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": [
            {
              "startOffset": "0s",
              "endOffset": "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/v2/projects/{project}/locations/global/recognizers/{recognizers}:recognize \
    --data '{
    "config": {
        "features": {
            "enableWordTimeOffsets": true,
            "enableWordConfidence": true
        }
    },
    "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"
    }
  ]
}

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