Deepgram through Squiid

What Deepgram is

Deepgram is a speech recognition platform. Its Nova models transcribe pre-recorded files or a live websocket stream, returning word-level timestamps, punctuation, diarization that separates speakers, and optional summarisation or topic detection in the same response. A text to speech product and a voice agent API sit alongside it, so one vendor can cover both directions of a conversation. Models are selected per request, so you can transcribe an archive with a cheaper model and run live calls on the newest one without maintaining two integrations.

This is the service that makes recorded audio searchable. In an AI-coded product it turns sales calls into notes, meeting recordings into action items, voice memos into tasks, and podcast episodes into transcripts that get chunked, embedded and put in a vector store. The live streaming endpoint is the one used by voice agents, where the transcript has to arrive while the person is still speaking rather than after they stop. Callback URLs let a long file transcribe in the background while your request returns immediately, which suits serverless hosts with short timeouts.

Why connect it through Squiid

Audio jobs are bursty, which makes them awkward to budget for on a card. Squiid meters Deepgram at its published per-minute rate against your prepaid credits and shows the minutes as they are consumed, so an unexpected backlog is visible on the day it happens. Requests go to https://api.squiid.io/v1/deepgram/... with Authorization: Bearer $SQUIID_API_KEY, the official SDKs work by pointing their base URL at the gateway (gateway convention), and Squiid keeps the upstream key so it never reaches a preview deployment or a teammate's laptop. Transcription spend lands on the same monthly invoice as your models, storage and email.

• One account, one key, one bill, one dashboard. Deepgram sits beside every other service your project uses, on the same invoice and the same credit balance.
• Key custody. Squiid holds the Deepgram credentials. Your code carries SQUIID_API_KEY, so DEEPGRAM_API_KEY, DEEPGRAM_BASE_URL never land in a repository, a preview deployment or an agent’s context.
• Metering you can see. Every call is counted per service and per day, so you know what Deepgram costs before the month ends.
• Pause on zero. When prepaid credits run out the gateway stops authorizing usage instead of running up a bill you did not fund.
• One rotation. Rotating the Squiid key cuts off every agent, worker and deployment at once, with no provider key to hunt down.

What you get

• Pre-recorded and live streaming transcription
• Diarization, timestamps and keyword boosting
• Text to speech on the same key
• Per-minute metering against prepaid credits
• Deepgram list pricing, no markup

How to connect Deepgram

One variable replaces the provider credentials this service would normally need. Requests go to the gateway and the official SDKs work by pointing their base URL at it (gateway convention).

# .env
# replaces DEEPGRAM_API_KEY, DEEPGRAM_BASE_URL
SQUIID_API_KEY=sq_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

# every request: https://api.squiid.io/v1/deepgram/...
# header:       Authorization: Bearer $SQUIID_API_KEY

Pricing through Squiid

Deepgram charges per minute of audio transcribed, with different rates per model and for streaming, at the provider's listed price. Squiid passes that through at par: one dollar of prepaid credit is one dollar of Deepgram usage, with no markup and no per-request margin.

Deepgram has no subscription attached on Squiid today. If a plan is required for a feature you need, it passes through at the provider’s listed price with no Squiid fee.

Squiid adds no markup to provider prices. There is a free plan at $0 a month with a 15% fee when you top up credits, Solo at $19.97 a month with a top-up fee that starts at 8% and falls to 3.5% as your spend grows, Team from $29.97 a seat a month with the same ladder one point lower, and Custom with a rate of 3% or less. Credits are prepaid, so Deepgram usage stops when the balance reaches zero rather than producing an invoice you did not fund. Auto top-up with a cap keeps production running without handing anyone an open-ended card.

If you leave

Nothing to move: Deepgram is usage-metered, so leaving means creating your own Deepgram key and pointing the client at it. Squiid never owns your code, your schema or your domain, and the gateway speaks Deepgram's own API, so the client change is a base URL. The handover page lists what happens for every provider in the catalogue.

Works with every coding agent

Deepgram through Squiid is just an HTTP call with a bearer token, so every agentic coding tool can use it with the single key already in your environment:

• Claude Code
• Cursor
• ChatGPT
• Codex
• Grok
• Gemini CLI
• GitHub Copilot
• Windsurf
• Perplexity
• Devin
• Replit
• v0
• Lovable
• Cline

Vibe coding a feature on Deepgram usually means asking for it in plain language and letting the agent write the integration. Because the key is Squiid’s rather than the provider’s, it can do that without ever holding a credential that could be leaked, logged or committed.