LiveKit docs › Models › STT › Additional models › Nvidia

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# NVIDIA Riva STT plugin guide

> How to use the NVIDIA Riva STT plugin for LiveKit Agents.

Available in:
- [ ] Node.js
- [x] Python

## Overview

This plugin allows you to use [NVIDIA Riva](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/ai-data-science/products/riva/) as an STT provider for your voice agents.

### Installation

Install the plugin from PyPI:

```shell
uv add "livekit-agents[nvidia]~=1.5"

```

### Authentication

The NVIDIA Riva plugin supports two authentication methods:

1. **NVIDIA API Key**: Set `NVIDIA_API_KEY` in your `.env` file to use NVIDIA's cloud services.
2. **Self-Hosted NVIDIA Riva Server**: Deploy your own NVIDIA Riva server and configure the plugin to communicate with it using the `server` parameter.

### Usage

Use NVIDIA Riva STT in an `AgentSession` or as a standalone transcription service. For example, you can use this STT in the [Voice AI quickstart](https://docs.livekit.io/agents/start/voice-ai.md).

```python
from livekit.plugins import nvidia

session = AgentSession(
   stt=nvidia.STT(
      language_code="en-US",
   ),
   # ... llm, tts, etc.
)

```

### Parameters

This section describes some of the available parameters. See the [plugin reference](https://docs.livekit.io/reference/python/livekit/plugins/nvidia/index.html.md#livekit.plugins.nvidia.STT) for a complete list of all available parameters.

- **`language_code`** _(string)_ (optional) - Default: `en-US`: [Language code](https://docs.livekit.io/agents/models/stt.md#language-codes) for speech recognition. See [NVIDIA Riva documentation](https://docs.nvidia.com/deeplearning/riva/user-guide/docs/asr/asr-overview.html) for a complete list of supported languages.

- **`model`** _(string)_ (optional) - Default: `parakeet-1.1b-en-US-asr-streaming-silero-vad-sortformer`: The NVIDIA Riva ASR model to use. The default model supports streaming with VAD and speaker diarization. See [NVIDIA Riva documentation](https://docs.nvidia.com/deeplearning/riva/user-guide/docs/asr/asr-overview.html) for available models.

- **`server`** _(string)_ (optional) - Default: `grpc.nvcf.nvidia.com:443`: The address of your NVIDIA Riva server. Defaults to NVIDIA's cloud service. Set this to a local address when using a self-hosted Riva NIM service.

- **`enable_diarization`** _(bool)_ (optional) - Default: `false`: Set to `True` to enable [speaker diarization](#speaker-diarization).

- **`max_speaker_count`** _(int)_ (optional) - Default: `0`: Maximum number of speakers to detect. Set to `0` for automatic detection.

### Speaker diarization

You can enable speaker diarization so the STT assigns a speaker identifier to each transcript event. When enabled, the STT reports `capabilities.diarization = True`.

With diarization enabled, you can wrap the NVIDIA Riva STT with [`MultiSpeakerAdapter`](https://docs.livekit.io/agents/models/stt.md#speaker-diarization) for primary speaker detection and transcript formatting.

Enable speaker diarization by setting `enable_diarization=True` in the `STT` constructor:

```python
stt = nvidia.STT(
   language_code="en-US",
   enable_diarization=True,
   max_speaker_count=4,
)

```

## Additional resources

The following resources provide more information about using NVIDIA Riva with LiveKit Agents.

- **[Python package](https://pypi.org/project/livekit-plugins-nvidia/)**: The `livekit-plugins-nvidia` package on PyPI.

- **[Plugin reference](https://docs.livekit.io/reference/python/livekit/plugins/nvidia/index.html.md#livekit.plugins.nvidia.STT)**: Reference for the NVIDIA Riva STT plugin.

- **[GitHub repo](https://github.com/livekit/agents/tree/main/livekit-plugins/livekit-plugins-nvidia)**: View the source or contribute to the LiveKit NVIDIA Riva STT plugin.

- **[NVIDIA Riva docs](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/ai-data-science/products/riva/)**: NVIDIA Riva's official documentation and product page.

- **[Voice AI quickstart](https://docs.livekit.io/agents/start/voice-ai.md)**: Get started with LiveKit Agents and NVIDIA Riva.

- **[Example implementation](https://github.com/livekit/agents/blob/main/examples/voice_agents/nvidia_test.py)**: Example code showing how to use the NVIDIA Riva plugin with LiveKit Agents.

- **[NVIDIA Riva TTS](https://docs.livekit.io/agents/models/tts/nvidia.md)**: Guide to the NVIDIA Riva TTS plugin with LiveKit Agents.

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This document was rendered at 2026-06-07T11:35:00.655Z.
For the latest version of this document, see [https://docs.livekit.io/agents/models/stt/nvidia.md](https://docs.livekit.io/agents/models/stt/nvidia.md).

To explore all LiveKit documentation, see [llms.txt](https://docs.livekit.io/llms.txt).