Which API should I use?

Modulate offers several models with overlapping capabilities. This guide helps you pick the right one based on your latency needs, language requirements, audio format constraints, and required features.

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Quick reference

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Transcription

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Deepfake Detection

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PII/PHI Redaction

PII/PHI tagging (Transcription APIs) — wraps sensitive spans in tags within the transcript text; original content is preserved. PII/PHI audio redaction (Redaction APIs) — replaces each detected PII/PHI span with an empty marker tag (e.g. <pii:name></pii:name>, <pii:ssn></pii:ssn>, <phi></phi>) in the transcript text and silences the corresponding audio ranges in the returned MP3.

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Language Detection

Language Detection is a pure classification endpoint — it returns no transcript, diarization, or enrichment data.

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Decision tree

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Do you need transcription?

Yes → continue below. No, you need deepfake detection only → use the Deepfake Detection batch endpoint for pre-recorded files, or the streaming variant for live audio. See the API Reference tab. No, you need language identification → use the Language Detection batch endpoint. It returns the detected language as an ISO 639-1 code and display name with a confidence score. No transcription, diarization, or enrichment data is returned. See Language Detection above.

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Do you need PII/PHI removed from the audio itself — not just tagged in the transcript?

Yes → use the PII/PHI Redaction Batch API for complete files, or the PII/PHI Redaction Streaming API for live audio. Both return a redacted MP3 with sensitive audio ranges silenced, alongside a transcript where each PII/PHI span is replaced with an entity-type tag. No, you only need the transcript tagged → continue below, and enable pii_phi_tagging=true on whichever transcription endpoint you choose.

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Do you need results in real time, while audio is still being captured?

Yes → choose based on your requirements:

• Need enrichments or multilingual support → use the Multilingual Transcription streaming API. Delivers per-utterance results with speaker labels, emotion, accent, and PII/PHI tagging.
• English only, pure transcription, lowest latency → use the English Fast Transcription streaming API. Emits a rolling partial transcript every ~1.5 seconds and a single final transcript at end-of-stream — no enrichments.

No, you have a complete file → continue below.

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Is the audio English-only, and do you need maximum throughput without speaker or emotion metadata?

Yes → use the English Fast Transcription batch API.

• Fastest option for English audio.
• No speaker diarization, emotion, accent, PII/PHI tagging, or utterance-level data.
• Returns a single text string and duration_ms.
• Processing timeout: 60 seconds per request.

No → use the Multilingual Transcription batch API.

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Multilingual Transcription vs English Fast Transcription — detailed tradeoffs

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Do you need deepfake detection alongside transcription?

The Multilingual Transcription batch API supports a deepfake_signal parameter that adds a per-utterance deepfake_score to transcription output. This is convenient when you already need transcription and want a deepfake signal without a second API call. Use the dedicated Deepfake Detection APIs instead when:

• Transcription is not needed — you only want to know if audio is synthetic.
• You need frame-level results across the full audio (not just utterance-level scores).
• You need explicit no-content verdicts for silent regions.
• You need streaming deepfake verdicts in real time.

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Common scenarios

Call center QA on recorded English calls, high volume → English Fast Transcription (batch). Use parallel requests with a semaphore to respect concurrent limits. Meeting transcription with speaker attribution and emotion → Multilingual Transcription (batch) with speaker_diarization=true and emotion_signal=true. Live interview transcription with real-time captions, multilingual or with speaker labels → Multilingual Transcription streaming. Stream audio over WebSocket and display utterances as they arrive. Live English captions or voice assistant input with minimal latency → English Fast Transcription streaming. Partial transcripts update every ~1.5 seconds — replace your displayed text with each new partial, then finalize on the utterance message. Detect AI-generated voice in a submitted audio clip → Deepfake Detection batch endpoint. Real-time anti-spoofing check during a voice authentication flow → Deepfake Detection streaming endpoint. Stream audio and act on frame verdicts as they arrive. Transcript of a support call with PII/PHI spans tagged for downstream review → Multilingual Transcription (batch) with pii_phi_tagging=true. Language is auto-detected per utterance. The transcript content is preserved; sensitive spans are wrapped in tags. Compliance recording that must be shareable with PII/PHI silenced → PII/PHI Redaction Batch API. Returns a redacted MP3 with sensitive audio ranges silenced and a transcript where each PII/PHI span is replaced with an entity-type tag. Route audio to the right transcription pipeline based on spoken language → Language Detection batch endpoint. Send the clip, read predicted_language_code from the response, and route accordingly. Use the confidence field to catch low-certainty results and handle them separately.

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Related

• Authentication and rate limits
• Audio formats
• Transcription enrichment features