assemblyai
AssemblyAI Python SDK
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. The SDK is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries a permissive MIT license, and provides a straightforward interface to a production-grade transcription service. Choose it if you need to transcribe audio programmatically and are willing to use AssemblyAI's cloud API. The main prerequisite is an API key and associated costs.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires an AssemblyAI API key (sign up at assemblyai.com/dashboard/signup).
- Low install friction with standard dependencies.
- Active maintenance as of 2026-08-14 with recent release.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT License (permissive) — MIT License permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—suitable for most projects.
last release 2026-08-14 (0 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-14 · 208 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 2,412,915 downloads/mo, #3,076 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install assemblyai
import assemblyai as aai
aai.settings.api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"
transcript = aai.Transcriber().transcribe("./audio.mp3")
print(transcript.text)- Specific model names and capabilities beyond 'universal-3-5-pro' and 'universal-2' mentioned in examples
- Latency and throughput characteristics for different transcriber classes
- Audio format support and file size limits for each transcriber variant
- Cost and rate-limiting details for the API
What it is and what it does
AssemblyAI's Python SDK wraps the company's cloud-based audio transcription and understanding API, offering multiple transcriber classes for different use cases: prerecorded transcription with audio intelligence features (speaker labels, chapters, sentiment), synchronous batch transcription for short clips, and real-time streaming transcription for live audio. The SDK handles authentication, request/response serialization via pydantic, HTTP communication through httpx, and WebSocket streaming via websockets. It supports both synchronous and asynchronous workflows.
You provide audio as a local file path, URL, or binary data, configure transcription options (speech models, language detection, speaker labels), and receive a transcript object with the text and metadata. The SDK also provides utilities to export subtitles (SRT/VTT), extract sentences and paragraphs, and search for words within transcripts. Configuration defaults can be set globally or overridden per request.
Use it for
- Transcribe recorded meetings, interviews, or podcasts with speaker identification and chapter detection.
- Build a real-time transcription feature for live calls or voice agent applications using the streaming transcriber.
- Extract and export subtitles from video or audio files in SRT or VTT format for accessibility.
- Analyze sentiment, detect language, and extract structured insights from audio content at scale.
- Integrate transcription into AI coding agents or chatbots that need current API context for audio processing.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
The SDK is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries a permissive MIT license, and provides a straightforward interface to a production-grade transcription service. Choose it if you need to transcribe audio programmatically and are willing to use AssemblyAI's cloud API. The main prerequisite is an API key and associated costs.
Install
assemblyai on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with standard dependencies. Active maintenance as of 2026-08-14 with recent release. Supports Python 3.8 through 3.14.
Requires an AssemblyAI API key (sign up at assemblyai.com/dashboard/signup).
License in practice
MIT License permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—suitable for most projects.
Quickstart
pip install assemblyai
import assemblyai as aai
aai.settings.api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"
transcript = aai.Transcriber().transcribe("./audio.mp3")
print(transcript.text)Verify before relying
- Specific model names and capabilities beyond 'universal-3-5-pro' and 'universal-2' mentioned in examples
- Latency and throughput characteristics for different transcriber classes
- Audio format support and file size limits for each transcriber variant
- Cost and rate-limiting details for the API
Package facts
| License | MIT License permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 5 packageshttpxtyping-extensionswebsocketspydanticpydantic-settings |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 0 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 2,412,915 / month, #3,076 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 3 - AlphaIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: Science/ResearchLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseNatural Language :: EnglishProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Artificial IntelligenceTopic :: Software Development :: LibrariesTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules |
Evidence: assemblyai-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
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