# Transcribe

Source: /aws/services/transcribe/

## Introduction

Transcribe is a service provided by AWS that offers automatic speech recognition (ASR) capabilities.
It enables developers to convert spoken language into written text, making it valuable for a wide range of applications, from transcription services to voice analytics.

LocalStack allows you to use the Transcribe APIs for offline speech-to-text jobs in your local environment.
The supported APIs are available on our [API Coverage section](#api-coverage), which provides information on the extent of Transcribe integration with LocalStack.

LocalStack Transcribe uses an offline speech-to-text library called [Vosk](https://alphacephei.com/vosk/).
It requires an active internet connection to download the language model.
Once the language model is downloaded, subsequent transcriptions for the same language can be performed offline.
Language models typically have a size of around 50 MiB and are saved in the cache directory (see [Filesystem Layout](/aws/customization/advanced/filesystem)).

## Getting Started

This guide is designed for users new to Transcribe and assumes basic knowledge of the AWS CLI and our [`lstk aws`](/aws/developer-tools/running-localstack/lstk/cloud-and-iac-commands/#aws) command.

Start your LocalStack container using your preferred method.
We will demonstrate how to create a transcription job and view the transcript in an S3 bucket using the AWS CLI.

### Create an S3 bucket

You can create an S3 bucket using the [`mb`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/s3/mb.html) command.
Run the following command to create a bucket named `foo` to upload a sample audio file named `example.wav`:

```bash
lstk aws s3 mb s3://foo
lstk aws s3 cp ~/example.wav s3://foo/example.wav
```

### Create a transcription job

You can create a transcription job using the [`StartTranscriptionJob`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/transcribe/latest/APIReference/API_StartTranscriptionJob.html) API.
Run the following command to create a transcription job named `example` for the audio file `example.wav`:

```bash
lstk aws transcribe start-transcription-job \
    --transcription-job-name example \
    --media MediaFileUri=s3://foo/example.wav \
    --language-code en-IN
```

You can list the transcription jobs using the [`ListTranscriptionJobs`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/transcribe/latest/APIReference/API_ListTranscriptionJobs.html) API.
Run the following command to list the transcription jobs:

```bash
lstk aws transcribe list-transcription-jobs
```

The following output would be retrieved:

```bash title="Output"
{
    "TranscriptionJobSummaries": [
        {
            "TranscriptionJobName": "example",
            "CreationTime": "2022-08-17T14:04:39.277000+05:30",
            "StartTime": "2022-08-17T14:04:39.308000+05:30",
            "LanguageCode": "en-IN",
            "TranscriptionJobStatus": "IN_PROGRESS"
        }
    ]
}
```

### View the transcript

After the job is complete, the transcript can be retrieved from the S3 bucket using the [`GetTranscriptionJob`](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/transcribe/latest/APIReference/API_GetTranscriptionJob.html) API.
Run the following command to get the transcript:

```bash
lstk aws transcribe get-transcription-job --transcription-job example
```

```bash title="Output"
{
    "TranscriptionJob": {
        "TranscriptionJobName": "example",
        "TranscriptionJobStatus": "COMPLETED",
        "LanguageCode": "en-IN",
        "MediaFormat": "wav",
        "Media": {
            "MediaFileUri": "s3://foo/example.wav"
        },
        "Transcript": {
            "TranscriptFileUri": "s3://foo/7844aaa5.json"
        },
        "CreationTime": "2022-08-17T14:04:39.277000+05:30",
        "StartTime": "2022-08-17T14:04:39.308000+05:30",
        "CompletionTime": "2022-08-17T14:04:57.400000+05:30",
    }
}
```

You can then view the transcript by running the following command:

```bash
lstk aws s3 cp s3://foo/7844aaa5.json .
jq .results.transcripts[0].transcript 7844aaa5.json
```

The following output would be retrieved:

```bash title="Output"
"it is just a question of getting rid of the illusion that we are separate from nature"
```

## Audio Formats

The following input media formats are supported:

- Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR)
- Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
- MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 (MP3)
- MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4)
- OGG
- Matroska Video files (MKV)
- Waveform Audio File Format (WAV)

## Supported Languages

The following languages and dialects are supported:

| Language         | Language Code |
| ---------------- | ------------- |
| Catalan          | `ca-ES`       |
| Czech            | `cs-CZ`       |
| German           | `de-DE`       |
| English, British | `en-GB`       |
| English, Indian  | `en-IN`       |
| English, US      | `en-US`       |
| Spanish          | `es-ES`       |
| Farsi            | `fa-IR`       |
| French           | `fr-FR`       |
| Gujarati         | `gu-IN`       |
| Hindi            | `hi-IN`       |
| Italian          | `it-IT`       |
| Japan            | `ja-JP`       |
| Kazakh           | `kk-KZ`       |
| Korean           | `ko-KR`       |
| Dutch            | `nl-NL`       |
| Polish           | `pl-PL`       |
| Portuguese       | `pt-BR`       |
| Russian          | `ru-RU`       |
| Telugu           | `te-IN`       |
| Turkish          | `tr-TR`       |
| Ukrainian        | `uk-UA`       |
| Uzbek            | `uz-UZ`       |
| Vietnamese       | `vi-VN`       |
| Chinese          | `zh-CN`       |

## Resource Browser

The LocalStack Web Application provides a Resource Browser for managing Transcribe Transcription Jobs.
You can access the Resource Browser by opening the LocalStack Web Application in your browser, navigating to the **Resource Browser** section, and then clicking on **Transcribe Service** under the **Machine Learning** section.

![Transcribe Resource Browser](/images/aws/transcribe-resource-browser.png)

The Resource Browser allows you to perform the following actions:

- **Create Transcription Job**: Create a new transcription job by clicking on the **Create Transcription Job** button, and then providing the required details.
- **View Transcription Job**: View the details of a specific transcription job by clicking on the job in the list.
- **Delete Transcription Job**: Delete the transcription job by clicking on the **Actions** button followed by **Remove Selected** button.

## Examples

The following code snippets and sample applications provide practical examples of how to use Transcribe in LocalStack for various use cases:

- [Serverless Transcription App using Transcribe, S3, Lambda, SQS, SES](https://github.com/localstack-samples/sample-serverless-transcribe)

## Limitations

Transcribe does not support speaker diarization and does not produce certain other numerical information, like confidence levels.

## API Coverage


### Transcribe API coverage

Source service: `transcribe`. 16 of 43 tracked operations are implemented.

Service documentation: /aws/services/transcribe/
License availability: available starting with the Hobby plan. See /aws/licensing/ for current plan details.

| Operation | Status |
| --- | --- |
| CreateCallAnalyticsCategory | Not implemented |
| CreateLanguageModel | Not implemented |
| CreateMedicalVocabulary | Implemented |
| CreateVocabulary | Implemented |
| CreateVocabularyFilter | Not implemented |
| DeleteCallAnalyticsCategory | Not implemented |
| DeleteCallAnalyticsJob | Not implemented |
| DeleteLanguageModel | Not implemented |
| DeleteMedicalScribeJob | Not implemented |
| DeleteMedicalTranscriptionJob | Implemented |
| DeleteMedicalVocabulary | Implemented |
| DeleteTranscriptionJob | Implemented |
| DeleteVocabulary | Implemented |
| DeleteVocabularyFilter | Not implemented |
| DescribeLanguageModel | Not implemented |
| GetCallAnalyticsCategory | Not implemented |
| GetCallAnalyticsJob | Not implemented |
| GetMedicalScribeJob | Not implemented |
| GetMedicalTranscriptionJob | Implemented |
| GetMedicalVocabulary | Implemented |
| GetTranscriptionJob | Implemented |
| GetVocabulary | Implemented |
| GetVocabularyFilter | Not implemented |
| ListCallAnalyticsCategories | Not implemented |
| ListCallAnalyticsJobs | Not implemented |
| ListLanguageModels | Not implemented |
| ListMedicalScribeJobs | Not implemented |
| ListMedicalTranscriptionJobs | Implemented |
| ListMedicalVocabularies | Implemented |
| ListTagsForResource | Not implemented |
| ListTranscriptionJobs | Implemented |
| ListVocabularies | Implemented |
| ListVocabularyFilters | Not implemented |
| StartCallAnalyticsJob | Not implemented |
| StartMedicalScribeJob | Not implemented |
| StartMedicalTranscriptionJob | Implemented |
| StartTranscriptionJob | Implemented |
| TagResource | Not implemented |
| UntagResource | Not implemented |
| UpdateCallAnalyticsCategory | Not implemented |
| UpdateMedicalVocabulary | Not implemented |
| UpdateVocabulary | Not implemented |
| UpdateVocabularyFilter | Not implemented |