How does the concurrency limit work for transcription requests?

AssemblyAI’s transcription service for pre-recorded audio uses a concurrency limit to manage the number of simultaneous transcription jobs that can be processed for each account. This article explains how the concurrency limit works and what happens when you reach it.

Understanding the Concurrency Limit

The concurrency limit determines how many transcription jobs can be processed simultaneously for your account. When you submit transcription requests:

• If you’re below the concurrency limit, your job starts processing immediately.
• If you’ve reached the limit, additional jobs are placed in a queue.

Queue Processing

When you’ve reached your concurrency limit:

1. New transcription requests are added to a queue.
2. As soon as a currently processing job finishes, the next job in the queue starts processing.
3. This continues until all queued jobs are processed.

The time it takes for queued jobs to start processing depends on the duration of the audio files currently being transcribed.

Increasing Your Concurrency Limit

If you find that the current concurrency limit is insufficient for your needs, you can increase it by upgrading your account. To do this:

1. Add a credit card to your account.
2. Choose a plan that offers a higher concurrency limit.

Upgrading your account not only increases your concurrency limit but may also provide additional features and benefits.

Best Practices

To optimize your use of the transcription service:

• Monitor your job queue to anticipate processing times.
• For time-sensitive transcriptions, consider upgrading your account if you frequently hit the concurrency limit.
• Batch your transcription requests efficiently to make the most of your current limit.

If you have any questions about your concurrency limit or need assistance with upgrading your account, please contact our support team.