According to AlphaMoat, as of 2026-09, Speech is Cheap Transcribe has 4,288 downloads and 5 stars — ranked #2,303 of 5,078 AI skills overall, and #224 of 512 in Design & Media.

Installs

222

Downloads

4.3K

Stars

Overall Rank

#2,303

Top 46% overall · Top 44% in Design & Media

Platform	Installs	Downloads	Stars	Comments
ClawHub ↗	126	4.0K	5	-
SkillHub ↗	222	4.3K	5	—

Platforms count differently and update at different times.

What this skill does

Pricing listed in the skill is $0.06-$0.12 per hour (claimed to be 2-15x cheaper than Deepgram or OpenAI), with 100 minutes of audio transcribed in ~1 minute, aimed at high-volume automated pipelines. Sign up at speechischeap.com (code CH5 for $5 off) and set the SIC_API_KEY environment variable. It runs via ./skills/asr/scripts/asr.sh: transcribe --url for audio URLs and --file for local files (automatic multi-part upload to upload.speechischeap.com). Options include speaker diarization --speakers, word-level timestamps --words, audio labeling --labels, --stream, privacy mode --private, --language ISO codes, --confidence (default 0.5), --format (json, srt, vtt, webvtt), --webhook callbacks, and --segment-duration (default 30 seconds); a status subcommand checks job status. It returns JSON by default on success and gives a clear error with a signup link when SIC_API_KEY is missing.

Profile published 2026-10-27

What you can do with it

Transcribe audio URLs or local audio files (with automatic upload)
Transcription with speaker diarization, word-level timestamps, and audio labeling
Output in json/srt/vtt/webvtt formats and check job status

When to use it

When a low-cost, high-volume automated transcription pipeline is needed
When multilingual transcription (100 languages with auto-detection) or privacy mode --private is needed

Example prompts

Generated from the skill’s documentation as examples; not results of actual runs.

Transcribe the podcast audio at this URL into SRT subtitles

Transcribe this meeting recording with word-level timestamps

Check the status of this transcription job

Monthly Trend

Downloads4.3K

Stars5

The counting method changed in 2026-09: skills with the same name are now counted separately by author, and the full catalog is covered. Dashed lines show months before the change; they are not compared with later months, and no growth is computed across the change.

Month	Downloads	MoM	Stars
2026-09	4.3K	—	5
2026-08	3.9K	+5.0%	5
2026-07	3.7K	+10.1%	5
2026-06	3.4K	+6.0%	5
2026-05	3.2K	—	5
2026-03	2.7K	—	5

SKILL.md (original)

The author’s original file, shown as plain text without edits or review by AlphaMoat. Links are not clickable; check commands before running them. Fetched 2026-10-23.

2.7 KB · ClawHub v1.2.0

# Speech is Cheap (SIC) Skill

Fast, accurate, and incredibly inexpensive automatic speech-to-text transcription service.

## 🚀 Why use this skill?
- **Disruptive Pricing:** $0.06 - $0.12 per hour (2-15x cheaper than Deepgram or OpenAI).
- **Extreme Speed:** 100 minutes of audio transcribes in ~1 minute.
- **Multilingual:** Supports 100 languages with auto-detection.
- **Agent-Ready:** Designed for high-volume, automated pipelines.

Show all (76 lines)

## 🛠 Setup

### 1. Get an API Key
Sign up at [speechischeap.com](https://speechischeap.com). Use code `CH5` for $5 off.

### 2. Configure Authentication
This skill looks for your API key in the `SIC_API_KEY` environment variable.

Add this to your `.env` or agent config:
```bash
SIC_API_KEY=your_key_here
```

## 📖 Usage
### 🤖 TL;DR for Agents
When this skill is installed, you can transcribe any URL from an OpenClaw session and get the JSON results immediately by running:
`./skills/asr/scripts/asr.sh transcribe --url "https://example.com/audio.mp3"`

### Transcribe a URL
```bash
# Basic transcription
./skills/asr/scripts/asr.sh transcribe --url "https://example.com/audio.mp3"

# Advanced transcription with options
./skills/asr/scripts/asr.sh transcribe --url "https://example.com/audio.mp3" \
  --speakers --words --labels \
  --language "en" \
  --format "srt" \
  --private
```

### Transcribe a Local File
Perfect for processing audio already on your disk. This handles the upload automatically.
```bash
# Upload and transcribe local media
./skills/asr/scripts/asr.sh transcribe --file "./local-audio.wav"

# Upload with webhook callback
./skills/asr/scripts/asr.sh transcribe --file "./local-audio.wav" --webhook "https://mysite.com/callback"

# Note: For local files, the skill handles the multi-part upload to
# https://upload.speechischeap.com before starting the transcription.
```

### Supported Options
- `--speakers`: Enable speaker diarization
- `--words`: Enable word-level timestamps
- `--labels`: Enable audio labeling (music, noise, etc.)
- `--stream`: Enable streaming output
- `--private`: Do not store audio/transcript (privacy mode)
- `--language <code>`: ISO language code (e.g., 'en', 'es')
- `--confidence <float>`: Minimum confidence threshold (default 0.5)
- `--format <fmt>`: Output format (json, srt, vtt, webvtt)
- `--webhook <url>`: URL to receive job completion payload
- `--segment-duration <n>`: Segment duration in seconds (default 30)

### Check Job Status
```bash
./skills/asr/scripts/asr.sh status "job-id-here"
```

## 🤖 For Agents
The `asr.sh` command-line tool returns JSON by default when successful, making it easy to pipe into other tools or parse directly.

If the `SIC_API_KEY` is missing, the tool will provide a clear error message and a direct link to the signup page.