Free Descript Alternatives
Descript’s free plan against six verified free transcription APIs - Deepgram, Speechmatics, AssemblyAI, Gladia, Groq and Scaleway - with credit, card and catch.
Descript’s free plan is a text-based editor: 60 media minutes a month, 100 one-time AI credits, 720p local export and transcription in 25 languages, with no card. Past that you move to Hobbyist ($16 a month billed annually, $24 monthly) for 10 media hours. The catalog does not list a free video editor, so this page covers the half of Descript it can back with verified offers: transcription. The six rows below are free speech-to-text services that give you the transcript to edit, subtitle or search; they are APIs, so you bring your own tool for the cutting. Every row is a live offer from the same data as the free AI audio tools hub, re-checked monthly. For the full list of speech-to-text options see free speech-to-text APIs; for AI video generation see the free AI video tools hub.
| Option | What is free | Card | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deepgram Free $200 Credit | $200 in free credits for Deepgram speech-to-text and TTS, no card | no card | Catch: Credit is tied to the Pay As You Go plan; billing switches to pay-as-you-go once the $200 credit is spent. |
| Speechmatics $100 Free Credit | $100 in Speechmatics speech-to-text and TTS credit, no card, valid 12 months | no card | Catch: The $100 sign-up credit lasts 12 months and service pauses once it reaches zero; adding a card switches the account to pay-as-you-go. |
| AssemblyAI Free Credits | $50 in free credits for speech-to-text, streaming, and voice agent APIs | no card | Catch: Free tier caps streaming at 5 new streams per minute (vs 100/min paid), and LLM Gateway usage is not covered by the credits; the credits do not expire. |
| Gladia Free Credits | One-time €50 speech-to-text credit, valid one year, up to ~312 hours | no card | Catch: One-time credit that expires one year after signup, with no monthly reset; once used you must top up or upgrade to continue. |
| Groq Free Tier | Free rate-limited Groq API access to hosted open models, no card | no card | Catch: Rate limits apply at the organization level and are tight (e.g. 30 RPM and 1K RPD on many models); the docs caution limits may change and exceptions exist. |
| Scaleway Generative APIs Free Tier | 1M free tokens and 60 minutes of transcription on Scaleway APIs | no card | Catch: Free Tier applies to your most expensive tokens first; once exceeded, per-token billing starts with a 1,000-token minimum billing unit. |
The 6 options, in detail
Deepgram Free $200 Credit
$200 in free credits for Deepgram speech-to-text and TTS, no card
- Applies to the Pay As You Go plan
- No expiration on the credit
- No minimums
- Moves to pay-as-you-go billing after the credit is used
Catch: Credit is tied to the Pay As You Go plan; billing switches to pay-as-you-go once the $200 credit is spent.
Speechmatics $100 Free Credit
$100 in Speechmatics speech-to-text and TTS credit, no card, valid 12 months
- $100 sign-up credit lasts 12 months
- 2 concurrent real-time sessions on the Free tier
- Service pauses when the credit balance reaches zero
- 1 credit = $1; card only needed to continue on pay-as-you-go
Catch: The $100 sign-up credit lasts 12 months and service pauses once it reaches zero; adding a card switches the account to pay-as-you-go.
AssemblyAI Free Credits
$50 in free credits for speech-to-text, streaming, and voice agent APIs
- Free-tier streaming concurrency: 5 new streams per minute
- Free-tier accounts may default to different models than paid accounts
- Credits cover Pre-recorded STT, Real-time STT, Voice Agent API, Speech Understanding and Guardrails; LLM Gateway is not included
- Credits do not expire
Catch: Free tier caps streaming at 5 new streams per minute (vs 100/min paid), and LLM Gateway usage is not covered by the credits; the credits do not expire.
Gladia Free Credits
One-time €50 speech-to-text credit, valid one year, up to ~312 hours
- One-time 50 EUR credit at signup, valid for one year, no monthly reset
- Roughly 312 h async on Solaria-3, 185 h on Solaria-1 or 73 h real-time at current rates
- 25 concurrent async and 30 concurrent real-time requests on Self-serve
- Top up or upgrade once the credit is used
Catch: One-time credit that expires one year after signup, with no monthly reset; once used you must top up or upgrade to continue.
Groq Free Tier
Free rate-limited Groq API access to hosted open models, no card
- Per-organization limits tracked as RPM, RPD, TPM, TPD
- openai/gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b: 30 RPM / 1K RPD / 8K TPM / 200K TPD
- qwen/qwen3.8-27b: 30 RPM / 1K RPD / 8K TPM / 200K TPD
- whisper-large-v3 and turbo: 20 RPM / 2K RPD, 7.2K audio sec/hour, 28.8K audio sec/day
Catch: Rate limits apply at the organization level and are tight (e.g. 30 RPM and 1K RPD on many models); the docs caution limits may change and exceptions exist.
Scaleway Generative APIs Free Tier
1M free tokens and 60 minutes of transcription on Scaleway APIs
- 1,000,000 free tokens (Serverless, token-billed models)
- 60 minutes free audio transcription
- Free quota split proportionally across projects by consumption
- Minimum billing unit of 1,000 tokens after the quota
Catch: Free Tier applies to your most expensive tokens first; once exceeded, per-token billing starts with a 1,000-token minimum billing unit.
Free forever by self-hosting
Open-source projects that do the same job on your own hardware, with no quota.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Descript free?
- Yes, there is a Free plan with no card: 60 media minutes a month, 100 one-time AI credits, 720p local export, unlimited projects and transcription in 25 languages, with its AI tools limited. Hobbyist starts at $16 a month billed annually ($24 monthly) for 10 media hours and 1080p export. This was read from Descript’s pricing page on November 1, 2026.
- Is there a free alternative to Descript?
- For transcription, yes: Deepgram gives $200 in credit, Speechmatics $100, AssemblyAI $50 and Gladia a one-time €50, none with a card. They return a transcript through an API; none of them is a video editor, so they replace Descript’s transcription, not its text-based editing.
- Which free option transcribes the most audio?
- Gladia estimates its €50 credit at about 80 hours of pre-recorded audio. Groq’s free plan serves Whisper models at up to 28,800 audio seconds (8 hours) a day, and Scaleway’s free tier includes 60 minutes of whisper-large-v3 transcription.
- Do these Descript alternatives need a credit card?
- No - none of the six rows asks for a card. Deepgram moves to pay-as-you-go billing once the credit is spent, and adding a card at Speechmatics switches the account to pay-as-you-go.
- How current is this comparison?
- Every row is generated from the aifree.dev catalog, whose offers are re-checked monthly. Credits and limits shift quietly, so a row changes or disappears when the vendor does.
Step-by-step guides
- How to Get a Free Groq API Key
- Free OpenAI API Access in 2026: What's Actually Free
- Free Text-to-Speech APIs in 2026
- Free Speech-to-Text APIs in 2026
- Free DeepSeek API in 2026: What Is Actually Free
- Free Qwen, GLM and Kimi API in 2026: Where They Are Free
- Free Hugging Face Inference: Credits, ZeroGPU and Spaces
- Free AI APIs With No Credit Card in 2026
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- Best Free AI APIs for Vietnamese in 2026: Benchmark Scores and Free Tiers
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