Fact · Languages and accents
Google advises listing only the languages you need, because a shorter list makes it more likely that the service picks the correct language.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“The fewer language codes you specify, the higher the likelihood that Cloud Speech-to-Text successfully selects the correct one.”
Automatically detect language (Cloud Speech-to-Text documentation), Google, Google Cloud Documentation, 2026, Automatically detect language.
Open the original- What it measures
- The guidance is the same as a rule of thumb for any candidate list: every extra language is another way to be wrong.
- What it does not show
- The page gives the advice without a measured error rate.