Fact · Speech recognition
OpenAI's transcription API expects your secret API key in an Authorization header, written as the word Bearer followed by the key.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY”
Speech to text (OpenAI API guide), OpenAI, OpenAI, 2026, Quickstart example (curl).
Open the original- What it measures
- The example in OpenAI's speech-to-text guide calls the /v1/audio/transcriptions endpoint with the model gpt-transcribe, and it reads the key from the environment variable OPENAI_API_KEY.
- What it does not show
- The example shows a shell variable, not a real key. The fact does not describe how to create a key in your OpenAI account, and a key must be kept out of shared code.