From free to $200/hour — the complete 2026 pricing guide for live stream captions. What you get at each price point and which option makes sense for your situation.
Start Free Trial — $9.99/mo AfterLive stream captioning options range from completely free to hundreds of dollars per hour depending on quality requirements, scale, and technical approach. Here's a complete breakdown of every pricing tier.
Free forever, requires NVIDIA GPU. Whisper model runs locally. English primary. 2-5 second latency. No translation. High accuracy for English with clear audio. Best for: streamers with RTX GPUs who don't need real-time captions or translation.
Free, uses Google's speech API via Chrome. English-only. 1-2 second latency. Variable reliability. Maintenance issues historically. Best for: backup option when other tools aren't available.
Platform-generated, viewer-opt-in, English-centric, delayed 5-10 seconds (YouTube Live). Not burned into stream video. No translation. Free but the limitations make them insufficient as an accessibility solution for most streamers.
Best value in this tier. Deepgram Nova-2 STT, sub-500ms latency, 50+ language translation, OBS Browser Source integration, Twitch Extension. Works on Twitch, YouTube Live, Kick, Facebook Gaming, Rumble. No GPU required. Best for: the vast majority of streamers who want professional-quality captions.
AI captioning tool primarily for video production, not optimized for live streaming. Has live caption features but better known for post-production captioning. No dedicated Twitch integration.
Enterprise-focused AI captioning with higher accuracy claims and compliance features. Designed for corporate use cases. Often overkill and over-priced for individual streamers.
CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) stenographers are trained professionals who can achieve 98-99% accuracy in real time. This is the gold standard for critical applications: legal proceedings, medical conferences, congressional testimony, events where near-perfect accuracy is legally required.
For a 3-hour gaming stream, CART costs $225-$600. For a 24-hour charity marathon, CART would cost $1,800-$4,800. These rates are industry-standard and reflect the specialized training of human stenographers. For most streamers, CART captioning is economically impossible at this cost.
When to use CART: legally mandated events, high-stakes corporate broadcasts, medical or legal educational streaming where accuracy is critical and budget exists.
To make the comparison concrete: StreamTranslate at $9.99/month gives you unlimited caption hours. A streamer who goes live 4 hours per day, 20 days per month, has 80 hours of captioned streaming per month — for $9.99. That's $0.12 per hour. Human CART: $75-200 per hour. The cost gap between AI and human captioning for streaming is approximately 600-1600x.
Individual streamers on any budget: StreamTranslate free trial → $9.99/month. Best quality, lowest cost, full translation support.
Streamers with RTX GPUs who want free: LocalVocal, with the understanding that 2-5 second latency and English-only limitations apply.
Corporate event streaming with compliance requirements: Human CART captioners for mandated sessions, StreamTranslate for supplementary content.
Educational institutions: StreamTranslate for regular class streaming, CART for high-stakes events.
Start your free trial at streamtranslate.live/setup.
StreamTranslate costs $9.99 per month after a free trial. This covers unlimited streaming hours with captions in 50+ languages. No per-hour or per-minute charges.
Human CART stenographers typically charge $75-$200 per hour. For a 3-hour gaming stream, that's $225-$600. For a 24-hour charity event, $1,800-$4,800.
LocalVocal (OBS plugin using Whisper) is permanently free but requires an NVIDIA RTX GPU, has 2-5 second latency, and doesn't support translation. StreamTranslate offers a free trial.
StreamTranslate at $9.99/month is the best value for individual streamers. It provides Deepgram Nova-2 accuracy (better than most alternatives), sub-500ms latency, 50+ language translation, and works on all streaming platforms.
No. StreamTranslate is a flat monthly subscription at $9.99/month with no per-stream or per-minute charges. Stream as much as you want.
Human CART captioners are worth the cost when near-perfect accuracy is legally required (ADA compliance events, court proceedings, medical education) or when budget exists for corporate events where 98-99% accuracy is critical.