Earnings call transcripts API

Earnings-call transcript API: schema, search, and availability

The implemented API supports call metadata, fiscal periods, speakers, prepared remarks, analyst Q&A, full-text filters, filing links, and event windows. Transcript text remains unavailable until a source grants commercial serving rights.

Start free Read the API docs
Licensed
text activation gate
Speaker
segment attribution
Full text
search-ready schema
Event-linked
fiscal and market context
Definition

An earnings-call transcript API provides structured call text and metadata. Technical access to a public page does not itself grant the right to republish that transcript, so source and license class must remain part of the product contract.

How DataCedar handles it

What you can query, which fields are returned, and how availability is reported.

01

Stabilize the call schema

Call, event, participant, speaker role, section, segment order, timestamp, fiscal period, source, and rights fields do not depend on one transcript vendor.

02

Link the primary evidence

The call connects to the earnings event, release, 8-K exhibits, filing documents, and facts for the same fiscal period.

03

Search changes, not just words

The product direction is call-over-call guidance, topic, risk, and analyst-Q&A comparison rather than a generic wall of republished text.

04

Fail closed on rights

Unlicensed text remains unavailable. A proxy can improve transport reliability but cannot create copyright or database rights.

Data surface

What the schema is built to carry.

Call and fiscal-period metadata
Speaker roles and ordered segments
Prepared remarks and Q&A sections
Full-text query fields
Call-to-filing linkage
Source and rights provenance
Licensed-corpus activation gate
Event-window research joins

Product boundary: DataCedar does not currently claim a universal public transcript corpus. The endpoint and import pipeline are ready, but text remains empty until an explicit public or commercially redistributable source is configured.

API example

Licensed call segments

GET /v3/stocks/{symbol}/transcripts
Request
curl "https://api.datacedar.com/v3/stocks/AAPL/transcripts?q=gross%20margin&limit=25" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $QUARTERTRACE_API_KEY"
Representative response
{
  "data": [],
  "availability": {
    "status": "rights_restricted",
    "message": "No licensed transcript corpus is enabled."
  },
  "meta": { "request_id": "..." }
}

Examples document the public contract and may use illustrative values or redacted identifiers. Availability fields and rights filters are authoritative for the active environment.

Research workflow

Four steps from API key to a validated dataset.

01

License

Onboard only issuer audio or transcript text whose terms permit the intended processing and serving.

02

Structure

Map the call to speakers, roles, sections, ordered segments, and a normalized fiscal period.

03

Link

Connect the call with its earnings event, filing, facts, and source evidence.

04

Compare

Search topics and changes across quarters while retaining citations to the licensed source record.

Field guide

What a useful earnings transcript API must preserve

01

Coverage and rights are separate questions

A provider may list thousands of companies but grant only limited display, internal-use, storage, or redistribution rights. Coverage counts alone do not tell a product team what it may lawfully serve to customers.

DataCedar records a rights class with the imported corpus and applies a serving filter at query time. Unsupported text returns an explicit availability state instead of being quietly scraped into production.

  • Review commercial use and redistribution separately.
  • Retain source terms and acquisition date.
  • Do not treat proxy access as a license.
  • Keep disabled corpora out of public search indexes.
02

A transcript is a structured conversation

A flat text blob loses who spoke, whether the passage came from prepared remarks or Q&A, and which analyst asked the question. Those fields are essential for longitudinal research.

The DataCedar model separates calls, participants, speaker roles, sections, and ordered segments. Search results can therefore return inspectable passages and support call-over-call comparisons without losing context.

  • Normalize executive and analyst identity carefully.
  • Preserve segment order and source timestamps when available.
  • Keep prepared remarks separate from questions and answers.
03

The differentiated product is the event dataset

Established transcript providers already compete on raw archive size and reading interfaces. DataCedar's defensible use is to connect permitted call content with the exact earnings event, filings, facts, news references, and subsequent market response.

That structure supports guidance-change research, analyst follow-up tracking, and event-window datasets. It also remains useful when text is unavailable because the call metadata and primary filing evidence stay on the company timeline.

  • Compare equivalent fiscal periods.
  • Cite the licensed source passage.
  • Apply known-at cutoffs to every joined stream.
Comparison

Transcript archive versus event-linked call research

Archive size matters, but structure, provenance, and permitted use determine whether the data can support a product.

Text rightsVaries by provider and planExplicit activation and serving gate
Speaker contextSometimes flat textRoles, sections, and ordered segments
Fiscal identityTicker and call dateIssuer, event, and normalized fiscal period
Evidence linksTranscript source onlyRelease, 8-K, filing, and facts
Research outputRead or search one callCompare changes and build event windows
Before you rely on it

A practical validation checklist.

  1. 01Commercial serving and storage rights are documented
  2. 02Calls map to stable issuers and fiscal periods
  3. 03Speakers and roles are preserved
  4. 04Prepared remarks and Q&A are distinguishable
  5. 05Search results retain source citations
  6. 06Unlicensed text fails closed
  7. 07Derived claims can be traced to source segments

Questions, answered.

The endpoint and schema are implemented, but public transcript text remains disabled until a commercially suitable licensed or explicitly redistributable source is configured.

Continue the research

Historical stock data →

Build historical stock price and volume exports with explicit adjustments, coverage checks, symbol history, and event windows for reproducible backtesting.

Stock market data API →

Query permitted stock price and volume beside SEC filings, earnings events, point-in-time fundamentals, news references, macro data, and coverage metadata.

SEC filings API →

Query SEC filing metadata, primary documents, exhibits, XBRL facts, and amendments with accession-level provenance and known-at timestamps.

Earnings calendar API →

Query scheduled, confirmed, rescheduled, and completed earnings events with known-at history, source evidence, fiscal periods, and reaction windows.

Create a free API key for filings, facts, earnings events, news links, and macro data.

Explorer is $0 with no card and a 1 request/second limit. Market history and transcript text appear only when an eligible source is active for the account.

Open DataCedar