Nova-3 Speech-to-Text Expands Global Language Coverage with Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu

Deepgram continues to expand Nova-3 speech-to-text globally with the addition of three monolingual right-to-left (RTL) languages – Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu – now available in production. Designed for call centers, voice agents, media transcription, and analytics, this release delivers Nova-3 level accuracy, Keyterm Prompting, and production-grade performance for developers building voice applications that support RTL languages across the Middle East and South Asia

This launch reinforces Nova-3 as an enterprise-grade speech-to-text platform built for global scale, supporting a wider range of scripts and writing systems used in real-world production environments. With Arabic already available, the addition of Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu extends Nova-3’s support for right-to-left languages while preserving consistent performance and behavior across the platform.

As voice products scale globally, teams need to add new languages without adding integration complexity. The addition of Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu to Nova-3 eliminates the need to manage multiple vendors or stitch together separate models—making it easier to expand into new markets and serve customers across the Middle East and South Asia.Together, these capabilities continue to establish Nova-3 as the foundation for global voice applications operating across multiple languages, regions, and deployment requirements.

Hebrew is spoken by more than 10 million people worldwide and serves as the primary language of business, media, and digital communication in Israel. Modern Hebrew blends ancient and biblical linguistic roots with contemporary vocabulary and fast-paced conversational speech patterns. Hebrew powers call centers, voice agents, and enterprise systems.

Nova-3 Hebrew brings monolingual speech-to-text support for real-world conversational Hebrew, enabling accurate transcription across production voice environments.

Persian (Farsi) is spoken by an estimated 130 million people worldwide, extending from Iran to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Persian-speaking communities in the diaspora. Written in a modified Arabic script, Persian is known for rich poetic and contextual expression. Persian is used across media, enterprise systems, and digital platforms throughout the region.

Nova-3 Persian delivers monolingual speech-to-text for modern conversational Persian across voice-driven applications.

Urdu is spoken by more than 230 million people worldwide and is one of South Asia’s most widely used languages across commerce, media, and customer service environments. Written in the Nastaliq script and heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic vocabulary, Urdu reflects a unique blend of linguistic traditions used across regional and diaspora markets.

Nova-3 Urdu provides monolingual speech-to-text support for conversational Urdu at production scale.

The chart below highlights initial word error rates (WER) for Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu across both streaming and batch transcription workflows on Nova-3:

Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu on Nova-3 all support Keyterm Prompting, allowing developers to guide transcription toward domain-specific terminology, brand names, product names, and keywords, without retraining models or managing custom vocabularies.

Keyterm Prompting is applied dynamically at inference time, making customization fast and flexible across languages.

This capability is especially valuable for:

• Call centers and customer support systems
• Voice agents and IVR applications
• Industry-specific analytics and transcription workflows

Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu are available through the same Nova-3 API developers already use today, with support for both real-time streaming and batch transcription. All three languages can be tested directly in the Deepgram Playground before deploying to production.

Switching languages is simple, just specify the appropriate language code in your request:

curl --request POST \
  --header "Authorization: Token YOUR_DEEPGRAM_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: audio/wav" \
  --data-binary @youraudio.wav \
  "https://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?model=nova-3&language=he"

Supported language codes: he, fa, ur

Sign up free and unlock $200 in credits, enough to power over 750 hours of transcription or 200 hours of speech-to-text across Nova-3’s growing language suite. Explore details on our Models & Languages Overview page and experience Nova-3’s world-class adaptability for yourself.