> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.fastdrop.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Transcribe Video
> Transcribe and translate video audio with optional subtitle file generation
Speech transcription with automatic language detection, English translation, and optional SRT/TXT file generation. Supports 99 languages with varying accuracy levels.
**Cost:** 8 credits
For the full list of supported languages and accuracy expectations, see [Supported Languages](/guides/supported-languages).
For a deeper dive into how transcription works and best practices, see the [Transcription Guide](/guides/transcription).
## Request body
Public HTTP/HTTPS URL of the video.
Optional ISO 639-1 language code hint (e.g. `en`, `es`, `ja`, `ar`, `fr`). Auto-detected if omitted. Providing a hint improves accuracy for lower-resource languages.
Translate non-English transcriptions to English. Set to `false` to get source-language transcription only.
Generate subtitle files and return presigned download URLs. Options: `"srt"`, `"txt"`. Omit for JSON-only response.
Optional HTTPS URL to receive a POST when processing completes.
### Response (202 Accepted)
Returns a job submission with `job_id`. Get the result from [Get Job Status](/api-reference/get-job-status) with `?wait=N`, or subscribe to `job.completed` via a [webhook](/guides/webhooks).
```bash cURL (JSON only) theme={null}
curl -X POST https://api.fastdrop.io/api/v1/transcribe \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-API-Key: fd_live_your_key_here" \
-d '{
"video_url": "https://example.com/interview.mp4"
}'
```
```bash cURL (with subtitle files) theme={null}
curl -X POST https://api.fastdrop.io/api/v1/transcribe \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-API-Key: fd_live_your_key_here" \
-d '{
"video_url": "https://example.com/interview.mp4",
"output_formats": ["srt", "txt"]
}'
```
```bash cURL (with language hint, no translation) theme={null}
curl -X POST https://api.fastdrop.io/api/v1/transcribe \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-API-Key: fd_live_your_key_here" \
-d '{
"video_url": "https://example.com/interview.mp4",
"language": "ar",
"translate": false
}'
```
```json 202 theme={null}
{
"job_id": "a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab",
"status": "queued",
"credits_charged": 5,
"estimated_seconds": 60,
"poll_url": "/api/v1/classify/a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab",
"created_at": "2026-03-05T12:00:00Z"
}
```
## Result format
When the job completes, the `results.transcription` field contains the full transcription, translation, and optional file URLs.
### English video (no translation needed)
```json theme={null}
{
"transcription": {
"language": "en",
"language_name": "English",
"text": "Welcome to the show. Today we're going to talk about video editing.",
"segments": [
{ "start": 0.0, "end": 2.8, "text": "Welcome to the show." },
{ "start": 3.1, "end": 8.5, "text": "Today we're going to talk about video editing." }
],
"words": [
{ "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5, "word": "Welcome" },
{ "start": 0.5, "end": 0.7, "word": "to" },
{ "start": 0.7, "end": 0.9, "word": "the" },
{ "start": 0.9, "end": 1.3, "word": "show." }
]
}
}
```
### Non-English video (with translation)
```json theme={null}
{
"transcription": {
"language": "ar",
"language_name": "Arabic",
"text": "مرحبا بكم في العرض. اليوم سنتحدث عن تحرير الفيديو.",
"segments": [
{ "start": 0.0, "end": 2.8, "text": "مرحبا بكم في العرض." },
{ "start": 3.1, "end": 8.5, "text": "اليوم سنتحدث عن تحرير الفيديو." }
],
"words": [
{ "start": 0.0, "end": 0.5, "word": "مرحبا" },
{ "start": 0.5, "end": 0.9, "word": "بكم" }
],
"translation": {
"language": "en",
"language_name": "English",
"text": "Welcome to the show. Today we'll talk about video editing.",
"segments": [
{ "start": 0.0, "end": 2.8, "text": "Welcome to the show." },
{ "start": 3.1, "end": 8.5, "text": "Today we'll talk about video editing." }
]
}
}
}
```
### With subtitle files (`output_formats: ["srt", "txt"]`)
When you include `output_formats`, the result includes a `files` object with presigned download URLs:
```json theme={null}
{
"transcription": {
"language": "ar",
"language_name": "Arabic",
"text": "...",
"segments": [...],
"translation": {
"language": "en",
"text": "...",
"segments": [...]
},
"files": {
"source_srt": "https://storage.fastdrop.io/api-transcribe/.../source_ar.srt?...",
"source_txt": "https://storage.fastdrop.io/api-transcribe/.../source_ar.txt?...",
"english_srt": "https://storage.fastdrop.io/api-transcribe/.../english_en.srt?...",
"english_txt": "https://storage.fastdrop.io/api-transcribe/.../english_en.txt?..."
}
}
}
```
File URLs are presigned and expire after 1 hour. Download or store them promptly.
English files are only generated when translation is performed (non-English source).
## Result fields
| Field | Type | Description |
| - | - | - |
| `language` | string | ISO 639-1 code of detected/specified language |
| `language_name` | string | Human-readable language name |
| `text` | string | Full transcript in source language |
| `segments` | array | Sentence-level segments with `start`, `end`, `text` |
| `words` | array | Word-level timestamps with `start`, `end`, `word` |
| `translation` | object | English translation (only for non-English, when `translate` is true) |
| `translation.text` | string | Full translated English text |
| `translation.segments` | array | Translated segments with preserved timestamps |
| `files` | object | Presigned download URLs (only when `output_formats` is specified) |
| `files.source_srt` | string | Source language SRT subtitle file |
| `files.source_txt` | string | Source language TXT transcript |
| `files.english_srt` | string | English SRT subtitle file |
| `files.english_txt` | string | English TXT transcript |
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