xAI launches Grok speech-to-text and text-to-speech APIs

ME News Report, April 18 (UTC+8), xAI recently announced the official launch of two standalone audio APIs: Grok Speech-to-Text (STT) and Grok Text-to-Speech (TTS). Grok STT offers high-accuracy, low-latency transcription services, supporting batch processing via REST API and real-time streaming via WebSocket API, with features including word-level timestamps, speaker separation, multi-channel support, and intelligent reverse text normalization. The article mentions that in benchmark tests across multiple fields such as phone calls, meetings, videos/podcasts, its word error rate outperforms mainstream commercial models like ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and AssemblyAI. The service supports over 25 languages, priced at $0.10 per hour for batch processing and $0.20 per hour for streaming. Grok TTS can generate fast, natural, and expressive speech, supporting fine-grained control through simple voice tags, priced at $4.20 per million characters. Both APIs are built on the same technology stack that powers Grok Voice, Tesla vehicle support, and Starlink customer support. (Source: InFoQ)