Microsoft Slashes AI Transcription Prices 72% with New MAI-Transcribe-2

Microsoft’s 10-person team built a speech model that undercuts OpenAI, Google and ElevenLabs on every benchmark — at $0.10 an hour

Microsoft AI's MAI-Transcribe-2 launched September 3 at $0.10 per audio hour — a 72% drop from its predecessor and below every major competitor. Built by a 10-person team, it ranks first on the FLEURS 60-language benchmark at 5.2% word error rate, processes audio 10 times faster than OpenAI's GPT-Transcribe, and is available through Microsoft Foundry, MAI Playground, and Open Router. The price is a limited offer through end of 2026.

Microsoft slashes AI transcription prices 72% with new MAI-Transcribe-2

Microsoft AI launched MAI-Transcribe-2 at $0.10 per audio hour, a 72% cut from its own model five months ago, and says it beats OpenAI, Google and ElevenLabs on both accuracy and speed. The model tops the FLEURS benchmark across 60 languages and transcribes an hour of audio in about ten seconds.

Microsoft releases 'MAI-Transcribe-2,' an AI-powered transcription tool that is 5 times faster than Gemini 3.5 Transcribe and 10 times faster than GPT-Transcribe.

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