# POST /v1/forced-alignment (ElevenLabs API)
Base URL: https://api.elevenlabs.io
Auth: xi-api-key: <ELEVENLABS_API_KEY>
Last verified: 2026-09-03

> Create Forced Alignment

## Critical Gotchas
* Authentication uses the non-standard `xi-api-key` header, not `Authorization: Bearer`. Sending a Bearer token returns HTTP 401.
* Text-to-speech responses are raw binary audio, not JSON. Write the body to a file (`--output speech.mp3`) rather than parsing it.

## cURL
curl -X POST 'https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/forced-alignment' \
  -H "xi-api-key: $ELEVENLABS_API_KEY" \
  -F 'file=@sample.bin' \
  -F 'text=string'

## Parameters
| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| file | body | string | Yes | The file to align. All major audio formats are supported.... |
| text | body | string | Yes | The text to align with the audio. The input text can be i... |

## Response (200 OK)
{"characters":[{}],"words":[{}]}

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