Swahili speech-to-text transcription and translation

Convert Swahili audio to text with unmatched accuracy. Build voice apps, agents, subtitles, and more with Soniox.

Designed for real-world Swahili conversations

Swahili is spoken by over 200 million people worldwide — across Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and beyond. But most speech-to-text solutions struggle with real-world Swahili, which comes with regional accents, fast speech, background noise, or mixed languages.

Understand how Swahili is really spoken.

Accents, slang, fast speech, code-switching, and overlapping dialogue? No problem. Soniox handles the Swahili used in real conversations with ease.

Transcribe and translate instantly - in one call.

Use a single API call to transcribe or translate Swahili into English and other languages, as it's being spoken. Get token-level output in mere milliseconds.

Industry-leading accuracy in any condition.

Get top-tier accuracy on Swahili audio with a Word Error Rate of just 9.3% — even in challenging conditions with multiple speakers, overlapping speech, and real-world noise.

Built for production and scale.

Supports real-time (streaming) and asynchronous (batch/file) Swahili transcription, structured JSON output, low latency, and reliable back end.

Use Soniox anywhere Swahili is spoken

Build Swahili-speaking agents and assistants

Power fast and responsive voice agents that understand, transcribe, and respond to Swahili.

Capture clinical conversations in Swahili

Securely transcribe medical conversations and generate structured notes in Swahili.

Generate live Swahili captions and translations

Turn Swahili podcasts, interviews, and videos into ready-to-publish subtitle files and live captions.

Transcribe and translate Swahili on wearable devices

Power hands-free voice features on smartwatches, glasses, and fitness devices.

Built-in tools for Swahili speech-to-text

Everything you need for real-time Swahili transcription and translation - built right into the Soniox API.

Real-time streaming and async support
On the fly language detection
Speaker-aware diarization with punctuation
JSON formatted and production-ready
Translate between Swahili and 60 other languages

See full API capabilities

Swahili transcription with industry-leading accuracy

Never miss a word in Swahili, even when it's fast, messy, accented, or hard to hear. That accuracy means fewer errors, better UX, and apps people can trust.

Streams fluent, full-sentence output in real time
Handles regional Swahili accents, noise, and overlapping speech
Built to perform across real-world conditions

Swahili word error rate (WER): 9.3%

Don't take our word for it. Use your own Swahili audio to compare Soniox against other providers live.

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For developers

Build fast, accurate Swahili voice features - live agents, subtitles, notes - all in one API. It's easy to add Swahili voice capabilities to any app, bot, or tool.

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For everyone

Transcribe, translate, and summarize Swahili conversations on the go. Record live audio and get instant results - perfect for meetings, travel, or everyday conversations.

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Frequently asked questions

How is Soniox different from other Swahili speech APIs?

Most speech APIs are designed for lab conditions and struggle with real-world Swahili speech and conversations, which can include fast talkers, messy audio, regional accents, interruptions, and more. Soniox is speaker-aware and can deliver live, fluent, and organized output with incredible accuracy. Use our live compare tool to test us against other providers.

Is Soniox just for transcription, or can I use Soniox to translate Swahili speech as well?

You can transcribe and translate Swahili in real time with a single API call, even when there are multiple languages being spoken at once. Perfect for multilingual meetings, support conversations, travel, or accessibility tools.

What types of apps can I build with Soniox?

Anything that needs to quickly and accurately understand Swahili speech. Think: voice agents, call centers, media transcription, meeting assistants, wearable tools, medical note systems, and more.

What does the output look like?

You get structured JSON with words, timestamps, speakers, and optional translation. All ready to use in production. Check out our API docs.

How fast is Soniox?

Soniox streams transcription in milliseconds, with token-level updates and sentence-level fluency.

How much does Soniox cost?

For most use cases, it's simple: $0.10/hour for async (file uploads) and $0.12/hour for real-time (streaming). For advanced use cases with translation, custom context, or fine-grained control, pricing is based on token usage. See more on our pricing page.

Go global with one API

Get production-ready speech-to-text recognition, transcription, and translation in 60+ languages.