Head-to-head · facts checked 8 Oct 2026
Adobe Firefly vs AssemblyAI
Adobe Firefly uniquely has 18 features · AssemblyAI uniquely has 9 features.
From
$9.99/mo (Firefly Standard, 2,000 generative credits/mo)
Free plan
Yes
From
$0.15/hr (pay as you go)
Free plan
No
The verdict
Adobe Firefly or AssemblyAI?
Section 01
Pricing, plan by plan
Every plan each vendor publishes, monthly and yearly where both are offered.
Adobe Firefly
Free
Free
Limited free generations each day across image, video, audio
Firefly Standard
$9.99/mo · $101.88/yr
2,000 credits/mo
Firefly Pro
$19.99/mo · $203.88/yr
4,000 credits/mo
Firefly Pro Plus
$34.97/mo · $503.88/yr
10,000 credits/mo
Firefly Premium
$118.93/mo · $2,039.88/yr
50,000 credits/mo
AssemblyAI
Free Tier
Free
Up to 185 hours pre-recorded transcription and 333 hours streaming transcription, no credit card required
Universal-3.5 Pro
$0.15/hr
Highly accurate STT model, 99 languages, 12.5M+ hours training data, no minimum commitment
Universal-3.5 Pro
$0.21/hr
Most accurate async STT model, 18 languages, native code-switching, best-in-class speaker diarization
Enterprise / Custom
Custom
Custom rate limits, enhanced concurrency, enterprise-grade flexibility, volume discounts, AWS Marketplace available
For everything else about each tool, read the full Adobe Firefly review and AssemblyAI review.
Side by side
| Company | ||
| Founded | 2023 | 2017 |
| HQ | San Jose, USA | San Francisco, USA |
| AI model | Firefly Image Model 4 (proprietary) + third-party models (Flux, Kling, Veo, ChatGPT Image, Runway) | Universal-3.5 Pro (Proprietary) |
| User base | 100M+ (Adobe ecosystem) | Millions of developers |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web |
| Languages | 25+ | 99 (Universal-2), 18 (Universal-3.5 Pro) |
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Freemium | Usage-based |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | Yes — free trial available on Standard and Pro plans | No |
| Starting price | $9.99/mo (Firefly Standard, 2,000 generative credits/mo) | $0.15/hr (pay as you go) |
| Enterprise | — | Custom pricing with custom rate limits, enhanced concurrency, and enterprise-grade flexibility |
| Refund policy | Refunds often within a 14-day window; enterprise pricing uses contact sales/custom quotes. | — |
| All plans | Free — Free Firefly Standard — $9.99/mo Firefly Pro — $19.99/mo Firefly Pro Plus — $34.97/mo Firefly Premium — $118.93/mo | Free Tier — Free Universal-3.5 Pro — $0.15/hr Universal-3.5 Pro — $0.21/hr Enterprise / Custom — Custom |
| Positioning | ||
| Best for | Creative Cloud users who want generation inside the apps they already use, from a vendor that does not train on their content | Developers who want low per-hour transcription with redaction, word timestamps and a self-hosted option |
| Differentiator | Commercially safe AI image and video generation trained on licensed content, with deep Adobe Creative Cloud integration including Photoshop and Express | Native code switching and highly accurate speaker diarization; async speech-to-text trained on 12.5M+ hours of audio |
| Competitors | Midjourney, DALL-E 3, Stable Diffusion, Canva AI, Ideogram | Deepgram, OpenAI Whisper, Google Speech-to-Text, Amazon Transcribe, Rev.ai |
| Features | ||
| Async Speech to Text | — | ✓ |
| Async Transcription | — | ✓ |
| Code Switching | — | ✓ |
| Multi Language Support | — | ✓ |
| Speaker Diarization | — | ✓ |
| API Access | — | ✓ |
| Aspect Ratio | ✓ | — |
| Audio Enhancement | — | ✕ |
| Background Removal | ✓ | — |
| Batch Generation | ✓ | — |
| Batch Processing | — | ✓ |
| Commercial Rights | ✓ | ✓ |
| Export Formats | PNG, JPG, MP4 (video); format availability varies by model | — |
| Image Animation | ✓ | — |
| Image Reference | ✓ | — |
| Image to Image | ✓ | — |
| Inpainting | ✓ | — |
| Languages Supported | — | ✓ |
| Mobile App | — | ✕ |
| Music Generation | — | ✕ |
| Negative Prompts | ✓ | — |
| Noise Removal | — | ✕ |
| Outpainting | ✓ | — |
| Podcast Editing | — | ✕ |
| Private Generations | ✓ | — |
| Prompt Customization | ✓ | — |
| Style Controls | ✓ | — |
| Text to Image | ✓ | — |
| Text to Speech | — | ✕ |
| Text to Video | ✓ | — |
| Transcription | — | ✓ |
| Upscaling | ✓ | — |
| Video Style Transfer | ✓ | — |
| Video Upscaling | ✓ | — |
| Voice Cloning | — | ✕ |
| Voice Styles | — | ✕ |
| Integrations | ||
| Adobe Audition | — | ✕ |
| API Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Canva Integration | ✕ | — |
| Garageband | — | ✕ |
| Key Integrations | Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Express Premium, Adobe Firefly Boards, Adobe Firefly Video Editor, Adobe Creative Cloud, Firefly mobile app | AWS Marketplace, GPT (LLM Gateway), Claude (LLM Gateway), Gemini (LLM Gateway), Community LLM Models, Python SDK, REST API, WebSocket Streaming API |
| Photoshop Plugin | ✓ | — |
Section 02
Adobe Firefly vs AssemblyAI: common questions
Is Adobe Firefly or AssemblyAI cheaper?
Adobe Firefly's cheapest paid plan is $9.99/mo (Firefly Standard, 2,000 generative credits/mo) and AssemblyAI's is $0.15/hr (pay as you go). Compare what each plan includes below before going on price alone.
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