Enable word-level confidence

Preview

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

You can specify that Speech-to-Text indicate a value of accuracy, or confidence level, for individual words in a transcription.

Word-level confidence

When the Speech-to-Text transcribes an audio clip, it also measures the degree of accuracy for the response. The response sent from Speech-to-Text states the confidence level for the entire transcription request as a number between 0.0 and 1.0. The following code sample shows an example of the confidence level value returned by Speech-to-Text.

{
  "results": [
    {
      "alternatives": [
        {
          "transcript": "how old is the Brooklyn Bridge",
          "confidence": 0.96748614
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

In addition to the confidence level of the entire transcription, Speech-to-Text can also provide the confidence level of individual words within the transcription. The response then includes WordInfo details in the transcription, indicating the confidence level for individual words as shown in the following example.

{
  "results": [
    {
      "alternatives": [
        {
          "transcript": "how old is the Brooklyn Bridge",
          "confidence": 0.98360395,
          "words": [
            {
              "startTime": "0s",
              "endTime": "0.300s",
              "word": "how",
              "confidence": SOME NUMBER
            },
            ...
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Enable word-level confidence in a request

The following code snippet demonstrates how to enable word-level confidence in a transcription request to Speech-to-Text using local and remote files

Use a local file

Protocol

Refer to the speech:recognize API endpoint for complete details.

To perform synchronous speech recognition, make a POST request and provide the appropriate request body. The following shows an example of a POST request using curl. The example uses the Google Cloud CLI to generate an access token. For instructions on installing the gcloud CLI, see the quickstart.

The following example show how to send a POST request using curl, where the body of the request enables word-level confidence.

curl -s -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth application-default print-access-token)" \
    https://speech.googleapis.com/v1p1beta1/speech:recognize \
    --data '{
    "config": {
        "encoding": "FLAC",
        "sampleRateHertz": 16000,
        "languageCode": "en-US",
        "enableWordTimeOffsets": true,
        "enableWordConfidence": true
    },
    "audio": {
        "uri": "gs://cloud-samples-tests/speech/brooklyn.flac"
    }
}' > word-level-confidence.txt

If the request is successful, the server returns a 200 OK HTTP status code and the response in JSON format, saved to a file named word-level-confidence.txt.

{
  "results": [
    {
      "alternatives": [
        {
          "transcript": "how old is the Brooklyn Bridge",
          "confidence": 0.98360395,
          "words": [
            {
              "startTime": "0s",
              "endTime": "0.300s",
              "word": "how",
              "confidence": 0.98762906
            },
            {
              "startTime": "0.300s",
              "endTime": "0.600s",
              "word": "old",
              "confidence": 0.96929157
            },
            {
              "startTime": "0.600s",
              "endTime": "0.800s",
              "word": "is",
              "confidence": 0.98271006
            },
            {
              "startTime": "0.800s",
              "endTime": "0.900s",
              "word": "the",
              "confidence": 0.98271006
            },
            {
              "startTime": "0.900s",
              "endTime": "1.100s",
              "word": "Brooklyn",
              "confidence": 0.98762906
            },
            {
              "startTime": "1.100s",
              "endTime": "1.500s",
              "word": "Bridge",
              "confidence": 0.98762906
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "languageCode": "en-us"
    }
  ]
}

Java

To learn how to install and use the client library for Speech-to-Text, see Speech-to-Text client libraries. For more information, see the Speech-to-Text Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Speech-to-Text, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

/**
 * Transcribe a local audio file with word level confidence
 *
 * @param fileName the path to the local audio file
 */
public static void transcribeWordLevelConfidence(String fileName) throws Exception {
  Path path = Paths.get(fileName);
  byte[] content = Files.readAllBytes(path);

  try (SpeechClient speechClient = SpeechClient.create()) {
    RecognitionAudio recognitionAudio =
        RecognitionAudio.newBuilder().setContent(ByteString.copyFrom(content)).build();
    // Configure request to enable word level confidence
    RecognitionConfig config =
        RecognitionConfig.newBuilder()
            .setEncoding(AudioEncoding.LINEAR16)
            .setSampleRateHertz(16000)
            .setLanguageCode("en-US")
            .setEnableWordConfidence(true)
            .build();
    // Perform the transcription request
    RecognizeResponse recognizeResponse = speechClient.recognize(config, recognitionAudio);

    // Print out the results
    for (SpeechRecognitionResult result : recognizeResponse.getResultsList()) {
      // There can be several alternative transcripts for a given chunk of speech. Just use the
      // first (most likely) one here.
      SpeechRecognitionAlternative alternative = result.getAlternatives(0);
      System.out.format("Transcript : %s\n", alternative.getTranscript());
      System.out.format(
          "First Word and Confidence : %s %s \n",
          alternative.getWords(0).getWord(), alternative.getWords(0).getConfidence());
    }
  }
}

Node.js

To learn how to install and use the client library for Speech-to-Text, see Speech-to-Text client libraries. For more information, see the Speech-to-Text Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Speech-to-Text, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

const fs = require('fs');

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const speech = require('@google-cloud/speech').v1p1beta1;

// Creates a client
const client = new speech.SpeechClient();

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// const fileName = 'Local path to audio file, e.g. /path/to/audio.raw';

const config = {
  encoding: 'FLAC',
  sampleRateHertz: 16000,
  languageCode: 'en-US',
  enableWordConfidence: true,
};

const audio = {
  content: fs.readFileSync(fileName).toString('base64'),
};

const request = {
  config: config,
  audio: audio,
};

const [response] = await client.recognize(request);
const transcription = response.results
  .map(result => result.alternatives[0].transcript)
  .join('\n');
const confidence = response.results
  .map(result => result.alternatives[0].confidence)
  .join('\n');
console.log(`Transcription: ${transcription} \n Confidence: ${confidence}`);

console.log('Word-Level-Confidence:');
const words = response.results.map(result => result.alternatives[0]);
words[0].words.forEach(a => {
  console.log(` word: ${a.word}, confidence: ${a.confidence}`);
});

Python

To learn how to install and use the client library for Speech-to-Text, see Speech-to-Text client libraries. For more information, see the Speech-to-Text Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Speech-to-Text, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

from google.cloud import speech_v1p1beta1 as speech

client = speech.SpeechClient()

speech_file = "resources/Google_Gnome.wav"

with open(speech_file, "rb") as audio_file:
    content = audio_file.read()

audio = speech.RecognitionAudio(content=content)

config = speech.RecognitionConfig(
    encoding=speech.RecognitionConfig.AudioEncoding.LINEAR16,
    sample_rate_hertz=16000,
    language_code="en-US",
    enable_word_confidence=True,
)

response = client.recognize(config=config, audio=audio)

for i, result in enumerate(response.results):
    alternative = result.alternatives[0]
    print("-" * 20)
    print(f"First alternative of result {i}")
    print(f"Transcript: {alternative.transcript}")
    print(
        "First Word and Confidence: ({}, {})".format(
            alternative.words[0].word, alternative.words[0].confidence
        )
    )

return response.results

Use a remote file

Java

To learn how to install and use the client library for Speech-to-Text, see Speech-to-Text client libraries. For more information, see the Speech-to-Text Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Speech-to-Text, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

/**
 * Transcribe a remote audio file with word level confidence
 *
 * @param gcsUri path to the remote audio file
 */
public static void transcribeWordLevelConfidenceGcs(String gcsUri) throws Exception {
  try (SpeechClient speechClient = SpeechClient.create()) {

    // Configure request to enable word level confidence
    RecognitionConfig config =
        RecognitionConfig.newBuilder()
            .setEncoding(AudioEncoding.FLAC)
            .setSampleRateHertz(44100)
            .setLanguageCode("en-US")
            .setEnableWordConfidence(true)
            .build();

    // Set the remote path for the audio file
    RecognitionAudio audio = RecognitionAudio.newBuilder().setUri(gcsUri).build();

    // Use non-blocking call for getting file transcription
    OperationFuture<LongRunningRecognizeResponse, LongRunningRecognizeMetadata> response =
        speechClient.longRunningRecognizeAsync(config, audio);

    while (!response.isDone()) {
      System.out.println("Waiting for response...");
      Thread.sleep(10000);
    }
    // Just print the first result here.
    SpeechRecognitionResult result = response.get().getResultsList().get(0);

    // There can be several alternative transcripts for a given chunk of speech. Just use the
    // first (most likely) one here.
    SpeechRecognitionAlternative alternative = result.getAlternativesList().get(0);
    // Print out the result
    System.out.printf("Transcript : %s\n", alternative.getTranscript());
    System.out.format(
        "First Word and Confidence : %s %s \n",
        alternative.getWords(0).getWord(), alternative.getWords(0).getConfidence());
  }
}

Node.js

To learn how to install and use the client library for Speech-to-Text, see Speech-to-Text client libraries. For more information, see the Speech-to-Text Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Speech-to-Text, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const speech = require('@google-cloud/speech').v1p1beta1;

// Creates a client
const client = new speech.SpeechClient();

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following line before running the sample.
 */
// const uri = path to GCS audio file e.g. `gs:/bucket/audio.wav`;

const config = {
  encoding: 'FLAC',
  sampleRateHertz: 16000,
  languageCode: 'en-US',
  enableWordConfidence: true,
};

const audio = {
  uri: gcsUri,
};

const request = {
  config: config,
  audio: audio,
};

const [response] = await client.recognize(request);
const transcription = response.results
  .map(result => result.alternatives[0].transcript)
  .join('\n');
const confidence = response.results
  .map(result => result.alternatives[0].confidence)
  .join('\n');
console.log(`Transcription: ${transcription} \n Confidence: ${confidence}`);

console.log('Word-Level-Confidence:');
const words = response.results.map(result => result.alternatives[0]);
words[0].words.forEach(a => {
  console.log(` word: ${a.word}, confidence: ${a.confidence}`);
});

Python

To learn how to install and use the client library for Speech-to-Text, see Speech-to-Text client libraries. For more information, see the Speech-to-Text Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Speech-to-Text, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

from google.cloud import speech_v1p1beta1 as speech


def transcribe_file_with_word_level_confidence(audio_uri: str) -> str:
    """Transcribe a remote audio file with word level confidence.
    Args:
        audio_uri (str): The Cloud Storage URI of the input audio.
            E.g., gs://[BUCKET]/[FILE]
    Returns:
        The generated transcript from the audio file provided with word level confidence.
    """

    client = speech.SpeechClient()

    # Configure request to enable word level confidence
    config = speech.RecognitionConfig(
        encoding=speech.RecognitionConfig.AudioEncoding.FLAC,
        sample_rate_hertz=44100,
        language_code="en-US",
        enable_word_confidence=True,  # Enable word level confidence
    )

    # Set the remote path for the audio file
    audio = speech.RecognitionAudio(uri=audio_uri)

    # Use non-blocking call for getting file transcription
    response = client.long_running_recognize(config=config, audio=audio).result(
        timeout=300
    )

    transcript_builder = []
    for i, result in enumerate(response.results):
        alternative = result.alternatives[0]
        transcript_builder.append("-" * 20)
        transcript_builder.append(f"\nFirst alternative of result {i}")
        transcript_builder.append(f"\nTranscript: {alternative.transcript}")
        transcript_builder.append(
            "\nFirst Word and Confidence: ({}, {})".format(
                alternative.words[0].word, alternative.words[0].confidence
            )
        )

    transcript = "".join(transcript_builder)
    print(transcript)

    return transcript