Africa · Kenya
Swahili conversational speech dataset
2,000 hours of spontaneous Swahili conversations recorded in Kenya across 200 vetted native speakers. Dual-channel audio with time-aligned transcripts, speaker metadata (age, gender, region, device), and full chain-of-consent documentation. Licensed for commercial ASR, TTS, and voice AI training.
Dataset specifications
| Language | Swahili |
|---|---|
| Recorded in | Kenya |
| Speech type | Spontaneous two-person conversations |
| Volume | 2,000 hours |
| Speakers | 200 vetted native speakers |
| Audio | Dual-channel (one channel per speaker) |
| Transcripts | Time-aligned, human-verified |
| Metadata | Age, gender, region, recording device |
| License | Commercial (training & evaluation) |
| Price | $65 per hour of audio |
Need more hours, another dialect or your own recording setup? We collect speech data to spec.
Built for
Training and evaluating speech models that must handle real Swahili speech:
- Automatic speech recognition (ASR / STT)
- Text-to-speech & voice synthesis prosody
- Voice agents and IVR for Kenya
- Speaker diarization & turn-taking models
- Speech LLM / audio-understanding fine-tuning
Why conversational data?
Models trained on read speech consistently underperform on spontaneous audio. Disfluencies, overlap, and natural speech rates aren’t in the training distribution. This dataset closes that gap for Swahili. Read more in our guide to conversational vs. scripted speech data.
Free samples
Audit the Swahili data yourself
Share your company email and we’ll email you representative audio, matching transcripts, and the metadata schema. Check audio quality, transcript accuracy, and speaker diversity before you spend a dollar.
Public alternatives
Public Swahili speech data vs. this dataset
| Source | What it is | License | Commercial training |
|---|---|---|---|
| IARPA Babel Swahili Language Pack (LDC2017S05) (opens in a new tab)Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) | About 350 hours of Swahili conversational and scripted telephone speech from the Nairobi dialect region of Kenya. | IARPA Babel Swahili Agreement via LDC (fee applies): Non-Member version is non-commercial only; For-Profit Member version covers commercial use | Paid license |
| Common Voice Scripted Speech (Swahili) (opens in a new tab)Mozilla Common Voice (Mozilla Data Collective) | Read speech recordings in Swahili from Mozilla's Common Voice project. | CC0 1.0 | Allowed |
| Common Voice Spontaneous Speech (Swahili) (opens in a new tab)Mozilla Common Voice (Mozilla Data Collective) | Spontaneous spoken responses to questions in Swahili. | CC0 1.0 | Allowed |
| FLEURS (Swahili) (opens in a new tab)Google | Read sentences from the FLoRes translation benchmark, recorded in 102 languages. | CC BY 4.0 | Allowed |
Babel Swahili is Nairobi-dialect phone speech that needs LDC for-profit membership for commercial use; the others are read sentences or answers to questions. This dataset is licensed for commercial training.
Licenses as published by each source, checked October 2026. Check the current terms before use.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does the Swahili speech dataset include?
2,000 hours of spontaneous two-person conversations from 200 vetted native speakers recorded in Kenya, delivered as dual-channel audio with time-aligned transcripts, speaker metadata (age, gender, region, device), and consent documentation.
What makes Swahili hard for speech recognition?
Swahili builds words from prefixes and suffixes around a root, and noun classes change agreement across the whole sentence. In Kenya, urban speakers mix it with English and Sheng slang, so models trained on formal or Tanzanian Swahili lose accuracy.
Is there free Swahili speech data?
Yes, Common Voice Scripted Speech, Common Voice Spontaneous Speech and FLEURS are free for commercial use. The IARPA Babel Swahili Language Pack needs a paid license. This dataset is spontaneous two-person conversation recorded in Kenya, with speaker metadata, one channel per speaker and signed commercial-use consent.
Can I use this Swahili dataset commercially?
Yes. The dataset is licensed for commercial use, including training ASR, TTS, and other voice-AI models. Every speaker has signed explicit commercial-use consent, and we provide the full consent chain for your legal review.
How much does the Swahili speech dataset cost?
Pricing is $65 per hour of audio. Volume discounts are available for full-dataset and multi-language purchases. Contact us for a quote.
Can I evaluate samples before buying?
Yes. Request samples with your company email, and we'll email you representative audio files and matching transcripts so your team can audit quality before committing.
$60/hr