gladia-to-obs

Filed under Project on November 29, 2025

Live captions overlay for OBS using the Gladia API with real-time transcription

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Gladia Live Transcription for OBS

Live captions overlay for OBS using the Gladia API.

Version License

Installation

Option 1: Install via script (easiest)

macOS / Linux

Open a Terminal and paste this command:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KazeTachinuu/gladia-to-obs/master/install.sh | bash

Windows

Open PowerShell and paste this command:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KazeTachinuu/gladia-to-obs/master/install.ps1 | iex

Option 2: Manual download

  1. Go to the Releases page
  2. Download the file for your system:
    • macOS: transcription-mac-universal
    • Windows: transcription-windows-x64.exe
    • Linux: transcription-linux-x64
  3. macOS only: Remove the quarantine attribute (required for downloaded files):
    xattr -cr ~/Downloads/transcription-mac-universal
  4. Make it executable and run (macOS/Linux: chmod +x <file> first)

Usage Guide

Step 1: Get a Gladia API Key (free)

  1. Go to gladia.io
  2. Create a free account
  3. Copy your API key from the dashboard

Step 2: Start the server

Open a Terminal (or PowerShell on Windows) and type:

transcription

A web page will open automatically in your browser.

Step 3: Configure transcription

On the web page that opened:

  1. Paste your API key in the "API Key" field
  2. Select your language from the dropdown
  3. Click "Start" to begin transcription

You should see text appearing in the "Preview" area.

Step 4: Add captions to OBS

  1. In OBS, click "+" in Sources
  2. Select "Browser" (or "Browser Source")
  3. Give it a name (e.g., "Captions")
  4. In the settings:
    • URL: http://localhost:8080/overlay
    • Width: 1920
    • Height: 1080
  5. Click OK

Captions will appear at the bottom of your screen with a transparent background.

To stop the server

In the Terminal, press CTRL + C.

Settings

Transcription

Setting Description
Language Spoken language (or auto-detect)
Translate to Optionally translate captions to another language
Custom Vocabulary Names, brands, or technical terms to improve recognition

Display

Setting Description
Position Where captions appear on screen (X/Y)
Size Font size (24–80px)
Style Outline (Netflix-style) or background box

Advanced

Setting Description
Response speed How fast captions appear after speech (lower = faster)
Max segment Maximum caption length before line break (5–20s)

Development

# Development mode
bun run dev

# Build for current platform
bun run build

# Build for all platforms
bun run build:all

License

MIT