# Choosing an Endpoint

Reson8 offers three speech-to-text endpoints. Which one to use depends on where your audio comes from and what you want to do with the result.

- **[Prerecorded](/documentation/speech-to-text/prerecorded/)** - Upload a complete audio file over REST and receive the full transcript in one response.
- **[Realtime](/documentation/speech-to-text/realtime/)** - Stream live audio over WebSocket and receive transcripts as the speech is recognized.
- **[Turns](/documentation/speech-to-text/turns/)** - Stream live audio over WebSocket and receive events when a speaker starts and stops talking, with the transcript of each turn.

## Common Use Cases

| Use case                                                            | Endpoint     |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|
| Quickly transcribing a meeting or live stream after it has finished | Prerecorded  |
| Processing an audio archive                                         | Prerecorded  |
| Showing live subtitles during a video call, webinar, or broadcast   | Realtime     |
| Dictating notes or reports into your application, hands-free        | Realtime     |
| Building a voice agent that responds the moment the user stops speaking | Turns    |
| Stopping a speaking voice agent when the user interrupts (barge-in) | Turns        |

## How They Differ

|                     | Prerecorded            | Realtime                       | Turns                          |
|---------------------|------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Protocol            | REST (`POST`)          | WebSocket                      | WebSocket                      |
| Input               | Complete audio file    | Live audio stream              | Live audio stream              |
| Output              | Full transcript        | Interim and final transcripts  | Turn start/end events with transcripts |
| [Diarization](/documentation/speech-to-text/diarization/) | Yes | Yes | No |
| [Custom models](/documentation/speech-to-text/customization/custom-models/) | Yes | Yes | Yes |