W
WAmazon Transcribe vs Kayako
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
A
Choose Amazon Transcribe if…
- you want a free plan to start with
- you need an API to build on
- you're in its core audience: developers building on aws, contact center teams
K
Choose Kayako if…
- you're in its core audience: customer support teams, e-commerce and retail businesses
Side by side
Feature Amazon Transcribe Kayako
Pricing modelFreemiumPaid
Starting price——
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Security and compliance—SOC 2 Type II, GDPR
Speaker labels—
File upload—
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb
CategoryTranscriptionCustomer Support
Rank in its category#2 of 5#9 of 12
CompanyAmazon Web Services, Inc.ESW Operations, LLC
Based inUnited StatesUnited States
Founded—2001
Part ofAmazon.com, Inc.—
Key features
A Amazon Transcribe
- Batch and real-time streaming transcription
- Speaker diarization and automatic language identification
- Custom vocabularies and custom language models
- Automatic redaction of sensitive information
- Call Analytics with sentiment and generative summaries
- Toxicity detection and content moderation
- HIPAA-eligible medical transcription
- Features available in 100+ languages
K Kayako
- AI agent that drafts replies and closes tickets
- Takes actions like refunds and account creation
- Omnichannel inbox for email, chat, social and voice
- No-code routing, assignment and escalation workflows
- Knowledge base with semantic search and help center
- SLA management and support analytics
- Works on top of Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, Salesforce
- SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, SSO/SAML and audit logs
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
Amazon Transcribe
Free TierFree
Standard Batch$0.006/min (US East example)
Standard Streaming$0.01/min (US East example)
Call Analytics (post-call)$0.03/min first 250K min; $0.0186 next 750K; $0.0138 next 4M
Generative call summarization$0.0024/min (Tier 1)
Content redaction$0.0024/min (Tier 1)
Kayako
Kay (AI support agent)$1 per resolved ticket
Kayako OneCustom
Strengths and limitations
Amazon Transcribe
- Free tier with 60 minutes a month for 12 months
- Billed per second with no minimum charge
- Volume tiers lower the per-minute cost at scale
- Features available in more than 100 languages
- Prices vary by region and the page gives some only as examples
- Redaction and custom language models are not in the free tier
- Requires an AWS account and some developer setup
Kayako
- Kay is billed only for tickets it resolves without a human
- No seat or setup fees for Kay
- Works on top of existing help desks, so no migration is needed
- Lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and SSO/SAML support
- Kayako One pricing is only available through sales
- No free trial mentioned
- No public API is described on the site
More comparisons
Other options to consider
WW
Free, from $12/mo
W
Voice dictation that turns speech into clean, formatted text in any app
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V
VV
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Open-source offline speech recognition toolkit for developers in 20+ languages
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O
OOpen-source voice dictation and bot-free meeting notes with on-device models
Free, from $6.67/mo
O
Free, from $6.67/mo
O
Open-source voice dictation and bot-free meeting notes with on-device models
TranscriptionFree planAPIOpen source
R
RR
From $12/mo
R
Transcript-based platform to search, redact, highlight and edit recorded video
TranscriptionAPI
I
IAI customer agent that resolves support, sales and ecommerce conversations
From $49.50/mo
I
From $49.50/mo
I
AI customer agent that resolves support, sales and ecommerce conversations
Customer SupportAPI
Z
ZZ
Free trial
Facts from each vendor's public pages, prices checked Oct 26, 2026. Editorial policy