# Transcribing with HTTP or WebSockets
<a name="getting-started-http-websocket"></a>

Amazon Transcribe supports HTTP for both batch (HTTP/1.1) and streaming (HTTP/2) transcriptions. WebSockets are supported for streaming transcriptions.

If you're transcribing a media file located in an Amazon S3 bucket, you're performing a batch transcription. If you're transcribing a real-time stream of audio data, you're performing a streaming transcription.

Both HTTP and WebSockets require you to authenticate your request using Amazon Signature Version 4 headers. Refer to [Signing Amazon API requests](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/general/latest/gr/signing_aws_api_requests.html) for more information.

## Batch transcriptions
<a name="getting-started-http-batch"></a>

You can make a batch HTTP request using the following headers:
+ host
+ x-amz-target
+ content-type
+ x-amz-content-sha256
+ x-amz-date
+ authorization

Here's an example of a `StartTranscriptionJob` request:

```
POST /transcribe HTTP/1.1 
host: transcribe.{{us-west-2}}.amazonaws.com
x-amz-target: com.amazonaws.transcribe.Transcribe.{{StartTranscriptionJob}} 
content-type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
x-amz-content-sha256: {{string}}
x-amz-date: {{YYYYMMDD}}T{{HHMMSS}}Z
authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential={{access-key}}/{{YYYYMMSS}}/{{us-west-2}}/transcribe/aws4_request, SignedHeaders=content-type;host;x-amz-content-sha256;x-amz-date;x-amz-target;x-amz-security-token, Signature={{string}}

{
    "TranscriptionJobName": "{{my-first-transcription-job}}",
    "LanguageCode": "{{en-US}}",
    "Media": {
        "MediaFileUri": "s3://{{amzn-s3-demo-bucket}}/{{my-input-files}}/{{my-media-file}}.{{flac}}"
    },
    "OutputBucketName": "{{amzn-s3-demo-bucket}}",
    "OutputKey": "{{my-output-files}}/" 
}
```

Additional operations and parameters are listed in the [API Reference](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/transcribe/latest/APIReference/API_Reference.html); parameters common to all Amazon API operations are listed in the [Common Parameters](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/transcribe/latest/APIReference/CommonParameters.html) section. Other signature elements are detailed in [Elements of an Amazon Signature Version 4 request](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/general/latest/gr/sigv4_elements.html).

## Streaming transcriptions
<a name="getting-started-http-streaming"></a>

Streaming transcriptions using HTTP/2 and WebSockets are more involved than using SDKs. We recommend reviewing the [Setting up a streaming transcription](streaming-setting-up.md) section before setting up your first stream.

For more information on these methods, refer to [Setting up an HTTP/2 stream](streaming-setting-up.md#streaming-http2) or [Setting up a WebSocket stream](streaming-setting-up.md#streaming-websocket).

**Note**  
We strongly recommend using an SDK for streaming transcriptions. For a list of supported SDKs, refer to [Supported programming languages](supported-languages.md#supported-sdks).