What is the Gemini Live API and what real-time capabilities does it enable?

The Gemini Live API enables low-latency, bidirectional real-time interactions with Gemini models over a WebSocket connection. It supports simultaneous audio streaming in both directions, enabling voice conversations, real-time transcription, and audio-to-audio (A2A) applications.

import asyncio
from google import genai

client = genai.Client()

async def realtime_session():
    # Live API uses async context manager
    async with client.aio.live.connect(
        model="gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview",
        config={
            "response_modalities": ["AUDIO"],   # get audio back
            "speech_config": {
                "voice_config": {"prebuilt_voice_config": {"voice_name": "Aoede"}}
            },
            "system_instruction": "You are a helpful coding assistant."
        }
    ) as session:
        # Send audio input
        await session.send(input=audio_chunk, end_of_turn=True)
        # Receive streaming audio response
        async for response in session.receive():
            if response.data:  # audio bytes
                play_audio(response.data)

asyncio.run(realtime_session())

The Live API differs from standard generation in that it maintains a persistent WebSocket connection, enabling sub-second turn latency - crucial for natural voice interaction. The gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview model is specifically designed for real-time dialogue and voice-first AI applications.

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