Synchronous transcription

Wait for a transcription job to finish synchronously via HTTP

The wait query parameter lets you block a request until the job reaches a terminal state (done, rejected, or deleted), so you can get a transcript in one call instead of polling. It applies to job creation, job status, and transcript retrieval.

wait is available on SaaS on Cloud only; on-prem deployments do not support it.

wait takes a number of seconds and is capped server-side. If the job has not finished when wait elapses, the request returns the current state and you retry to keep waiting.

The job status and transcript endpoints apply a default wait when you omit the parameter.

Create a job and wait for the transcript

Pass the wait query parameter to POST /jobs to block until the job finishes. Add format to choose the embedded transcript format (json-v2, txt, or srt; defaults to json-v2).

API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
PATH_TO_FILE="example.wav"

# Create a job and block for up to 60 seconds for a plain-text transcript
curl -L -X POST "https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2/jobs/?wait=60&format=txt" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_KEY}" \
-F data_file=@${PATH_TO_FILE} \
-F config='{"type": "transcription","transcription_config": { "model": "enhanced", "language": "en" }}'

The response is always HTTP 201. When wait is set, it includes a status field reporting the outcome. On done, the transcript is embedded under a key named after the requested format. For format=txt (and srt) the value is a string:

{
  "id": "a1b2c3d4e5",
  "status": "done",
  "txt": "Welcome to Speechmatics..."
}

For the default format=json-v2, the value is a nested object with the same shape as the transcript endpoint response, not a string. The results array is abbreviated below:

{
  "id": "uwcl3jevp3",
  "status": "done",
  "json-v2": {
    "format": "2.9",
    "job": {
      "created_at": "2026-06-23T13:33:24.230Z",
      "data_name": "example.wav",
      "duration": 10,
      "id": "uwcl3jevp3"
    },
    "metadata": {
      "created_at": "2026-06-23T13:33:24.879071Z",
      "transcription_config": { "language": "en", "model": "enhanced" },
      "type": "transcription"
    },
    "results": [
      {
        "alternatives": [
          { "confidence": 1.0, "content": "I", "language": "en", "speaker": "UU" }
        ],
        "start_time": 1.5,
        "end_time": 1.79,
        "type": "word"
      }
    ]
  }
}

If the job is still running when wait elapses, status is created and no transcript is embedded:

{
  "id": "a1b2c3d4e5",
  "status": "created"
}

status	Meaning
created	Created and still running, or wait elapsed before it finished. Retry to get the result.
done	Finished. The transcript is embedded under the requested format key when available.
rejected	The job could not be processed.
deleted	The job was deleted before it could finish.

The embedded transcript is best-effort. If status is done but no transcript key is present, fetch it from the transcript endpoint.

Wait when checking job status

Pass wait to GET /jobs/{jobid} to block until the job reaches a terminal state. An explicit value overrides the default wait.

# Wait up to 30 seconds for the job to reach a terminal state
curl -L -X GET "https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2/jobs/${JOB_ID}?wait=30" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_KEY}"

The response is always HTTP 200 with the job in its current state. If the job is still running when wait elapses, retry to keep waiting.

Wait for the transcript

Pass wait to GET /jobs/{jobid}/transcript to block until the transcript is ready. An explicit value overrides the default wait.

# Wait up to 30 seconds for the transcript, then return it as plain text
curl -L -X GET "https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2/jobs/${JOB_ID}/transcript?wait=30&format=txt" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_KEY}"

If the transcript becomes ready within wait, the response is HTTP 200 with the transcript. Otherwise it returns the usual HTTP 404, and you retry to keep waiting.

Default wait on the GET endpoints

GET /jobs/{jobid} and GET /jobs/{jobid}/transcript apply a default wait when you omit the wait query parameter. Existing polling code gets the benefit without changes: each request returns as soon as the job reaches a terminal state, so you make fewer requests and get the transcript sooner.

The default is currently 2 seconds and will increase. Treat it as an unspecified short interval and do not build logic around a specific duration. To control the duration, pass wait explicitly.

To return immediately, pass wait=0.

# Return the current job state without waiting
curl -L -X GET "https://eu1.asr.api.speechmatics.com/v2/jobs/${JOB_ID}?wait=0" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_KEY}"

POST /jobs has no default wait: omit the parameter and the request returns as soon as the job is created.

Next steps

• Output formats — load and process the transcript.
• API reference — full request and response details.