Start Recording

Last updated Apr 21, 2026 This topic explains how to use RealtimeKit to implement composite recording.

Before getting started with this guide, we recommend that you read Get Started with RealtimeKit to familiarize yourself with RealtimeKit.

To familiarize yourself with the RealtimeKit REST APIs, we recommend exploring the RealtimeKit REST API.

There are three ways to start recording a RealtimeKit meeting:

RealtimeKit stores recordings for a period of 7 days, after which they will expire and no longer be accessible. It is important to either download a copy of your recording or set up storage before the link expires.

Note

  1. Our system does not currently support recordings of brief durations that are less than five seconds. In such cases, it is possible that the recording APIs may experience occasional failures. Due to limitations in encoding recordings of short duration, these failures may result in an ERRORED state.
  2. Recording will stop if there are no participants in a meeting for 60 seconds.
  3. The average file size for one hour of recording is approximately 300MB.
  4. There can only be one active recording of a meeting at any given time, unless the allow_multiple_recording field is set in the Start Recording API.
  5. Maximum recording time is 24 hours. Recording will automatically stop after 24 hours have elapsed since the recording's start time. This option can be configured to any value up to 24 hours by passing the max_seconds parameter in the Start Recording API request.

Using the record_on_start parameter

When creating a meeting, you can specify the record_on_start parameter to start the recording as soon as someone joins the meeting.

Specify storage config

If you're using this method to start the recording, you must specify the storage-config using the Developer Portal.

Request

Specify the record_on_start parameter. If this flag is true, then a recording will be started as soon as a meeting starts on RealtimeKit, i.e, when the first participant joins the meeting.

curl --location 'https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/<account_id>/realtime/kit/<app_id>/meetings' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <api_token>' \
  --data '{
  "title": "Lorem Ipsum",
  "record_on_start": true
}'

Response

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": "497f6eca-6276-4993-bfeb-53cbbbba6f08",
        "record_on_start": true,
        "created_at": "2025-08-24T14:15:22Z",
        "updated_at": "2025-08-24T14:15:22Z"
    }
}

Using the Start Recording API

You can also start a recording using the Start Recording API.

Specify the meeting ID of the meeting that you want to record.

Use the List meetings API for an app or Create a meeting API to get the meeting ID. The API returns a parameter called id, which is your meeting ID.

Request

Calling Start Recording APIbash

curl --location 'https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/<account_id>/realtime/kit/<app_id>/recordings' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <api_token>' \
  --data '{
  "meeting_id": "97440c6a-140b-40a9-9499-b23fd7a3868a"
}'

Response

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": "97440c6a-140b-40a9-9499-b23fd7a3868a",
        "download_url": "http://example.com",
        "download_url_expiry": "2025-08-24T14:15:22Z",
        "download_audio_url": "http://example1.com",
        "file_size": 0,
        "session_id": "1ffd059c-17ea-40a8-8aef-70fd0307db82",
        "output_file_name": "string",
        "status": "INVOKED",
        "invoked_time": "2025-08-24T14:15:22Z",
        "started_time": "2025-08-24T14:15:22Z",
        "stopped_time": "2025-08-24T14:15:22Z",
        "storage_config": {
            "type": "cloudflare",
            "secret_key": "string",
            "bucket": "string",
            "path": "string"
        }
    }
}

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description: Stop a RealtimeKit recording automatically or manually using the Stop Recording API. title: Stop Recording image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/realtime/realtimekit/recording-guide/stop-recording/og.png?v=d60debd0495e29b4

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