An alternative to the Whisper and AssemblyAI APIs
Classic speech APIs expect an audio file. Techtuel takes a YouTube, podcast, RSS or web URL — or a file — and transcribes YouTube captions for next to nothing.
curl https://api.techtuel.com/v1/transcriptions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer txl_your_key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..." }'{
"id": "job_9f2c…",
"status": "completed",
"title": "The Daily Standup — Episode 42",
"language": "en",
"minutes": 12.5,
"transcript": "Hello and welcome…",
"segments": [
{ "start_seconds": 0, "text": "Hello and welcome" },
{ "start_seconds": 4.2, "text": "to the Daily Standup" }
]
}Whisper, AssemblyAI and Deepgram are excellent engines — but they expect you to hand them a clean audio file. All the source resolution (downloading the YouTube video, extracting audio from a page, parsing an RSS feed) stays your problem.
Techtuel moves that work into the API. You send a URL, whatever it points at, and you get text back. For YouTube videos that already have subtitles the cost collapses: it is billed as one video, not as speech-recognition minutes.
On top of that: European hosting, a free monthly quota with no credit card, and a cache that avoids re-billing a public source that has already been transcribed. It is the right pick when your inputs are URLs rather than files you already have on disk.
Why this API
Source resolution included
Where Whisper and AssemblyAI want a file, Techtuel accepts a YouTube/podcast/RSS/web URL and does the extraction for you.
YouTube cost collapses
YouTube captions are billed as one video rather than by STT minute — an order of magnitude cheaper on captioned content.
European, free tier
French hosting with no US cloud, a free monthly quota with no card, and a cache that avoids re-billing public sources.
Pricing you can read
Frequently asked questions
How is Techtuel different from Whisper or AssemblyAI?+
Those APIs expect an audio file. Techtuel accepts a URL (YouTube, podcast, RSS) and handles audio extraction for you on top of the transcription itself.
Why is it cheaper on YouTube?+
When a video has subtitles they are fetched and billed as a single video rather than by speech-recognition minute — an order of magnitude cheaper.
How hard is it to migrate?+
The API is plain HTTP POST/GET with a Bearer key. The JSON output with timestamped segments, plus SRT and VTT, is close to what you already consume.
Does my data stay in Europe?+
Yes. Processing and hosting are 100% European, and uploaded files are deleted after processing.
Other ways to use the API
Free trial, no credit card
Generate an API key and transcribe your first source in under a minute. A free monthly quota lets you test under real conditions.
Start with the API