#asr

Qwen introduces Qwen-Audio-3.1 and cuts TTS, Realtime, and ASR prices

The lineup upgrades ASR, TTS, and Realtime and adds ASR-Next for audio understanding and TTS-Next for audio creation. Qwen puts the cuts at about 70% for TTS, about 85% for Realtime, and up to 95% for ASR.

StepFun releases StepAudio 3 ASR at 1.7% WER on the AA-WER Index

Artificial Analysis says StepFun’s StepAudio 3 ASR is available through the StepFun API for non-streaming transcription, scoring 1.7% WER on the AA-WER Index, tied with Alibaba’s Fun-Realtime-ASR-preview and down from 4.7% for StepAudio 2.5 ASR. It transcribes at 88x real time and costs $0.40 per hour.