Fact · Speech recognition
The SpeechRecognition package needs the separate PyAudio package only if you want to use microphone input; the rest of the library works without it.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“PyAudio is required if and only if you want to use microphone input”
SpeechRecognition: Library for performing speech recognition, with support for several engines and APIs, online and offline, Anthony Zhang (Uberi), GitHub, project README, n.d., Requirements: PyAudio.
Open the original- What it measures
- The README's requirements section says PyAudio 0.2.11 or later is needed for the Microphone class, and that earlier versions have known memory bugs when recording.
- What it does not show
- Files read from disk do not need PyAudio. The microphone install is the step where many beginners get stuck.