From c3a1744506e74b733203552dbeded6edac514f68 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: pylrn <pylrn@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2026 12:37:28 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] fix(transcripts): cap polling delay at remaining timeout
 budget

---
 CHANGELOG.md                      |  4 ++++
 package.json                      |  2 +-
 src/services/transcripts/index.ts | 14 +++++++++-----
 tests/unit/transcript.test.ts     | 14 ++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a132284..61addb8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [4.41.8]
+
+- Fix: cap `waitUntilReady` polling delay at the remaining `pollingTimeout` budget to avoid delaying timeout expiration when `pollingInterval` exceeds remaining timeout
+
 ## [4.41.7]
 
 - Add `summarization` to the speech understanding feature requests and responses (`SummarizationRequest`, `SummarizationResponse`): `summary_type`, `headline_length`, `approximate_chapters` and `effort`. The feature was already accepted by the API but missing from the SDK types, so setting it failed to type check
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 7670770..e6b3e97 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "assemblyai",
-  "version": "4.41.7",
+  "version": "4.41.8",
   "description": "The AssemblyAI JavaScript SDK provides an easy-to-use interface for interacting with the AssemblyAI API, which supports async and real-time transcription.",
   "engines": {
     "node": ">=18"
diff --git a/src/services/transcripts/index.ts b/src/services/transcripts/index.ts
index f3e754c..480c21a 100644
--- a/src/services/transcripts/index.ts
+++ b/src/services/transcripts/index.ts
@@ -128,11 +128,15 @@ export class TranscriptService extends BaseService {
       const transcript = await this.get(transcriptId);
       if (transcript.status === "completed" || transcript.status === "error") {
         return transcript;
-      } else if (
-        pollingTimeout > 0 &&
-        Date.now() - startTime > pollingTimeout
-      ) {
-        throw new Error("Polling timeout");
+      }
+      if (pollingTimeout > 0) {
+        const elapsed = Date.now() - startTime;
+        if (elapsed >= pollingTimeout) {
+          throw new Error("Polling timeout");
+        }
+        const remaining = pollingTimeout - elapsed;
+        const sleepDelay = Math.min(pollingInterval, remaining);
+        await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, sleepDelay));
       } else {
         await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, pollingInterval));
       }
diff --git a/tests/unit/transcript.test.ts b/tests/unit/transcript.test.ts
index 4f78829..6eb46d9 100644
--- a/tests/unit/transcript.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/transcript.test.ts
@@ -338,6 +338,20 @@ describe("transcript", () => {
     fetchMock.resetMocks();
   }, 5000);
 
+  it("waitUntilReady should cap polling delay at remaining pollingTimeout budget", async () => {
+    fetchMock.mockResponse(JSON.stringify({ status: "processing" }));
+    const startTime = Date.now();
+    const promise = assembly.transcripts.waitUntilReady(transcriptId, {
+      pollingInterval: 5_000,
+      pollingTimeout: 200,
+    });
+
+    await expect(promise).rejects.toThrow("Polling timeout");
+    const duration = Date.now() - startTime;
+    expect(duration).toBeLessThan(2_000);
+    fetchMock.resetMocks();
+  }, 5000);
+
   it("create should fail to poll", async () => {
     fetchMock.mockResponse(JSON.stringify({ status: "queued" }));
     const promise = assembly.transcripts.create(