agent per session. |
Platforms — ElevenLabs Wins
| Feature | ElevenLabs | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
Web App | Yes | Partial. Dashboard for API keys and playground. |
iOS App | Yes | No. No iOS app. |
Android App | Yes | No. No Android app. |
Desktop App | No | No. No desktop app. |
Chrome Extension | No | No. No Chrome extension. |
Privacy — ElevenLabs Wins
| Feature | ElevenLabs | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
GDPR Compliant | Yes | Unknown. Compliance docs were not re-read. |
Opt Out of Data Training | Yes | Unknown. Training policy was not checked. |
Enterprise Privacy Mode | Yes | Yes, requires enterprise plan. Guardrails, EU data residency options, and enterprise contracts. |
Workspaces — ElevenLabs Wins
| Feature | ElevenLabs | AssemblyAI |
|---|---|---|
Projects / Folders | Yes | Partial. Dashboard organizes API keys and usage. |