PII Redaction - AssemblyAI

Supported languages

Supported models

Supported regions

US & EU

The PII Redaction model lets you minimize sensitive information about individuals by automatically identifying and removing it from your transcript. Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is any information that can be used to identify a person, such as a name, email address, or phone number. To redact PII from text rather than audio, see Redact PII from Text Using LLM Gateway. When you enable the PII Redaction model, your transcript will look like this:

With hash substitution: Hi, my name is ####!
With entity_name substitution: Hi, my name is [PERSON_NAME]!

You can also Create redacted audio files to replace sensitive information in the audio with a beeping sound or silence.

Redacted PropertiesPII only redacts words in the text property. Properties from other features may still include PII, such as entities from Entity Detection or summary from Summarization.

Quickstart

Python
Python SDK
JavaScript
JavaScript SDK

Enable Topic Detection by setting redact_pii to True in the JSON payload.Set redact_pii_policies to specify the information you want to redact. For the full list of policies, see PII policies.Set redact_pii_sub to specify the replacement for redacted information.

import requests
import time

base_url = "https://api.assemblyai.com"

headers = {
    "authorization": "<YOUR_API_KEY>"
}

with open("./local_file.mp3", "rb") as f:
    response = requests.post(base_url + "/v2/upload",
                            headers=headers,
                            data=f)

upload_url = response.json()["upload_url"]

data = {
    "audio_url": upload_url, # You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
    "language_detection": True,
    "redact_pii": True,
    "redact_pii_policies": ["person_name", "organization", "occupation"],
    "redact_pii_sub": "hash"
}

url = base_url + "/v2/transcript"
response = requests.post(url, json=data, headers=headers)

transcript_id = response.json()['id']
polling_endpoint = base_url + "/v2/transcript/" + transcript_id

print(f"Transcript ID: {transcript_id}")

while True:
    transcription_result = requests.get(polling_endpoint, headers=headers).json()

    if transcription_result['status'] == 'completed':
        print(transcription_result['text'])
        break
    elif transcription_result['status'] == 'error':
        raise RuntimeError(f"Transcription failed: {transcription_result['error']}")
    else:
        time.sleep(3)

Enable PII Redaction on the TranscriptionConfig using the set_redact_pii() method.Set policies to specify the information you want to redact. For the full list of policies, see PII policies.

import assemblyai as aai

aai.settings.api_key = "<YOUR_API_KEY>"

# audio_file = "./local_file.mp3"
audio_file = "https://assembly.ai/wildfires.mp3"

config = aai.TranscriptionConfig(
    language_detection=True,
).set_redact_pii(
    policies=[
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.person_name,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.organization,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.occupation,
    ],
    substitution=aai.PIISubstitutionPolicy.hash,
)

transcript = aai.Transcriber().transcribe(audio_file, config)
print(f"Transcript ID: {transcript.id}")

print(transcript.text)

Enable Topic Detection by setting redact_pii to true in the JSON payload.Set redact_pii_policies to specify the information you want to redact. For the full list of policies, see PII policies.Set redact_pii_sub to specify the replacement for redacted information.

import fs from "fs-extra";

const baseUrl = "https://api.assemblyai.com";

const headers = {
  authorization: "<YOUR_API_KEY>",
};

const path = "./my-audio.mp3";
const audioData = await fs.readFile(path);
let res = await fetch(`${baseUrl}/v2/upload`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers,
  body: audioData,
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Error: ${res.status}`);
const uploadResponse = await res.json();
const uploadUrl = uploadResponse.upload_url;

const data = {
  audio_url: uploadUrl, // You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
  language_detection: true,
  redact_pii: true,
  redact_pii_policies: ["person_name", "organization", "occupation"],
  redact_pii_sub: "hash",
};

const url = `${baseUrl}/v2/transcript`;
res = await fetch(url, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { ...headers, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify(data),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Error: ${res.status}`);
const response = await res.json();

const transcriptId = response.id;
console.log("Transcript ID: ", transcriptId);

const pollingEndpoint = `${baseUrl}/v2/transcript/${transcriptId}`;

while (true) {
  res = await fetch(pollingEndpoint, { headers });
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Error: ${res.status}`);
  const transcriptionResult = await res.json();

  if (transcriptionResult.status === "completed") {
    console.log(transcriptionResult.text);
    break;
  } else if (transcriptionResult.status === "error") {
    throw new Error(`Transcription failed: ${transcriptionResult.error}`);
  } else {
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 3000));
  }
}

Enable PII Redaction by setting redact_pii to true in the transcription config.Use redact_pii_policies to specify the information you want to redact. For the full list of policies, see PII policies.

import { AssemblyAI } from "assemblyai";

const client = new AssemblyAI({
  apiKey: "<YOUR_API_KEY>",
});

// const audioFile = './local_file.mp3'
const audioFile = "https://assembly.ai/wildfires.mp3";

const params = {
  audio: audioFile,
  language_detection: true,
  redact_pii: true,
  redact_pii_policies: ["person_name", "organization", "occupation"],
  redact_pii_sub: "hash",
};

const run = async () => {
  const transcript = await client.transcripts.transcribe(params);

  console.log(transcript.text);
};

run();

Example output

Smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada is triggering air quality alerts
throughout the US. Skylines from Maine to Maryland to Minnesota are gray and
smoggy. And in some places, the air quality warnings include the warning to stay
inside. We wanted to better understand what's happening here and why, so we
called ##### #######, an ######### ######### in the ########## ## #############
###### ### ########### at ##### ####### ##########. Good morning, #########.
Good morning. So what is it about the conditions right now that have caused this
round of wildfires to affect so many people so far away? Well, there's a couple
of things. The season has been pretty dry already, and then the fact that we're
getting hit in the US. Is because there's a couple of weather systems that ...

PII Redaction Using LLM GatewayIf you would like the option to use LLM Gateway for custom PII redaction, check out this guide Redact PII from Text Using LLM Gateway.

Create redacted audio files

In addition to redacting sensitive information from the transcription text, you can also generate a version of the original audio file with the PII “beeped” out. You can optionally use silence instead of a beep by setting override_audio_redaction_method to "silence" within redact_pii_audio_options.

Redacted Audio EndpointRetrieve the redacted audio file using the transcript_id for a transcript where redact_pii_audio was enabled during submission:Redacted audio files are only available for 24 hours. Make sure to download the file within this time frame.

Python
Python SDK
JavaScript
JavaScript SDK

To create a redacted version of the audio file, set redact_pii_audio to True on the JSON payload. Set redact_pii_audio_quality to specify the quality of the redacted audio file.Use the transcript ID to poll the GET redacted audio endpoint every few seconds to check the status of the redacted audio. Once the status is redacted_audio_ready, you can retrieve the audio URL from the API response.

data = {
    "audio_url": upload_url, # You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
    "redact_pii": True,
    "redact_pii_policies": ["person_name", "organization", "occupation"],
    "redact_pii_sub": "hash",
    "redact_pii_audio": True,
    "redact_pii_audio_quality": "wav", # Optional. Defaults to "mp3"
    "redact_pii_audio_options": {
        "override_audio_redaction_method": "silence" # Optional. Omit for default (beep)
    }
}

# ...
redacted_audio_polling_endpoint = base_url + "/v2/transcript/" + transcript_id + "/redacted-audio"

while True:
    redacted_audio_result = requests.get(redacted_audio_polling_endpoint, headers=headers).json()

    if redacted_audio_result['status'] == 'redacted_audio_ready':
        print(redacted_audio_result['redacted_audio_url'])
        break
    elif redacted_audio_result['status'] == 'error':
        raise RuntimeError(f"Transcription failed: {redacted_audio_result['error']}")
    else:
        time.sleep(3)

To create a redacted version of the audio file, use the set_redact_pii() method on the TranscriptionConfig with redact_audio to True.Use get_redacted_audio_url() on the transcript to get the URL to the redacted audio file.

config = aai.TranscriptionConfig().set_redact_pii(
    policies=[
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.person_name,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.organization,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.occupation,
    ],
    redact_audio=True,
    redact_audio_options={"override_audio_redaction_method": "silence"}  # Optional. Omit for default (beep)
)

transcript = aai.Transcriber().transcribe(audio_url, config)

print(transcript.get_redacted_audio_url())

To create a redacted version of the audio file, set redact_pii_audio to true on the JSON payload. Set redact_pii_audio_quality to specify the quality of the redacted audio file.Use the transcript ID to poll the GET redacted audio endpoint every few seconds to check the status of the redacted audio. Once the status is redacted_audio_ready, you can retrieve the audio URL from the API response.

const data = {
  audio_url: uploadUrl, // You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
  redact_pii: true,
  redact_pii_policies: ["person_name", "organization", "occupation"],
  redact_pii_sub: "hash",
  redact_pii_audio: true,
  redact_pii_audio_quality: "wav", // Optional. Defaults to "mp3"
  redact_pii_audio_options: {
    override_audio_redaction_method: "silence", // Optional. Omit for default (beep)
  },
};

// ...
const redactedAudioPollingEndpoint = `${baseUrl}/v2/transcript/${transcriptId}/redacted-audio`;

while (true) {
  let res = await fetch(redactedAudioPollingEndpoint, { headers });
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Error: ${res.status}`);
  const redactedAudioResult = await res.json();

  if (redactedAudioResult.status === "redacted_audio_ready") {
    console.log(redactedAudioResult.redacted_audio_url);
    break;
  } else if (redactedAudioResult.status === "error") {
    throw new Error(`Transcription failed: ${redactedAudioResult.error}`);
  } else {
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 3000));
  }
}

To create a redacted version of the audio file, set redact_pii_audio to true in the transcription config. Use redact_pii_audio_quality to specify the quality of the redacted audio file.Use redactedAudio() on the transcript to get the URL to the redacted audio file.

const params = {
  audio: audioFile,
  redact_pii: true,
  redact_pii_policies: ["person_name", "organization", "occupation"],
  redact_pii_audio: true,
  redact_pii_audio_quality: "wav", // Optional. Defaults to "mp3"
  redact_pii_audio_options: {
    override_audio_redaction_method: "silence", // Optional. Omit for default (beep)
  },
};

const run = async () => {
  const transcript = await client.transcripts.transcribe(params);

  const { status, redacted_audio_url } = await client.transcripts.redactedAudio(
    transcript.id
  );

  console.log(`Status: ${status}, Redacted audio URL: ${redacted_audio_url}`);
};

run();

You can also retrieve the redacted audio file itself using redactedAudioFile(). The following code writes the redacted audio file to a local file, using writeFile() from Node.js.

import fs from "fs/promises";

...

const audioFile = await client.transcripts.redactedAudioFile(transcript.id);
await fs.writeFile('./redacted-audio.wav', audioFile.body, 'binary');

Maximum Audio File SizeYou can only create redacted versions of audio files if the original file is smaller than 1 GB. For files over 1 GB, see the Downsampling guide to reduce file size before redaction.

Redacted Audio for Silent FilesBy default, audio redaction provides redacted audio URLs only when speech is detected. However, if your use-case specifically requires redacted audio files even for silent audio files without any dialogue, you can now opt to receive these URLs. Enable this by setting the optional parameter "return_redacted_no_speech_audio": true within redact_pii_audio_options in your POST request body.

Example request body

{
    "audio_url": "YOUR_AUDIO_URL",
    "redact_pii": true,
    "redact_pii_audio": true,
    "redact_pii_audio_options": {
          "return_redacted_no_speech_audio": true
     },
     "redact_pii_policies": ["credit_card_number"]
}

Example output

https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/api.assembly.ai.usw2/redacted-audio/ac06721c-d1ea-41a7-95f7-a9463421e6b1.mp3?AWSAccessKeyId=...

Return the unredacted transcript

If your workflow needs both the redacted and unredacted transcripts, you can request both in a single transcription call by setting redact_pii_return_unredacted to true. This avoids the need to send a second API request without redaction.

This is an opt-in convenience featureEnabling PII Redaction by itself does not return the unredacted transcript — the default behavior is to redact text, words, and utterances and return only the redacted versions. The unredacted transcript is only returned when you explicitly set redact_pii_return_unredacted to true, and redact_pii must also be true (otherwise the request is rejected with a 400).Only use this feature if your workflow specifically requires access to both the redacted and unredacted transcripts from the same request. If you only need the redacted transcript, leave this parameter off. When redact_pii_return_unredacted is false or omitted, the three unredacted_* fields are not included in the response at all.

When redact_pii_return_unredacted is true, the response includes three additional fields alongside their redacted counterparts:

Field	Type	Description
`unredacted_text`	string	The original transcript text before PII redaction was applied.
`unredacted_words`	array of Word	The original word objects before redaction. Same shape as `words`.
`unredacted_utterances`	array of Utterance	The original utterance objects before redaction. Same shape as `utterances`.

Python
Python SDK
JavaScript
JavaScript SDK

Set redact_pii_return_unredacted to True alongside the existing PII parameters. The completed transcript will include unredacted_text, unredacted_words, and unredacted_utterances in addition to the redacted versions.

data = {
    "audio_url": upload_url, # You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
    "redact_pii": True,
    "redact_pii_policies": ["person_name", "phone_number", "email_address"],
    "redact_pii_sub": "entity_name",
    "redact_pii_return_unredacted": True
}

# ...
# After polling completes:
print("Redacted:  ", transcription_result["text"])
print("Original:  ", transcription_result["unredacted_text"])

Pass return_unredacted=True to set_redact_pii(). The transcript object will include unredacted_text, unredacted_words, and unredacted_utterances.

config = aai.TranscriptionConfig(
    language_detection=True,
).set_redact_pii(
    policies=[
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.person_name,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.phone_number,
        aai.PIIRedactionPolicy.email_address,
    ],
    substitution=aai.PIISubstitutionPolicy.entity_name,
    return_unredacted=True,
)

transcript = aai.Transcriber().transcribe(audio_file, config)

print("Redacted:  ", transcript.text)
print("Original:  ", transcript.unredacted_text)

Set redact_pii_return_unredacted to true alongside the existing PII parameters. The completed transcript will include unredacted_text, unredacted_words, and unredacted_utterances in addition to the redacted versions.

const data = {
  audio_url: uploadUrl, // You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
  redact_pii: true,
  redact_pii_policies: ["person_name", "phone_number", "email_address"],
  redact_pii_sub: "entity_name",
  redact_pii_return_unredacted: true,
};

// ...
// After polling completes:
console.log("Redacted:  ", transcriptionResult.text);
console.log("Original:  ", transcriptionResult.unredacted_text);

Set redact_pii_return_unredacted to true in the transcription config. The transcript object will include unredacted_text, unredacted_words, and unredacted_utterances.

const params = {
  audio: audioFile,
  language_detection: true,
  redact_pii: true,
  redact_pii_policies: ["person_name", "phone_number", "email_address"],
  redact_pii_sub: "entity_name",
  redact_pii_return_unredacted: true,
};

const run = async () => {
  const transcript = await client.transcripts.transcribe(params);

  console.log("Redacted:  ", transcript.text);
  console.log("Original:  ", transcript.unredacted_text);
};

run();

Example response

{
  "text": "[PERSON_NAME] called from [PHONE_NUMBER]...",
  "words": [{ "text": "[PERSON_NAME]", "start": 250, "end": 650, "confidence": 0.98 }],
  "utterances": [{ "text": "[PERSON_NAME] called from [PHONE_NUMBER]...", "start": 250, "end": 4820, "speaker": "A" }],
  "redact_pii_return_unredacted": true,
  "unredacted_text": "Mary called from 555-0123...",
  "unredacted_words": [{ "text": "Mary", "start": 250, "end": 650, "confidence": 0.98 }],
  "unredacted_utterances": [{ "text": "Mary called from 555-0123...", "start": 250, "end": 4820, "speaker": "A" }]
}

Static Entity Redaction

PII Redaction detects broad categories of sensitive information (names, phone numbers, and the other PII policies) using an AI model. Static Entity Redaction complements this for cases where you need to redact specific, predefined terms that may not fit into general PII categories — for example a proprietary product name, an internal project codename, or an org-specific identifier. You supply a map of redact_static_entities, where each key is a label and each value is a list of exact terms to redact. Any matching term in the transcript is replaced with that label, on top of the standard PII redaction.

Static Entity Redaction matches the exact terms you provide (tolerant of casing, surrounding punctuation, and minor spacing/hyphenation variation from the transcription), rather than inferring a category. For example, listing ["Bearclaw"] redacts Bearclaw, bearclaw, Bearclaw's, Bear-claw, and Bear claw — but a different internal tool name you didn’t list is not redacted. You define and manage the term list.redact_static_entities requires redact_pii to be true. It runs as the final step of redaction, after the standard PII pass.

The substitution follows your existing redact_pii_sub setting:

entity_name — the matched term is replaced with [LABEL] (the uppercased map key).
hash — the matched term’s characters are replaced with #.

When redacted audio is enabled (redact_pii_audio: true), the matched terms are also bleeped from the audio output alongside standard PII.

Python
JavaScript

Pass redact_static_entities alongside your existing PII parameters. Each key is the redaction label; each value is the list of terms to match.

data = {
    "audio_url": upload_url, # You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
    "redact_pii": True,
    "redact_pii_policies": ["person_name", "phone_number"],
    "redact_pii_sub": "entity_name",
    "redact_static_entities": {
        "INTERNAL_TOOL": ["Bearclaw", "Cubclaw"],
        "PROJECT": ["Universal-3.5 Pro"]
    }
}

Pass redact_static_entities alongside your existing PII parameters. Each key is the redaction label; each value is the list of terms to match.

const data = {
  audio_url: uploadUrl, // You can also use a URL to an audio or video file on the web
  redact_pii: true,
  redact_pii_policies: ["person_name", "phone_number"],
  redact_pii_sub: "entity_name",
  redact_static_entities: {
    INTERNAL_TOOL: ["Bearclaw", "Cubclaw"],
    PROJECT: ["Universal-3.5 Pro"],
  },
};

Example response

Matched terms appear redacted inline in text, words, and utterances, exactly like standard PII. There are no additional response fields. For the transcript “Our internal tool Bearclaw is powered by Universal-3.5 Pro.” with the request above:

{
  "text": "Our internal tool [INTERNAL_TOOL] is powered by [PROJECT].",
  "words": [{ "text": "[INTERNAL_TOOL]", "start": 820, "end": 1180, "confidence": 0.98 }],
  "utterances": [{ "text": "Our internal tool [INTERNAL_TOOL] is powered by [PROJECT].", "start": 250, "end": 3120, "speaker": "A" }]
}

API reference

Request

curl https://api.assemblyai.com/v2/transcript \
--header "Authorization: <YOUR_API_KEY>" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data '{
  "audio_url": "YOUR_AUDIO_URL",
  "redact_pii": true,
  "redact_pii_policies": ["us_social_security_number", "credit_card_number"],
  "redact_pii_sub": "hash",
  "redact_pii_audio": true,
  "redact_pii_audio_quality": "mp3",
  "redact_pii_audio_options": {
    "override_audio_redaction_method": "silence"
  }
}'

Key	Type	Description
`redact_pii`	boolean	Enable PII Redaction.
`redact_pii_policies`	array	PII policies for what information to redact.
`redact_pii_sub`	string	Method used to substitute PII in the transcript. Can be `entity_name` or `hash`.
`redact_pii_audio`	boolean	Create a redacted version of the audio file.
`redact_pii_audio_quality`	string	Quality of the redacted PII audio file. Can be `mp3` or `wav`.
`redact_pii_audio_options`	object	Options for PII-redacted audio. See Create redacted audio files.
`redact_pii_audio_options.override_audio_redaction_method`	string	The method used to redact audio. Set to `silence` to replace PII with silence instead of the default beep.
`redact_pii_return_unredacted`	boolean	Opt-in. When `true`, returns the unredacted transcript alongside the redacted one. Requires `redact_pii: true`. Defaults to `false`, in which case only the redacted transcript is returned.
`redact_static_entities`	object	A map of `{ "LABEL": ["term", ...] }` for Static Entity Redaction. Each listed term is redacted (using `redact_pii_sub`) wherever it appears, on top of standard PII. Requires `redact_pii: true`.

Response

{
  text: "Smoke from hundreds of wildfires in Canada is triggering air quality alerts throughout the US. Skylines from Maine to Maryland to Minnesota are gray and smoggy. And in some places, the air quality warnings include the warning to stay inside. We wanted to better understand what's happening here and why, so we called ##### #######, an ######### ######### in the ########## ## ############# ###### ### ########### at ##### ####### ##########. Good morning, #########. Good morning. So what is it about the conditions right now that have caused this round of wildfires to affect so many people so far away? Well, there's a couple of things. The season has been pretty dry already, and then the fact that we're getting hit in the US. Is because there's a couple of weather systems that are essentially channeling the smoke from those Canadian wildfires through Pennsylvania into the Mid Atlantic and the Northeast and kind of just dropping the smoke there. So what is it in this haze that makes it harmful? And I'm assuming it is is it is the levels outside right now in Baltimore are considered unhealthy. And most of that is due to what's called particulate matter, which are tiny particles, microscopic smaller than the width of your hair, that can get into your lungs and impact your respiratory system, your cardiovascular system, and even your neurological your brain. What makes this particularly harmful? Is it the volume of particulate? Is it something in particular? What is it exactly? Can you just drill down on that a little bit more? Yeah. So the concentration of particulate matter I was looking at some of the monitors that we have was reaching levels of what are, in ####### speak, 150 micrograms per meter cubed, which is more than ten times what the annual average should be, and about four times higher than what you're supposed to have on a 24 hours average. And so the concentrations of these particles in the air are just much, much higher than we typically see. And exposure to those high levels can lead to a host of health problems. And who is most vulnerable? I noticed that in New York City, for example, they're canceling outdoor activities, and so here it is in the early days of summer, and they have to keep all the kids inside. So who tends to be vulnerable in a situation like this? It's the youngest. So children, obviously, whose bodies are still developing. The elderly who know their bodies are more in decline, and they're more susceptible to the health impacts of breathing, the poor air quality. And then people who have preexisting health conditions, people with respiratory conditions or heart conditions can be triggered by high levels of air pollution. Could this get worse? That's a good in some areas, it's much worse than others. And it just depends on kind of where the smoke is concentrated. I think New York has some of the higher concentrations right now, but that's going to change as that air moves away from the New York area. But over the course of the next few days, we will see different areas being hit at different times with the highest concentrations. I was going to ask you, more fires start burning, I don't expect the concentrations to go up too much higher. I was going to ask you and you started to answer this, but how much longer could this last? Or forgive me if I'm asking you to speculate, but what do you think? Well, I think the fires are going to burn for a little bit longer, but the key for us in the US. Is the weather system changing. And so right now, it's kind of the weather systems that are pulling that air into our mid Atlantic and Northeast region. As those weather systems change and shift, we'll see that smoke going elsewhere and not impact us in this region as much. And so I think that's going to be the defining factor. And I think the next couple of days we're going to see a shift in that weather pattern and start to push the smoke away from where we are. And finally, with the impacts of climate change, we are seeing more wildfires. Will we be seeing more of these kinds of wide ranging air quality consequences or circumstances? I mean, that is one of the predictions for climate change. Looking into the future, the fire season is starting earlier and lasting longer and we're seeing more frequent fires. So, yeah, this is probably something that we'll be seeing more frequently. This tends to be much more of an issue in the Western US. So the Eastern US getting hit right now is a little bit new. But yeah, I think with climate change moving forward, this is something that is going to happen more frequently. That's ##### #######, ######### ######### in the ########## ## ############# ###### ### ########### at ##### ####### ##########. ######## #####, thanks so much for joining us and sharing this expertise with us. Thank you for having me.",
}

Key	Type	Description
`text`	string	Transcript with redacted PII.

The response also includes the request parameters used to generate the transcript.

Request for Redacted Audio

In the request URL, replace transcript_id with the ID of the transcript where redact_pii_audio is set to true.

curl https://api.assemblyai.com/v2/transcript/transcript_id/redacted-audio \
--header "Authorization: <YOUR_API_KEY>"

Response for Redacted Audio

{
  status: "redacted_audio_ready",
  redacted_audio_url:
    "https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/api.assembly.ai.usw2/redacted-audio/785efd9e-0e20-45e1-967b-3db17770ed9f.wav?AWSAccessKeyId=aws-access-key0id&Signature=signature&x-amz-security-token=security-token&Expires=1698966551",
}

Key	Type	Description
`status`	string	The status of the redacted audio.
`redacted_audio_url`	string	The URL of the redacted audio file.

PII policies

Policy name	Description	Example
`account_number`	Customer account or membership identification number	`Policy No. 10042992; Member ID: HZ-5235-001`
`banking_information`	Banking information, including account and routing numbers
`blood_type`	Blood type	O-, AB positive
`credit_card_cvv`	Credit card verification code	CVV: 080
`credit_card_expiration`	Expiration date of a credit card
`credit_card_number`	Credit card number
`date`	Specific calendar date	December 18
`date_interval`	Broader time periods, including date ranges, months, seasons, years, and decades	2020-2021, 5-9 May, January 1984
`date_of_birth`	Date of birth	Date of Birth: March 7, 1961
`drivers_license`	Driver’s license number	DL# 356933-540
`drug`	Medications, vitamins, or supplements	Advil, Acetaminophen, Panadol
`duration`	Measurements of time expressed as a numerical value plus a unit	8 months, 2 years
`email_address`	Email address	support@assemblyai.com
`event`	Name of an event or holiday	Olympics, Yom Kippur
`filename`	Names of computer files, including the extension or filepath	Taxes/2012/brad-tax-returns.pdf
`gender_sexuality`	Terms indicating gender identity or sexual orientation, including slang terms	female, bisexual, trans
`healthcare_number`	Healthcare numbers and health plan beneficiary numbers	Policy No.: 5584-486-674-YM
`injury`	Bodily injury	I broke my arm, I have a sprained wrist
`ip_address`	Internet IP address, including IPv4 and IPv6 formats	192.168.0.1
`language`	Name of a natural language	Spanish, French
`location`	Any Location reference including mailing address, postal code, city, state, province, country, or coordinates. Also required to redact combined location phrases like `Toronto, Canada` — see Granular location policies below.	Lake Victoria, 145 Windsor St., 90210
`location_address`	A complete mailing address	145 Windsor St., Toronto, ON M5A 2P5
`location_address_street`	Street-level component of an address	145 Windsor St.
`location_city`	City name	Toronto, San Francisco
`location_coordinate`	Geographic coordinates	40.7128° N, 74.0060° W
`location_country`	Country name	Canada, United States
`location_state`	State, province, or region name	Ontario, California
`location_zip`	Postal or ZIP code	M5A 2P5, 90210
`marital_status`	Terms indicating marital status	Single, common-law, ex-wife, married
`medical_condition`	Name of a medical condition, disease, syndrome, deficit, or disorder	chronic fatigue syndrome, arrhythmia, depression
`medical_process`	Medical process, including treatments, procedures, and tests	heart surgery, CT scan
`money_amount`	Name and/or amount of currency	15 pesos, $94.50
`nationality`	Terms indicating nationality, ethnicity, or race	American, Asian, Caucasian
`number_sequence`	Numerical PII (including alphanumeric strings) that doesn’t fall under other categories
`occupation`	Job title or profession	professor, actors, engineer, CPA
`organization`	Name of an organization	CNN, McDonalds, University of Alaska, Northwest General Hospital
`passport_number`	Passport numbers, issued by any country	PA4568332, NU3C6L86S12
`password`	Account passwords, PINs, access keys, or verification answers	27%alfalfa, temp1234, My mother’s maiden name is Smith
`person_age`	Number associated with an age	27, 75
`person_name`	Name of a person	Bob, Doug Jones, Dr. Kay Martinez, MD
`phone_number`	Telephone or fax number
`physical_attribute`	Distinctive bodily attributes, including race	I’m 190cm tall
`political_affiliation`	Terms referring to a political party, movement, or ideology	Republican, Liberal
`religion`	Terms indicating religious affiliation	Hindu, Catholic
`statistics`	Medical statistics	18%, 18 percent
`time`	Expressions indicating clock times	19:37:28, 10pm EST
`url`	Internet addresses	https://www.assemblyai.com/
`us_social_security_number`	Social Security Number or equivalent
`username`	Usernames, login names, or handles	@AssemblyAI
`vehicle_id`	Vehicle identification numbers (VINs), vehicle serial numbers, and license plate numbers	5FNRL38918B111818, BIF7547
`zodiac_sign`	Names of Zodiac signs	Aries, Taurus

Granular location policies

The location_* policies let you redact specific parts of a location without redacting the rest — for example, redacting street addresses while keeping city and state visible. Which policy matches a given span is shape-dependent:

A full contiguous mailing address (street, city, state, and ZIP together, e.g. 145 Windsor St., Toronto, ON M5A 2P5) is treated as a single location_address span. To redact it, include location_address in redact_pii_policies.
A standalone location fragment is tagged as its specific subtype. A lone street redacts as location_address_street, a lone city as location_city, a lone state as location_state, a lone country as location_country, a lone ZIP as location_zip, and coordinates as location_coordinate.
A combined phrase that mixes location parts without forming a full address — for example Toronto, Canada — is treated as a single generic location span. To redact it, include the broad location policy in redact_pii_policies. The granular subtypes alone won’t match it.

These granular subtypes apply to PII redaction only. Entity Detection returns all location references under the single location entity type, not as location_address, location_city, and so on.

Troubleshooting

Why is the PII not redacted in my transcription?

Make sure that at least one PII policy has been specified in your request, using the redact_pii_policies parameter. If you’re still experiencing issues, please reach out to our support team for assistance.

Why is my webhook not being sent?

There could be several reasons why your webhook isn’t being sent, such as a misconfigured URL, an unreachable endpoint, or an issue with the authentication headers. Double-check your request and ensure that the webhook_url parameter is included with a valid URL that can be reached by AssemblyAI’s API. If you’re using custom authentication headers, ensure that the webhook_auth_header_name and webhook_auth_header_value parameters are included and are correct. If you’re still having issues, please contact our support team for assistance.

Why does my redacted audio file sound worse than the original?

By default, the API returns redacted audio files in MP3 format, a lossy format. Lossy formats remove audio information to reduce file size, which may cause a reduction in quality. The difference may be particularly noticeable if the submitted audio is in a lossless file format. To retain as much quality as possible, you can instead return your redacted audio files in a lossless format, by setting redact_pii_audio_quality to wav.

​Quickstart

​Example output

​Create redacted audio files

​Example output

​Return the unredacted transcript

​Example response

​Static Entity Redaction

​Example response

​API reference

​Request

​Response

​Request for Redacted Audio

​Response for Redacted Audio

​PII policies

​Granular location policies

​Troubleshooting

Quickstart

Example output

Create redacted audio files

Example output

Return the unredacted transcript

Example response

Static Entity Redaction

Example response

API reference

Request

Response

Request for Redacted Audio

Response for Redacted Audio

PII policies

Granular location policies

Troubleshooting