OpenRouter Speech-to-Text

Transcribe audio via POST /api/v1/audio/transcriptions using curl. Requires OPENROUTER_API_KEY (get one at https://openrouter.ai/keys). If unset, stop and ask.

This endpoint is not OpenAI-compatible. The body is JSON with base64 audio under input_audio: { data, format } — not multipart/form-data with a file field the way OpenAI's /v1/audio/transcriptions works. Do not point the OpenAI SDK at this endpoint; it will send the wrong shape. Use curl, fetch, or requests directly.

One call, JSON back

Both request and response are JSON. The response body carries:

• text — the transcript.
• usage — always includes cost. Providers additionally report either seconds of audio billed or a token breakdown (total_tokens, input_tokens, output_tokens), depending on how they price the request. Don't assume both are present.

Sample response (duration-priced provider, e.g. google/chirp-3):