Translate an Audio File with the Voice Translate Job API

The Voice Translate Job API translates pre-recorded audio files asynchronously. You submit a job, upload your audio file, poll for results, and download each output when it’s ready. This guide walks through all four steps with a complete curl example. Use this API for batch or offline workloads: podcasts, meeting recordings, video files, and similar pre-recorded content. For live audio, use the real-time Voice API.

This API is only available to select DeepL customers and may change without notice. See alpha and beta features for details, or contact your customer success manager to request access.

Prerequisites

A DeepL API account with Voice Translate Job API access
Your DeepL API key (set as DEEPL_API_KEY in the examples below)
A pre-recorded audio file in a supported format

For file size, duration, concurrency, and supported format constraints, see the Translate Audio Files reference. API Pro users call https://api.deepl.com. API Free users call https://api-free.deepl.com instead.

The four-step workflow

Every translation follows the same pattern:

Create a job to declare your source file and desired outputs. The API returns an upload URL.
Upload your audio file directly to that URL.
Poll for status until all targets are complete (or failed).
Download each result from its download URL.

The sections below walk through each step.

Step 1: Create a job

Send a POST request to /v1/jobs/voice/translate with the source file metadata and your desired translation targets. The content_length and content_type fields in source_file must match your actual file exactly. The API uses them to provision a pre-signed upload URL, so mismatches will cause the upload in step 2 to fail.

curl -X POST "https://api.deepl.com/v1/jobs/voice/translate" \
  -H "Authorization: DeepL-Auth-Key $DEEPL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "source_file": {
      "name": "podcast-episode-42.mp3",
      "content_type": "audio/mpeg",
      "content_length": 15728640
    },
    "parameters": {
      "source_language": "en"
    },
    "targets": [
      { "language": "de", "type": "text/plain" },
      { "language": "es", "type": "audio/pcm;encoding=s16le;rate=16000" }
    ]
  }'

A successful response includes a job_id, an upload_url, and a signature:

{
  "job_id": "a74d88fb-ed2a-4943-a664-a4512398b994",
  "signature": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs...",
  "upload_url": "https://assets.deepl.com/collections/a74d88fb-ed2a-4943-a664-a4512398b994/assets/b1c2d3e4-f5a6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890"
}

Save the job_id for polling and the upload_url for the next step. You have 5 minutes to complete the upload before the URL expires. Each job can have multiple targets in different output types, so a single English recording can produce a German transcript, French subtitles, and Spanish audio in one request. See the Translate Audio Files reference for the full list of output types and supported languages.

Step 2: Upload your audio file

PUT your audio file to the upload_url returned in step 1. Set Content-Type to the same value you declared in source_file.content_type. Do not include your DeepL API key in the upload request. The URL is pre-signed and only requires the Content-Type header. Adding an Authorization header will cause the request to fail.

curl -X PUT "https://assets.deepl.com/collections/a74d88fb-ed2a-4943-a664-a4512398b994/assets/b1c2d3e4-f5a6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890" \
  -H "Content-Type: audio/mpeg" \
  --data-binary @podcast-episode-42.mp3

A 200 OK response with no body means the upload succeeded. Processing starts automatically once the file is received.

Step 3: Poll for status

Check the job status by sending a GET request to /v1/jobs/voice/translate/{job_id}. Each target in the results array has its own status field that progresses independently.

curl "https://api.deepl.com/v1/jobs/voice/translate/a74d88fb-ed2a-4943-a664-a4512398b994" \
  -H "Authorization: DeepL-Auth-Key $DEEPL_API_KEY"

While targets are still processing, the response looks like this:

{
  "job_id": "a74d88fb-ed2a-4943-a664-a4512398b994",
  "operation": "translate",
  "product": "voice",
  "parameters": { "source_language": "en" },
  "source_file": {
    "name": "podcast-episode-42.mp3",
    "content_type": "audio/mpeg",
    "content_length": 15728640
  },
  "targets": [
    { "language": "de", "type": "text/plain" },
    { "language": "es", "type": "audio/pcm;encoding=s16le;rate=16000" }
  ],
  "results": [
    { "status": "processing" },
    { "status": "processing" }
  ],
  "created_at": "2026-10-01T01:03:03.444Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-01T04:03:03.333Z"
}

When a target completes, its result entry includes a download_url and signature:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "status": "complete",
      "download_url": "https://assets.deepl.com/collections/a74d88fb/assets/c3d4e5f6",
      "signature": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs..."
    },
    {
      "status": "failed",
      "error": { "message": "processing failed" }
    }
  ]
}

Results are returned in the same order as the targets array in your create request, so results[0] corresponds to targets[0]. Poll every 10-30 seconds for files under 100 MB. Larger files or longer recordings may take several minutes. Keep polling until every result has reached a terminal status: complete, failed, or downloaded.

Step 4: Download results

For each target with status: complete, download the result from its download_url. No authentication header is needed — the URL is pre-signed.

# Download the German plain-text transcript
curl -o translation_de.txt \
  "https://assets.deepl.com/collections/a74d88fb/assets/c3d4e5f6"

After you download a result, its status transitions to downloaded and the asset is queued for deletion. You have 1 hour from the time the upload completes to download all results. After that window, or once all results are downloaded, the job is deleted and returns 404.

Handling partial failures

Individual targets can fail while others succeed. Check each result’s status independently and handle failed results by reading the error.message field. You cannot retry a failed target within an existing job; you need to create a new job.

​Prerequisites

​The four-step workflow

​Step 1: Create a job

​Step 2: Upload your audio file

​Step 3: Poll for status

​Step 4: Download results

​Handling partial failures

Prerequisites

The four-step workflow

Step 1: Create a job

Step 2: Upload your audio file

Step 3: Poll for status

Step 4: Download results

Handling partial failures