> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.kotoba.tech/overview/capabilities/speech-to-text/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.kotoba.tech/_mcp/server.

# Speech to Text

Kotoba's Speech-to-Text (ASR) lets you turn audio into text in either of
two complementary modes:

* **Live (WebSocket)** — push PCM16 chunks as they arrive, read transcript
  deltas back the same connection. Built for microphones and any
  latency-sensitive pipeline where the first words matter before the
  utterance ends.
* **Batch (REST)** — POST an audio file and poll until a job completes.
  Best for long files, offline workflows, and anything that doesn't need
  partial results.

Both modes support English (`en`), Japanese (`ja`), Korean (`ko`), and
Chinese (`zh`) input.

## Pick a transport

| You want…                                | Use                                 |
| ---------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| Mic in, text out, while audio is flowing | Live (WebSocket)                    |
| File in, full transcript out             | Batch (REST)                        |
| Per-segment timestamps                   | Batch (REST) with `with_timestamps` |

## Where to go next

* [Python SDK for ASR](/s2t/python-sdk) — `client.asr.transcribe(...)` for
  REST batch, `client.asr.transcribe_stream(...)` for live.
* [API reference — Live (WebSocket)](/s2t/streaming) — the AsyncAPI spec
  for the streaming channel.
* [API reference — Batch (REST)](/s2t/batch) — the OpenAPI spec for the
  async transcription job endpoints.

> Stream live transcripts or transcribe finished audio files.