AWS Transcribe Speech-to-Text

Overview

AWSTranscribeSTTService provides real-time speech recognition using Amazon Transcribe’s WebSocket streaming API with support for interim results, multiple languages, and configurable audio processing parameters for enterprise-grade transcription.

AWS Transcribe STT API Reference

Pipecat’s API methods for AWS Transcribe integration

Example Implementation

Complete example with AWS services integration

AWS Transcribe Documentation

Official AWS Transcribe documentation and features

AWS Console

Access AWS Transcribe services and IAM setup

Installation

To use AWS Transcribe services, install the required dependency:

uv add "pipecat-ai[aws]"

Prerequisites

AWS Account Setup

Before using AWS Transcribe STT services, you need:

AWS Account: Sign up at AWS Console
IAM User: Create an IAM user with Amazon Transcribe permissions
Credentials: Set up AWS access keys and region configuration

Required Environment Variables

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: Your AWS access key ID
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: Your AWS secret access key
AWS_SESSION_TOKEN: Session token (if using temporary credentials)
AWS_REGION: AWS region (defaults to “us-east-1”)

Configuration

str | None

default:"None"

AWS secret access key. If None, falls back to environment variables and the default botocore credential chain (instance profiles, IRSA, ECS task roles, SSO, etc.). Temporary credentials from the chain are renewed automatically before they expire.

str | None

default:"None"

AWS access key ID. Same fallback behaviour as api_key.

str | None

default:"None"

AWS session token for temporary credentials.

str | None

default:"None"

AWS region for the service. If None, uses AWS_REGION environment variable (defaults to "us-east-1").

int | None

default:"None"

Audio sample rate in Hz. When None, uses the pipeline’s configured sample rate. AWS Transcribe only supports 8000 or 16000 Hz. Any other rate is declared to AWS as 16000 Hz with a warning, but the audio isn’t resampled.

Language | None

default:"None"

deprecated

Deprecated since 0.0.105, removed in 2.0.0. Use settings=AWSTranscribeSTTService.Settings(language=...) instead.

AWSTranscribeSTTService.Settings

default:"None"

Runtime-configurable settings for the STT service. See Settings below.

float | None

default:"AWS_TRANSCRIBE_TTFS_P99"

P99 latency from speech end to final transcript in seconds. Override for your deployment.

Settings

Runtime-configurable settings passed via the settings constructor argument using AWSTranscribeSTTService.Settings(...). These can be updated mid-conversation with STTUpdateSettingsFrame. See Service Settings for details.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`model`	`str \| None`	`None`	Not sent by this service; reported only as the model name in metrics and traces. (Inherited from base STT settings.)
`language`	`Language \| str`	`Language.EN`	Language for transcription. See AWS Transcribe supported languages. (Inherited from base STT settings.)
`partial_results_stability`	`"high" \| "medium" \| "low"`	`"high"`	How stable interim results should be, trading accuracy against latency: `"low"` is the most accurate, `"high"` the fastest. AWS binds this to a connection, so updating it at runtime triggers a reconnect. See AWS partial result stabilization docs.

Usage

Basic Setup

import os

from pipecat.services.aws.stt import AWSTranscribeSTTService

stt = AWSTranscribeSTTService(
    api_key=os.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"),
    aws_access_key_id=os.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"),
    region=os.getenv("AWS_REGION", "us-east-1"),
)

With Custom Language and Sample Rate

from pipecat.services.aws.stt import AWSTranscribeSTTService
from pipecat.transcriptions.language import Language

stt = AWSTranscribeSTTService(
    api_key=os.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"),
    aws_access_key_id=os.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"),
    region="eu-west-1",
    sample_rate=8000,
    settings=AWSTranscribeSTTService.Settings(
        language=Language.ES,
    ),
)

Notes

Pre-signed URL authentication: The service uses pre-signed URLs for WebSocket authentication rather than passing credentials directly, following AWS best practices.

Event Handlers

AWS Transcribe STT supports the standard service connection events:

Event	Description
`on_connected`	Connected to AWS Transcribe WebSocket
`on_disconnected`	Disconnected from AWS Transcribe WebSocket
`on_connection_error`	Connection error occurred

@stt.event_handler("on_connected")
async def on_connected(service):
    print("Connected to AWS Transcribe")

Get Started

Pipecat Server

Client SDKs

Pipecat Flows

Pipecat Cloud

CLI

Pipecat Context Hub

AWS Transcribe Speech-to-Text

Overview

AWS Transcribe STT API Reference

Example Implementation

AWS Transcribe Documentation

AWS Console

Installation

Prerequisites

AWS Account Setup

Required Environment Variables

Configuration

Settings

Usage

Basic Setup

With Custom Language and Sample Rate

Notes

Event Handlers

​Overview

AWS Transcribe STT API Reference

Example Implementation

AWS Transcribe Documentation

AWS Console

​Installation

​Prerequisites

​AWS Account Setup

​Required Environment Variables

​Configuration

​Settings

​Usage

​Basic Setup

​With Custom Language and Sample Rate

​Notes

​Event Handlers

Overview

Installation

Prerequisites

AWS Account Setup

Required Environment Variables

Configuration

Settings

Usage

Basic Setup

With Custom Language and Sample Rate

Notes

Event Handlers