German speech-to-text API (Deutsch)

Transcribe German with one request

Set language to de and start a job. Poll GET /transcribe/{jobId} for the result, or pass a webhook_url.

curl https://app.kolwrite.com/transcribe \
  -H "x-api-key: $KOLWRITE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"audio_url": "https://example.com/besprechung-de.m4a", "model": "oracle", "language": "de", "include_diarization": true, "output_format": "json"}'

Translate German audio into English in the same job (Oracle models only):

curl https://app.kolwrite.com/transcribe \
  -H "x-api-key: $KOLWRITE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"audio_url": "https://example.com/besprechung-de.m4a", "model": "oracle_mini", "language": "de", "translate_to": "en", "output_format": "srt"}'

German at a glance

What to know about German transcription

• German compounds can be split or joined differently from your reference text. Normalize compounds and the ß/ss spelling before measuring or searching.
• Swiss German dialects differ strongly from Standard German and have no separate code. Test Swiss and Austrian dialect recordings before relying on them.
• Nouns are capitalized in German; keep case when you display transcripts, and case-fold only for search.

Where teams use German transcription

• Meeting minutes and works-council records in German-speaking companies.
• German podcasts, broadcast and training video with subtitles.
• Market and user research interviews, translated with translate_to: "en".

Choosing a model

Start with oracle (US$1.44 per hour) for production German audio. Use base (US$0.48) for clean, single-speaker recordings at volume, oracle_mini (US$0.96) for the cheapest translation, and oracle_pro or oracle_max for noisy or difficult audio. KolWrite does not publish a German accuracy figure for this API, so test a sample of your own recordings before committing. Full comparison: models and prices.

Questions and answers