# `transcribe()`

<Note type="warning">`transcribe` is an experimental feature.</Note>

Generates a transcript from an audio file.

```ts
import { experimental_transcribe as transcribe } from 'ai';
import { openai } from '@ai-sdk/openai';
import { readFile } from 'fs/promises';

const { text: transcript } = await transcribe({
  model: openai.transcription('whisper-1'),
  audio: await readFile('audio.mp3'),
});

console.log(transcript);
```

## Import

<Snippet
  text={`import { experimental_transcribe as transcribe } from "ai"`}
  prompt={false}
/>

## API Signature

### Parameters

<PropertiesTable
  content={[
    {
      name: 'model',
      type: 'TranscriptionModelV2',
      description: 'The transcription model to use.',
    },
    {
      name: 'audio',
      type: 'DataContent (string | Uint8Array | ArrayBuffer | Buffer) | URL',
      description: 'The audio file to generate the transcript from.',
    },
    {
      name: 'providerOptions',
      type: 'Record<string, Record<string, JSONValue>>',
      isOptional: true,
      description: 'Additional provider-specific options.',
    },
    {
      name: 'maxRetries',
      type: 'number',
      isOptional: true,
      description: 'Maximum number of retries. Default: 2.',
    },
    {
      name: 'abortSignal',
      type: 'AbortSignal',
      isOptional: true,
      description: 'An optional abort signal to cancel the call.',
    },
    {
      name: 'headers',
      type: 'Record<string, string>',
      isOptional: true,
      description: 'Additional HTTP headers for the request.',
    },
    {
      name: 'download',
      type: '(options: { url: URL; abortSignal?: AbortSignal }) => Promise<{ data: Uint8Array; mediaType: string | undefined }>',
      isOptional: true,
      description:
        'Custom download function for fetching audio from URLs. Use `createDownload()` from `ai` to create a download function with custom size limits, e.g. `createDownload({ maxBytes: 50 * 1024 * 1024 })`. Default: built-in download with 2 GiB limit.',
    },
  ]}
/>

### Returns

<PropertiesTable
  content={[
    {
      name: 'text',
      type: 'string',
      description: 'The complete transcribed text from the audio input.',
    },
    {
      name: 'segments',
      type: 'Array<{ text: string; startSecond: number; endSecond: number }>',
      description:
        'An array of transcript segments, each containing a portion of the transcribed text along with its start and end times in seconds.',
    },
    {
      name: 'language',
      type: 'string | undefined',
      description:
        'The language of the transcript in ISO-639-1 format e.g. "en" for English.',
    },
    {
      name: 'durationInSeconds',
      type: 'number | undefined',
      description: 'The duration of the transcript in seconds.',
    },
    {
      name: 'warnings',
      type: 'TranscriptionWarning[]',
      description:
        'Warnings from the model provider (e.g. unsupported settings).',
    },
    {
      name: 'responses',
      type: 'Array<TranscriptionModelResponseMetadata>',
      description:
        'Response metadata from the provider. There may be multiple responses if we made multiple calls to the model.',
      properties: [
        {
          type: 'TranscriptionModelResponseMetadata',
          parameters: [
            {
              name: 'timestamp',
              type: 'Date',
              description: 'Timestamp for the start of the generated response.',
            },
            {
              name: 'modelId',
              type: 'string',
              description:
                'The ID of the response model that was used to generate the response.',
            },
            {
              name: 'headers',
              type: 'Record<string, string>',
              isOptional: true,
              description: 'Response headers.',
            },
          ],
        },
      ],
    },
  ]}
/>


## Navigation

- [generateText](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/generate-text)
- [streamText](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/stream-text)
- [generateObject](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/generate-object)
- [streamObject](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/stream-object)
- [embed](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/embed)
- [embedMany](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/embed-many)
- [generateImage](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/generate-image)
- [transcribe](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/transcribe)
- [generateSpeech](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/generate-speech)
- [tool](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/tool)
- [dynamicTool](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/dynamic-tool)
- [experimental_createMCPClient](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/create-mcp-client)
- [Experimental_StdioMCPTransport](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/mcp-stdio-transport)
- [jsonSchema](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/json-schema)
- [zodSchema](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/zod-schema)
- [valibotSchema](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/valibot-schema)
- [ModelMessage](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/model-message)
- [UIMessage](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/ui-message)
- [validateUIMessages](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/validate-ui-messages)
- [safeValidateUIMessages](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/safe-validate-ui-messages)
- [createProviderRegistry](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/provider-registry)
- [customProvider](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/custom-provider)
- [cosineSimilarity](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/cosine-similarity)
- [wrapLanguageModel](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/wrap-language-model)
- [LanguageModelV2Middleware](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/language-model-v2-middleware)
- [extractReasoningMiddleware](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/extract-reasoning-middleware)
- [simulateStreamingMiddleware](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/simulate-streaming-middleware)
- [defaultSettingsMiddleware](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/default-settings-middleware)
- [stepCountIs](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/step-count-is)
- [hasToolCall](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/has-tool-call)
- [simulateReadableStream](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/simulate-readable-stream)
- [smoothStream](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/smooth-stream)
- [generateId](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/generate-id)
- [createIdGenerator](/v5/docs/reference/ai-sdk-core/create-id-generator)


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